The Mischievous Little Brother

Alice was smiling like an idiot as she stared at all the pictures she had on her study table. The moment she got home, she printed all the pictures she took on her phone and she decorated her table with it. Most of the pictures were her together with the guys. There were also a bunch of stolen pictures of them when one of the guys had her phone.

She was appreciating her masterpiece when she suddenly heard the intro to Avril Lavigne's songs 'What The Hell'. It was her phone ringing, she made a mental note to change her ringtone to something that was newer.

She looked at the screen and she saw that it was Mark calling. She looked at it in confusion since Mark never called her before. "What's up?" she asked casually.

"I just felt like it. It's kind of weird but I had the urge to hear your voice," he said.

"What the fu—" Alice stopped herself from cussing. "Creep," she could sense that Mark is smirking from the other line.

"No kidding. It's true I really felt like it," he chuckled.

"Well Marky since you did felt like hearing my voice, let me put it to good use," Alice said as she cleared her throat. "You might be forgetting that we have a two-page reaction paper to make and it is due on Monday," she added.

Mark's silence was enough for Alice to know that she was right. "Thought so," she chuckled. "Be thankful that you had the urge, Mark. I'm such an angel you know?" Alice said in a teasing voice.

"Tch. Whatever Alice, I'll see you on Monday", he said then he ended the call.

Alice was confused when Mark ended the call too quickly. "He didn't retort. He's probably tired," she concluded in her thoughts.

The weekend ended quickly and Alice once again found herself walking in the school halls to attend their regular class. "Morning," she lazily greeted once she got to the classroom.

"You didn't even reply to my messages yesterday," Gerald complained.

"Well I was with you 24/7 for two weeks, isn't it bad if I spend time with my family for a while?" Alice whined.

"Well, I guess so, fair enough." Gerald shrugged.

It didn't take long until their first teacher arrived. She asked them about the retreat first then she proceeded with the lessons. "Okay, we have three more topics to discuss before your unit tests," their teacher said.

"What?!" all the students gasped.

"Relax kids" their teacher chuckled. "The reason why the tests are moved earlier is to make way for the Christmas party. We decided to move it as well so that everyone could have a longer Christmas vacation," she explained.

She received much better responses after that.

Their teacher began discussing about European literature. Once she left their History teacher arrived, much to everyone's dismay. Their brains are just not yet ready to take in new lessons, since they didn't study��much less touched a book for the past two weeks.

Since they had no permanent seating arrangement during History, Gerald, Alice, and the others were all seated together. They didn't even bother to listen, their teacher caught them a few times but they just shook it off and continued talking.

"All of you at the last row, what's the lesson?!" their teacher snapped. Alice turned to look at the guys and all of them looked just as confused and worried as her.

"What are we going to say?" she mouthed as she widened her eyes at them. Mark only shook his head and the others avoided eye contact with her.

By now their teacher was fuming with rage. "Get out of my class!" she shouted. Alice was about to protest but her teacher beat her to it by opening the door. She just hung her head in shame and she quickly left the classroom together with the guys.

"This scene is so damn familiar." Josh groaned as he looked at Alice. Just like back then when the two of them got sent out of the classroom. Alice only rolled her eyes at him.

"Hey, at least we could talk freely now right?" Lance joked.

Everyone gave him an expression gives him the chills so he took the hint and kept his mouth shut. He leaned on the wall and waited quietly.

Once the class was dismissed, all of them approached their teacher and apologized. "Its fine, I'm sorry for acting like that as well," their teacher smiled. "But you still disrespected me during class. Since it is your first offense and since all of you have no idea what the lesson was, I want you to make a scrapbook about the topic. I'll give you a hint, African culture. Deadline is on Friday, now go and don't ever do it again," they just nodded and entered the classroom.

"How are we going to finish a scrapbook about a whole continent in four days?!" Alex whined.

"Well I'm pretty sure no one is going to volunteer to do it alone," Mark said as he eyed them. Everyone shook their heads in response. "We can do it at my house, I mean I've got no problems with anyone staying over, same with my parents," he said.

"I'm cool with that, we could head there tonight. I'll get my stuff and we'll meet at the school gate," Matthew suggested.

The other guys seemed to have no problem with everything. "Are you all serious? We've just gone on a two-week retreat then now we're staying over a friend's house?" she crossed her arms. "Sorry but my parents definitely won't allow me."

"Well we could ask them for you," Lance offered.

"Sure, go ahead if you have a fucking death wish from my dad," she said. She immediately earned herself a flick on the forehead from Mark.

"You're a girl, talk like one," he said.

"Sure, go ahead if you have a fucking death wish from my dad," Alice repeated but this time her voice was more high pitched and whiny. Mark only shook his head in disbelief.

Alice decided to take out her phone and she immediately noticed an unread message that was sent to her about an hour ago. She opened it and she stared at her mom's message in disbelief.

"Alice dear, I'm terribly sorry but dad & i have to leave. :( it's an emergency business trip. Your brother is staying over at a friend's house and dad & i talked about it, we agreed that you should just do the same. We'll see you next week dear. We packed your stuff and your brother is bringing them later.

Btw. Dad says that you should be careful around your male classmates. He doesn't trust them. Luv u dear! XOXO"

Alice thought of three things. One, parents shouldn't be allowed to use emoticons. Two, it's another darn business trip and three, did she just get kicked out of the house for a whole week?

Alex seemed to notice her reaction so he took her phone. Alice roared in laughter once he saw the message. "I guess all of us are staying over Mark," he said.

Once classes were over, Alice's brother gave her the luggage bag. She and Mark waited outside the school for the guys who went home to pack their things. Once everyone arrived, they all headed to Mark's home.

They were immediately greeted by Mark's mother. "Go ahead and make yourselves at home," she told them as she ushered them in. They introduced themselves first before they went to the living room.

They saw a little kid sitting on the sofa while watching cartoons. "This is Ivan, my younger brother." Mark introduced. "Looks can be deceiving, be careful around him," Mark's tone sounded like a warning.

Alice immediately approached Ivan. "Hi, I'm Alice" she grinned.

"Is it me or does this kid look like Mark and Alice combined?" Vincent wondered aloud.

The guys looked at Ivan then Alice, then Mark then Ivan again. "You sure you two didn't do anything stupid in the past?" Alex uneasily asked.

He immediately got a smack from Alice. "Are you kidding me? Ivan and I don't look alike. He looks like Mark," Alice groaned.

Mark just shook his head at the thought. "Gerald and I will do the research, the rest of you can just stay here. We'll just be upstairs." he said. Lance also volunteered to come with them. The others just remained in the living room together with Ivan.

Alice just watched the cartoon until Ivan's gaze disturbed her. "Uhhh... do you need anything Ivan?" she asked.

"Are you my brother's girlfriend?" he asked.

Alice and the others would've thought that it was cute since Ivan's voice was so damn adorable, if only it weren't for the question.

"Absolutely no, your brother hates me." Alice replied with a laugh.

"Will you get married?" Ivan asked again. They all wondered why a six-year-old would even think of that stuff.

"Nope, if I'm not his girlfriend we can't get married," Alice said as she shook her head.

"How about me? Can we get married?" Ivan asked innocently.

Alice only squealed, the guys didn't even know that she was capable of doing such. "You're way too cute, I'll think of that," she said as she did a thinking position. "But I'm afraid you're way too young," she giggled.

"When I get older then," Ivan nodded to himself.

"Mark would probably get annoyed if he's here," Josh chuckled.

"At least Mark found himself a rival, his own six-year-old brother," Alex said as he bit off a laugh.

It didn't take long till Mark, Lance and Gerald arrived. "We're done with the research, we'll just start tomor—" Mark stopped when he saw Ivan leaning against Alice.

"What are you doing?!" he exclaimed as he pulled Ivan away from her.

He immediately received a glare from Alice. "What was that for? He's just being a sweetheart like he is," Alice said as she pulled Ivan back.

"What?!" Mark scoffed.

"Ivan's really cute," Alice grinned. "And I thought you were a good brother," her aura changed when she once again shot a glare at Mark.

Mark sighed in defeat and he just decided to join them in watching TV. While they were watching Ivan kept rambling on about random stuff to Alice, much to Mark's annoyance.

Mark pulled his hair in frustration. "Is someone jealous?" Josh chuckled.

"No," Mark scoffed. "I just hate the way that he's grabbing attention," he grunted as he eyed his brother.

"Don't you mean, Alice's attention?" Josh added.

"Shut up," Mark snapped.

Good thing his mom came over and called them for dinner. Ivan sat beside Alice and he even asked Alice if she could slice his food for him. Mark's mother thought it was cute that they got close so easily while on the other hand, Mark gobbled his chicken like there was no tomorrow.

"Stupid annoying brother..." he grumbled.

"Mark," his mom gave him a scary smile which caused him to flinch. He inwardly groaned as he just proceeded to quietly eat his dinner.

Once they were done eating they stayed in the living room. "So are all of you staying here in the living room?" Mark asked and they all nodded.

"Wait, I don't think Alice should stay here," Mark's mother said. "Would you like to stay at Mark's room?" she asked.

Mark's eyes immediately widened. "Nope, no way mom. No girl is allowed to carelessly go into my room," he said.

"And what do you mean by that?" Vincent smirked.

"Shut up, I don't mean it that way idiot," Mark whispered as he jabbed him in the ribs.

"She can stay at my room mommy," Ivan said as he tugged his mother's dress.

"Sure, if it is fine with Alice." Alice immediately nodded.

"Wait mom, she can stay at my room." Mark exclaimed.

"I can't turn Ivan down now, can I?" Alice smiled as she took Ivan's hand. "Come on Ivan, lead me to your room and we'll play there," she said.

Mark stared at them in disbelief as Alice and Ivan retreated upstairs together. "Stupid kid, he's too attached to Alice damn it." he cursed.

"You're little brother seems cool," Alex chuckled. "The kid asked if you and Alice were dating, and when Alice answered no he asked if he could marry her," he said.

"Believe it or not the brat is just about to turn five," he groaned.

"So we got it all wrong this whole time," Everyone thought since they assumed that Ivan was five. Close enough.

"Hey you're kinda frustrated Mark could it be that you're just jealous of Ivan? Since he is a kid he can lean on her, feed her, or even sleep in the same bed with her but it doesn't matter because of his age?" Lance laughed.

"I'll admit I'm a bit jealous but it doesn't mean anything," Mark spat.

"Oh really? Just accept the fact that you like Alice more than you think." Josh said as he lied down on the floor.

Mark chuckled "As if, I don't even see her as a girl."

"Yeah but you stole her first kiss anyway." Vincent laughed.

"Shut up and sleep," Mark finished.