Chapter 23 ✧Letters From Isaac✧

I had gone to sleep last night without ever reading the letter. I don't know why but I was too in awe that Isaac had remembered my birthday and actually wrote me a letter. It was almost like old times again. Not that old times were good but Isaac and I had made the best of things with little things like this.

For our birthdays, Isaac and I always had a tradition. Since I had horrible anxiety and Isaac wasn't much of a talker, we'd write to each other instead. It's not like we couldn't talk- Isaac was actually the one person I could talk to- but that didn't mean dad liked it when we did talk. That horrible man never celebrated our birthdays after mom's death. So that meant Isaac and I liked to keep our celebrating to a minimal, which also meant that for a little while we had gotten up the nerve to rebel against dad. Of course it wasn't much but it was still something to us. For the five whole days before my birthday, Isaac would write me a letter -sometimes containing a happy memory while other times it was just a simple I love you- and each morning I would have to find it. Sometimes he would sneak into my bedroom when I was asleep and leave it on my bedside table while other times he would slip it into my locker while other times he'd place it under my dinner plate so dad couldn't see it. Then his birthday would come around and I would do the same.

Needless to say, it was the highlight of both of our birthdays.

But this morning I woke, remembered the letter, and then I turned over in bed and immediately ripped it open. I unfolded the paper as quickly as I could without ripping it before reading what my brother had written.

Little Lahey (that's what coach calls you, right?),

If you're reading this then that means Scott put this on your bed like I asked him to. Thank him for taking such good care of you for me please.

I miss you Char. Not a day goes by where I don't think about my little sister and her big blue eyes that people say are identical as mine. I don't think that's true though. Not entirely. I know you don't remember her very well but mom actually had our eyes. You're a lot like her in so many ways. She would love you so much, almost as much as I do. I wish I was there in person

Love, the bestest brother in the whole world (which I have recently discovered to be very big outside of Beacon Hills. I wish I could show it to you)

PS I bet you thought I was going to forget about this, didn't you? :P

I giggled some as I read that last line. After I read the letter a few hundred times so I had it memorized, I hugged the letter closely to me, pretending it was my brother and not some piece of light blue parchment paper- which happened to be my favorite color which I'm sure Isaac had planned.

After I settled down from being so completely overjoyed, I found my bookbag in the corner of my room and pulled my sketchpad out of it. From there I tucked away the letter in a little flap where I had all the letters from the past five years, which was how long we've been doing this. Some were little scraps of paper with a simple sentence on it while others were full of paragraphs but no matter the length of the writing they all meant so much to me.

Once I was done putting the letter in it's proper place, I officially stood up from my bed for good and started to get ready for school. Once I finished messing with my hair and pulled on a denim jacket that I'm pretty sure Lydia had picked out for me a few months ago when she dragged me out to the mall for the first time in my pathetic little life. It was her way of coping with the death of Allison Argent so I hadn't argued with her and just let her play dress up with me as the test subject.

I'd been in the middle of my mighty breakfast that consisted of toast and lemonade- we were out of orange juice- when Scott stumbled into the kitchen with his helmet under his arm, obviously ready to leave and get to school. I still hadn't talked to him but as he froze once he saw me I knew that I wasn't really all that mad at him anymore. Sure, I still had a lot of emotions jumbled up inside my head but none of them were strong enough to lead me to ignore Scott any longer.

"Morning," I said softly which caused Scott to look shocked.

"M-morning," Scott stuttered. It was weird having him being the one who was stuttering in not me. I smiled at Scott carefully as I wiped off some toast crumbs from his hands. Once he realized that I wasn't going to run off and seek refuge in my bedroom or something, he sighed contently and walked over to me, "Look, Char, I'm so sorry for leaving you out on somethings but I thought it might be for the best. I was wrong though and I underestimated you. When I realized something was up with Derek last night he told me how you figured out about his problems earlier. That's pretty impressive Charlotte and I just want to work together again. I want us to be friends again."

My smile faltered some but not because I was mad at him. It was more like I was too overwhelmed from finally being excepted that I didn't know how else to react. I couldn't quite find the right words so instead I just closed the gap between Scott and I as I wrapped my arms around his waist and rested my head on his chest. He might not be as tall as Isaac but there was still a notable height difference between the two of us.

"I really am sorry," Scott mumbled as he rested his chin on the top of my head. Like I said, there was a fair height difference between Scott and I seeing as I was only 5'3", making Scott about a good seven inches taller then me.

"I know, Scott," I assured him as I finally pulled away so I could smile at him again, "I got the note from Isaac."

Scott gave me a lopsided grin, "Good! Happy early birthday, Charlotte. You're almost a big kid now."

I rolled my eyes at Scott but laughed at him none the less. "Thank you for giving it to me."

Scott smiled at me for a moment longer before his eyes lit up and he quickly pulled something out of his pocket. "I almost forgot that I was supposed to give you this one today."

I saw that what Scott was holding out to me was another envelope which I eagerly took for him. Without a moments hesitation, I opened this letter to.

"Help! A monster!" Annie said

"Yeah, sure," said Jack, "A real monster in Frog Creek, Pennsylvania."

"Run, Jack!" said Annie. She ran up the road.

Oh, brother.

As soon as I finished reading it I saw a little picture stapled to the bottom of the paper and smiled. It was my drawing I had made of a tree house-- or more specifically, The Magic Tree house-- back when I was about nine years old and had given to Isaac. I looked back at what Isaac had written and my smile only got bigger. It was the very first lines of the very first book in the Magic Tree House series.

Back when we were younger, Mom used to read Magic Tree House to my brothers and I. I didn't really remember her doing so but I took Camden and Isaac's words for it and the book series ended up holding a very personal meaning for me. After my mom's passing, dad threw out all the books we had except for the first one, Dinosaurs Before Dark, the second one, The Knight at Dawn, and the sixth one, Afternoon on the Amazon. The only reason we had any of them, though, was because Camden had hid them away. After that my brothers and I would hide away from dad and read the stories over and over again, trying to be able to get as much of mom as we could before time stole our memories of her away from us.

"What is it?" Scott asked after I had stared at the drawing and the excerpt for a while.

"Just about the only good thing that came out of my childhood," I told him quietly.

Eventually, Stiles came and got me for school. The car ride wasn't to eventful and they hadn't been since the whole hospital mishap with Scott kind of dying and the Berserkers attacking everyone, including Kira's mom. I had kind of been ignoring Stiles along with Scott but today that wasn't the case. Today I was just rereading the second letter I had gotten from my brother.

I remember the day I had made the drawing. It was just a little while after I had turned nine, making it about this time of the year when I had made the masterpiece. Dad had gone out to the liquor store which meant Isaac and I had gotten about fifteen minutes of dad-free peace. As soon as Dad's clunk of metal he called a car rolled down the street and out of sight, eleven year old Isaac had ran up to his room and pulled out the first Magic Tree House book and began reading it to me. It had to have been the thirtieth time we'd read the book but I listened to still every single word as I drew how I imagined the tree house to look. It might be a bit more pink than it was supposed to but nine-year old me had thought it was perfect. It had been such an amazing fifteen minutes.

"Hey, Charlotte," Stiles said, sounding a bit nervous as he parked his jeep, "Are we good?"

I looked over at my friend and smiled. "Yeah, we're good."

Stiles smiled back at me and we both got out of the Jeep and headed inside. I had just made it inside when I found myself looking around for Liam. If I could get things back on track with Scott and Stiles then maybe I can get things back on track with Liam, who I've been a bit distant with lately. Something seemed wrong with Liam but he had yet to tell me what exactly. It probably didn't help that I had skipped school yesterday so I'd be able to talk to Derek either because that meant I couldn't be there for Liam.

As if on cue, Liam merged through the school doors. I could tell something was still bothering him by the way he grasped his backpack tightly and was looking around anxiously. Weird, that's normally what I would be doing while Liam was the much more confident one. I was going to have to get to the bottom of this fast.

"Hey, Liam!" I called out to him as I approached the nervous looking teenager. He jumped slightly as he looked over at me, his eyes slightly wide with the slightest traces of bags under them. But despite this his brightly colored iris' were just as stunning as usual. If I could just jump into them I would, though I guess that seems pretty strange.

"H-Hey," He stammered as he adjusted the backpack strap on his shoulders.

"Hi," I greeted as I tried to hold his gaze but the task seemed impossible. "What's going on with you?"

Liam seemed to fidget nervously as he looked around the school, not really paying any attention to me. I frowned before reaching out and placing my hand on his arm, causing him to jump once more as he looked at me again.

"Nothing," Liam said way to quickly.

"Well that was convincing," I responded sarcastically, "C'mon Liam. You can tell me. Please, trust me."

Finally Liam looked down at me and actually held my gaze, "I do trust you."

"Then talk to me," I pleaded.

Liam stared at me for a little while and just when he seemed to start to say something, Mason approached us, causing Liam to clam up all over again. I sighed and looked over to our beaming friend.

"What are you two lovebirds talking about?" He questioned happily, oblivious to how serious of a conversation Liam and I were just having, "The bonfire, perhaps?"

My eyes widened as I suddenly remembered the bonfire, which was being held just one day before my birthday. That was not at all how I wanted to spend my birthday. Parties and alcohol and all that other stuff have never involved in my birthday celebrations and I never want them to. Not only did I have terrible social anxiety but I also knew Beacon Hills a little too well to know that the parties here were anything but safe.

"I, uh, have t-to get to my locker," I told the pair. I looked at Liam one more time but he wouldn't look at me so before Mason could stop me, I turned and practically bolted to my locker.

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ISAAC IS LIFE AND MAGIC TREE HOUSE IS LIFE!!!!

If you don't know what Magic Tree House is then you need to reevaluate your life. They are pretty much my childhood and when Dylan Sprayberry and I have children (which of course won't be years from now seeing as I'm not into the whole 'Teen mom' thing) I will read them Magic Tree House and Harry Potter.

Also, I started high school today (I'm finally a freshman!!!!!) so updates will probably get slower. Don't blame me, blame the lame school system.

Question- How did you feel about the Letter's Isaac sent to Charlotte?