Ice by Elissa Lewallen

of a misfit. His hair can tell you that much. He was getting picked on all the time because of it. Tom was like an older brother—well, technically he is by like, five minutes, or something—always getting into fig hts with guys who picked on him and his other brothers. Most guys were scared of Tom, but the girls thought Tom was cool for sticking up for his brothers like that, despite his bad attitude.” Molly rolled her eyes. “Tom is nothing like Kevin. Sure, Tom and Kevin are kind of cute, but I think Kevin’s hair prevented him from being as popular with the ladies. He got called a freak sometimes because of it. I don’t think any hairstyle is worth all the drama he went through. I asked him why once, and he said he was proud of it.” She had a puzzled look on her face, as if she had never understood his answer.
    I looked down at the equally pale man walking alongside Kevin who was the same height. His short messy hair didn’t have any white in it at all. It was completely pitch black.
    Molly continued recounting her time with them, lending me her vast knowledge she seemed to have on everyone in the school. “Even though Tom was pretty anti-social and aloof, every girl wanted him. Kevin was fun and talkative, and sat with me at lunch sometimes. Their other brother, Thomas, looked just like Tom, but he had one blue eye and one brown eye. Some people were stupid enough to call Thomas a freak, too, over that.”
    I saw Kavick’s distant figure glance up at the bus, just before it turned at a stop sign. I stared back at him, wondering if I should wave. But it was too late. There was no way he would see me. I looked away from the window, now watching Molly animatedly speak with her hands.
    “They became even more anti-social after their two brothers died. Like I said before, they got picked on a lot and usually Tom was the one to get into fights, but there was this one time where an idiot started on Kevin as soon as he walked in the classroom, saying his brothers who had just died were freaks like him and Thomas. That was the only time I saw Kevin attack someone. It was obvious that he was having a hard time dealing with it and that idiot just wouldn’t shut up. I mean, Kevin totally lost it. He picked up a chair and threw it at him! The guy barely managed to get out of the way.” She added with a chuckle, “People didn’t pick on Kevin for a while after that.”
    “How did his brothers die?” I asked curiously. I was wondering if people knew that they were murdered. I also felt like I had to pretend I didn’t know anything.
    “A hunting trip gone wrong. They were attacked by a bear, or a moose, something like that. Their mom was with them, too. And then their dad was murdered last year.” Her eyes widened at the mention of Kavick’s father. “The police couldn’t find any evidence as to who did it. The Skarlings stopped sitting with me at lunch after that. Kevin and Thomas became nearly as anti-social as Tom. They would avoid people and stuff, even me.”
    I wonder why, I thought sarcastically. Knowing Molly, she probably wouldn’t stop asking them about the murder. It was probably the talk of the town since Riverton was so small.
    She then leaned toward me and pushed her glasses up again. “And to make it even weirder, they were quintuplets.”
    She raised her eyebrows like it was a juicy chunk of gossip. It took me a moment to realize I should do the same so that I could appear like it was news to me. Kavick hadn’t mentioned he and his brothers were quintuplets, but after seeing him turn into a dog, much didn’t surprise me about him.
    “Oh,” I said in a (regrettably) stiff way. I was struggling to keep up my act. I then furrowed my eyebrows to seem more convincing. “Really?” I whispered in a scandalous tone to match Molly’s.
    Molly must have bought it because she nodded her head vigorously. “Uh-huh. Weird, isn’t it?”
    I nodded in agreement and then quickly changed the subject so