Adopted by the Kingdom Keepers

Chapter One

It's a casual Friday night. The entire Keeper family was comfortably sprawled around their very large living room. The Whitman's also known as Amanda and Finn, were on the floor next to the couch. Amanda's sister Jess Lockhart was on that couch to be close to her sister. Next to Jess on the other side sat Philby and Willa. On the opposite side of the room there were a a few beanbag chairs which were occupied by Maybeck and Charlene. And of course dozing off on his leather chair was the man himself. Wayne Kresky. It's Friday, which means the young adults had some patrols tonight around the parks. Everyone had a napkin and a paper plate of meat lovers pizza on their laps, because who wants to cook before possibly getting murdered by a singing doll in a cultural ensemble, or getting burned by singing and dancing pirate?

"Do we have to watch family feud?" Maybeck said. Yes, his mouth was full of pizza. "Yep. I found out it's a great bonding experience! We'll be able to work together and get to know each other as a team. So please shush and pay attention!" Finn replied. Leader mode had been activated and won't be shut off for a while. "Finn, we've known each other since middle school. And we've been living together for like ten months. We can go a week without Family Feud." Philby said. Yes, he can still hear the conversation through his earbuds.

"Nope. It's Friday which means family bonding time. Now shush!" Finn was fully prepared to defend his precious Family Feud. Even if Maybeck blurting out the answers when it's not his turn and Jess saying she knew the answers because she dreamt it gets annoying sometimes. Don't even get him started on Willa and Philby. Those two are like evil geniuses when it comes to game night. But Family is Family and he loves them.

The them song began and the games had begun. After many many wins from the Wilby team, Charlene doing a victory cartwheel after getting a right answer, and a few colorful words from Maybeck, it was finally nine o'clock.

Amanda glances over at her sister. All she did was give her a "say what you want to say or I will" look. Jess looked back at her, but with a sense of fear in her eyes. As if the others wouldn't exactly love what she wanted to say. Amanda gave her a short and stern nod. Jess knew now was it. The game was over and everyone was just enjoying their pizza. Now was the time.

"Guys? Can I ask you a weird question?" Jess said. Her voice trembling a bit, which never happened. Jess never gets nervous. Finn looked up at her from his spot on the floor. "Sure. What's up?" He asked. The others could sense she wanted to talk and gave her their full attention. "Well...I've been thinking lately" Jess said looking down at her hands. "Well thinking is a natural human ability." Maybeck quipped. Amanda glared at him.

"I've been thinking about us. About our family. And well, what if we...expanded it?" Jess asked. The room fell dead silent. You know when you're on a Disney ride and it breaks down and you're just sitting there silently waiting for the ride to start back up again? It was kind of like that. "What do you mean?" Finn asked. Everyone but Jess and Amanda looked confused.

"Like...get a fish? That'd be expanding the family. Fish are nice." Finn said, he's still confused. Amanda decided to chip in and help her sister. "No. Jess and I are orphans. We know what it's like to be a kid with no home. So we thought why not give one of those kids a home?" Amanda looked at Jess who took a breath in. "What if we...adopted? All of us."

Time seemed to slow down. Maybeck choked on his soda. Philby had his mouth open and the slice of pizza was literally an inch away from his teeth. Finn just sat there and stared. Charlene had her mouth open and a hand on her heart, like she was in some dramatic soap opera. Willa sat there in her spot and looked..thoughtful?

"Well? Anyone gonna say anything?" Jess said, her voice screamed anticipation. "What do you want us to say?" Finn replied. He brought the pizza to Philby's mouth so it wouldn't go all over his lap and gave Maybeck a napkin. "All of us would work together and raise a Keeper kid. We could do it! And we all know it'd be the most loved child ever." Amanda said.

"That's true, but the thing is. We're Keepers. We're always crossing over and threatening our lives. Are you sure you want to do this Jess?" Finn spoke directly to the young girl who only wanted to provide whatever she could to a child in need of a mother, father, and a family. But in this case, it would be the biggest family on earth, four mothers, and three fathers.

Jess spoke after a few minutes of silence. "Yes. All I want to do is not let some poor child in the world suffer like we did, or not be able to feel the love of a family, or leave them without hope, or let them continue to grow up without knowing what to believe or how to believe."

"Well, its about time you had this talk!" Wayne said from his chair, scaring the living daylights out of the keepers. "Can I be the grandfather?" He asked excitedly, the gleam in his eye that made his child like soul come out.

"Yes." All seven keepers responded at the same time.

"YIPPEE!" The man cheered, while waving his arms around in the air like he just didn't care.

"Jess, what kind of child do you want to adopt?" Willa asked, turning the conversation back away from the newly told grandfather.

"A newborn girl." She replied. "I'm still thinking of a name."

"Alrighty," Finn said, clapping his hands together. "Looks like we have a new project on our hands. But first, THE ANSWER TO THAT IS SPIDER MONKEY."

"This should be fun." Amanda said, turning to her sister, who simply chuckled and shook her head.