Him For Her.

His Family.

The last bell rang out at exactly ten minutes after 3:00 PM. And of course, as soon as the bell went off, I walked out without a second thought. School had never really been my thing, I didn't have football practice so early into the year,  and I have never believed in lingering in places where I don't feel I fit. As soon as I got out to the parking lot, I found my truck in its usual space, and I disappeared the first chance I had. I got on the road and spent my time trying to keep my sanity intact while maneuvering through the after class traffic as best I could.

 Once the road fizzled of its messy company, I made my way across town from school, all the way in the direction of my house. And while the only thing I wanted to do after returning to school was go home and die until again I would awake in hell... I still had to pick up my brother from his elementary school. Luckily, his school was no more than a ten minute walk from our house, so the drive would never be a strenuous one. The real trouble with my brother's school was trafficking through his education faculty. With the craziness of escaping my school parking alive and the traffic that dwell afterwards, by the time I had pulled in to get Dominic it was already 3:43 PM. I was late to take him home.

After I pick him up, we drive the full mile to get home together in what is mostly silence. By the time we get home, its after 4 pm. During which time, Dominic goes straight to his homework, and I have chores. The home we live in is a two story, middle class town house, built in the 70's. Its an old house, but its home to me and my brother. Which is good for Dominic, especially. He hadn't had a place to call home before this one. He spent nearly his whole life in the system and I spent a good bit of mine as well. We got adopted about a year and a half ago and our lives literally went from 'rags to riches.'

For a couple hours after school, Dominic and I rule the house as our own. Until about 6-7 pm when our mother comes home from work... Katelyn. At this time in the evening, Dominic and I are either finishing homework at the kitchen table or playing Dominic's favorite board game; Checkers. And, every time Katelyn shuffles herself inside in the same way. Bags in her hands from work or the grocery store, phone in her hand and bud in her ear,  meeting her busy eyes to the pair of us, and signing the words "How was school?" to Dominic, mostly, but at the same time I reply in the way that Dominic always does; a simple yet effective sideways smile and nod.

Katelyn is the woman who adopted us along with her husband. It was her idea to adopt and her persistence which brought us a home. My adoptive father, Raymond Remington worked as a business man, he spent his life working hard enough, so he could get himself to where he is now; owning a bunch of those fancy car buying places in random cities all over the country. He also owns a mechanic garage here in town. I have been working there for him part time for almost a full year.

After Katelyn gets off the phone, she makes dinner for the three of us to eat together, like she does every night. She insists that eating together as a family is a very important thing, I have never argued it, but sometimes I feel bad for her. Raymond normally doesn't make it home until late and her two sons are nearly terrible at keeping good dinner conversations. Yet, she seems to stay pretty optimistic about our company, so I try to stay connected during dinners to keep her happy. After dinner finishes up and the dishes have all been washed. I go off to my room to play my PS4. I play Call of duty: Black Ops 2. I dominate at shooting games. Mostly, I play multiplayer with my best friend, Dennis, and a few others. They are all good players and even better targets. Sometimes, they accuse me of cheating, but I wouldn't need to with them.

Dominic goes to bed around 9 pm and then my father comes home from work. My father is and has always been one of the best people I know. He's a great role model to my brother and to me. He's kind, generous, and somehow incredibly humble for as wealthy of a man as he is. Raymond has been the only father figure in my entire life that I have actually looked up to. In the eight years of foster care I had been a part of, I had been in six different houses, and each one had a man that was nothing close to what a man should be. It wasn't until Katelyn had found us that we actually had a real safe place to sleep.

Raymond does know this about us, but he doesn't share the information with anyone. Of course he knows, he probably made sure to check out every detail about both me, and my brother before we dared to step into his house. It was a caution that I understood maybe even more than he would. If it were me, I'd do the same thing, especially if it were for the protection of my family. I just hope he and Katelyn know how much they mean to me and my brother. 

When my father gets home, he and Katelyn sit in at the bar counter in the kitchen, and talk about stuff. I never know what because I stopped listening after they signed the final paper to adopt us. After that, I haven't had a reason to worry about them considering to send us to another home, so their conversations can remain private. I just hope they stay happy, I really don't want to see anything happen to my family, like what happened with Dennis's after his parents split up. 

Around 11 pm, I got a text from Dennis. He asked if I could remember the name of the disorder that the girl in class had told us about. While I tried hard to think of the name, I realized I couldn't remember it anymore than he did. It was something like geno? Andy? Or maybe AndyGeno? It was definitely something odd like that, but I'm sure that what I guessed was not it. I told him I forgot, but that didn't stop his mind from wandering. That was how Dennis at all times. He was Intelligent, curious, and a poor sport when losing. But, he valued knowledge and always wanted to know things in full detail until there was nothing left to learn about it.

Dennis and I continued to talk about it all for a little while; the disorder, the girl, and how it works. He wanted to look it up, read about it, but he couldn't remember the name of it. He tried to look up the symptoms, but he couldn't find anything. The two of us talked a bit more about it until I soon noticed it was nearly 1 am. That's when I told Dennis that I was going to go to bed. Like always, we both agreed by means of a casual, okay. I plugged my phone into the charger, got into bed, and fell asleep almost instantly. I fell asleep to the slightest bit of fascination with the girl that held this odd dysfunctional setback. I couldn't understand how I became so interested, it seemed too quick, and so I blamed Dennis for sticking it into my head in the first place.