Chapter 138: All eyes on me
"So? Are you excited?" Gwen asked, more of Brent, then Kellen. She already knew that answer.
"I’m excited to see what happens." He responded, a slight smile on his lips, but his body was still a little stiff. Gwen smiled at her brother.
"They wanted to take sibling photos of us first before we did our individual shoots. Cool, huh?" Kellen gave her a nervous nod and she smacked his back, bouncing back with a grin as Kellen winced internally at the strength of her arm. "Oh, stop being such a worry wart! You’ve always been like this. You’ll do great." She grinned at her handsome brother, while he seemed more concerned with something else.
He was watching Brent, and how Brent was watching his sister. As far as he knew, Casper was in charge of Gwen’s guiding, even though Brent had taken on a bulk of the new recruits, both classes. It had been intentional. Brent had flat out refused to guide her behind closed doors, and Kellen didn’t know if that was out of fear of what he would do, what Kellen would do to him, or what Gwen would do. All were plausible excuses.
"You know I’m not good with flashing cameras." Kellen said. Gwen rolled her eyes at him.
"You’re a fucking liar. You just hate how you like them too much." His cheeks flushed as Gwen grinned at her older brother. She glanced at Brent. "Dad did a photo shoot with Kellen when he was a kid, and he was amazing. Dad sent the photos off to some magazine for kids and they got selected and put into the magazine. There was a time when Kellen almost became a model, but some kids bullied him about it at school and ever since he pretends he hates cameras. He gets all nervous, wipes his hands on his pants, and then fucking kills it. You could tell by the press conferences too. The man looooooooooves attention." Brent wrapped his arm around Kellen’s shoulder, pulling him close.
"Awe, don’t tease him too much. Our little Kellen will get all embarrassed and try to run and hide." Both of them made noises at Kellen reminiscent of a child sucking on a pacifier, trying to embarrass him. It worked, and Kellen felt his face heat in anger as well. He clenched his hand, shoving Brent’s arm off of himself. He was about to defend himself, when the photographer called out to them.
"Alright, Woods siblings, your turn!" The photographer waved at Gwen and Kellen, and Gwen pranced over without a glance back.
Taking a deep breath, Kellen glanced over at where Hill and the Captain were, and found both of them still engrossed in whatever they were working on. That familiar twinge acted up in his chest, and he cleared his throat. He made his way to where Gwen was, all giddy and big smiles. Her enthusiasm was infectious, and the others were also smiling just as wide.