Trouble comes in Three's

Chapter 2

Alex POV

Two days later and what happened when we got grounded for a week for getting busted up a little, was still grating on all three of us, we wanted to have fun, but each time we did, we ended up grounded or had privileges removed.

Mum really knows how to embarrass a guy; she went from full-blown anger about a fat lip and black eye to wanting to know who we liked in about two seconds flat. I am so glad Dad understood and stopped Mum from embarrassing me, or should I say, us any further. If she had even a clue who we were interested in, we would suddenly have them over for dinner and other events until they would be sick of us so fast. We see them every day already. We do not need Mum to push them onto us any further. Besides, they are younger than us; one is two years younger, and the twins are three years younger, so at thirteen and fourteen, they are too young for us to consider dating yet. But they are beginning to look absolutely beautiful as their bodies grow into womanhood. All of us have noticed the subtle changes that had begun a little while ago.

We were playing in the tunnels and having some fun, and yeah, maybe it is not a good appearance to be sporting a black eye, a cut lip, or torn clothes, but what can we do? Mum has us on such a tight reign, and I understand the GPS on us. Scott explained it clearly to us when we got old enough to understand what it all meant, especially with the loss of Grandpa and Grandma and uncles. I get it, WE get it. But Mum has to let us have our time. I need to be able to muck around with my brother and let off steam; it gets suffocating.

I hate being a prince. I want to be a regular guy, doing everyday things; no matter how much we are told about how lucky we are by our friends, we do not see it. They don't get it, the pressure Mother puts on us to look the part, act it, and be whatever. I get so angry at times I want to scream. If it were not for my two brothers, I would have gone insane by now. We all feel the same way, and dressing the same at events and parties sucks. Don't we look alike enough without making the dress code the same? It is fun sometimes when adults get us confused, like at school, the teacher gets us wrong all the time, and most kids do too, which can be fun sometimes. Still, as we have gotten older, it is less fun and more annoying, especially when we try to look at getting a girlfriend our age, and none of the girls can tell us apart. We all spent a day with the same girl, and she had no clue.

What drives the teachers insane is that we are so alike that our school records are almost identical. We get the same questions wrong, and so our scores are the same: ninety-eight percent. I am slightly better at football than my brothers, Austin is better at swimming, and Axel likes to read a lot, but the difference in sports is marginal, not enough to point us out on the field or in the pool. If one starts to get too far ahead, he pulls back and lets us catch up, and if I win one meeting, one of the others will win the next, just so we all get a turn to win.

In a way, it is our fault that no one can tell us apart. Except for our family and the Scotts girls, we do so much the same.

We have the same taste; none of us like sugar in our coffee or tea, we don't like eggs, and we have all had measles at the same time. We like our hair the same way, and the clothes fit us the same way, like the same color. All three of us have deep baritone voices that girls seem to love hearing, and we can sing, but we prefer not to.

Mum said we are all one person, not three boys, because we came from the same egg. We get it and understand why we are identical, but we are still three individual people. It makes it easy when Mum orders us new shoes or clothes. She not once thought about putting us in different colors or making us stand out as individuals; she cloned us to be the same since we were born. But she sees us as one child and not three, and each has our own needs and wants.

Thank goodness Dad sees us as three sons and treats us accordingly, always giving us love and support, chatting as we get older, giving us the chat, and treating us as growing adults, not children. He shows us that he trusts us. I loved it when he had time to run with us in the tunnels, and Scott and the king joined in, along with Scott's two boys. The girls only join in when they are just kids, and they love the tunnels and the games as we do; they have good sword skills now and can land a hit on me when they gang us together.

'Alex, have you decided yet?' Axel asked in a tone that said they were going, whether I joined in or not.

'I don't mind going to that party, but I refuse to take off the GPS. You know it is for our safety.' I say again that I have had this argument with him repeatedly. I am breaking Dad's trust in us by taking it off.

'But that is half the fun; no one else wears them.' He counters back in a whiny, baritone voice that sounds rather funny.

'They are not princes.'

'You are no fun. Where is the risk-taker gone?' He almost snarls at me. His frustration with being grounded is as hard on him as it is on the rest of us.

'I am not going to end the story, but I am not stopping you from breaking Dad's trust.' The look of doubt flashed on his face. If we are complaining about how bad we have it now, wait till she finds out that two of her boys are considering breaking the hardest rule of all.

'We are leaving at eight after dinner tonight. Stay here and be a wimp.' They left my room, and I returned to doing my homework. I wanted to finish this, so I had the whole Sunday to enjoy myself. Dad said we could do some stuff together, and if we were lucky enough, and I got up early enough on Sunday, we would try to connect with the family and watch their final game with them. I am excited about doing that. I am into sports as much as Dad is, and I love it when we can spend a day with the family; it is harder for Dad; our time zones clash, and Dad works too hard. But the final is later in their day, so not so early in ours. It started around seven in the morning, so if I could get ready by six, we could have breakfast together in the games room and chat with the family before the game. It is rare to have a day with Dad like this.

Saturday flew by. My homework was done, and I had a shirt picked out for the morning. Dad and I had matching shirts. I think I am starting to get taller than him now. He is six feet four inches, and I think I am now half an inch taller, but I won't tell him that; he said we had a few more years of growing and could hit six feet six or more.

Dinner was a hive of chatter. Dad had told Mum we were having a game day with the rest of the family tomorrow, and she begged off, saying she would rather sleep in. She loves the sport and knows it is the final, but she has some function to go to at lunchtime, and she needs her beauty sleep before getting up to face all those cameras. Even Mum does not like the royal duties, which are so time-consuming, always having to smile when you don't feel like it. I have to take my hat off to my mum; she takes her job seriously, and that is how we see this royal duties stuff. The only difference is that you never get to clock off and be you for long.

Axel put his head in the door to my room and looked around.

'You not coming?' He looked disappointed at my reluctance.

'Nope.' I was not going to go out against Mum and Dad; we may be the same in every way, but this one, I am not a goodie-two-shoes, as he puts it. But I do not wish to break the trust Dad has in us.

Not in this way.