Because.

“Addi!”

“Yes, Leanne...” I replied in a tired voice.

“Are you okay? I’ve been trying to get your attention for 5 minutes straight!” she asked worriedly.

“I’m okay... it’s just.... y’know my parents divorced last year, right? Well, I’m still thinking about that.... I have no idea what will happen to my family...” I heaved a sigh.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, cheer up!” Ellie comforted me.

“Yeah..” I put on a fake smile and we moved on to another topic.

“You know, once school reopens on Monday after the weekend, we won’t get to chat as much as we do now, because of classes... why isn’t winter break coming soon?” Ellie frowned.

“Speaking of school, the other day, I heard Jaxon and Jace got into a fight with someone when he bumped into them while running in the halls. Like the person kept saying sorry already! Why couldn’t they just be nice?” Leanne said.

I snorted, “They will never be nice, they even think they own the school, not just them, but their other 5 brothers as well....I mean they probably do own it...”

“Also,” Ellie lowered her volume, “I heard from somewhere that they’re from ‘The Wolves’, but that is ridiculous... they wouldn’t let gang information break out that easily!”

“But ‘The Wolves’ is dumber than we thought...” I snickered before they start to giggle too.

“It’s getting late, you two should go home, your parents will be worried..” I reminded them.

“You’re right, we’ll call you tomorrow, bye!” They chorused and left.

~

Out of the blue, Mom asked me nervously, “Addison...would it be okay if I had a boyfriend?”

I let my spoon clatter onto my plate. “S-sure! As Long as you’re happy, I don’t mind!“Standing up, I hugged my mother tightly.

“Thank you, sweetie!” She smiled and we continued eating dinner. “Also... could we move into my boyfriend’s house tomorrow? He is very rich and has a huge house, and he asked us to move in... are you okay with that?”

“I still go to the same school, right?”

I don’t mind as long as I still get to see my friends... this house has so many bad memories for me..

“Of course!” She reassured me.

~

The next day, I lugged all of my things out of the car and onto the sidewalk. Looking up, I gasped. In front of me was a mansion that looked gigantic! How rich is this guy?

“Addison, my boyfriend, Mr. Kim. Honey, this is my daughter, Addison.” Mom said.

“Hello, Mr Kim,” I bow and tried my best to be polite.

“Hello, Addison. It is so great to finally meet you! However, I promised to take your mom out to a movie, can we get to know each other more later on?” He smiled. I nodded.

“Great! Well, you can explore the house now..”

More like a mansion.

“... my sons would be home tomorrow afternoon, they went somewhere and are going to go straight to school tomorrow. Then, I can introduce you to them! After all, they are going to be your stepbrothers!” Mr Kim continued.

“What?!” I nearly screamed. Mom didn’t tell me this!!

“We... are going to be married...” Mom said slowly.

“Sorry, but Mom, don’t you think this is too early to get married?”

“Well....” Mom answered sheepishly, “He has been my boyfriend for around 8 months...”

“And you didn’t tell me?! By the way, 8 months is so short!”

“Now, now... let’s all calm down and take a deep breath...” Mr Kim coaxed.

I took deep breaths as he instructed. Wait.. why is this such a big deal for me? Shouldn’t I be glad that Mom is happy? She deserves this happiness after raising me single-handedly after the divorce..... I shut my eyes tightly while thinking.

“You know what...alright, Mom...” I sighed.

“You agree with my marriage?” Mom seemed shocked.

“I think you deserve whatever happiness you get, Mom,” I replied.

“Thank you, sweetie...”

~

I was shown to my room where I set down my things. It was a large bedroom, with a bathroom inside. The walls were painted white and there was a dresser coloured black with streaks of gold at the corner. The whole old apartment could fit into this room!

Tired from all the unexpected surprises, I lay on the bed. Looks like I would have to spend the afternoon unpacking...

~

The next day, I ate my breakfast and Mr Kim offered to drive me to school.

“After today, my sons could drop you at school every morning,” he said.

I nodded my head. Should I address him as Mr Kim or Dad? Mr Kim for now, I guess... The car screeched to a halt at the destination. “Bye, Mr Kim!” I get out of the car and shut the door.

At school, the first person I saw at the school gate was Leanne.

“Hey Addison!”

“Hey, Leanne...”

“What happened? You look like you didn’t sleep at all!” Leanne exclaimed, worry covering her face.

“That’s because I didn’t... I’ll tell the group at lunch...”

~

“That’s...” Ruby trailed off.

All of them looked shocked.

“I honestly have no idea how I should feel... I know Mom deserves everything in the world that makes her happy, but... I don’t know about this... Firstly, I’m going to have stepbrothers. Stepbrothers! That’s terrible! Secondly, what if my stepdad ends up hurting my mom like my previous dad did?” I slowly took a sip of my drink. Ugh. Talking about this has made me completely lose my appetite.

Ellie rubbed my shoulder. “It’s okay, even if things go wrong, we will always be here to support you, no matter what.”

Giving them a small smile, I felt a bit better. “Thanks, you all.”

“No problem. Oh, also, we have a meeting later with one gang..... I forgot the name of it...” Lily changed the subject.

“It’s called ‘Nightmares’, which is a stupid name... my nightmare is failing my subjects.” Ruby chimed in.

“Just saying, Ruby dear, you are the one who slipped into character the most since we moved here almost a year ago... studying sucks...” Ellie chuckled.

Curious, I asked and brought us back to the subject, “What do the ‘Nightmares’ want?”

“Hmm... they said something about merging into a group, I think they want us to become one group. They are a rookie gang, we could pretend to agree and end up using them. Do you think we should agree, boss?”

“Heck no, it could be a trap. But I say we should capture them, as “Fallen Angels”, not “Dark Blood”, of course. It doesn’t happen often that rookie gangs want to merge with other loser gangs. Their motivation should be a trap. Plus, it’s been a while since we’d had such fun,” I said slyly.

“Sure, boss.” They replied together before we all burst out laughing.

Just then, I felt a shadow loom behind me. Who could that be? Another bully or what?

“Look who it is... Nerdy and her group of friends...” a voice taunted behind me.

“What do you want, Raymond?" I snarled.

“It’s Ray.” he glared at me.

“Well sorry if you don’t like what your mother named you,” I reply, “Now, please shoo, you’re interrupting our tea party.”

Leanne snickers but quickly covered it up with a cough.

“W-what do you want?” Ellie pretended to stutter and I secretly cheered at her great acting. We have to make them only see us as nerds, we absolutely can’t blow our cover.

“Why didn’t you do my homework?” Raymond pulled me upwards by the collar.

“I gave it to the dogs after I finished it.” I answered simply.

“Why you-” a felt a slight pain in my stomach, only to realise that he was punching me. Wham! He threw a punch at my face. Ouch, that one hurt a bit.

I took deep breaths. This pain was nothing compared to whatever I have received before, I was used to it, but... being human, it still hurts. It always will. I start to feel a bruise forming on my cheek, then my arm. Oh no, what will Mom say later? Mr Kim too. Aish, it doesn’t matter. I’ll just apply medication-

Suddenly, there was a loud bang. Opening my eyes, I saw a silhouette beating Raymond up, Raymond’s lapdogs nowhere to be seen. That’s probably one of the seven, hating bullies, wanting the money Raymond owes him or something else. Completely nothing to do with me and the rest. I get up from the grass patch and dust myself off.

Ellie and Leanne rushed to me. “Are you alright?” They checked my bruises.

“I’m fine, it’s nothing.” I grinned but they still looked at me worriedly.

“Come, let’s go to the bathroom, we’ll help you apply medicine to the bruises.” Ruby said and Lily carefully held me by the hand to the restroom.

~

After applying medicine, I stepped outside of the bathroom, only to bump into someone.

“Sorry!” I immediately apologised and looked up at the face of the person.

“We saved you multiple times yet you ran away each time.” The person said roughly.

I raised an eyebrow. “Okay.” What in the world of utter heck did he want me to reply?

“Okay? How about next time we leave you there to get beaten up?”

“I’m fine with it. I didn’t ask for your help whatsoever. Besides, I’m used to it.” I said before turning to leave.

The person caught me by the arm.

“Not even a ‘thanks’?” ”Thanks” my ass.

“Thanks.” I said sarcastically. “For sticking your nose into my business.”

“Say ‘thank you, Jaxon’.”

“Oh! So you’re Jaxon... I always wanted to know who was who.”

“Well, why don’t I introduce the rest of my brothers to you?”

“Sure!” I faked a smile, waiting for him to let go of my arm.

Sure enough, he turned around to where the rest of his brothers were and loosened his grip on my arm. I took the chance and sprinted as fast as I could to the other side of the hall where the other girls were. I hear a voice say behind me, “Jax, the girl just ran away.”

Joining the rest, we dashed to our next class, our giggles echoing in the hallway.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey! well this is the first chapter of the first book i have written on Inkitt.... so sorry for any spelling or grammar errors!! Also i just took the cover from google and edited it, I will make my own cover when I can.

Thank you so much for reading!! 💕💕💕

~Author-nim