New Things, New Life

A Chapter by AieeJaii

I was walking down the street with my skateboard tucked under my arm; the only thing that was truly mine, everything else was burnt that damn fire five years ago. That was the worst day of my life. The day my world came crashing down.

"Jay! I have some good news!" It was Tiarn, my best friend; my only friend really, came up to me.

"Yeah what’s up?" I replied.

"You’re allowed to stay at my place now!" she said.

"So you told your mum and dad about me? ‘Bout time aye"

"Yeah, I thought that it was going to help and it did!" she said, still jumping up and down in excitement.

"Great, thank you, but how long can I stay?" I asked, she actually told them about me? She had been too scared to before, she thought her parents would disapprove of having friend who lived off the streets for so long.

"For as long as you want!" she squealed and jumped at me. Surprising me with a hug, she may be a tomboy and Goth but she still has her girly moments.

"So, I would pretty much be a part of your family?" I said, still confused about it all.

"Yep, of course! This will be awesome!”

A home. A family. Two things I haven't had in five years. I’d been on the street for so long. Tiarn's family doesn't even know me, and they are still taking me in. I walked with Tiarn back to her house; I still don't know why they are letting me in. It is really strange. Plus Tiarn has a brother too; I think his name is Brandon or something. I wonder what her family is like… She never spoke about them often.

When we got to her house, I was shocked. It was a two story white brick house with a double garage and carport. The front lawn was covered in stunning flowers and roses. I’ve known Tiarn for about four years, and I had never been to her house, she would always come out and meet me just outside the shopping center.

She knocked on her door and yelled out that she was home. A boy opened the door and let us in, I am guessing that this is Brandon (?), "Hey Tiarn, This is Jay?" Brandon(?) said.

"Yep," Tiarn replied.

"Hey dude," I said and I put out my hand and he shook it.

"come into your room, everything was arranged before you came, we all knew that you would agree to living with us, welcome to the family," he said smiling. He was definitely Goth too.

They both lead me into my room, it was awesome. The paint job was strange, but mad as hell, the walls were black but big splatters of bright coloured paint was all over the black. Bloody awesome. The bed was in the corner, the bed sheets and blanket were black too, and the lace curtains were black as well. Looks like a Goth family, not just Tiarn, well, I’ll definitely fit in. I hope.

"Like it?" Tiarn said, leaning against the doorway.

"It’s awesome, thank you guys so much, I don’t know how I could repay your parents for all of this" I replied.

"Don’t worry, its fine dude. Look in the wardrobe,” I went over to the wardrobe and it was a walk in one. There were clothes hung up, a lot of black clothes but a lot of coloured as well.

“Whose clothes?" I asked her, frowning.

"Yours Dumbass, haha," she replied.

"What? Mine? You can't be serious!" They bought me clothes? Bloody hell!! I’m going to have to try and get five jobs to pay them the money back!

"I'm serious dude," she said.

“So much money though, I’ll try and pay your parents back once I get a job.”

“No don’t worry about it, I’m serious”

For the next hour or so, Tiarn, Braydon (not Brandon I soon found out) and I were hanging out in the backyard, they had an in ground pool and a few shady trees. We were talking with our feet dangling in the pool, my new home.

I woke up the next morning not knowing where I was. Then I remembered. This was Tiarn's house. My house. Weird.

Braydon came into my room, "yo Jay, today you’re going to meet the gang. I have all my friends coming over for a little party. I'm sure you will like them, so get ready to PARTAY!" he said sleepily and walked out my room with a yawn. Not a morning person I guess.

I went into the wardrobe to pick out my clothes. I threw on a black shirt with a chains pattern on it and black jeans with a silver chain that went from the front of my right leg to the back of my left leg. I messed up my hair and walked out to the kitchen. Tiarn's mum was there. Oh s**t. Now I’m scared. Where was she yesterday? She wasn’t there when I went to bed.

"Good morning Jay, got ready for the party I see," she smiled, she had short black hair with blonde tips, a cheery face. But still Gothic all over in her black cargos and black top. With black converses.

"Yeah..." I said shyly, looking down.

"Toast or cereal?" she asked.

"Um... Toast please," I replied. She made some toast and gave it to me, "Thanks."

"You're always welcome, you're family now so you are going to be treated like it. By the way my name is Leanne, and my husband’s name is Luke. But he’s still asleep the lazy butt" she said with humour in her voice.

After breakfast I went into the massive lounge room and sat down. A big floor-to-ceiling window facing out to the front yard, a flat screen 32inch T.V, three bookshelves along another wall. I saw heaps of old books on the bookshelf beside me. I picked up one that interested me. It was called 'Black Wolves'. I started to read the first page but then Braydon came in.

"Stop! Put that down!" he yelled at me, he ran over and snatched the book out of my hands.

"Chill dude, I was just looking," I said. Overreaction much? It’s just a book.

"Not this book… huh?" he replied and was staring at my hand.

"What?" I asked. What the hell was up with him?

"Your... Hand... What?" he said, I looked down at my hand, and it was my palm.

My hand was glowing black and then there was a bright light that blinded me, what the hell was going on here?! THAT IS NOT NORMAL! When all that was over, I was totally stunned and confused. I looked at my left palm. There was a shape on it. No, it was like a drawing actually. It looked like... A wolf, a black wolf. How the hell did that damn book give me a tattoo/mark/thing? W.T.F.

"Jay... You..." Braydon was as stunned as me.

"What... Just... Bloody… Happened?" I stumbled, suddenly exhausted.

"You... You are one of us, um... Come on, the gang's here," Braydon said, changing the subject. We went out to the front yard and there were three boys Braydon's age, about 17.

"Hey g-guys, meet Jay W-wolf," Braydon said to them, stuttering.

I got hello's and hey's from the guys.

"Jay, this is Kayleb Ander, Aiden Flame and Colten Fierce," he pointed to each one. Kayleb had dark brown hair and black eyes, Aiden had red hair and black eyes, Colten had blonde hair with black eyes. Wait, all of them had black eyes. Are black eyes even normal? I haven't seen anyone with that colour eyes before, except for Braydon now I realise. This is getting weirder and damn weirder.

"Hey guys," I said and shook their hands.

"Braydon... His eyes..." Colten said to Braydon.

"Yes... Is he?" Aiden said.

"That can't be possible... Can it?" Kayleb said.

"What?" I said, what about my eyes? My eyes are dark brown, not black so what do they mean?

"Don't worry, we will tell you later. ANYWAY, let’s go out the back and get this party started!" Braydon shouted the last bit; all of them hollered and whooped. I was too confused to say anything.

And the party started.

We all took off our shirts, changed into board shorts and jumped in the pool. It took Tiarn a lot longer to get ready than us guys, she had to go inside and change. When she finally got out and was about to jump in the pool, we saw her and smiled evilly at her.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing..." we all said cheekily, smirking at her.

"Okay then..." she said and just as she was about to jump in... Splash! We all threw five water balloons at her at the same time and she got soaked. "Hey!!!" she yelled at us.

"What? You're going to get wet anyway!" I said and laughed.

"True, haha" she replied and jumped in.

“Hehe… Wet” Colten burst out laughing. Dirty minded guy. Then again, aren’t we all? Haha.

We were in the pool for three hours mucking around, then we got out. I realised how damn hot it was, I got burnt, oh well. Gotta love the Aussie sun. We went into Braydon and Tiarn's room, it's really big and the room is divided. We played truth or dare, seven minutes of heaven, even pin the tail on the donkey. We were being total kids.

But I had to ask them something.

"Hey guys... What does this mean?" I said and held out my palm, the marking had been disturbing me all day, and everyone went silent.

I sat there in the silence. Four pairs of black eyes were staring at me, and one white pair. Wait, white? I never realised that Tiarn's eyes were white! Weird, never seen that eye colour before. What the hell is up with this family?

"What? How bad could it be?" I asked, breaking the cold silence.

"Who is going to tell him?" Colten looked at Braydon.

"Yo, why me?" Braydon replied.

"He is your bro now you know," Kayleb said.

"Yeah," Aiden added. I was confused, how bad could it be seriously?

“Jay… You will know one day, for now, just leave it. Don’t ask.” Braydon stared at me with unwavering eyes.

“I want to know what the hell is going on here! Just bloody tell me!” It angered me when people didn’t tell me things. I hate being out of the loop.

“No.” Something about the way her stared at me made me look away. I gave up about trying to get him to tell me what was going on. I don’t know why. Something… Controlling about him, like a leader. Or Somethin’.

It was so awkward for the rest of the ‘party’. Everyone was pretty silent. Tiarn tried and failed many times to break the ice, eventually she gave up. She out to the kitchen mumbling about immature guys being foolish and total idiots. Hey, it’s not me, it’s them. What are they not telling me?

Well, well. I just got myself a plan.

A man walked into the room which broke the silence, he was tall with short curly black hair, and his eyes were so bright green they were mesmerising.

“Come on guys, time to go home. Ah, so you must be Jay,” and came over to me and shook my hand, ”Welcome to the family, I’m Luke.”

“Nice to meet you,” I could swear that he put some squeeze in his grip. ‘Coz it hurt.

He smiled and let go, all the boys said their goodbyes and shook my hand again. Why did my hand sting every time they touched it? It was fine with Luke, but not the ‘gang’. What‘s going on here? I got a glimpse of Colten and Aiden’s hands; they both had the same tattoo/Mark/thing that I have. A wolf. A black wolf. Theirs seemed more subtle and smaller, while mine was bold and large. Confusing? Very. Weird? Definitely.

That left just me and Braydon in the room. And if I thought it was awkward before, it’s even more so now. For a few moments we stared at the doorway, then at each other for a few moments more. His unwavering eyes turned apologetic, like he didn’t like keeping a secret. Slowly, I stood up and went to the door. I stopped and turned around to look at him again, “Why.”

“Why what?” he replied, his expression turning to confusion.

“Why won’t you tell me.”

“To protect you. For now anyway.”

I frowned at his words, what is there to protect me from? I can look after myself, I have for the past five years.

“I can protect myself from whatever you think I need protection from.”

“Not this. You need others for this. You need the gang to trust you. And you need my family to trust you. Then you can know.”

Something about his sad tone of voice made me drop the subject and go to my room. Heh, my room. Something I haven't had for so long...

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