His Chosen Family

~ONE~

Monday, the first day of school. I hate going back to school; since Stella, my mom adopted me a few years ago we would go surf every morning. Well, it didn't start until a year after she adopted me because she had just had the twins when she did but that's besides the point. It was hard for us at first. She was a single first time mom with not only twins but a ten year old. She was only twenty but either way, we made it through. "AXEL! You have to get up!" Ma yells at me. She's probably in the kitchen with the twins already. I roll off of my bed and start getting ready "I'm up Ma! Chill!" I yell back laughing. My mom's young and I'm only ten years younger than her neither of us really take much to heart. We have a pretty good relationship. I throw on some black ripped jeans, a white t-shirt, black zip up jackets, and my black and white adidas.

She's worried about the type of friends I'll make since I'm starting high school this year. She doesn't want me going to parties and getting in trouble. Though, Ma and I have talked about this, I'm going to go to whatever party I can but I won't drink until I'm sixteen per her request, and I won't get in the car with someone that's drunk. When she adopted me she gave me simple rules. Honestly, simple ass rules. 1) Communicate with her even if I think it'll hurt her feelings. 2) Don't lie, there's need to. 3) One free cuss word a year until I'm twelve, then I can occasionally cuss but only in the house and only around her, She doesn't care where or when I cuss now that I'm fourteen as long as it's not towards her in a disrespectful away. 4) respect boundaries 5) Respect others until they don't show you respect 6) Always get her when I need her or tell her where I'm going even if it's just a text.

"Morning Ma, little prince and princess." I say as I walk into the kitchen. Ma is at the kitchen island I guess making the twins snacks since they start preschool today. "Morning prince!" Cel and Bodhi yell at the same time. The twins are four now. I love them but they can annoying at times. I still can't stay away from them for long though. We have a routine, When I first get home from school at three they take their nap so I can have a break from people before hanging out with them. "Morning prince, I have some money in my car for your lunch today. I'll drop you off and pick you up so we can go do something together." I opened my mouth to ask about my mental break but as the mind reader she apparently is, she got to it before me "Bring your ear buds to school, put them in while we're in the car and there's your mental break babe. Don't worry about it because the twins will take their nap in the car too. We're going out of town for a few hours." Which means we're taking the beetle. We live on the beach and we're still in summer. The beetle is a convertible which we use most in in the spring and summer. We only have two cars. The second one is the Altima. "Sounds cool, Ma. Go get yourself and Cel dressed I know you got things to do today. I'll help Bodhi." She nods and walks back upstairs with Cel trailing behind her.

Bodhi picked out the same outfit as me out of his closet and dresser, "Can we match today? I think Mommy and Cel are going to." He asked giving me his puppy dog eyes. The one thing we all do in this family is the puppy dog eyes. Mom hates when the three of us team up on her with it. Works every time though. "Sure thing little man." I just can't say no to my little siblings when they do that shit. It should be banned. These two use it all the time for no reason. We only tell them no when we have to. "Alright you're done. You wanna wear our chains? The ones Ma got us last Christmas?" Last Christmas our mom got us matching chains. They have all of our initials on it and my adoption date on it. My mom celebrates my birthday and adoption day, it's not like she gets me gifts for the adoption day but she says that the day that she had signed the papers that made me her child is a day that should be celebrated. I watch as Bodhi's eyes light up and it makes me feel like the best big brother possible. "YES! Yes, please!" He shouts.

Mom and Cel came back down the stairs, wearing white sundresses and black sandals. "Ready to go?" Ma asks us. we nod before I ask if they're wearing their necklaces and she that they don't take them off unless they need to be cleaned. Now we're on the way to my school before she drops the twins off. See the one thing that people don't appreciate about my mom is that she doesn't care what we listen to. Right now we're listening to the band Sublime. We have the volume at like fifty percent and the top down. Pulling into the school parking lot everybody turns to look at us. "Leave it to my mother Stella to draw attention" I laugh while she scoffs. Literally everyone is looking at us and this happens every year. "I'll see you later, Ma!" I shout while walking from the car. I hear a few 'that's his mom?' whispers. Yes, that's MY mom. We make a scene everywhere we go. "AXEL!" Cameron, my best friend called me. Well, he's really my only friend. I try not to get too close to other people. Growing up in the foster system will do that for you. "Ms. Stella was blasting her music again wasn't she?" I nod "so, that's what everyones talking about?" I reply again with another nod as we enter the class.

So far, our day has been uneventful. Cameron and I have half of our classes together and the other half are separate. "So, don't be mad." Cam begs. Though, I don't know what there's to be mad about. "What the hell did you do now?" I ask him "You know Ma will kill you with your mom's permission if you get me in trouble. Then she'll kill me for going along with it." I finish before he has the chance to get a word out. He looks at me wide-eyed "I was going to say, some dudes in my last class asked me to sit with them but I told them you had to come with too." Shaking his head "Do NOT get me in trouble with Ms. Stella dude. Please I beg of you. Your mom's scary when she's mad." I chuckle and tell him to lead the way. When we get to the spot on the side of the school building where he was told to meet them; there are three guys dressed similar to Cameron and I, smoking cigerettes. Cam has on black jeans, a black t-shirt, a white hoodie, and white hightop forces. While the three guys are each wearing all black outfits. "Cameron" the one in the middle calls him "you must be his friend, Axel. I'm Jackson, the blonde is Max, and the one with brown hair is Seth." I nod and say hey.

We talk for a few minutes before my phone starts ringing. "Who's calling you?" Cameron asks and I just answer and put it on speaker. "Hey Ma, what's up?" I question

"Would you care if I picked you up early?" Why does she need to pick me up? It's the first day. She usually want's me to stay the entire first day. Before I even had the chance to reply Cameron speaks "Hey, Ms. Stella can you pick me up too?" I just roll my eyes at my idiotic best friend.

"Why do you have to need to pick me up?" I ask.

"Because apparently your brother decided the first day of preschool was a good day to fight some one and refuses to talk to anyone unless it's the both of us." she pauses for a moment "He's not even talking to Cel." Damn. If he's not talking to Cel then something has to be wrong.

"What the hell is wrong with the twins?" Cam and I ask at the same time.

"That's what I'd like to figure out. I just pulled up to your school, I'll check you out. Go get your shit and let's figure this shit out." And with that she hangs up the phone.

"Sound's like you have an eventful life" Max laughs. I couldn't even explain my life it I tried. I can't believe that Bodhi got into a fight. "You have no idea. Try having a mom people mistake for your sister. Or people telling you how young your mom looks." I see the confusion in their eyes so I clarify. "My mom's twenty-four. I'm adopted." And with that I walk away leaving them shocked and Cameron laughing. "WAIT!" He yells "I want to see Ms. Stella!" I hear four sets of foot steps behind me. Well, I guess my kind of new friends are about the meet the one and only Stella.

I walked back outside with Cam, Jackson, Max, and Seth behind me. My mom was just sitting her car blasting music per usual. "MA!" I shout walking to the car. She doesn't notice, so I lean over and turn the volume down. "Now, why the hell would you go and do that?" She glares at me. I shrug while getting in the passenger seat. "You didn't hear me. Besides the point though. Cam want to say hey." she looks at Cam and then the other three then back to Cam. I already know what she's about to say. I shake my head silently laughing "Cameron? Did you get in trouble today? And why the fuck are the four of you not in class?" She asks back to back in a low and intimidating tone that guys, besides Cam, eyes go wide. "Well, Ms. Stella. No I haven't got in trouble yet, nor have I gotten Axel in trouble. We are out here because I haven't seen you since I left for my grandparents a few weeks ago." He states with a lazy smile on his face while their eyes get wider by the second. Mom hums while nodding her head. "Okay. We gotta go and find out why the hell Bodhi did what he did." She replies leaving the guys speechless, most likely on how he's still alive after talking to my mom like that. "You should come over for dinner tomorrow." He agrees and I extend the invite to the other three, and with that we're off to the preschool because my little brother did something he knows he's not supposed to do.