Life, Love and Gangs. {Book 1} *In Editing*

Problemed Siblings

Cinder's POV*

I couldn't believe my brother had done that to his body, the fact that he has marked his skin for life and will never get rid of it..

I picked up a pen off the counter and started to draw a butterfly on his arm where the cuts have healed, Swifty used to draw them on me to help me stop. It was called 'The Butterfly Project' one of the best things that they ever created.

I stood up and walked over to the cupboard to grab some antibiotics, when Pyro showed me his arm I noticed that some where infected already, the medication should help that.

"Pyro, I want you to promise me that if you do it again you will tell me. I know how it feels to be hurt, to be neglected, to be in pain. I promise you that I will help you, depression is horrible and hard to lift yourself out of without help." I say looking him in the eye, he looks down at his feet.

"You don't know what it's like.." He whispers, I felt my heart ache at his words. I look at him and shake my head.

"I know what it's like, you want to scream out but you can't, you want to tell people so they can help but you can't because you are scared they will judge you and call you an attention seeker. You want someone to help you but you don't want to be taken to a 'Nut House' because in a way, you don't want to be helped, you want to fight it yourself. Life can be horrible buddy, I know. I promise you that there is more and you just have to get through this bit to keep going. You need to keep moving forward." I say, tears silently running down my face, he looks at me in shock.

"H-how do you know w-what it feels like?" He asks in utter shock at what I had told him. I lift my top and show him my scars on my stomach and my sides, I knew that if I showed him that I had suffered that I knew what I was talking about. I wanted him to get better and not get worse.

"See, I have suffered it too, you're not alone buddy. I promise you that. You need to talk it out, you need to tell people how you feel, you need to get your emotions out and not bottle them up." I say hugging him tight.

"I promise that if I do it again I'll tell you." He whispers in my ear, I sigh with relief.

"Is it okay if Dad and Swifty know? They helped me too." I ask softy.

"Swifty yes, Dad no." He says, I understand why he said no to dad. Pyro has been having a rough time and he doesn't want dad to suffer too.

"Okay." I whisper back in his ear.

****

Niall's POV*

I rouse myself from my bed, I look at the clock.

8:30am

Okay, off to school. I get to see Cinder today, that's going to be interesting.

I look over to the couch to see Louis asleep with his beanie over his face, I threw a pillow from the other couch at him to wake him up.

"Ahh!!" He yells as the pillow hits him, I start laughing uncontrollably at his reaction. So funny, classic Louis.

"Get up, we have school." I say walking into the kitchen.

"YAY! I get to see El!" He said, look at him confused at his words.

"What's so good about El?" I ask, I watch his face turn red.

"Um.. where um.. Dating?" He says, I look at him in shock, he finally got a girlfriend!

"Congrats Lou! I'm happy for you, okay, now lets get going." I say pulling out some food from the fridge.

I actually feel happy about going to school, maybe it's that I see my lads again? Or maybe Cinder..

***

Cinder's POV*

I started to walk to school with my brothers, I was chatting to Pyro the whole way we walked. School is horrible for him, barely any friends, everyone picks on him. Like my life used to be..

I walk to the office with Pyro as Hunter and Gunner go to class, I walk up to Julie at the office an ask if I could have a word with the principle. After about five minutes of sitting outside his office he finally emerges from it.

"Hello, you are the Melody's aren't you? I've heard a lot about you." He says giving me a light smile, we've been his dealers for him a few times and he knows our brothers.

"Yes, its nice to see you again Ted, could we talk in your office?" I ask, he smiles and nods for us to go in.

I sit on the couch that was in his office, Pyro sat next to me. I watch as Ted walked over to his desk and sat down, he pulled out a few papers from his desk draw before he spoke.

"I know why you are here, it's about Pyro getting bullied isn't it? I see everything that goes on in the school Cinder, you know that. I remember when you used to get in trouble and sit in my office watching the security cameras, you caught a lot of bullies back then." He says leaning back in his chair looking at me.

I used to get in trouble a lot because I used to bash bullies and help other kids in trouble, the bullies kept reporting me so Ted put up cameras all around the school. He called me up one day and showed me all of it, he trusted me to sit in there for almost every second school day and watch to see who was ditching class and who was bullying people.

I still did school work, just not around students. He used to call me to the office all the time before classes because I got bullied, I loved sitting in the office and watching everything.

"Yes, and can I ask why you haven't done anything about it?" I say curious as to what he's going on about.

"Well, seeing as that your brother is year 8 I can't do the same thing you did, he is a very intelligent student. Pyro will have to take certain classes off to spend time with you, seeing as his grade from his last school are incredibly good if he can do all his assignments he will be allowed free periods." I look over to Pyro his face filled with happiness.

"He'll do it. And also could you allow him to come into some of the higher classes? He is an A+ Student? He told me that at his last school the work was too easy, maybe if you take him into my year level he will be doing better." I say, I feel Pyro hug my waist.

"Okay. If that will make him more comfortable, sure. He will have classes with you." Ted says standing from his desk and smiling. He hands me a few sheets of paper for me to sign and a few graduation letters that Pyro needs to sign for him to be in my classes, I sign the sheets and so does Pyro.

"And, before you leave, my next order." He says handing me a list of drugs and alcohol. Ahh, good old Ted.

****

I walk to my locker and put my books away, I walk down to the year 8 corridor to get Pyro when I see Louis go in there as well. I continue walking down the corridor till I see Pyro, I tap his shoulder causing him to flinch, he looks at me and smiles.

"Come on, let's go." I say pulling him along once he closes his locker.

We get to my table where the boys are waiting for me, I feel Pyro hold my hand as he walks behind me.

"Hey boys!" I shout, I look to see Lou is still missing.

"Hey Cinna, who's your friend?" Liam asks looking behind my back, I tell Pyro it's okay and he comes out from behind my back.

"Hey, I'm Pyro." He says waving.

"Hey Pyro, nice to meet you." Liam says, the others do the same.

"Where's Lou? I saw him heading to the year 8 corridor?" I ask confused, Niall looks at Liam for a moment before Liam speaks.

"Louis' sister has been having some.. troubles at the moment." He says, I don't ask anymore and leave it at that.

"I never knew he had a sister." I say surprised.

"Yeah, he has 5. All half-sisters. Charlotte or Lottie, as we call her, is the one he's gone to see." Harry said with a sad expression. I never knew that, surprising what you learn.

"So, how do you and Pyro know each other?" Liam asks, I look at Pyro for a second and smile.

"We're brother and sister." Pyro said, he's starting to get more confident around the boys and I'm glad of it. The boys start laughing at their stupidity of not knowing we where related.

We walk over and sit next to the boys on the table. I look at Niall who was fiddling with his fingers, hadn't said a word. I realise that he finds it a little awkward to talk to me at the moment, I'll just give it a while.

"Oh, by the way. Flames, this is Liam, Harry, Zayn and Niall. Louis is no where to be found at the moment." I says pointing out each of the boys.

"Nice to meet you all." He says with a smile. They all smile back and shake his hand as their greeting. I hear an announcement put over the loud speaker.

"Could Cinder please come to the office immediately." Ted said over the loud speaker.

"I have to go, can you guys look after Pyro for me?" I ask, all of them smile and nod as I run off. I rush to the office as fast as I can, passing people I know and some I hate.

I'm standing outside the conference room, I knock on the door and in seconds it opened. I stand there to see Ted.

"Hello again Cinder, I need your help on something.." He says letting me in the room, I look to see the conference table and two people sitting at it. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw one of the people was Louis! The other a little girl, must be Lottie.

"Now, this is Cinder." Ted says, I watch as Lou's head flicks up to look at me.

Why was he here? What am I here for?