The Beginning

The Lances went away happily with Jonathan... and the money. Excited to move out of their apartment, they bought a house, car, and finished paying off their first car with the money they received from Slyvikia. Once they had achieved this, they began to raise Jonathan. They loved him like a son. 

One day when Jonathan was two years old, Jenifer had grown very large and went to the hospital. When she came home she was much smaller and she brought a beautiful baby girl, Synthia, with her. Jonathan suddenly became unimportant to the young family and spent most of his life at either day care or in his crib all alone. Two more years went by and another little sister, Myra, entered the family. Finally Diana arrived and Jonathan had three little sisters by the time he was five. 

He was larger than most of the students at Silicone Elementary, but that didn't stop him from being targeted by Jackie and Jared, the school bitch and the school bitches soul mate. By the time he entered Silicone Middle he had found a social group he belonged in.

•       •      •

*Thwack* Jonathan immediately tensed when he woke, preparing for Synthia's morning routine. "Get up!" Synthia enjoyed hurting her brother. After she hit him a couple more times, she unlocked his cage on the roof, hosed him off and threw some old tattered clothes at him. Satisfied with her work, she stormed downstairs to eat breakfast. 

With his back aching, he dried off as best he could without a towel and shivered fiercely while he slipped into the clothes she gave him. With winter approaching the nights got much colder and with no blanket or bedding Jonathan wondered if they would let him freeze in the frigid night air. He hoped they would let him in the house like last year, but they had been progressively treating him worse and worse as the time passed. 

He waited as long as possible to go downstairs, knowing his hunger would lessen his self control. No matter how much they had, there was never enough food for the Lance family to give Jonathan anymore than the scraps from each meal and when they were in a bad mood nothing was left for him at all. 

His youngest sister Diana had been on a sleepover at her friends house all weekend so she couldn't sneak food up to him like she normally did. When she got home she was so tired that she forgot to smuggle a blanket for him. 

He snuck downstairs as quiet as a mouse but Myra still heard him. "Oh Jonathan, the sausage is so hard to cut through, could you please help me." He hated it when she mocked him but Jonathan knew he didn't have a choice so he silently went over to cut her sausage.

Sausage, the magnificent smell hung in the air around Jonathan so strongly that he could taste the sausage when he breathed. He was famished, he would've given anything for even the tiniest bite.

Once he finished, Jonathan began to walk out of the room towards the front door but Myra wasn't done. "Jonathan," he dare not move a step further for he knew the punishment for disobeying his sisters. "Jonathan, my arms are so very tired, it seems I am unable to even lift my fork." Humiliated, Jonathan returned to her, raised her fork and began to feed her. 

Myra held the last piece of her breakfast in-between her lips and started to lead toward him, grabbing his wrist when he tried to pull away. He was much stronger than her, but he was not stronger than his father. "Want some?" Myra offered him her food. He did want some. He wanted it very much. He knew what would happen if he took it. She would start screaming and crying like she always did, accusing him of trying to kiss her. He was her brother! 

Was it worth it? Jonathan didn't have time to decide. Diana dropped her plate as she was getting up from the table. "Jonathan, clean it up!" She barked as harshly as she could make it sound. "Eat it off the floor you wild animal!" She wasn't very good with insults since she was such a kind and pure-hearted person, but the rest of the Lance family assumed she was trying and didn't interject. 

As he kneeled down to gather the dish and scrape up the food he caught a glimpse of her tiny gentle smile apologizing for forgetting to feed him and letting him know she dropped her breakfast on purpose so he would have something to eat. For a split second he returned a thank you smile but quickly let it dissolve so that his family wouldn't catch on.

After he cleared the table and began washing the dishes, Diana entered the kitchen. "Hey Jon, you okay?" 

Jonathan smiled at her words, if she hadn't been taking care of him, he surely wouldn't have made it this far in his life. "I'm fine, a little cold, but because you gave me your hot breakfast I'm feeling much better." 

Diana watched him working, noticing how much effort he put into his task. "That's good... I was thinking, I know you are afraid of water, but I think if you took a shower you would feel a lot better." 

"No no, I'm okay, really. It's fine. Besides you know nobody else will let me, you'll get in trouble if you try." Jonathan dropped a glass while talking, his hands shaking ever so slightly. 

Diana shook her head, "I go through all this work to take care of you, but you still don't trust me."

"That's not true, I do trust you." Jonathan argued.

Diana tried to look him in the eyes, but Jonathan knew if he made eye contact with her, he would end up in the shower. "Then what's the problem?"

"Myra and Synthia will never let it happen, you know mom and dad will be on their side," he pointed out. 

"They are all leaving tonight, it's the perfect opportunity." Diana wouldn't let it go.

"Diana, you know I want to make you happy, but it's Tuesday. Austin almost always invites us to a sleepover on Tuesdays." 

Diana frowned, "Okay, but if you don't go on a sleepover you're taking a shower."

"As long as it makes you happy, I'll do it," he surrendered.

When he finished cleaning the dishes they went to school. He was put in the trunk with all the school bags but he was still thankful because it was much better than walking in the cold. 

Silicone Middle was a strange school that was often made fun of for two reasons. The first reason was that it is not just a middle school, it is also a high school and the second reason is the teaching method. Instead of having a teacher for each subject that the students took turns learning from throughout the day, there was one teacher for each group of thirty or so students, who much like in elementary school, taught all subjects.

The car arrived at school and since Diana was the one opening the trunk Jonathan managed to get out safely. He walked ahead of his sisters to avoid getting caught in their boy crazy friend group. Since he was tall and handsome, he was just their type. His wet brown hair glistened in the sunshine, his warm coffee eyes relaxing when he saw his friends' cars.

Jonathan, even in old worn-out clothes, caught the attention of many girls with his looks. Unfortunately for him those girls were easily driven away by his sisters and he was completely unaware that anyone desired his presence. 

Jonathan met up with his friends right outside of the school building.

"Jon!" A hard slap on the back meant Daniel had arrived. "You're lucky. Today I'm on lunch duty!" Daniel grinned, his dark eyes shining with excitement, eager for feedback on his cooking. His short black hair cloaked his forehead covering his eyes. Daniel's enthusiastic attitude made Jonathan forget about his weekend all but entirely. 

"Hey Michael, what's up?" Jonathan could tell Michael had more information on his new video game: My Sister's Boyfriend's Mother-In-Law's Ex or MSBME for short. 

"MSBME has a choose-your-own-adventure mode. You can do any combination!"

"How about we become romantic gunfighters?" Jonathan started laughing. 

"Sure! We'd have to mod it up a little, but it's definitely possible!" Michael's enthusiasm for video games, anime, and manga was limitless. 

*Ding ding ding* Everyone rushed to their rooms as the school bell rung. In every class the last person to get in received a late penalty and was forced to clean up after school. 

Jonathan took a seat, noticing a puff of brown hair bouncing in front of him. "Austin, your hair looks like a haystack after a hurricane. It's kinda cute." He teased. The tallest boy in school was exhausted from playing video games all night. "Laugh all you want, there's nothing I can do about it." He paused to release a yawn, "As soon as my brush found out I was intimate with my pillow, she dumped me." 

"Attention please." Mr. Vaguoa called the class to order. Mr. Vaguoa was small and young-looking so he wore a suit to work to avoid being perceived as a student. "We have five new students visiting our class for a few weeks." Everyone stood as two boys entered the room. 

The one in front was smaller than the other, but he smiled with much more confidence. His hair was so blond it almost hurt Jonathan to look at and his dark eyes stood out on his light skin. His formal black jacket and pants complemented his inquisitive eyes. 

The other was several inches taller than the first with a matching uniform carefully tracing his biceps. His black hair formed sharp bangs featuring three streaks of white and he wore a black scar from the top of his left ear cutting through his cheek, resting on his desert brown chin. 

"Please introduce yourselves, then you may sit in any unoccupied seat."

"I'm Tsuyosa and this is Suji." Tsuyosa's confident smile remained as the boys bowed and slipped into the mostly empty back row sitting next to each other. 

As they took their seats two girls entered the room in skirts and cute black vests with white lines connecting the second button to their shoulders. 

"I'm Aika." Her flaming red eyes warned against causing her trouble and Aika's straight crimson hair grazed her shoulders.

"I'm Akira." Akira's brown hair fell past her shoulders in large but soft waves and her green eyes shone bright as a star. 

"At your service!" They both exclaimed at once. After bowing they skipped over to Tsuyosa and Suji filling the remaining seats in the back row. Once everyone had sat back down the students took advantage of their last chance to chatter before class started. Mr. Vaguoa began to write on the whiteboard, he always wrote everything down first, then explained it. 

The door opened one last time. Everyone fell silent as a beautiful girl entered the room. Her long blond hair flowed past her waist and golden blue eyes reminded Jonathan of the sandy beaches he has only seen in his dreams. She wore a similar skirt and vest to the other girls but instead of white, she had gold and blue. She wore a gold clip with a ruby moon on one end holding a piece of her hair back. 

She gracefully made her way to the front on the room. When she arrived at her desired destination, she stared at each individual person in the room one by one. Jonathan was in the middle of the class but she looked at him last. He felt like her gaze was upon him the longest, fearing she could see right through him. The emotionless expression she wore dissolved when she looked at Jonathan, replaced with curiosity. 

"Greetings, I am Aoi Tsuki. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." Aoi announced to the class with a curtsy. She had the most beautiful voice Jonathan had ever heard in his entire life. There were only two open seats, one on each side of the room. She could sit next to Jonathan or she could sit next to Jared. 

Jonathan smiled at her hoping she would see it as an indirect invitation to sit at the desk beside his. Then Jared whistled at her in a way most girls at our school would recognize as a get-over-here-right-now-before-I-beat-you-up whistle but she just cocked her head to the side and sat by me. 

"Teacher, make her sit by me." Jared hated disobedient people, when he didn't get his way he did his best to make everyone around him suffer as much as possible. 

All five of the new students tensed for at their school such bold and disrespectful behavior of that nature towards teachers was severely punished. Sometimes with expulsion. 

Mr. Vaguoa sighed and opened his mouth to speak but before any words exited his lips Suji's hand leaped into the air. 

"I would like to request permission to assist this boy in his journey to master the art of respecting his elders." 

Mr. Vaguoa was caught off guard by Suji's formal tone and choice of words. "Permission granted, do what you must." 

Suji silently rose from his seat and walked over to Jared, who stood up and not wanting waste any time by not admiring Jackie's scandalous outfit, instantly threw a unrestrained punch at Suji. Tsuyosa whispered something to Akira and Aika and then all began to laugh quietly.

Suji didn't dodge, although he could've if he wanted to, instead he just stood there, his entire body seeming relaxed and waited for Jared's fist to make contact with his face. When Jared's knuckled finally did collide, the sound of shattering bones filled the room. Jared smugly thought about how horrible for Suji it would be to get his face repaired and couldn't wait to see Suji return to school with his head all bandaged up. 

It was then that he realized Suji's nose wasn't broken, it wasn't even bleeding. Confusion swept over Jared, his hand was numb? He looked down at his hand and was horrified. Every bone in his right hand, from his wrist to his fingertips was completely shattered. 

"Mr. Vaguoa, I believe an ambulance would be advised, let me know if you have any more trouble from him." And with that Suji sat down. 

Jonathan was astonished. He had taken many punches from Jared himself and thought surviving them was impossible. 

Aoi's desk was very close to Jonathan's and although he was capable of keeping his eyes off her, he was very unsuccessful when trying keeping his mind off her. He deeply desired to hear her voice again. 

An ambulance did come, along with the police and Jared's parents, to escort Jared to the hospital. Furious they demanded to know who did such a thing. Suji was on the verge of being arrested but Aoi stepped in and calmed everyone down bringing light to the fact that Suji was underaged and providing the police officer with his guardian's phone number to discuss an appropriate punishment after school had ended. 

*Ding ding ding* 

The lunch bell finally rang. "Have a good break and remember: your summaries must be turned in before the end of lunch." Mr. Vaguoa excused the class and all the students began to clear their desks and grab their lunch bags before going outside to eat. 

Aoi walked over to Tsuyosa, Suji, Aika and Akira who were already in a group. After a lengthy debate Aoi walked over to Jonathan who was packing his backpack. "Do you mind if we join you for lunch?" 

Jonathan froze. She's standing right behind me. Her voice is so pretty. What did she said? Did she ask me something? She's gorgeous. Oh right she asked me about lunch. He thought. 

"Uh, sure. We usually eat at the top of the hill at the bottom of the oak tree." Jonathan hoped he said the right thing, what if she asked something else entirely. 

He prepared for the humiliation her response would cast upon him but she simply replied, "Okay we will head over there in a couple minutes." Then Aoi walked away.

Phew!  The relief of a successful conversation gave Jonathan the courage to tell his friends that he just invited a girl to sit with them. 

They started walking over to their usual spot. Jonathan saw a silver backpack and assumed Aoi had already gone up with her friends. 

"Hi!" Jonathan didn't remember seeing Aika while walking but suddenly she was there. 

"Where is everyone else?" Austin's deep voice surprised Aika. 

"Right behind you." Tsuyosa interjected.

"Wait," Jonathan thought aloud, "If you all are here, then who is in our spot?" 

They got to the top of the hill and started walking around the tree. Jonathan stopped dead in his tracks. Sitting on the ground in front of him was Jackie and beside her were his two most despised little sisters. Myra and Synthia smiled sweetly up at him.