Misunderstood (Neighbor from Hell (YA) 1)

eport to make up for it?” with the hopes that would be enough to save her from spending the next two weeks in her room when his eyes narrowed dangerously on her.

When he continued to glare, Mikey cleared her throat, opened her mouth to say something, thought better of it, cleared her throat again as she got to her feet with a mumbled, “I should probably go work on that.”

“I would,” Reese drawled, making her wince as she headed to the bathroom that she shared with the boys, pausing so that she could climb over the first baby gate before making her way across the bathroom, climbing over the second baby gate and closed the door behind her.

Once she was in her room, Mikey grabbed the book that she was determined to get through before Monday off her nightstand with a resigned sigh and threw herself across her bed. Determined to do this, she turned to the first page and quickly realized that she wasn’t going to be able to get through this without a dictionary.

That led to a search of her room, which resulted in her finding five dollars, a new understanding of why her mom didn’t want her to have food in her room, a quick trip downstairs to get rid of what she could only assume had been a peanut butter sandwich at some point, finding several incomplete assignments that she should have passed in last year, two more trips downstairs after figuring out what that weird smell coming from her closet was, and the realization that she didn’t actually have a dictionary.

She considered asking her stepfather if he had one, but quickly decided against it since she didn’t think it was a good idea since it had the potential to lead to questions about how she’d managed to do her homework up until this point without a dictionary. That led to her deciding that she was going to have to sneak out of the house again so that she could borrow Sebastian’s dictionary, which was probably going to be awkward since she wasn’t talking to him at the moment.

*-*-*-*

“What are you going to do?” came the softly whispered question that he’d been asking himself for the past two hours.

“I’m not sure,” Sebastian answered absently, unable to help but frown as he watched Mikey shove their bedroom window open, crawl inside, and?

“Stupid floor,” she mumbled, making his lips twitch as he watched her drag herself back to her feet only to sigh as she turned around and closed the window behind her. Once that was done, Mikey headed toward their desk, tripped, grumbled something that he couldn’t quite make out before following that up with another sigh and a mumbled, “Stupid desk.”

“Can I help you with something?” Jonathan asked, sounding amused as they watched Mikey try to search through their desk in the dark. Sebastian didn’t bother asking her what she was doing here since she wasn’t talking to him at the moment. Not that she was actually mad at him, because she wasn’t. No, what she was, was a cranky little thing that lived to torment him. It gave her great pleasure knowing that she had him wrapped around her little finger and could torment him whenever she wanted, which was often.

“I need a dictionary,” Mikey said as she turned her attention to the small bookcase overflowing with books.

There was a heavy sigh and then…

“You don’t need to pretend. We all know the real reason you’re here,” Jonathan said.

“Oh, and why’s that?” Mikey absently asked as she tried searching through the books in the dark.

“Because you can’t live without me,” Jonathan announced with what looked like a sad shake of his head. “It’s okay, Mikey. You don’t have to pretend anymore.”

There was a pause while Sebastian pushed his covers back, ready to beat the crap out of his brother and then, Mikey’s eyes went wide in the moonlight streaming into their room as she breathed, “Oh, my god, how did you know?” making him wince because he knew what was coming.

“Does it really matter?” Jonathan asked, smiling as he climbed out of bed and?

Ended up releasing a pained grunt when Mikey palmed his face and pushed him back on his bed, grabbed a pillow and shoved it on his brother’s face as she said, “Dictionary?”

With a muffled reply, Jonathan gestured toward Sebastian’s side of the room.

Nodding, Mikey released her hold on the pillow as Sebastian reached over and turned the lamp on by his bed. He watched as Mikey, who was once again wearing his sweatshirt, headed his way.

“Why do you need a dictionary?” Sebastian asked as he reached over and grabbed the dictionary off his nightstand. He considered asking her why she didn’t just use a dictionary app on her phone only to remember that she didn’t have a phone at the moment thanks to an unfortunate incident last month involving Jonathan and a bucket of ice that…

It was probably for the best if he didn’t think about what she’d tried to do with that bucket of ice, Sebastian decided.

“I just need it,” Mikey said, not quite meeting his eyes as she reached over to take the book out of his hand only to sigh when he pulled it back.

“For what?” he asked, narrowing his eyes on her as he took in the way that she avoided looking at him, the way that her fingers toyed with the drawstring on his sweatshirt, and the way that she shifted nervously and knew that she was hiding something from him.

“For stuff,” she murmured, still not looking at him.

His gaze flickered to the alarm clock by his bed. “What kind of ‘stuff’ requires a dictionary at eleven o’clock on a Friday night?” Sebastian asked as he tossed the dictionary on the bed beside him.

“Nothing that you need to concern yourself with,” Mikey said as she gestured for him to hand over the dictionary while he sat there, considering her.

There was no doubt in his mind that the dictionary was to help her get through reading The Count of Monte Cristo, but the question was why? If there was one thing that he knew about Mikey, it was that she hated anything and everything schoolwork related unless it had to do with baseball. The only reason that she forced herself to go to school every day and do the bare minimum was so that she could play baseball.

And since tryouts were Monday…