As if Bella needs ANOTHER boy to cause drama in her life

Glad you liked it

I know, poor Cale *hugs him*
I'm sure he'll be fine

New reader! *tackles you*
Thanks luv

*****
The Broomstick

Cale was used to being the big brother.

He was the oldest in his family and the only boy as well. His younger sister Theresa was only 9 years old, and then his littlest sister Ellie was 7. As the older brother, it was his job to protect them from things like...boyfriends, for example. It was their job to be sweet and caring 90% of the time, and annoying and backstabbing the other 10% of the time.

Naturally, he also played big brother to his cousin Emma, whose own older brother Jacob was honestly a bit of a wimp.

And, of course, since he played big brother to Emma, she also played little sister to him many times.

Only, since she was older than 9 years old, she was slightly more annoying than his actual sisters.

The thing that was particularly annoying about her this morning was that she had accidentally let it slip that Cale had ordered a broomstick. Behind his mother's back.

Naturally, being the paranoid woman that Beth Newell was, there was no way she was going to let her only son near a broomstick-especially with all his coordination problems. If she thought he was in danger at Hogwarts, on the ground, she obviously thought that he would certainly fall to his death from 100 feet in the air. However, that didn't stop him from playing Beater for Jackie, Jacob, and Emma when he went over to visit his cousins, and he had done a pretty good job of keeping it hidden from her.

Leave it to Emma to ruin something like that for him.

"CALE MARKUS NEWELL! YOU GET DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT!"

Cale, who had been sitting at his desk, absentmindedly doodling on a random piece of parchment due to sheer boredom, visibly winced. When his mother used his atrocious middle name, Markus, that always meant that something was wrong. As he went down the stairs, he was wondering what he had done when he turned the corner and saw his mother standing at the threshold, holding the packaged Nimbus 2001 he had sent away for two months ago.

Uh oh.

"Cale, explain yourself right now!" she yelled, waving the broom so close to his face he was afraid she would hit him with it.

At first he was too shocked to respond. He didn't know how she had found that broom...he could have sworn he was the only one who actually used the shed out back. And even if someone did go in there, he was certain that he had hidden it well enough under all the other junk that was in there that no one would find it.

No one except Emma, of course. As his mother went on and on about responsibility, safety, and the growing number of deaths due to broomstick accidents, Emma tried explaining to him in the background about how she had found it when she was looking for the rake to help his mother with the gardening. "You always played for us when you came to visit, and it never occurred to me that you weren't allowed!"

That did not help the situation at all. Cale's mother completely flipped.

"YOU'VE BEEN PLAYING QUIDDITCH AT THEIR HOUSE?"

After a few more minutes of yelling, a bit of cursing on his mum's part, and some more yelling, Cale was sent to his room for the first time in seven years.

*****

Three hours later, Cale had fallen asleep on top of his bed, snoring rather loudly when his mother came into his room. He had been isolated in his room for the past four hours, doing nothing except doodling on his paper again and talking to Emma. The poor girl had run up to his room moments after he slammed the door and burst in without invitation. She had been on the verge of tears. She had quickly explained that she was looking for the rake and found the broom, when his mum came outside to see if she had gotten the rake and found her holding the broom instead. Cale couldn't blame Emma for his problem; he was the one who had secretly spent half his life savings on a broom that he wasn't allowed to have.

After they made up and chatting for a few more minutes, his mum came back up and forced Emma to go downstairs. Cale responded by telling her that he was fifteen years old, and that she was being completely ridiculous by locking him up in his room like some toddler who had just had a temper tantrum.

All that did was make her even angrier as she slammed the door shut with even more force than he had used.

So, he fell asleep on top of the covers, simply because he had nothing else to do. When his mother shook him awake, the sky had turned dark outside his window and the moon was shining right over his head.

"Cale?"

No. He was still mad at her. He was going to refuse to talk to her, he concluded. Instead, he buried his head in his pillow.

"Do you want to talk about today?"

"No," he mumbled. His voice was all muffled due to the fact that he was addressing his pillowcase.

"Listen, Cale, you know what you did was wrong. If I tell you I don't want you doing something, I expect you to listen to me. I don't care how old you are, or how smart you think you are, you are still my son and I still have some control over you."

Cale was about to fall asleep. How boring and generic, he thought to himself. Was this the line that all parents used to guilt trap their kids into admitting they were wrong?

"But...I was thinking about it, and even though you shouldn't have ordered a broom behind my back...I'm going to let you keep it."

"What?"

He sat up so quickly that he made himself a little dizzy. As he held his head in his hands, he looked at his mum, who was holding his broomstick out towards him.

"You can have it, on one condition: You are not to ride it until you get to Hogwarts, and maybe get a lesson or something from a more experienced student. I still think those are dangerous...if I find you riding it before you start school, I swear I will have it sent straight back to the store."

"Yeah, yeah, no problem," Cale said, taking his broom from her with a smile. "Thanks Mum. What made you change your mind?"

"Well, Emma explained to me how Jackie and Jacob taught you well when they were at your house, and there was always someone supervising. Now, I'm going to have a talk with my brother and ask him exactly what he was thinking letting you fly at his house, but Emma assured me that you knew what you were doing and there was no reason to worry."

As she got up and left the room to go write a letter to Emma's father, Cale made a mental note to give Emma a great big hug the next time he saw her.