The Jade Arms Chronicles Book I: The Wolf Pack

Prominence

"So Jack, you just met Dakota today?"

"Yeah... I uh.. I ran into him by accident... Literally."

I had only been in Dakota's house for a few hours and already I was astonished. His house was amazing. The ceiling were extremely high and open, just like at my house. Dad had let me design the house when I was about 13. Well, not design it, but I had some say in it. I had always been claustrophobic, so high ceilings and open rooms were at the top of my priority.

"He bumped into me in the hallway. It was my fault. I was standing in the way."

Dakota seems to retell the story with the dorkiest grin on his face.

"Well... I did growl at you. To be fair."

"Yeah but you couldn't have helped it, I would have gotten mad if some brick wall of a person knocked me over."

"You said it not me."

Silence takes over the table. Dakota and his sisters share glances at me. His middle sister Henna breaks the silence.

"I heard about some of the general history of StoneMill, and some of the most prominent families, that are really respected are the Riverends, the Storks, and the Flints. The Riverends and the Storks have all either died or moved on, but there are supposed to be some Flint family members left around, one of them even goes to school with Dakota!"

My face immediately turns a bright red color. Dakota laughs before taking in a breath. I shoot him a glance as if to say: Please don't.
It goes unnoticed.

"Jack is a Flint."

I sigh before taking on a dozen questions.

"Really?"

"Wow."

"A local celebrity."

"Any other family?"

"What about your parents?"

My eyes go wide at the mention of my mom and dad. Dakota sees this and motions them to stop. I try to bring my emotions under control but fail. I push myself out of my seat and out the front door. Dakota is at my side within seconds.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine it's just... That caught me way off guard."

"I'm so sorry, I won't let it happen again."

"It's fine... They just didn't know is all."

I try to say it with a weak attempt at a smile, but my shoulders sag and my head hangs low. Dakota surprises me by wrapping his arms around me and hugging me so tightly I thought my eyes might pop out of their sockets.

"You may have already noticed but I'm a pretty straight forward person and I'm blunt about most things. And if should go without saying that, Jack, we can be your family, I know it's rough but even though we just met you, we can help you. Okay?"

The look in Dakota's eyes were a mix of sadness and concern. It made my nerves relax and just my looking at him I felt a bit better.

"Okay."

"Let's go back in."

"Dakota, I just... I just don't know how to take this sudden change. Everyone turned on me once, now I'm always paranoid it will happen again."

Dakota places his hand on my shoulder, holding it tightly.

"It's not going to happen."

"How can you be so sure Dakota? What makes you think that you'll find out something you don't like and ditch me like everyone else."

"Because I'm not going to do that to you."

"Yet I still don't see why I should trust you. No offense."

"None taken, but for starters, I did kinda follow you while you were walking, I wanted to see if you wanted a ride, and second I did save your life."

"Okay, I can understand that."

"Some people had told me about you, and what had happened, and they said that they blamed you, which is stupid. I didn't see any of those jackasses make it to the finals."

"I'm a good fighter at least."

"Exactly! I did a bit of talking around, and there's actually quite a few people who thought what you did was still impressive. Including myself."

"Oh... You've seen me fight?"

"Yeah, you actually went against me."

"I what."

"You knocked my ass out dude."

"What... Which round?"

"Semi-finals. I attacked you with a flurry spear attack and you dodged every strike. You ended up disarming me and knocking me out with a roundhouse kick to the side of my face. I still have some scaring from the stitches I had to get. Heh."

"Oh my god I'm so sorry!"

"Hahaha. Don't be! I knocked half of your team out all by myself."

"Thank you for that. I was ready to do it myself recently."

"I was going to finish them off but someone stopped me." Dakota said with a wicked smile.

"Hey let me see that again?"

"See what?"

I grabbed his face with both hands and pulled him close to me, I studied his face intently, looking him over up and down, finding my mark, I flick him in the temple.

"Hey! Ow."

"Heh, that's for letting me stop you."

"You know Jack, you're pretty cute."

That threw me way off.

"Wait whoa what?"

"HAHA GOTCHA! Dakota: 1 Jack: 0."

Dakota chuckles at my confusion, obviously pleased with himself. I try to hit him in the stomach, expecting a soft surface, but am instead surprised by making contact with a more firm feel. Okay... He's jacked.

"So you're feeling me up now huh?"

"Wha... NO!" I shout back, my face more red than blood.

"Suuuure... Heh, never would have guess you'd be into me."

"I'm not..."

I give him the coldest possible look I can muster without laughing. He keeps laughing before opening the door and going back inside, I follow behind him staring daggers. If looks could kill I swear he'd be dead.

We sit back down at the table and resume conversation as if nothing happened less that two minutes ago.

At least his family is a somewhat sensible group.