The Bad Boy's Brothers

Chapter 1

Will's POV:

"Jace, can you please tell us the main reason that World War I started?" Ms. Port stopped in front of me and my best friend's desk. Jace slowly picked his head up and stared at Ms. Port.

"No," he stated, smirking.

"And why would that be Mr. Cowl? We just went over it, did we not?" Ms. Port looks down on him disapprovingly. Lucy, the nerdy teacher's pet nods up and down eagerly. I roll my eyes as she smirks.

"We did just go over it, Ms. Port. I know the answer, would you like me to share?" Lucy butts in with her sickening sweet tone that makes me want to throw up.

Ms. Port turns to address Lucy on the other side of the room, "Although I appreciate the offer, I did ask Jace here," she turns back to us, "Would you like to explain why you don't know the answer, Jace?"

"Cuz I was sleeping," Jace answers.

"Well maybe Will can help you out," Ms. Port turns to me, "Would you like to share the answer?" I shake my head no as Lucy calls out again.

"I know the answer, Ms. Port!" God, she is such an annoying bitch.

"Alright then, Lucy, what was the main cause of World War l?" Ms. Port asks with a sigh. She's a good person I guess. She tries her best to get me and Jace to understand what we're going over, but there's not much one can do to make the boring-ass curriculum of U.S. History interesting. Like, can we please stop with the propaganda already?

"The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on June 28, 1914," Lucy answers jolting me out of my thoughts. As I look up to the board I see that the answer was written there all along. Oh, well.

Just as I'm about to go back to sleep, the bell rings, signaling the end of the day. Yay. Time to go back to the house. As I get up I wince at the pain in my ribs. I knew they would hurt but not that much, I guess Adam felt a little more energetic last night as he was kicking them in.

I know it may seem worrying, but I'm used to it. I've 14 out of my 16 years in the foster care system, and I have no clue what the hell I did before I was two. Becky, my social worker says my mom died of a drug overdose though, so I'm assuming it wasn't that great.

Becky is an old woman who gives off the vibes that she has seen one too many bad things to be gentle and kind. She's all business-like and serious, but at least she doesn't try to tell me that I'll find a loving family and be adopted. The only time I've ever seen her break the steely attitude was after my 10th foster home.

When I was eight, my foster parents had broken my leg pushing me down the stairs then proceeded to lock me in a closet with no food or water until CPS found me a few days later. When she saw me on the hospital bed I saw everything inside her break. From that day on, I learned to suppress all my feelings and put up a front as the cliche "bad boy" so I never would do anything like that to anyone again.

After I turned 12, I learned the lesson that all teenagers in foster care learn, no one wants a teenager. People just want a small baby that they can baby-talk to and cradle. No one wants a teenager except people who decide you can take care of yourself and do it for the money. Which, in my opinion, is stupid, it's not even that much money and you have to live with a kid.

At 14, I got a big milestone. I got...arrested for the first time! I was only really disappointed that I had gotten caught. I was living in Marcheria, California and there was this huge abandoned creepy house at the edge. So, of course, me and my buddies decided to have a little fun and spray paint it. I was let off with a warning. Got arrested for the 3rd time, also at 14 but in Cateroga, I got arrested for being in a fight or "aggravated assault", whatever. After that, I was labeled as "dangerous". Another fun fact, people who don't want teenagers want teenagers with criminal records even less. Quelle surprise.

At 14 I also lived in my first group home. Whoo hoo! Just kidding. It was basically a prison, the owners/managers (I never know what to call them) were huge and intimidating. There were 12 kids in each room, three bunk beds on each side, and two dressers, we each got a drawer. A small drawer. I'm saying this like I had so much stuff I couldn't fit it in, but I basically have a couple shirts, some sweatpants, a sweatshirt, and my backpack so there was some room left over. That's kinda depressing I guess.

At 15, I got arrested for attempted murder. Bullshit. I was minding my business and this guy came out of nowhere and started harassing me for money. Like, bitch, does it look like I have money, I'm wearing a worn out hoodie and sweatpants. Some people don't know how to use their eyes. Anyway, after I said no, he punched out of nowhere and I'm not one to back out of a fight so I punched him back. It's not my fault the punch happened to land at a pressure point that could have left him dead or seriously injured. The judge didn't fully believe me, but I got off with 2 months in juvie and now I'm on probation.

And now I'm 16. I live with Adam and his other foster kid, Luca. In case you couldn't tell, Adam is an asshole and has been beating the shit out of me since I got there. I don't like it there, but if I leave then Luca will have no one to protect him. Luca's only 10 and he's the sweetest and most innocent kid I know. He's in foster care because his parents died in a car crash a few months ago. I'd carry the world on my shoulders so that kid wouldn't be crushed. I may be a little bit overprotective of him.

Another reason I'm not looking forward to going back to the house is that I'm meeting with my probation officer, Brad. If the name didn't tip you off, he's awful. He always smells like something died on him and is allegedly a former police officer. He usually comes every couple of months to "check in" or some shit. The thing I'm worried about is that I may have gotten a 2-day suspension from school a couple weeks ago and now Brad is going to bust my ass for it. And then when Brad leaves, Adam is going to accuse me of making him look bad and like he can't and I quote, "control a fucking lunatic," like me. So then I end up getting fucked up and I have to hide that from Luca and everyone at school, while being in immense physical pain.

To avoid the inevitable act of going to the house, and having the meeting, I decide to hang out with Jace. I know I don't need to go home to protect Luca because he does this after school program at this animal shelter, where he gets to learn to take care of the animals. It's pretty cool and I'm glad his school gives him the opportunity.

At 5:30, Luca's program is over, which means I need to pick him up and take him home, which means that I have to go home, which means that I have to meet with Brad, you get where I'm going. To say the least, I am not looking forward to this. I say bye to Jace and start walking toward the shelter.

A/N:

This is my first story I'm publishing. Let me know what you think.