Chapter 2

2

Time flew by, and before I knew it, ten years had passed.

We were at the town fair when a guy bumped into us and jacked Joe's phone.

I took one look, and I knew it was my real brother.

He was totally different from last time.

He was all scrawny, dirty, and had this limp. Looked like life had been kicking him around.

I remembered last time, when he was part of the crowd calling me a "freak," and I'd lost it, yelled at him that he was being a jerk, that I'd been hurt saving him.

He'd looked at me with disgust. "I didn't ask you to save me! Someone as awesome as me would've done fine no matter where I ended up. Don't try to make me feel bad."

Seeing how "fine" he'd turned out… well, I could finally relax.

I saw my parents start to chase after him, so I did a bit of a dramatic fall to the ground.

My dad looked almost identical to my brother, and if he got a good look, he'd start asking questions.

This time around, I wasn't some scarred up kid. I was a straight-A student. My parents were actually paying me some attention.

They stopped chasing after the thief and rushed over to me. "Honey, you okay?"

I watched my real brother fade into the crowd and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yeah," I said to my parents, "just skinned my knee. It stings a bit."

My fake brother Joe was furious that his brand new phone was gone.

"That little dirtbag," he fumed. "If I ever see him again, I'll kill him!"

I kept my head down. The world was way too small, I had to do something.

Joe kept looking around, all twitchy.

When my parents went to the bathroom, Joe suddenly turned to me and said, "Sis, I saw that little creep!"

And he took off like a rocket.

I waited 'til my parents were out of sight and then took off after him.

This time, since my real brother wasn't expecting it, Joe caught him in an alleyway.

"You rich snobs," my brother started yelling, "you're all rich, why do you have to be so stingy, getting bent out of shape about one little phone?"

That was just like him last time, always playing the victim, pushing the blame off onto someone else.

Joe just laughed, "You think we should just let people steal from us, just 'cause we have money?"

My real brother just rolled his eyes. "Okay, fine, here's your phone, now leave me alone. I'm a minor. Cops can't do crap to me."

Joe isn't the type to let that go.

He's got his dad's attitude: hates books, loves getting into fights.

Joe kicked my brother into the wall, "Funny, I'm a minor too! And as long as I don't kill you, cops can't do crap to me either."

My brother got scared real quick.

I just watched, same way my brother stood by while his friends were messing with me last time.

Just as Joe was gonna get another kick in, this girl ran up and threw herself in front of my brother.

"Please stop! Chris's dad is really sick, he's gotta steal 'cause he needs money!"

What a load of crap. His dad was never sick.

I took a good look at the girl, and my blood ran cold.

Of course, it's her.

It was Amy, the scholarship girl my brother had been obsessing over. The one who had been in the passenger seat when he ran me down.