Misunderstood (A Neighbor from Hell YA #1) - R.L. Mathewson Page 0,10

not to get his hopes up, but god, did he need this to be over.

He wasn’t sure that he could keep doing this.

When he’d turned down the scholarship so that his brother could go to Radcliffe Academy, he’d told himself that something else would come along only it never did. For a while, his mother had doubled her efforts to try to find a school that would take him, but he’d ended up telling her that he didn’t want to go back to school just so she would stop worrying about him. He’d caused enough problems for her. He didn’t want her worrying about him. It had taken some time, but she’d eventually let it go.

At least he didn’t have to do the packets that she downloaded anymore. As soon as Jonathan started at Radcliffe, his parents had purchased a set of matching books for Sebastian so that he could get the same education as his brother. The only difference was that none of his work would count, but he hadn’t cared. He’d needed something more than busywork to do so that he didn’t lose his damn mind. It had also made having to homeschool bearable.

Well, that and Aunt Haley.

When she went on maternity leave a year and a half ago, she’d taken over his education. Three times a week, he went to her house so that she could go over his work, suggest books that she thought he would enjoy, and helped him keep his damn sanity. If it hadn’t been for her, he wasn’t sure that he would have been able to handle being homeschooled for this long.

Then again…

He had a feeling that Mikey coming into his life had something to do with that.

He wasn’t sure how to explain it, but she made everything better. When he was around her, he was able to forget how badly he’d screwed up his life and just breathe. She made him feel like everything was going to be okay and god, did he want to believe that was true.

For the past three years, he’d been biding his time waiting until it was officially time for him to start high school so that he could fix this. Now that he was going into high school next year, he had a chance. The public middle schools had been able to refuse to let him attend because of the expulsion, but the high school…

Couldn’t.

They had to allow him access to a public education. He’d checked to make sure before he got his hopes up. The moment that registration opened for the incoming freshmen, he’d filled out the online forms, making sure that he hadn’t missed anything before hitting Send.

For the past two weeks, he’d been waiting for the email that would make it official and now, he had to keep waiting a little longer, Sebastian realized, sighing heavily when he saw that it was a text message from his mother, reminding him that there was leftover spaghetti and meatballs in the fridge for lunch.

“Great,” Sebastian said, sighing softly as he slid his phone back into his bag when the sounds of a board snapping had him glancing up.

“Please be careful, Steven. I don’t want you to get hurt,” came the panicked words that drew his attention to find Mrs. Blaine, Aunt Haley’s grandmother, hugging the old cane that she never went anywhere without against her chest as she peered over the side of her wheelchair to see why she was stuck on the ramp.

“The board broke, Mrs. Blaine, and it looks like it bent the wheel,” Mrs. Blaine’s newest helper said as Sebastian shifted his attention to the wheelchair, noting that it looked tilted.

“How bad is it?” Mrs. Blaine asked as Sebastian picked up his bike and walked it over the grass so that he could place it against a tree.

“It looks like the wheel is completely destroyed, Mrs. Blaine. If you want, I can bring you back inside and see if I can find a replacement in town,” Steven suggested as he reached down and tried to pull the wheel free.

“I’m afraid this can’t wait. I need to find out what my son is up to before he gets another chance to break my Haley’s heart,” Mrs. Blaine said, making Sebastian frown as she gestured for the large man to help her to her feet only to have him frowning when the man actually did what he was told instead of getting the other wheelchair out of the car and transferring her like