Misunderstood: Inspired by the Neighbor from Hell Series (A Neighbor from Hell YA Book 1)

by R. L. Mathewson

  Sighing, Aunt Haley said, “Good point. You could write an essay about the person that has made the biggest impact on your life?”

  Before he could respond, she said, “Or you could write about an experience that changed your life?”

  “There’s really not much to write about,” he said, since he doubted that anyone wanted to read just how pathetic his life was given that the answer to both of those suggestions involved Mikey.

  He wouldn’t be able to write about why Mikey coming into his life had made such a big impact without reminding them just how badly he’d screwed up his life in the first place. That, and he didn’t like talking about Mikey. He knew that his family wondered about them, but–

  “More mayonnaise,” Mrs. Blaine said as she rolled into the kitchen, making him bite back a sigh as he grabbed another plate.

  “Or you could tell them about yourself,” Aunt Haley suggested, sounding thoughtful.

  “I could…” Sebastian said, letting his words trail off as he made quick work of making another sandwich.

  “But you’re not going to,” Aunt Haley said, making him chuckle as he put everything back in the refrigerator.

  “I’ll figure something out,” Sebastian said as he grabbed three bottles of water, the chips, and the bowl of potato salad that Aunt Haley made yesterday and put everything on the table.

  “Okay. Then what about your personal letters of recommendation?” Aunt Haley asked as he grabbed their plates.

  “I don’t have any,” Sebastian admitted as he placed her plate in front of her and–

  “Does this have extra mayonnaise?” Mrs. Blaine asked, not bothering to look as she narrowed her eyes on him.

  “Not unless you want Aunt Haley to beat me,” Sebastian said, going back to grab his plate.

  When he returned to the table, Mrs. Blaine’s glare had shifted to Aunt Haley, which Sebastian appreciated. He put some potato salad on his plate, noted the way that his little cousin followed the move as Hunter licked his lips and got up and grabbed a small plate for him. Sebastian put a small scoop on the plate and moved to place it in front of Hunter only to bite back a sigh when his cousin shot him a glare of his own.

  After adding a second scoop of potato salad on the plate, Sebastian took a bite of his sandwich and moved to return his focus to the chapter that he was supposed to be reading only to become aware of someone watching him. Looking up, he wasn’t exactly surprised to find Aunt Haley and Mrs. Blaine glaring at him.

  “What do you mean, you don’t have a letter of recommendation?” Aunt Haley asked. “Your uncle and I are both writing you one.”

  “Thank you, but you don’t have to do that,” Sebastian said, hating the idea of them putting themselves on the line like that. He–

  “Ow!” he said, narrowing his eyes on his aunt as he rubbed his shoulder where her water bottle had bounced off.

  “Stop being difficult,” Aunt Haley said, gesturing for him to give her back the water bottle.

  With a glare, Sebastian reached down and grabbed the bottle off the floor and handed it back to her.

  “Who else can you ask?” Aunt Haley asked, acting like she hadn’t just launched a water bottle at him.

  “No one.”

  “What about your Aunt Kasey? You help her a lot. Why can’t you ask her?”

  “Because we all share the same last name,” he pointed out.

  “I can see how that might be an issue,” Aunt Haley murmured, looking thoughtful as she took a sip of water while he couldn’t help but notice that Mrs. Blaine was once again glaring at him.

  At his questioning look, she asked, “Why wasn’t I asked for a letter?”

  “Because I was afraid that you’d beat me with your cane?” Sebastian said as Aunt Haley was forced to turn her head while Mrs. Blaine’s eyes narrowed dangerously on him and her hand twitched as though she was thinking about grabbing her cane, which she probably was.

  Clearing her throat around what sounded suspiciously like a snort of laughter, Aunt Haley decided to change the subject. “How is Mikey doing with her essay?”

  “I don’t know. She won’t let me see what she wrote,” Sebastian said, sighing heavily as he grabbed his water and took a sip, wondering why Mikey was such a pain in his ass.

  “I thought you were helping her,” Aunt Haley said, frowning in confusion.

  “I am, but apparently, I’m not allowed to see her essay until she’s done.”

  “Maybe it’s personal?” Aunt Haley suggested, which of course only made him even more curious about what Mikey was writing.

  “Are you ready for the test?” Aunt Haley asked as Mrs. Blaine continued to glare at him, something that he should be used to by now.

  “As ready as I can be,” Sebastian said, even as he couldn’t help but wonder if Mikey was.

  *-*-*-*

  Well, she was now officially late for practice, but it couldn’t be helped, Mikey told herself as she knocked on the door.

  Mr. Rose looked up from the papers that he was correcting. When he saw her, he gestured for her to come. “What can I help you with, Mikey?” he asked with a smile as he tossed the pen back on his desk.

  “Can I talk to you for a minute, Mr. Rose?” Mikey asked, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she tried not to think about what Coach Dilmore was going to do to her when she showed up late to practice today.

  “Of course,” he said, gesturing for her to sit down at the desk across from him. “I actually wanted to talk to you about something.”

  “Good or bad?” Mikey asked, because she liked to clear that kind of thing up as soon as possible.

  Chuckling, Mr. Rose said, “It’s good. I’ve been really impressed by how hard you’ve been working lately. We all have.”

  “Thank you,” Mikey found herself mumbling awkwardly as she sat there, trying to figure out how she was going to do this.

  “I’ll be honest. I’m curious about why you’ve suddenly started applying yourself to your schoolwork,” he said as Mikey took that as her cue to get on with it.

  “I’m working on something, which is why I’m here. I need a favor, well, actually two,” she admitted.

  “Of course, what can I help you with?”

  “I’m trying to get into Latin Scribe High School.”

  “Wow,” Mr. Rose said, looking stunned as he sat back in his chair.

  “That’s why I’ve been trying to get my grades up,” Mikey admitted as she watched his expression go from shocked to curious and finally settled on thoughtful as he considered her. Nodding absently, Mr. Rose glanced at the windows for a second before looking back at her.

  “I caught a few minutes of practice the other day,” he told her, watching her with a curious gleam in his eye that had her wondering which part of her humiliation he’d caught, the coach yelling at her or the part where she was forced to warm the bench now that he’d given her spot away.

  Her new job was to warm the bench unless she needed to fill in for someone else if they couldn’t play because of an injury. Except for pitching, since he had plenty of backup for that. She was allowed to exercise with the team and run drills during practice, but that was it. The majority of the time she spent warming the bench.

  She never thought that she would be able to hate baseball, but she was slowly starting to. Every day it was getting a little harder than the last to pull on her uniform and make herself go to that field knowing that she was going to sit on the bench. And the games…were the worst part. Being forced to warm the bench while her team played was probably the hardest thing she’d ever done, knowing that she should be on that field.

  “Mikey, why aren’t you pitching?”

  “I didn’t get the position,” she said, forcing herself to shrug it off like it was no big deal.

  “You should have,” Mr. Rose said, taking her by surprise.

  At her stunned look, he said, “I saw you pitch in the tournament last year. I’ve never seen anyone pitch a perfect game before. You d
id an amazing job, which had me wondering why your coach isn’t using you.”

  “He doesn’t want me to pitch,” she mumbled, not really sure how to respond.

  “And that’s why you want to go to Latin Scribe, isn’t it? To get a chance to play?”

  “Yes,” Mikey mumbled weakly because she would do anything for another chance to play baseball.

  Nodding, Mr. Rose asked, “What can I do to help?”

  “I need a letter of recommendation.”

  “Consider it done. I’m sure the rest of your teachers would be more than happy to write one for you, as well,” Mr. Rose told her as he grabbed a pen and made a note in his planner.

  “I’ll ask them,” she promised.

  “What’s the other favor you need?” Mr. Rose asked as he finished writing his note and tossed the pen back on his desk.

  “I have to write an essay for the application and I was hoping that you could take a look at it and make sure that the grammar and everything was okay,” she said with a hopeful smile.

  “I’d be more than happy to take a look at it.”

  Nodding, Mikey pulled out the essay that she’d been working on for the past few weeks and handed it to him. Mr. Rose began reading it only to frown. After another moment, he glanced up at her, throwing her a questioning look before he continued reading her essay. When he was done, he said, “That’s really good, but I just have one question.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I thought you wanted to go to Latin Scribe High School so that you could play baseball,” Mr. Rose said, looking confused.

  “I do,” she quickly said.

  “But this essay is–”

  “More important.”

  Chapter 31

  “Are you nervous?”

  “No,” Sebastian lied.

  He was terrified. They’d stayed up until three this morning studying and he wasn’t sure that it was going to be enough. He’d never been this nervous about a test before, but the funny part was that he wasn’t worried about himself. If Mikey didn’t get a high enough score…

  They’d just have to keep studying and take the test again, hoping that the schools would be willing to wait for her score before they made their final decision. In the meantime, they’d just continue applying for scholarships and hope that they were able to get enough to cover her tuition. But just in case that didn’t work, he had a backup plan.

  Over the past month, he’d been searching for videos of Mikey playing baseball. He’d managed to find video clips of Mikey from when she was an adorable toddler throwing oranges at her Uncle Eric’s head to last year when she’d managed to pitch a perfect game at the state tournament.

  With his Aunt Charlie and Aunt Melanie’s help, he’d been able to create a video highlighting Mikey’s baseball career to help convince schools to give Mikey a chance, and hopefully, a full athletic scholarship. He planned on attaching a copy of the video with her application, and because he wasn’t about to leave anything to chance, he was also sending a copy to every coach at the schools where she was applying, as well.

  “What do you miss most about school?” Mikey suddenly asked him.

  “Going to class,” Sebastian admitted, making her squish up her face adorably.

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  “There is something seriously wrong with you,” she said, nodding solemnly.

  “But you knew this,” Sebastian reminded her as he glanced at the door marked, Quiet Please. Testing.

  “I really did,” she admitted, making his lips twitch as he looked around, taking in the rest of the kids that were here to take this test, noting just how nervous they looked and then looked back at Mikey to find her sitting back, looking completely relaxed as she rolled a baseball between her hands and–

  “You’re not nervous at all, are you?”

  “Nope,” she said, letting the word pop.

  “Why is that?”

  “Because everything will work out for the best,” Mikey said, shrugging it off.

  “You really believe that?” Sebastian asked, curious.

  “Why wouldn’t I believe that?” she asked, frowning in confusion like she really couldn’t understand what the big deal was.

  “Because of everything that’s happened,” he pointed out.

  “And that’s why I believe it,” Mikey said, shrugging it off as she continued to roll the ball between her hands.

  “Explain,” Sebastian said as he sat back and placed his arm on the top of the bench behind her.

  “Just look at everything that my mom went through. My father died of cancer before he was sixteen, leaving my mom widowed and pregnant at fifteen years old. She could have easily given up and no one would have been surprised. They’d all expected her to end up like my grandmother, but my mother refused to do that. She got her GED, worked multiple jobs to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads, and worked her butt off to make her cooking website a success. She ended up marrying the man of her dreams, has five wonderful children, me obviously being the favorite–”

  “Obviously,” he said dryly, earning a wink before she continued.

  “Her website is insanely successful, and now, she has a catering company that’s in high demand and I’ve honestly never seen her happier.”

  “That’s because she worked her ass off to get where she is today,” Sebastian pointed out, giving her braid a playful tug.

  “Okay, then look at your parents. Your mother grew up in foster care, ran away when she was what? Fifteen? Sixteen? She finished school, put herself through college, and after struggling to make it on her own, she fell in love with your father, she is happily married, and has her own business. It all worked out for her. And your father, managed to get his act together after dropping out of school and earned his GED. Things worked out for all of them in the end.”

  “First off, they worked their butts off to get where they are today, so I’m not sure that you can say that everything just ‘worked out for the best.’ Secondly, I’m pretty sure that my mother lost a bet and had to marry him,” Sebastian pointed out.

  “I’m sitting right here,” his father, who had been kind enough to take the day off to drive them here so that they could take the test, bit out, drawing their attention.

  Blinking, Sebastian said, “I know.”

  “There was no bet,” his father said, narrowing his eyes dangerously on him. “Your mother loves and adores me and cried tears of joy when I married her.”

  “Are you sure they were tears of joy?” Mikey asked with a sympathetic wince that had his father’s lips twitching.

  “You kids are brutal,” his father said, chuckling as he looked back down at his phone and continued scrolling through available properties online, probably looking for another house to flip.

  “And you knew this,” Mikey said, nodding only to wince when the door to the testing room opened and a middle-aged man that really didn’t look happy to be here, gestured for them to go inside.

  Knowing there was no turning back now, Sebastian slowly exhaled as he stood up, telling himself that everything would work out for the best.

  *-*-*-*

  “I can’t believe I failed,” Mikey said hollowly as she stared down at her untouched burger.

  There was a heavy sigh and then, “You didn’t fail,” Sebastian said while she watched as he stole half of her delicious-looking burger.

  “I’m sure you did fine,” Uncle Trevor said as he helped himself to some of her steak fries.

  “Why must you lie to me?” Mikey asked with a sniffle, and because it felt like it was needed at the moment, a disappointed sigh.

  “Why do you think we’re lying to you?” Sebastian asked as she watched her chocolate milkshake disappear.

  “Because I was the last one to finish the exam,” Mikey mumbled sadly only to point to the large pickle on her plate since she wasn’t a big fan of pickles. A second later it was gone and she found herself looking out the large w
indow to her left, staring at the parking lot, wondering what she was going to do with her life now that her baseball career was over.

  “Because you didn’t rush like most of them did,” Sebastian pointed out as she couldn’t help but wonder if she had what it took to be a paid assassin.

  Probably not, Mikey thought only to wonder if she should learn how to cook and join the family business only to decide that might not be a good idea with her hating to cook and all. That led her to wondering if she should call Uncle Jared and see if he’d be willing to hold a job for her until she turned eighteen. She could do construction, Mikey told herself only to wonder if Uncle Jared would be willing to overlook the fact that she was afraid of saws, nail guns, and basically anything and everything that could leave her maimed or impaled on something.

  “Are you planning on pouting until we get our test results?” Sebastian asked, helping himself to the rest of her fries.

  “Yes, yes, I am,” Mikey said with a sniffle as she continued to pout, deciding that she really didn’t have a choice in the matter.

  “That will really make the week fly by,” Sebastian said dryly as he reached for the rest of her burger.

  “The camping trip should help get your mind off of it,” Uncle Trevor said, drawing her attention.

  “Camping trip?” Mikey said, frowning only to roll her eyes when she was met with matching “Duh” looks.

  “April vacation is next week,” Sebastian said as though that was supposed to mean something to her.

  At her blank stare, Uncle Trevor said, “The family camping trip.”

  It took a moment before his words sank in and when they did…

  “Oh, god no,” Mikey found herself mumbling as she threw a frantic look at Sebastian, hoping beyond hope that he was going to tell her that this was a joke.

  A really bad joke.

  “We’re leaving Saturday,” he said with a shrug as though what he was saying was no big deal, but it was a very big deal!

  The first two years she went with them, she’d had a great time. She got to hang out with all of her cousins and her favorite uncles, went fishing with her new grandfather and Reese, and stayed up all night telling ghost stories with the boys and then last year, it had been decided that maybe it would be a better idea if she slept in the girls’ tent. She loved Jessica and Elizabeth. She did, she really did, but with that being said, Mikey wasn’t sure if she could take another week of sharing a tent with them.