Big Brother? (Lynne)

[Ethan Jacobs G5]

“You won’t make me do it.” Ethan said stubbornly.

“PLEASE?” Carson pleaded. Carson had been dragged into some stupid mentor program by his friend Angel, and now he was trying to get Ethan involved. He didn’t want to be a part of any of that nonsense. It was Carson’s fault he had let Angel persuade him into joining in. Ethan was not going to budge. He had considered joining if he was able to adopt Ezzie as a younger sister, but when Carson told him it wouldn’t be allowed, Ethan let go of the notion completely. Over the past weeks, Ethan’s relationship with Ezzie Mendez had changed completely. At first, he was completely in love with her, then he hated her. Then he was just her friend. Could this get any more confusing?

“I’m telling you, this thing is stupid. I’m not signing up.” Ethan crossed his arms across his chest and shook his head stubbornly.

“Aw, come on! You won’t even have to pay attention to the little brat. You only spend time with them one night out of every month. And during that one night, it’s not like you two will be alone! You’ll have me, Ezzie, Angel, and everyone else who joined. Please??” Ethan sighed. Carson wasn’t going to give up on this stupid program.

“Alright! I’ll join! Where’s the stupid survey?” Carson smiled widely and thrust a formal looking piece of parchment at his face, then ran away before Ethan could change his mind again. Ethan looked down at the parchment.

Personal Questions:

In one word, describe your family/home life.

Ethan ran his fingers through his jet black hair. What had he gotten himself into? Ethan filled out the stupid survey, not wanting anything to do with it. Ethan had to think of the bright side. There had to be a bright side to this, right? Ethan racked his brain. Well, this BBBBBS thing would give Ethan good practice in being a big brother, that was for sure. Ethan was so used to being the little brother, and then he had to deal with being the only child when Jessie died. Now he had to learn to be a responsible role model? Ethan wondered whether he’d have a brother or a sister come next June. He would probably relate more to a little brother, and a little sister would remind him too much of Jessie. God, did he miss her. He really wished Jessie’s memory would be erased from his mind. He didn’t want to think about something so sad and so very depressing. Ethan erased the image of his deceased big sister from his mind as he glanced once more at the parchment. He looked around the corridors. It looked like he wasn’t the only one with one of these formal looking things. People everywhere were talking about Hogwarts’ new mentor program. He rolled his eyes. As he answered the last of the eleven questions.

[Lynne Collins]

“Wow,” Lynne whistled in admiration as she passed yet another group of girls talking about the new program that had been introduced to Hogwarts. It was some new scheme to mould the students into responsible young adults under the guise of having fun. Lynne hadn’t really listened when her friends had told her about it. She wasn’t the responsible type and having a little brother just sounded bothersome. Wasn’t having the grumpiest person in all of Hogwarts – barring Snape, of course – as an older brother enough for her to deal with? Though Kael had lightened up a little bit since he had started dating Adrina. She had never seen him happier since he had entered Hogwarts, but Lynne couldn’t help but to feel a bit like she had been pushed aside. No one had ever been able to read Kael quite as well as she had because she had had years to perfect her technique. But then Adrina appears and all of a sudden her brother has a bond with her that might even rival the twin-bond Lynne shared with him.

It was infuriating, but that was just jealousy and insecurities talking. Kael hadn’t ever needed her like she had needed him. So now, with someone he had so much in common with in the picture, Lynne wouldn’t help but to wonder if she would stop mattering to her brother altogether. The more rational side of her, the part not ruled by emotions, knew that such a thing wasn’t possible because they were twins and they shared so much more than couples ever could but logic never figured into pure emotion.

Argh. Lynne shook her head wildly, her blonde hair hitting her face and snapping her away from her dark thoughts. She never usually gave into the darker side of her thoughts but for once she couldn’t help it. Kael kept her grounded and she had relied on him for so much more than she had ever realised before the thought that she might be losing her best friend and brother had hit her.

“Oh not another one,” Lynne groaned playfully, stopping beside a boy filling out another of those forms for the BBBS program. “Exactly what is so interesting about this thing, if I may ask? I mean, look around. Everyone is obsessed with this new mentor thing. Are they giving away prizes to the first ten who had in an application or some other gimmick that I haven’t heard about yet?” Lynne demanded lightly, gesturing to the students around her and causing a small third year to duck under her arm as it headed straight for his head. “Oops, sorry!” Lynne called after the kid sheepishly, looking guilty. “I guess we all know why I’m not putting in an application,” she remarked jokingly. “My little brother or sister would be in the hospital wing by the end of the week, judging by that incident.”

[Ethan Jacobs G5]

Ethan looked up suddenly as someone addressed him. He smiled as a slightly older looking Ravenclaw girl approached him, but had some trouble getting there as she was trying to avoid crashing into a small third year. She asked him what was so interesting about the stupid program. Ethan didn’t know himself. “Nah, I’m not really into this stuff…my friend is making join in with him. He only joined because Angel Sheridan, the leader of all this begged him into joining as well.” He shrugged as he placed his pen and survey on polished floor of the corridor. Ethan was leaning lazily against the hard stone wall. Somehow, it was actually quite comfortable. Ethan laughed at the girl’s joke about gimmicks. “I’m not sure what’s so interesting about babysitting little kids, but it seems to be getting everyone’s attention pretty fast. It’s not like we’re getting paid or anything.” Ethan glanced down at his paper as if to make sure there wasn’t a note at the bottom that mentioned payment. He hadn’t really read the notice to be honest. He just brushed through the questions and answered them with as little effort as he could possibly give.

He didn’t understand why people volunteered for more responsibility and more work on their plates; as if OWLS classes weren’t enough already. If it wasn’t for Carson, Ethan wouldn’t have anything to do with this. Ethan tried to think of the bright side again. You need this stupid program. Don’t you want to be a good big brother to your future brother or sister? Don’t you want to be just like Jessie was? Ethan wanted to be just like Jessie. Before she died, she was the best big sister in the world. She was only a few years older than Ethan, but when he was a little kid, he looked up to his sister for everything. They never fought, they never hurt each other, and Jessie was always going out of her way to make Ethan’s life easier. Why couldn’t he be just like Jessie? Why couldn’t he be the Big Brother Jessie would be proud of? A certain sense of pride filed Ethan’s heart and soul, and Ethan vowed that he would try hard to be a good big brother. I promise I’ll make you proud, Jess. Ethan thought to himself, as if trying to speak to his older sister as she looked down on him from the heavens.

“Yeah, I really hope I don’t get some bratty little kid. Otherwise I might ‘accidentally’ send him to the Hospital Wing one day.” Ethan did sound a bit cruel when he said that. Ethan wasn’t a cruel person. His biggest weakness was his laziness.

“Nothing major or anything. He’ll probably end up with one more head than he did before I was done, but I’m not really one to cause pain…not purposely anyway.” Ethan said, as he noticed the little third year rubbing his shoulder from the incident with that girl.

“I’m Ethan Jacobs by the way. Fifth year Gryffindor. You?”

[Lynne Collins]

“I can’t see myself ever being interested in stuff like that,” Lynne admitted. “Like you say, it’s just babysitting little kids and some of the younger years are such brats. They’d just drive me insane.” She was too used to being the younger sibling – even by only a few minutes, she was still younger and Kael had always treated her as such – to ever act like a role-model for someone else. She just wouldn’t know where to start. Kael however...yeah, he’d be really good at stuff like that. He wouldn’t enjoy it at first – and her stubborn twin would never admit it even if he did enjoy it - but he’d had too much practice with her to not be a good brother. Hmm. A secretive smile crossed her face slowly. What an idea. Angel was her roommate and so it wouldn’t be too hard to get Kael involved without his knowledge. Just slip Angel the application innocently – Lynne could fill it out, no problem; sixteen years of living with someone gave you a pretty good idea of what they were like – and Lynne could deal with Kael when he found himself stuck with a little sister or brother.

He would get over it soon enough, Lynne calculated quickly. Kael never could keep his temper heated for very long; he was too nonchalant about everything, especially when it came to her. It was for his own good anyway, Lynne decided firmly. It was about time that her brother stopped being so reclusive and widened his world somewhat. If that meant deceiving him for a while then Lynne was more than happy to do so. It had always bothered her that Kael felt so smug about being able to see past her lies so easily anyway. It was time to prove him wrong.


“I’ll probably end up putting the kid in the hospital wing by accident. Like, I’ll end up dropping my textbooks on him or her; something like that anyway. I mean, if they’re going to be so short then they certainly deserve it.” Lynne nodded firmly, a smile twitching at her lips. She was a walking catastrophe at the moment, but not always. Maybe someone had cursed her when she hadn’t been looking? “I’m Lynnette Collins. Sixth year Ravenclaw and the twin of a grump, Kael Collins. If you know him – which I severely doubt because very few people do – then I pity you,” Lynne remarked shortly, sounding more like her brother than she would care to admit, still annoyed at him for knowing her so well.