“I am going to annihilate that kid when I get home –mark my words.” I was absolutely angry –no, more like freaking p***ed off. I couldn’t believe my own brother would do something like that! Okay, well maybe he would, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is the fact that he did it. He pushed me over my limit, something that he definitely should not have done. Why was he such an idiot the majority of the time? Why couldn’t he be more like Hunter? He was actually responsible, smart, respected my choices, and didn’t do a whole lot of p***ing me off. He was a good brother, until he moved away leaving me with the devil. But no Alex had to be the total opposite. He had to drive me nuts; do whatever he wanted; cause a vast amount of unneeded trouble.

Hook up with my worst enemy.

“Annihilation –excellent word play; I like that sound of that. Mind if I join?” Matt raised his brow, looking down at me with a smirk. Seeing as he was crazy tall and almost a foot taller than me he was always looking down.

I rolled my eyes, nudging his shoulder with my own before continuing my stance by glaring in the direction of the quad where Alex and his recent toy Colleen stood. She was pushed up against the wall, her fingers laced in the empty belt loops of my brother’s pants, while he smiled slowly closing the space between them.

Blah, gag me with a f***ing spoon.

“C’mon, let’s go before you kill them with your non existent laser eye vision,” Matt grabbed my forearm pulling me away from the scene that was unfortunately taking place right before my eyes. At first I thought it was a dream, but then as soon as I saw that b**** turn around to face me and smirk I knew that it was real and she was playing my brother like an old school Nintendo.

“I can’t believe she’d stoop that low just to get back at me.” I shook my head in disbelief. It was true, even though Colleen was the worst of the worst I still didn’t take her for someone who take revenge by using somebody like that. Sure she was a little bit of a w****, but all the guys she dated and did stuff with, their relationships lasted a pretty long time.

“Well you guys have been fighting since kindergarten.” Matt let out a chuckle, while slapping me on the back enthusiastically at his own pathetic attempt at sarcasm.

I let out a deep sigh, shaking my head, “Wow Matt, you’re simply hilarious. I just busted a gut laughing. Ha, ha, ha,” I rolled my eyes again unable to process any other sort of response to his pathetic remark.

“Way to kill my funny bone.” Matt pouted.

“Matt no offence or anything, but your funny bone doesn’t exist.”

“Ouch,” Matt gripped the left side of his chest, releasing a dramatic gasp as he leaned against me, scrambling to stay on his feet by pulling me down with him. His nails dug into my shoulder roughly, scratching me as he flew to the ground.

I rubbed my shoulder, groaning at the pain as I glared at Matt who was now breathing heavily on the ground as if taking his last couple of breathes until he died.

“You should join drama. You’d be good.”

At that note Matt shot upward, standing tall once again with a frown spread across his usually over excited appearance. I swear that kid has a bad case of ADHD or something he was always so over enthusiastic and way too annoying for words.

“Hell no, I can’t act in front of people worth s***.”

“I’m not a person?” I questioned.

“No you’re alien with the name of a device that’s used for travel in space,” Matt smirked, “I’m kidding, I mean like you’re my best friend other than the guys and I can act like this in front of you guys, but when it comes to other students and parents and other random people I don’t know. I blank. I wouldn’t know what to say or how to express my lines.”

This kid was in denial. He could totally be the next Johnny Depp.

“Whatever, Mr. Mathew Goodman,”

“Shut up Ms. Rocket-Ship Hart.”

I always hated my name with an intense passion. I mean, seriously? What kind of parents would name their baby daughter freaking Rocket-Ship Hart; couldn’t they of at least had the decency to give me a girl name like Gertrude or Prudence or even Flower. No, of course not! They had to be that type of parents that made sure all the children were happy. So, obviously thinking ahead my evil older brothers took advantage of that and told our parents they wanted to name me.

“I’m thinking of trying to obtain a nickname,” I said, nodding my head a little. The only trouble was trying to obtain one. I mean, you can’t just make up a nickname on the spot you have to earn it –own it like it’s yours forever.

Matt released a small groan as we walked around the school yard, “You’ve got to be kidding, a nickname, really Rock?” He shook his head, sticking his hands deep into the bowels of his jean pockets.

Matt had been calling me Rock for years. At first I just kind of assumed it was one of those name shortening nicknames, like how I call him Matt instead of Mathew. Apparently that wasn’t the case. According to him in kindergarten I was all weird and anti-social and whoever came near me would get rocks thrown at them. Honestly, I never remembered doing that in my life.

“No, I’m actually not kidding you. Not kidding you at all.” I replied in a serious tone. I couldn’t help, but roll my eyes along with my reply. It just felt necessary.

“Why do you feel the need to give into normalcy?”

“Because being normal is what controls high school. If you’re not normal you’re a freak. Even having an unusual name could make you the laughing stalk. Do you know how many puns I receive a day?”

“A lot.”

“Exactly a lot!”

“That doesn’t mean they hate you or think you’re a freak. Maybe they’re bugging you and p***ing you off due to jealousy. Maybe they’re in fact jealous of you! Ever think about that Rock?”

I groaned in frustration. Matt was always so infuriating and the majority of the time the comments he threw my way made me want to punch him in the face, “Matt, just shut up. Let’s go find the guys.”

Matt released a slight chuckle, most likely assuming that he’d one our argument.

“Sure, whatever you say Rocket-Ship Hart.”

If only I had the guts to actually punch him sometimes.