Chapter Two - Leah

“Leah, I’m in deep trouble!” my twin brother yelled slamming my bedroom door open.

“Oh yeah, what’s new Morgan?” I swirl around in my chair to face him, “Please knock next time, I could’ve been changing.”

Living with three brothers is a nightmare, especially when you’re the only girl and the youngest by three minutes. My bedroom is my only private space.

“Leah I’m serious this time!” he looked over his shoulder and closed the door, “The cops caught me for vandalism again and I need my record wiped.”

I give my male counterpart a disapproving look. We stare into each others eyes until the silvery blue iris seems to swirl. He breaks contact first and goes to sit on my bed.

“You know, instead of making me do something highly illegal,” I cross my arms over my chest, “you could just stop vandalizing.”

He rolls his eyes, “Can you do it or not?”

“Of course I can,” I spin around to face my computer, “I just need to break through a few tough firewalls, retrieve an officer’s account info, clear your record, and erase the user data.”

I open my VPN and set it to Australia, and begin the process. Morgan watches from my bed knowing full well I like my space when I work. His eyes wide and jaw almost hitting the floor.

“You’ve got to teach me how to do this,” Morgan announces.

“No way!” I say quickly, “If I teach you how you’ll mess something up and get us all arrested, or you’ll be irresponsible about it.”

Suddenly an alert pops up on the computer. The VPN was disconnected. I shoot up in my chair.

“Shit!” I exclaim tapping the keyboard ferociously.

“What? What happened?” Morgan yells over my shoulder, staring at the screen.

After five minutes I override the command and turn my VPN back on. I look at the screen, shaking viciously and reaching for my backpack.

“We have to leave, get Aaron and Lukas tell them to pack up everything into the car,” I say packing my laptop into my backpack.

“What? Leah, what happened?” Morgan asks as I move to my closet and pull out my suitcase.

“They police have our location,” I say as I throw all my clothes into the suitcase.

I hear my door open and close and Morgan’s heavy footsteps thump down the hall of our two bedroom apartment.

No one in the family can get caught by the police. Lukas and Aaron are both currently wanted by the police for drug trafficking, and auto theft and Morgan just got off parole. Child services doesn’t need another reason to split up this family.

The entire family is in a frenzy running up and down the hallway and making trips to the car with handfuls of luggage. Just as we are wiping off all the surfaces and vacuuming the floors there is a knock at the door. Aaron, being the oldest slowly moves towards the door, smoothing down his dark brown hair, and straightening his shirt.

He grabs the doorknob and opens the door slightly blocking the visitor from seeing the barren apartment.

“Hello?” he asks politely, “How can I help you?”

“Aaron Sullivan?” a feminine voice chimes in the hallway, “My name is Ayanna LaRose-Stelcarve, and unless you want to go to prison along with your other brothers and sister I suggest you let me in.”

My brother stand there for a moment before stepping aside. Everything about this woman was small, her stature, face, and nose. Her eyes were big and blue; her hair was as silver as moonlight on the water. She was stunning.

“Who are you and what do you want?” I snarl.

“We want you four to come move to Victory High and become part of the VMSA,” she demands her chin high, “or we will turn you over to the police who should be here in about thirty seconds.”

I grab Morgan’s hand and press close to him for comfort.

“Why do you want us?” Lukas asks walking out of his bedroom with a duffel bag, “Why should we trust you at all?”

“Honestly the one we really want is Leah,” Ayanna gestures towards me, “but we understand the importance of family.”

“Top notch education, a place to live, and a pardon of all your past crimes, in exchange all you have to do is join our academy,” she extends her hand towards Aaron, “do we have a deal?”

Aaron looks over at Lukas and then Morgan and finally me. I play with the turquoise ends of my black hair. I watch intently as Aaron reaches out and shakes Ayanna’s hand.

As he does I feel my right leg lock up then crumple underneath me.

“Shit!” I yell as I fall to the floor with a thump.

Luckily I was on carpet, a dull ache washes over my right side from my waist to my shoulder.

“Leah!” Morgan exclaims, “Are you okay?”

I feel Morgan’s hands wrap under my arms and pull me into a sitting position. I wince and look up to see everyone staring at me with concern etched on their faces. My cheeks heat up and I roll up the pant leg on my sweatpants to reveal a robotic leg brace.

I tap the thin tight fit panel on the outside of my thigh and a no battery symbol shows up on the small screen.

“My brace died,” I sigh, defeated.

“Hey don’t worry about it,” I hear Lukas say as he hands off his bag to Morgan, “I’ll give you a lift little sis!”

Lukas wraps one arm around my back and the other under my knees and grunts as he lifts me from the floor. I wrap my arms around his neck and bury my head in his neck, absolutely embarrassed.

“Lukas and Leah can ride in the car downstairs,” Ayanna states as she leads us out the door of the apartment, “Aaron and Morgan will take the car with all of your belongings and follow us to the school.”

Lukas set me down inside a sleek black car, that looked like something straight out of a spy movie, and sat down beside me.

“Lukas, I’m kind of, totally freaking out over here!” I say to him.

“You and me both sister,” he replied wrapping his arm around my shoulders, “you and me both.”

I looked back behind us to see the place we called home fade into the distance, and all I could think was, we are never going to see it again.

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