Familial Bond Campus Short Stories & Novels

When volunteers were being chosen for the dorm fire drill, I instinctively moved toward the back of the group. I had asthma, and the last thing I wanted was to be picked. But my own brother, standing at the front, called my name without hesitation. "Quinn Warren, step forward!" I had barely opened my mouth when my best friend, Kenzie Lane, coughed softly beside me and raised her hand. "Captain, Quinn isn't feeling well. Cough, cough... Why don't I take her place?" My brother's expression darkened, and somehow, that only made him angrier. He shot me a vicious glare. "Quinn, what's with the act? "Kenzie isn't even feeling well herself, and she's still offering to take your place. Meanwhile, you're always coming up with excuses to get out of doing anything. "I might let it slide any other time, but this is fire safety. Everyone's life could depend on it. This isn't just about you!" Then, without hesitation, he made me the first one to enter the simulated fire zone. The hallway was thick with choking smoke, and within moments, I could barely breathe. I turned back to him and pleaded in a weak voice. "Please... I can't breathe. Can I..." He didn't even let me finish. He grabbed me and dragged me straight into the storage room, where the smoke was at its thickest, then ordered me to stay behind as the "model student" who would be the last person evacuated from the entire floor. As the suffocation closed in, my vision slowly went black. I slid down the wall until I collapsed onto the floor. It wasn't until the alarm signaling the end of the drill finally rang that my soul walked out of the smoke.

Thanks to my dad's work, I have to transfer schools. Soon, I go to my new school to register for my enrolment. After submitting my personal information, the teacher in charge shoots me an odd look. "Is your father Mr. Chapman, the new shareholder? His child should have enrolled with us a long time ago. In fact, his daughter is half a year older than you. You're not that person at all…" Stunned, I dig out my phone and show my photo with my dad to the teacher. She glances at the photo before showing me the system window. "Mr. Chapman's daughter has been studying in this school since the first term. He even donated a library to the school recently. This is a photo the school board has taken. You can take a look yourself." In the photo, my dad and an unfamiliar student can be seen standing at the school's bulletin board. That young lady looks as old as I do. Her features are similar to my dad's. In fact, she resembles him more than I do! If they are an actual father and daughter pair, then who am I?

My younger sister, who’s in middle school, was home for summer vacation. While I was out buying groceries, the girl who bullied her showed up at our apartment with her friends. They pushed my sister off the balcony. She died right in front of me. Her eyes were wide open as she looked at me. But before she could even call my name, she was gone. My whole body shook as I called an ambulance. But it was already too late. My sister had died on the spot. Because the bullies were minors, they were only given a warning and released not long after. The judge ordered them to pay 100,000 dollars in damages. But their parents cried and said I was driving their families into ruin. I didn't want their money. All I wanted was for my sister to come back to life. I was crushed by the fact that I couldn't avenge my sister. In despair, I took my own life. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day my sister had died. This time, I sent her to my friend’s place in advance. But those bullies still found a way to kill a girl.

My brother, Gale Henderson, was the obsessive villain in a tragic romance novel, but he doted on his little sister even more. He loved me more than he had ever loved the female lead, Anna Umbridge. On my first day of kindergarten, I got into big trouble. Anna was threatening to throw herself into the river, but Gale left her there and rushed to the school to clean up my mess. From then on, he spent every day either bailing me out or on his way to bail me out. Before long, his life no longer revolved around Anna. Then one day, the school called my guardian after I got into a fight with a classmate. My brother stormed in, then froze when he saw the other child's mother. It was Anna, the woman he had loved for years but could never have. I lowered my head and did not dare make a sound. I was terrified that seeing her would bring back his old feelings. Anna gracefully played with her hair and looked down on me as she said, "It was only a fight between two kids. She doesn't look badly to hurt me. For the sake of what we once had, have your sister apologize, and we can consider this settled." My older brother's expression darkened. "Are you insane? Who do you think you are, comparing yourself to my little sister?"

The night before our SAT, I tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Suddenly, my phone screen lit up. I received a text from an unknown number. [Tomorrow at 6:30 a.m.. Leaving for the testing center. Your sister disappears.] I stared at the screen, my heart jolting. I did have a twin sister, Molly Young, and we were both scheduled to take the test the next day. But what a pathetic prank. I tossed my phone aside, turned over, and went back to sleep. The next morning, we had barely left the driveway when Molly suddenly cried out beside me. “Oh no, I forgot my admission ticket.” “Dad, pull over! I need to go back and get it.”

I'm Julian Johnson, and I love cake. My mommy, Charlotte Davis, brings me a small cake every day after work. My daddy, Peter Johnson, buys a full set of ovens and baking tools. For my sake, he then patiently learns how to bake cakes. I use to think I'm the luckiest kid in the world. That is, until the day my parents get divorced, and the man who comes to pick up Mommy turns out to be the bakery owner, Larry Patterson. Daddy suddenly whips around and glares at me with bloodshot eyes. "This is all your fault! If it weren't for you and your constant cake cravings, your mother never would've had an affair!" He stretches out his burn-scarred hands and shrieks hysterically, "My hands have never been free of wounds, all because I kept making cakes for you. But how do you two repay me? You're both convinced that whatever comes from outside tastes better!" Daddy strikes me hard with the baking tray. I bite my lip tightly, not daring to cry out. That night, Daddy brings home a little boy, Dustin Decker. Despite the pain racking my body, I drop to my knees and plead for Daddy to forgive me. "Daddy, I'm sorry. Please don't abandon me. I promise I'll never eat cake again!" Daddy slaps me several times in fury. Then, still not satisfied, he throws me into the large oven. "Don't call me that! I'm not your father! If you love cake so much, then stay in there and think about what you've done! You and your tramp of a mother both deserve to die!" After Daddy slams the door and leaves, Dustin skips cheerfully over to the oven and smugly presses the switch. "From now on, your daddy is mine!" The oven starts up. The temperature climbs around me, and yet I smile. Maybe this is for the best. At least Daddy can finally be happy now.

On the morning of the college entrance exam, my daughter surprised me by asking for a ride to school. She was usually much closer to her mother, so when she suddenly turned to me, I canceled my work plans without hesitation. “Don’t be nervous, Ivy. I’ll be right here when you’re done.” I watched her walk into the school, then returned to my car. When the test let out, students streamed through the doors. Some looked confident, while others seemed crushed. I waited anxiously for Ivy. But as the crowd thinned, she was nowhere to be seen. I assumed the test had gone badly and she was too upset to face me. I hurried over to a school security officer and asked him to help find her. He radioed the staff and had her name called over the intercom, but she still didn’t appear. Growing frantic, I showed him a screenshot of her registration details and asked him to check the room listed there. He went inside without hesitation. When he returned, his face was dark with anger. “Are you out of your mind? There’s no Ivy Young on the roster for that room! “There’s no one by that name taking the college entrance exam at this school!”

My father, Richard Hayes, was the school principal, and my mother, Catherine Hayes, was the head of student affairs. They treated every student equally, earning a reputation as the fairest people in the school. Everyone, that is, except their own daughter, Madison Hayes. To avoid any appearance of favoritism, they refused to acknowledge me as their daughter at school. Even when I was bullied, they insisted it was my own fault. “Did they really bully you? We’ve never seen anything like that. “You can’t make false accusations just because we’re your parents. That wouldn’t be fair to the other students.” Then, one day, I was bullied right in front of them. In the end, I fell from an upper floor and crashed to the ground at their feet. Only then did they finally believe me…

I'm infamous for being the stupidest student in the entire school. Even though I've been doing additional revisions till late night every day, I keep getting the lowest rank consistently in exams. On the other hand, my younger sister, Mia Lawson, doesn't study at all. Yet, she always comes up as the top of her grade every time. Our parents soon call her as the Math Prodigy. Because of that, I'm forced to live in the attic, which leaks all the time during rainy days. My table lamp gets smashed into pieces as well since I shouldn't be wasting power if I can't cram any knowledge into my brain. My parents also force me to drop out of school and start working at a young age. They claim that losers should stick to their paths and do what they do best. But at the same time, they don't hesitate to drop a grand sum of money just to enroll Mia into a class based on the Arithmetiad. There's a time when I contract a high fever that makes me all woozy and my consciousness all blurry. Because of my illness, I randomly draw an incorrect construction line on a draft paper. The next day, the line actually appears on Mia's exam paper, pixel by pixel. That's when realization dawns on me immediately. Before the day the National Arithmetiad is set to be streamed live in front of the entire nation, I opt to not solve any difficult questions. Instead, I lock my room door and keep telling myself in front of the mirror that the greatest mathematical equation in this world is 1+1=3.

During my senior-year internship, I opened my family's entire gemstone mine for my classmates to dig and collect from. However, Keith Coburn shamelessly stole my identity as a wealthy scion and claimed the mine belonged to his family instead. After I exposed his lies, he shoved me straight off the cliff. I begged the girl I'd supported for help. Unfortunately, she chose to stand by Keith's side rather than save me. She even delivered the final blow herself. When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the moment Keith pushed me off the cliff. This time, I immediately called my fiercely protective father for help. I'd like to see how long Keith could keep up this rich scion act once my father arrived.

My dad always calls me a lazy bum. It is because I often fall asleep without warning. I sleep in class, while eating, and even while crossing the street. My homeroom teacher, Yvonne Smith, suggests that he take me to a hospital for an examination. But Dad scoffs and says, "He's just staying up all night playing on his phone." After that, he confiscates my phone and removes the lock from my bedroom door. Every time I get sleepy, he slaps me. I don't want to be hit, and I don't want to make Dad angry. So, I start pinching my thighs, pulling out my hair, and even rubbing hand sanitizer spray under my nose to stay awake. But whenever the overwhelming drowsiness hits, nothing can stop it. On the day of the final exams, Dad happens to be one of the invigilators. I bite my lip until it bleeds and silently beg myself inwardly, "Just this once, please stay awake." Still, I fail to fight off the sleepiness. Suddenly, someone flips over my desk. The chair tips with it, and I crash to the floor. My temple slams into the corner of the desk, and darkness instantly floods my vision. Dad stands over me, furious and disappointed. "Zach Davies, are you really so obsessed with sleeping that you don't even care about your final exams? If you're that lazy, then stay down there and keep sleeping!" I lie sprawled across my exam paper as my vision slowly fades away. Dad, I think I am going to sleep for a very long time…

Thor and I grew up together—we were the definition of childhood sweethearts. We'd promised to attend the same university, graduate, and marry right after senior year. Everyone envied us. They said we were a perfect match, destined for a lifetime together. And I believed that too. I truly thought I'd spend the rest of my life with him. Until the final semester of our senior year in high school, when a new transfer student named Lina joined our class. At first, the two barely spoke. But as they grew familiar, their bond deepened in ways I could no longer ignore. He started staying after school to tutor her, bringing her breakfast every morning. When she was upset, he'd take her for a drive along the coast. If she craved Italian steak, he'd have fresh cuts flown in. Even during her period, he'd quietly prepare everything she needed. I was furious. I confronted him, argued with him, and even threatened to break up. The first time I said it, he thought I was joking and coaxed me out of my anger. The second time, he dismissed it as another tantrum and tried different ways to please me. The third time, he broke down—standing outside my house in the pouring rain all night, half kneeling before me, begging for forgiveness. Again and again, I tried to leave, and every time, he refused to let me go. Yet with each reconciliation, something in him shifted. He started taking me for granted, assuming I would always come back. His patience wore thin. His apologies turned perfunctory. Even when he came to make peace, there was no sincerity left in his voice. So I said it for the hundredth time, and that was the last. That was the moment I finally gave up on him.

When Mom punishes me, her palms are sweaty. I know she's even more nervous than I am. She's scared that others will accuse her of favoring me. When the rest of my classmates perform poorly in class, all she does is tell them to review the lesson and do a few more exercises. But when I'm the one who does badly, she points at the field outside the window. Despite the burning midday heat of June, she commands, "Julia Swanson! You're going to stand out on the field and memorize all the words you messed up. You're not allowed to come back in until you know everything by heart!" Everyone in the classroom looks at me. One of my classmates mutters, "Ms. Campbell is being way too hard on her own daughter." Mom hears that comment, and her eyes flash with satisfaction. That's precisely what she wants everyone to see. No one will dare say she's biased toward me if she punishes me the most harshly out of all the students. "Why are you still here?" she barks at me. "Get out. You think you can get into a top college with grades like yours?" The classmate sitting next to me tugs on my sleeve and whispers, "Why don't you try asking her to go easier on you? It's blazing hot outside." I shake my head. The most futile thing I can ever do is ask Mom to go easier on me in school. She prides herself on her professionalism as a teacher. It's a matter of principle to her. But she has forgotten that it's over 104 degrees Fahrenheit outside. Not wanting to disappoint her, I stand out in the sun. The blazing hot air dries up my sweat—and my tears. Eventually, my vision goes blurry. The world seems to spin around me… As I collapse onto the ground, I hear Mom tell her colleague, "I'll just get a popsicle as a gesture and bring that stubborn daughter of mine back inside later." She has no idea that I won't be able to accept her olive branch anymore.

When I attend a family day event at the kindergarten, I overhear my son, Caleb Sheridan, whispering to his friends, "You can't tell your mommy that the food at the cafeteria is bad. If you do, you'll get beaten up! Bryan complained about the food and refused to eat it. That's why he got taken to the punishment room for a beating." Feeling alarmed, I immediately check in with Bryan Hunter's mother, Annette Morris. Annette sends me a bunch of question marks before showing me a video of Bryan happily digging into his food. "Don't be ridiculous! Bryan behaves so well during mealtimes these days. I can't thank his teacher enough!" Realizing that Caleb was blabbering nonsense, I decide to reprimand him. Just as I'm about to tell him not to make up stories like that, he frowns and remarks, "Mommy, Bryan vomits when he eats celery, so why is he eating it?"

The night I earned admission to West Point, my younger brother, who had envied me since childhood, deliberately started a fight and seriously injured someone. When the victim's family came demanding answers, my parents dropped to their knees and begged me. "You've always been more capable than your brother. You can still rebuild your future." "But if Mason goes to prison, his whole life will be ruined." I gave in and took the blame, destroying everything I had worked for. My girlfriend, Vanessa Hale, despised Mason for constantly causing trouble. "Julian, you big idiot. "If you ever clean up another one of his messes, I really will leave you." Her eyes reddened behind the prison visitation glass as she defended me. Through three years in prison and monthly visits, she kept promising we would marry as soon as I was released. By the time I got out, my parents had moved to a new house. After a long search, the person who opened the door was Vanessa. Mason casually wrapped an arm around her waist and looked at me with open provocation. "Julian, let me introduce you to my fiancee." My parents stood nearby, rubbing their hands together. "They genuinely love each other. Don't try to take your brother's happiness away." Vanessa lowered her eyes and turned the new diamond ring on her finger. "You have a felony record now. If I married you, our future family would live under that shadow." Mason leaned closer with a grin. "Julian, I'm the better man now." I squeezed the crumpled West Point admission letter in my pocket and smiled too. Some debts had finally come due.

My answers were a 100% match with my younger brother, Jacob Scott's, answers for 20 consecutive major exams. No matter how fast I completed my exam papers, he would always manage to complete his one second ahead of me. My class teacher had talked about this to me three times, and I was given a warning for cheating. When my classmates saw me, they said, "Hey, copycat, did you get caught again?" How could our answers be the same when I had never touched his papers at all? This continued until our SATs, when I suddenly saw a live chat overlay floating in the air. [Jacob is the chosen one. It must feel great for him to suddenly have the power to read minds! [He's been getting all the right answers by reading Jonah's mind. It doesn't matter that Jonah is a genius when he's relegated to a stepping stone for Jacob's road to success!] When I read through the exam papers, I started humming the alphabet song, "A, B, C, D, E, F, G…"

On the night of the Halloween dance, Scarlett Adams, captain of the cheer squad, accused me of harassing Theodore Russo, the hottest guy on campus. She tore into me in front of everyone and called me a shameless tramp. She claimed that I, an Omega of the lowest rank, had thrown myself at Theodore. Theodore was an exceptional young werewolf, and plenty of girls on campus had a crush on him. But the giant screen in front of us displayed our messages, which looked downright filthy. "Babe, if you use my underwear to mop the floor one more time, I'll rip your throat out!" "Sweetie, my credit card's maxed out, so send me some money. If you refuse, I'm telling your dad in ten minutes, and he'll teach you a lesson!" "I'm staying over tonight. Don't forget to give me your key." Scarlett stormed up to me, teeth clenched, and screamed in my face, "Everyone, don't let this woman fool you. She's been harassing Theodore nonstop for money, driving the poor guy crazy! "Luckily, I caught her and exposed her for what she really is. She's not some sweet, helpless Omega. She's a money-crazed gold digger!" The other werewolves turned to stare at me, contempt written all over their faces. Down in the crowd, Gerald Harlow, the dean, looked furious. An Omega preying on classmates for money would be a scandal anywhere, and it would drag the whole school through the mud. I took in the looks on everyone's faces, then laughed and shook my head. Come on! Theodore is my fraternal twin brother. Borrowing a little money from him and mooching free meals at his place are perfectly normal. Since when is that something to get attacked for?

While we're shopping for college supplies, my younger brother, Reuben Whitaker, picks up a limited-edition gaming bedding set and grins at Mom. She doesn't even glance at the price before putting it in the cart. When it's my turn, I barely pick up a charcoal-gray bedding set when my older sister, Cheryl Whitaker, frowns. "Garrett, why do you always choose such gloomy colors? You need to be more upbeat like Reuben," she scolds. My childhood friend, Phoebe Thorpe, smiles as well. "No one at the dorm knows you anyway, so buying something new will be a waste," she says. Reuben glances at the sheets in my hands and quietly suggests, "Garrett, why don't you use my old set? You never cared about things like that anyway." Mom immediately nods in agreement. "Garrett, you don't need new sheets. Besides, putting two sons through college isn't easy." My grip slowly tightens around the set. I remember Reuben's old bedding. The corners are covered in pills, and the fabric is stained with soda he spills during his late-night gaming sessions. It has always been this way. I get the designer sneakers he no longer wants, the backpacks he's grown tired of, and the bedroom he doesn't like. If I don't complain or fight him for anything, my turn will eventually come. At least that's what I think. But even after 18 years, their only response is, "You never cared about things like that anyway." At the register, I watch Mom pay for Reuben's things one by one before casually tossing my charcoal-gray sheets back onto the shelf. It's then that my lips curl into a smile. As it turns out, no one has ever bothered to remember what I like. I pick up the charcoal-gray sheets again. This time, I won't put them back.