Leo's POV:

I looked up at the old Victorian style house as I took off my helmet. Finally, I was home. After 6 long years in France, I was home. I had not felt this happy for as long as I could remember. The house in front of me held so many memories from my past. Not all of them were good, but I was still glad to be home.

"Leo, stop standing there and help your old man with the bags." I glanced over at my father. In the past 6 years, my father had aged a lot. What were once vibrant blue eyes were now dull, plain blue eyes.He had some wrinkles surrounding his eyes and his mouth. His short black hair was graying in some spots and his face was littered with freckles.

My heart ached at the sight of him. Not having my mom around anymore had really taken a toll on him. He loved my mom with all his heart. Ever since she died, he's never been the same. That familiar spark of happiness in his eyes has been gone for the past 6 years.

In a way, it was like he had lost a daughter too. Neither of us has seen Via since the day before we left. He had to make a hard decision, but in the end letting Via stay here was the best thing for her.

As I was thinking about my father and Via and our situation, my eyes wandered over to our front porch. A memory from a long time ago pushed it's way to the surface.

8 years ago...

"Tag, your it!" Athena exclaimed as she tagged Via and took off giggling. I watched as Via chased Athena around our front yard. They looked absolutely ridiculous. Arms flailing everywhere. Hair whipping across their faces in the wind.

My legs swung back and forth as I sat on the porch railing. Not paying attention to my mother, she snuck up behind me and shouted "BOO!" The surprise startled me enough to make me fall into the bushes below. I looked up and saw my mother laughing at me.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Via and Athena had stopped their game of tag and were laughing their butts off at me. My cheeks burned bright red with embarrassment. 

The memory faded away as I walked inside my house. Everything was covered in white sheets and a thin layer of dust. My father couldn't bring himself to sell the house, so it sat untouched for the last 6 years. I made my way upstairs. The 7th step up creaked as I stepped on it. I always forget about that. The 7th step up had always made a creaking noise whenever you stepped on it.

My bedroom was the first door on the right. The door opened and I was hit with the overwhelming urge to sneeze because of all the dust. My eyes wandered around, taking it all in. 

Some of our stuff had been delivered from France before we arrived, so my bed, desk, nightstand, and clothes were already here. Near my window was a couple boxes. I pushed them out of the way so I could look outside. Athena's curtains were closed, so I'm assuming that she isn't home right now.

Maybe I could leave a prank in her room to let her know that I am back. No, I thought. I can't do that anymore. I'm 17, I need to act more mature. Oh well, I could always do something to her later. My back turned to my window, my eyes skimmed my room trying to decide what to unpack first.

After a minute they landed on some boxes labeled 'clothes'. Might as well start there. I dragged a couple of the boxes into my closet. It would take at least an hour to unpack all my clothes. My closet was a walk-in but it wasn't that big.

By the time I finished unpacking all my clothes, I had a thin layer of sweat on my forehead. My closet had always been hotter than the rest of my room and I don't know why. I wiped off the sweat and walked over and sat down on my bed. 

My bed was in the right corner of my room. Next to my bed was my nightstand, and a couple feet away, on the same wall, was my desk. On the wall across from my desk was the door to my closet in the left corner, and the door to my bathroom in the right corner. In between the 2 doors was a huge bookcase, empty of any books. In the middle of the bookcase was room for a small flat screen TV and a gaming system.

The bookcase should be room for all my books and random knickknacks. Honestly, I only ever fill up half the bookcase with books that are mainly for decoration. The rest of the shelves are filled with random technology related things: a bunch of wires, a gaming system, DVD player, a bunch of old cameras and phones, and a couple other small things. I loved messing around with technology. I had a knack for it.

My mind wandered back to Athena when my eyes landed on the window. I wonder what she's been up to all these years. My heart skipped a beat as I thought about her. Even after all these years, I still ha a crush on her. I don't know why. Plus, I'm 99% sure she only sees me as the annoying older brother. That's all I'll ever be to her. Some annoying fly that won't go away and makes you more frustrated by the second.

Even though I was constantly calling her ugly, I never meant it. Sure, she wore glasses too big for her face and she had freckles and was extremely shy, there was always something about her. She will always be my ugly duckling.

As I thought about Athena, I walked over to my desk and set down 2 picture frames. The photos  were in matching picture frames. The first picture was of my family and I at the beach. It was taken while we were on vacation. That was the only time I've ever been to the beach. The other picture was taken at Athena's 10th birthday party.

We had just finished singing "Happy Birthday" to Athena and she was about to blow out her candles. I snuck up behind her with a devilish grin on my face. It was taken moments before I smashed her face into the cake. My mother caught on to what I planned to do and grabbed her camera to capture the moment. Athena's eyes were closed and her mouth puckered, preparing to blow out the candles. That moment was a memory that I wish will stay with me forever.

I set the pictures on the left corner of my desk. In the right corner I put a black lamp and a Rubics cube. Inside the drawers I put some pencils, my laptop and charger, and my notebook. Above my desk hung a Journey poster. They are my favorite band of all time. My mother used to listen to them all the time, and I guess some of her love for them rubbed off on me. 

Anytime we were in the car she made us listen to Journey. Specifically, Don't Stop Believing. It was my mother's all time favorite song. She knew all the lyrics by heart, even though she couldn't sing. Now, it's my favorite song too. I grabbed some tape and hung up the poster. 

Once I was finished with my desk I moved on to my nightstand. There wasn't much to do, so I put my phone charger in the drawer along with a few other random things. On top I set a photo of my mother in a rocking chair, holding me in her arms. Her smile was the most beautiful thing in the world. It could dazzle anybody and the warmth that radiated from her could challenge the sun.

After a couple minutes, I decided to go downstairs and grab a bite to eat. When I arrived in the kitchen I saw that my father had already ordered some pizza. Sitting down, I put 2 slices on my plate. "There you are, I was beginning to think you had disappeared or something," my father joked as he bit into a slice of pizza. 

"Sorry, I got distracted for a little bit. I still need to finish unpacking my bookcase and my bathroom." My father nodded and then we fell into an uncomfortable silence. "Well, I'm just going to go upstairs and finish unpacking. See you in a little bit," I told my father as I threw away my trash and made my way upstairs.

"Before you go, I wanted to tell you something." I looked back at my father. "Via and the Jennings have gone on a short vacation and they won't be back until late Monday night. Which means you won't see Via until Tuesday at school." My heart sunk a little at the news. I really wanted to see her now. I guess I'll just have to wait until Tuesday.

Sighing, I headed back upstairs to my room. As I was unpacking my bookcase, my mind kept wandering back to Via. I hope the Jennings have been taking care of her well. Of course, she's already like a daughter to them, so I shouldn't be worried about that. I'm actually really curious to see how Athena's doing. In all the countless phone calls, video chats, texts, e-mails, and postcards Via never once mentioned how Athena's doing. 

My gut was telling me that Via wasn't comfortable talking about whatever was going on with Athena. Maybe something bad happened that she doesn't want me to know about. Whatever it is, I hope Athena's doing okay. I hope she's still the same freckled, green eyed and brown hair girl that I remember. That way none of my feelings will get stronger. I pray that my feelings for her go away. It will break my heart if I found out Athena doesn't like me the same way.

That's the last thing Via needs right now is me having feelings for her best friend. Once I finished unpacking most of my room, I plopped down on my bed and pressed play on my Journey playlist while putting in my earbuds.My Journey playlist always helped me relax whenever I was anxious or nervous about something. The voices blended together on "Faithfully" when the chorus started to play. This song was also one of my mom's favorites. 

Eventually, I fell asleep. The next morning, I rolled over in my bed and checked my phone to see that it was barely 7 in the morning. Might as well go for a run since I'm already up this early. I got up and changed into some running clothes before making my way downstairs. I said goodbye to my father, who was already up.

The only sport I play is basketball and that requires a lot of endurance, so I go for runs whenever I can. Usually on days I don't have practice I take a longer run and do some basic exercises in my room to stay fit. Running was my favorite thing to do when it came to exercising.

It felt good to run. Running helped to calm my nerves about seeing Via again, or about anything that was making me anxious. Since I wasn't that familiar with the neighborhood anymore, my run was a relatively short one. I still remembered where everything was but I never went for runs when I was little so I decided to be on the safe side and keep it short.

When I got back to the house, I my father had already gotten the coffee machine out and made himself a cup. He asked me if I wanted any and I declined. I didn't like coffee that much. It always left a weird after taste in my mouth.

I made my way upstairs and into my bathroom. My run made me sweaty, and I needed to take a shower before I eat breakfast and finish unpacking the rest of the house. After a minute, I found a towel and some soap and stepped into the shower. A few minutes later, I stepped out and put on some grey joggers and a white t-shirt.

The rest of my day consisted of unpacking the rest of our house. Around noon, the rest of our stuff from France arrived. Once we had mostly finished unpacking, it was a little past 10 o' clock at night. I said goodnight to my father and headed upstairs. I grabbed a book from one of my shelves and began to read. By the time I grew tired of the book, it was almost midnight.

After I put the book back, I looked out my window to see that Athena's curtains were moving slightly with the breeze. Her room was pitch black, so I couldn't really see anything. It was getting late so I closed my own curtains and walked over to my bed. I really can't wait to see Via and Athena again.

That's the one thing I have been looking forward to the most. I bet Via has grown into a real woman. She will probably turn out just like our mother. Even though we have the same hair and eye color as our father, we get our features from our mother. Via's personality is also more like our mothers, whereas mine is more like our fathers.

Just thinking about her made my heart ache. The sooner I go to bed, then the sooner I will get to see my beloved little sister. After I crawled under the covers and shut my eyes, I drifted off into a soundless sleep, dreaming of seeing Via again.

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I hoped you guys liked the first chapter of SWU. The first chapter is in Leo's POV, but most chapters will be in Athena's POV. The first chapter is just giving some info into Leo's life after he moved away.

So I entered this story in the Wattys2019 and I'm really hoping you guys can help me get this story up there and noticed so I can win or at least be recognized.

Don't forget to vote and comment!