Chapter Six

"Okay, so when we asked you to dress nicely, what did you hear?" Kacey asked when Mira walked out onto the porch. Mira shrugged. She wore her usual clothes. A dark purple, tight-fitting tank top and long black ripped up jeans with her black duct taped tennis shoes. Her many, homemade hemp bracelets dangled from her wrists. She wore only one hemp necklace on her neck, the other necklace was a clunky blue pendant, hanging from a black, steel chain. Her guitar was strapped to her back. She moved it as she walked passed her brothers.

"Well, she'll feel out of place, whatever, let's just go," Niko said quickly. Kacey rolled his eyes but headed toward his car anyway. Mira followed them to the slick red convertible but stopped suddenly. "What are you waiting for, we've gotta get going," Niko urged. His sister shook her head.

"I don't ride in cars," Mira informed him as though it were the most natural thing in the world. Niko and Kacey stared at the girl. Kacey had to force himself not to laugh at the absurdity of her statement. Niko, however, was watching his sister carefully. Her expression told him that she was completely serious and had no intention of changing her mind in the near future. "I'll walk. Just give me directions," Mira told them with a shrug. Kacey opened his mouth to respond, but Niko silenced him. He glowered at the girl.

"Fine, if you're walking, I'll walk too. We'll meet you there, Kacey." Kacey nodded his head in approval and jumped in the front seat, waiting for his brother and sister to disappear around the corner before driving after them.They didn't walk for very long before they headed straight for the biggest house Mira had ever seen in her entire life. She stopped at the edge of the lawn and stared. More than one family had to live in the massive house, right?

"Are you going to just stand there with your mouth hanging open, or are you going to come in?" Kacey asked with a small smile, from where he was standing on the sidewalk behind her. Mira held up her hand.

"Hold on, I've gotta stare for one more minute. I've never seen a house so big in my entire existence," Mira replied in awe. Her two brothers shared wondering glances with each other.

"Alright New York, let's go!" Kacey shoved her from behind, and she reluctantly followed them. When they reached the front porch, Mira instinctively felt in her pocket for her knife. It was a nervous habit she had. The boys didn't even ring the doorbell, instead, they just walked right into the mansion.

"Hey, River! You're here!" someone called to them as they wandered into some kind of living room.

"What up man? How was Baja?" Kacey asked pleasantly. The kid smiled.

"It was sick dude. Come on, sit down." The kid looked over for the first time and noticed Mira. She was looking at her surroundings with a bored expression on her face. "Who do we have here?" he asked in what was supposed to be a seductive tone. Mira resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"This is my sister, Mira," Niko introduced, putting an emphasis on "sister." Obviously the kid didn't pick it up.

"Your sister's hot dude," he stage whispered, as he he led the three of them to a large couch. Mira sat down heavily on an arm chair.

"Too bad I can't say the same about you," Mira muttered before she could stop herself. She must have said it louder than she meant too, because seconds later the entire room erupted into fits of laughter. The kid she'd insulted turned bright red. From anger or embarrassment, she couldn't tell. Mira glanced abruptly toward her brothers, positive they were going to be angry with her for not being able to control her mouth, but they were laughing too. The girl ignored the laughter and turned her attention toward her guitar. Pretty soon, the room went silent. Mira could feel someone watching her, and when she looked up, everyone was staring at her.

"Did I miss something?" she asked pointedly. All of the guys in the room nodded simultaneously. Mira shrugged uncaring and went back to strumming beautifully, before someone tapped her on the shoulder.

"Do you notice how there are no other girls in the room?" Niko whispered. He gestured toward the sliding glass doors that led to a large backyard and a huge pool. About seven or eight girls were either around or in the pool, sporting too tight bathing suits.

"Yeah so?" Mira was not interested in prancing around half naked with a bunch of other girls all for the viewing pleasure of a baseball team.

"So... they've been wanting to meet you," Kacey urged, nudging her. Mira set down her guitar and stood up.

"Okay, no. I am not going outside half naked to be heckled by a bunch of s****y girls!" She crossed her arms and glared at the boys. "When you said you were going to show me something cool, I thought you actually meant something cool! If this is your idea of awesome, you're going to have one hell of a time with what we'll be doing tonight."

"Come on Mia, we'll be out in like twenty minutes," Niko pleaded. Mira glared at him, but picked up her guitar and stomped outside anyway.

"Wow, hell of a sister you have there," she heard someone mutter as she slammed the door. As soon as she stepped into the sunlight, all of the girls stared at her. Almost immediately they began gossiping. She rolled her eyes and went to find a chair as far away from everyone as she could.

"Guys, I don't think this is a good idea." Mira hadn't even realized she'd fallen asleep until she heard the voices. "Really guys, I don't even know her that well. Sounds like a bad idea."

"Don't be stupid River, we're not going to hurt your new sis. It'll be funny." The voices were getting so close she could almost smell their breath. Mira braced herself for what was about to happen next. All of a sudden, her guitar was ripped from her grasp. That was all she needed. She jumped from the chair and flipped open her six inch blade.

"What do you think you're doing?" she growled, holding her knife to the throat of the kid who took her guitar. The kid's eyes grew wide.

"Hey, hey!" he shouted terrified. "I... I was..."

"You were just giving me back my f*****g guitar." Kacey grabbed the guitar from the kid's hands as Niko pinned Mira's arms to her side. He pulled her backward, away from the kid.

"Mira, you're not supposed to bring knives everywhere you go, you aren't in New York anymore." Niko spoke softly, yet sternly to his sister, as if he were speaking to a child. "And you are NOT supposed to hold knives on my friends." Mira glanced up at him innocently.

"Sorry, I didn't know. Where I'm from, you pull knives on idiot friends who do stupid things." Niko glared at his sister. He let her go and pushed her lightly.

"Just don't pull out anymore knives okay?" he growled, narrowing his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say. Tell your dumb a*s friends not to mess with my s**t." Mira walked toward Kacey, and gently took her guitar from his outstretched hands. "I'll be right back, I'm gonna go lock this in the car."

Mira could feel people watching her as she walked back through the house and down the huge front lawn. She didn't know anybody was following her until she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned abruptly, clutching her knife. She loosened her grip on her knife, remembering the promise she'd made to Niko. She tried never to break a promise.

"You really need to learn some manners, you know that?" a guy told her. He had an almost amused, but mostly annoyed, expression on his face. He had short red hair and muddy brown eyes. Mira shrugged off his large meaty hand and began walking again. He walked beside her until she reached the car. She quickly put her guitar in the back and locked the door. "Did you hear me?" he growled. "You should apologize." Mira recognized his voice from when she had been "asleep".

"I don't need to do anything a*****e," Mira replied turning away from him. He grabbed her arm and spun her around so she was facing him.

"You're feisty, you know that?" he whispered, his face was so close she could smell the stench of alcohol that emanated from him. The guy pushed her into the car and tried to pin her to it, but she shoved him as hard as she could.

"Get your dirty hands off of me dumb a*s," she growled. Mira swung at him and hit him square in the nose, and then again in the jaw. He grabbed her right hand and hit her once in the eye. She hardly even flinched. She pulled herself away and started throwing one punch after the next. Mira kept hitting him until he shoved her away. He grabbed her long hair and gave her one more good punch to the cheek bone before he was ripped away from her. She leaped at him and kicked him in the stomach, and before she herself was pulled away, she delivered one last punch to the throat, leaving him choking and coughing.

Reviews

[DepthWriter]

Keep going :)