It was the end of second period when I finished sanding down all my pieces to Branna's new makeup compartment box. It was going to be big with lots of spacious compartments. Branna had a lot of makeup so she would be delighted with it.

I took my base pieces and moved over to the glue gun station. I picked up a glue gun, grabbed a new glue stick, fitted it into the back of the gun then switched it on. I waited two minutes for the gun to heat up and melt the glue stick. I aligned my pieces how I wanted them to be, then generously applied glue to the wood, carefully placing the pieces together.

I put the glue gun down and stepped back, looking over my piece. I bent forward and pressed down hard on the wood, forcing any air bubbles out from between the wood's open spaces and used my free hand to get a piece of card to swipe the now lukewarm excess glue away. I did this for about twenty seconds, then got some used sandpaper from my worktop to go over some of the areas that I had missed. While doing this I felt like I was being watched so when I glanced over my shoulder, I was startled when I found that some of the lads in the class were looking at me. Some looked amused while others were grinning at Dominic, who was grinning at me.

"What's so funny?" I asked when I took out my earphones.

"Nothin'," the lads who were looking at me said in unison, and then turned back to their work.

That obviously meant something, so I looked at Dominic.

"What did you do, Fuckface?"

Dominic dropped his jaw a little at my insult before composing himself. "Fuckface? That's sort of mean, Bronagh."

I narrowed my eyes. "What did you do, Dominic?" I repeated through gritted teeth.

Dominic smirked and said, "I just took a picture."

I mentally counted to ten. "A picture of what?" I eventually asked.

"I'm not saying. I'll be a real ass if I do," Dominic replied, snickering.

I balled my hands into fists and contemplated hitting him, but I instead put my earphones back in and ignored him. I knew he took a picture of my arse; it was obvious with what he said and the way the lads were chuckling and grinning at him. I forced myself not to care though.

Fuck him and fuck this school day.

It was turning out to be a bitch of one!

"What the hell has been up your arse all week, Bronagh?" Branna's voice shouted at the same time my covers were violently torn from my body.

I jolted awake and groaned out in tiredness and annoyance.

I just wanted to be left alone in peace so I could sleep!

"Branna, piss off, I'm sleepin' here!" I snapped into my pillow, keeping my eyes tightly closed.

I felt a whack on my arse, which made me scream, and caused me to jump upright to my feet, so that I was standing on my bed. "That's child abuse!" I shouted to Branna, who stood at the end of my bed with her arms folded and her eyes narrowed at me.

Shite.

She didn't look amused in the slightest.

I did something wrong.

"What did I do? Why are you in here wakin' me up and hittin' me? I'm your little sister you shouldn't-"

"Save it, I heard you this mornin', turnin' off your alarm and goin' back to bed. You ditched school today and that is not cool, not cool at all. You have been a walkin' hormone since you came home from school on Monday. What is wrong with you?"

I groaned, not wanting to explain why I've been off all week.

"Nothin', I just don't feel good today."

I wasn't telling her the full truth. I really didn't feel very good, but the entire truth was that I didn't want to go to school today because I didn't want to deal with another day of Dominic while I felt ill. If Branna knew that he was bullying me, she would call the school and demand a meeting, which would embarrass me. Or she would find out where Dominic lived and murder him. And that would leave me homeless since she technically owned our house and paid for everything. Plus killing Dominic would land her arse in Mountjoy Prison and I would be left all on my own.

"I'll let it slide this once because you're always in school but in the future, tell me if you're sick, okay? I'll make a doctor's appointment for you."

I shook my head. "I'm due my monthly, I think that's what has me sore and cranky."

I was due my period but what had me all wound up was an American dickhead named Dominic. After that first meeting at school Monday morning, he made it his personal mission to get as close to me as he could throughout the school week, because he knew how much I hated it. I even slapped him across the face on Wednesday when he grabbed my arse. He said there was a spider on it, and he was just wiping it off for me.

It was utter bullshit, and he knew it. He fucking squeezed my arse cheek to the point of pain, and that's why he had a grin on his face while pretending to be a do-gooder. Yeah, I was really grateful, so grateful that I left a pretty decent handprint on his cheek that was visible for the rest of the day which had him grumbling and his brother grinning.

Speaking of his brother, it turned out that Damien was the polar opposite of Dominic; he was nice and didn't piss me off. I got paired with him for a science experiment and during that class he apologised for Dominic's behaviour and kindly asked me not to follow-through on any plans I might have formed to murder him, because he liked him alive and breathing, but only a little.

He was extremely flirtatious, but I paid him no mind and just focused on the project we had together. He seemed to get that I wasn't interested in flirting or talking with him at all. He didn't even try after the first few minutes of getting no response from me, which I silently celebrated over. Now, if only his brother gave up as easily, then I would be on cloud nine.

Branna's loud snort pulled me from my thoughts and caused me to look at her.

"What?"

"Nothin'," she chuckled. "Just thinkin' of you bein' in labour with a baby. You wouldn't be able to handle any aspect of childbirth if you can't handle period pains."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh and you are such an expert on childbirth?"

Uh, stupid question.

"No, but compared to you on the subject I am an expert. I am a medical student studyin' to be a midwife, after all. I'm in my fourth year, which means I get to be present in the delivery room now while women give birth so I can get a proper understandin' of what I'm goin' to be doin' when I graduate."

I shivered. "You're so nasty, you actually want to look at a ten pound ham comin' out of a vagina!"

Branna burst out laughing. "Don't call a baby a ham, you bitch!"

I shivered again and groaned before I scrubbed my face a few times with my hands. "Now I'm picturin' someone givin' birth, I hate you!"

Branna burst out laughing again, then moved to my window and opened my curtains, making me hiss at the sunlight that streamed into my room.

"Get up and get dressed, vampire. Since you aren't in school you can do the shoppin' while I'm at the hospital workin'."

That was fair.

"Are you at the hospital all day?"

When Branna wasn't in college doing a million assignments, writing essay papers, or studying for crazy hard tests, she was at the maternity hospital volunteering. All medical students in her chosen field had to volunteer so many hours to get some live experience of childbirth. It's not required that she get paid, because she has to volunteer for experience, but her hospital did pay her. It wasn't much but it was enough for us to live on. We didn't really need Branna's wages to get by. We still had lots of money left to us by our parents, which would get us by until Branna became a midwife and had a steady income. Once I finished my final year in school and graduated, I'd get a summer job that would hopefully roll into a permanent job by the time I started college so that I didn't have to leech off Branna for everything.