Old Rivals

Aaron Johnson had gotten a scholarship for Texas A&M and chose to attend that university opposed to others because his father was an Aggie Alumini. He would drive the 3 hours back home during the weekends he wasn't busy at College Station, where the university was located.

[[It's common for students and graduates of Texas A&M to be called Aggies. It only ranks #66 of the National Universities in the USA in 2020, but everyone I have met that attended are only too happy to proudly flaunt it.]]

He was used to having preferential treatment by the local authorities due to his father's position as the police chief, so he was annoyed that anyone had the gall to stop him. It was especially so when he saw just which police officer had pulled him over.

Officer Travern didn't have a high position in the police force in the first place, but his relation to Aaron's nemesis, Ethaniel Lyon, irked him.

'Sure, Ethaniel may only be an adopted son, but who told him to walk all over my head during high school!' Aaron thought as he gripped the steering wheel hard enough for his knuckles to turn white.

No matter what he did, he just couldn't find a place to get ahead of that guy.

He joined the varsity basketball team in high school as soon as he could try out, yet Ethaniel was personally invited by the previous team captain to join. When Ethaniel did join, it didn't take but a year for him to be made the next team captain of the basketball team.

'He always stole my thunder!' silently cussed Aaron, 'But it's different now! He went to a different college and now I am the one who will shine!'

Aaron probably should have let go of his competitive arrogance, but it was hard for him to do it. Being suppressed and surpassed for so many years had warped his mind. So, he wasn't really able to focus in his classes and his grades had suffered for it a bit.

Now, he was in danger of losing his scholarship because he was just performing like an average college student. The loss of a rival had affected him, and he had become someone without a direction or goal.

His girlfriend who followed him to Texas A&M from high school had just broke up with him over it. "The bitch doesn't know any better," he cursed as he pulled into the long drive that led up to a large two-story house with an attached four-car garage.

It wasn't exactly clear if "the bitch" that he mentioned was his now ex-girlfriend or the police officer who had pulled him over, Jakob Travern.

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Ethaniel sneezed and almost dropped his physics textbook he was reading in doing so. Oblivious to his old rival's situation, he had picked UTD for two reasons. The one he gave his parents was cost, but the second one that he kept secret was to be close to his baby sister, Jasmine.

It was an awkward reason that was just as awkward as his muddled feelings for his little half-sister.

That's right. Muddled feelings.

He wasn't sure why he felt the way he did, and, in the past, he attributed his overprotective, possessive and affectionate feelings for her as being normal for the oldest child. Yet, he knew this wasn't completely true.

It was almost a compulsion for him, like someone had forced him, but this also wasn't true. So, he continued to be confused by his feelings and shelved them for the most part. 'What is, will be,' he passively thought and just as easily let it go without further mental investment.

His studies were more important and always had been to him. This could be attributed to his mother's wishes, but it was something he internalized.

Unlike his younger sister, Krystal, Ethaniel could remember how their mother, Julia, had struggled to try and raise two toddlers on her own. Having to be available to report to the ER for work at any given moment yet having an infant daughter and young son who was too young to go to school had been hard on her.

It wasn't until his stepfather, Jakob, had come into the picture when Ethaniel was four years old that things improved. Julia was free to work at the hospital in the evenings and nights while Jakob watched over him and his sister, and when Jakob worked nights, then Julia would shift to working days so she could be there for them. This fact had made it easy for him to accept his stepfather and his mother's remarriage.

Right before Ethan entered kindergarten, his mother had found out that she was pregnant again. Thus, Jasmine came into their lives. The family got a little bigger and Ethaniel got to see what a loving father should look like.

It was a big contrast to his own biological father, Zachary Lyon, who left them shortly after Krystal's birth. Ethaniel resented his father for it. These emotions had no outlet though as he never saw Zachary Lyon after he had abandoned them and left nothing but his last name.

Their mother had asked them before if they wanted to take Jakob's last name a little after their marriage, but Ethan held a little hope that he might run into his biological father again and chose not to. So, Julia didn't bother with changing Krystal or his last names as it was both costly and time consuming to do through the courts.

He almost regretted the decision though.

He could have been Ethaniel Travern and held the last name of a man he had come to respect as well as share the last name of his youngest sister. Then again, he also didn't regret it, because this way, he could be mistaken as having no relation to her.

A strange, complex expression crossed his face as his mind passed over those thoughts. 'Where the hell did that come from?' he contemplated.