Chapter 2

I was amazed at how much he'd grown. His hair was dirty blonde now, and he stood at least six feet tall. He was skinny, and his golden hair was relatively long, but overall he appeared to be healthy. He turned and looked at me with wide eyes.

"Sophrona?" He said as he slowly approached me. I nodded and gave him a bright smile. We hugged each other but were separated almost instantly.

"No touching," the guard holding Cahal stated flatly. The two guards guided us down hallway after hallway.

All my life, the only family I've ever known was Dana, Arthur, and Cahal Blakely. I was found on their doorstep sixteen years ago, on May 14, 2054. It was a warm evening, or so I'm told, and the sun was setting when Arthur found me after he arrived home from work. He looked to see if there was a note of some kind that would explain why I was there, but there was no note to be found. So, he gently scooped me into his arms and brought me into their lovely home. It was a small house with four bedrooms and one bathroom, but it was home to them. They welcomed me with open arms and cared for me. Dana and Arthur taught me how to read, write, as well as basic mathematics until it was time for me to go to elementary.

Cahal and I were inseparable from that moment on. We would play football, basketball, and other sports and games together, no matter the weather. He would always win, of course, but I didn't care because I was spending time with him. The two of us also learned self-defense from our father when I was about ten years old when he wasn't working, of course.

As time went on, we formed an unbreakable bond. He would also comfort me when I had nightmares and chase away anyone who bullied me, and I would do the same for him. Then came his eighth-grade graduation. I was devastated that he was graduating because that meant that I had to face my bullies alone, and that terrified me.

After he left middle school, I became what some adults would consider being a "troubled child." It was hard for me to adjust the following year. I had only a handful of friends since I wasn't exactly the most social individual. I had some friends, but sometimes I didn't feel like I could count on them. It was that year, my seventh-grade year, that I realized that some of the people I thought were my friends were just talking about me behind my back. I didn't appreciate that, so I decided to confront them about it and boy was my mom angry with me that day.

It happened on September 22, 2067. It was the day after the first day of fall. You could tell that summer was still around because it was still warm out. I was walking through the halls of Springfield Middle School on my way to my math class that I had in five minutes. As I was walking down the hall, I walked passed my so-called "friends" when I just so happened to hear one of them say, "Sophrona is such a loser. I mean, she isn't even really a part of the Blakely family."

I recognized the voice as Alicia Collins. At first, I chose to ignore her words because I didn't see the point of starting anything, but then she decided to say, "I can see why her parents didn't want her."

And that's all it took for me to ball my fists. I could understand if we were still in elementary school, and Alicia pulled this move, which she did, but we're in middle school, and it's time that she grew up a bit.

"Geez," I said, "I thought we were in middle school, not elementary."

All she did was glare at me before saying, "No wonder your brother graduated last year, I would have too if I was related to you." Her face had triumph written all over it, and I was determined to wipe it clean off her face.

"You know, I was just going to tell you to keep your opinions to yourselves," I said darkly, "But now you just pissed me off!" And with that, I spun around and gave her a hard jab to the face. I'm pretty sure that I broke her nose because as soon as my fist came in contact with her face, I heard a crack just before she cried out in pain.

"Don't you ever say that about mine and my brother's relationship!" I screamed at her before I was taken to the principal's office.

When my mother arrived, she was furious, whereas Cahal was restraining himself from laughing hysterically. It was the first fight I had ever been in, Granted I probably should have waited until Alicia, or one of her slaves threw a punch first, that way I could claim that I punched her out of self-defense, but what's done is done.

"Do you think dad is going to be just as angry as mom is?" I asked Cahal quietly as our mom spoke to the principal about my punishment.

"He's probably going to be disappointed because you started the fight, but I doubt he'll yell at you," he answered with a reassuring smile. I nodded and crossed my fingers, hoping that I wasn't going to die of fright later on.

I ended up getting suspended for three days, and that night my dad ended up doing precisely what Cahal said he would. Which irritated our mother, but he didn't care. Instead, he moved his long, fair fingers through his short, brown hair and sighed before going upstairs to his bedroom. My mother, on the other hand, grounded me for a week that year, which would be the same week where Cahal and I were given away to the government.