Jax and Lily were in class waiting for it to start. There was a quiet boy sitting in the back of the class. He didn't have any friends and didn't really talk to anyone.

"Ok class, settle down now." Ms. Puff, their teacher, walked in. "Today we have a very important project for you guys to do. The point of this assignment is to work with someone and learn as much as you can about the other person."

"I call Lily!" Jax screamed.

Since they were twins, they basically already knew everything about each other, and that meant an easy A for them both. Plus Jax knew he could use one after he failed his spelling test last week.

"While I appreciate the enthusiasm Jax, the point of this project is to work with someone new and create and present something you worked together to make." Mrs. Puff said. "You guys always hang out with the same people everyday, maybe this project will teach you to mix it up and make some new friends."

"Oh man." Jax groaned. "There goes my easy A."

"I have already chosen the pairs. The list is over there on the wall." She pointed next to the door. "Please check it and arrange for you and your new partner to meet outside of class."

Jax, Lily and the other kids went to check the list. Lily was paired up with a nice redheaded girl named Emma, and Jax was with a boy he didn't recognize the name of.

"Who the heck is Matt Scott?" Jax asked reading his partner's name.

"T-that's me." A boy stuttered.

Jax turned around to see a boy with short brown hair and black eyes. He seemed really shy and he was shaking.

"I guess we're partners then." Jax said holding out his hand. "Hi, I'm Jax."

Matt hesitated but eventually shook his hand. He seemed so nervous.

"So do you wanna meet at my house later or do you want to go to your place?" Jax asked.

"No!" Matt screamed. "I-I mean I'm not sure my uncle Dean would allow me to have people over."

"Ok then, well then do you want to go to my place instead?" Jax offered. "No offense but I could really use an A on this project."

"Or maybe we could get a study room at the library after school. Would that be ok?"

"Oh, sure." Jax agreed.

"Alright class, everyone back in their seats." Mrs. Puff said.

"See you later." Jay said.

"See you." Matt said.

The whole class went back to their seats and they continued the day as normal.

At the end of the day, Lily met with Emma and her house and Jax and Matt were in the library in the study room. They were trying to get to know each other but Matt wasn't that talkative.

"So it says we have to ask each other questions to find out what we like and then decide a project that combines both our interests." Jax said reading the paper that their teacher gave them for the project.

"Ok." Matt said.

"So do you like video games?" Jax asked.

"I don't know, never played one."

"You mean you've never played a video game?" Jax was shocked.

"No, but I've always wanted to." Matt sighed. "My uncle is against anything that's fun."

"Well that sucks." Jax frowned. "What do you do for fun?"

"Mostly draw, but I have to hide them from my uncle though. Last time he found one of my drawings he threw it in the shredder."

"What kind of stuff do you draw?"

"Well, it's kinda stupid, but I like to draw these characters, but they don't have names or a back story or anything like that."

"Can I see them?" Jax asked.

"I don't know, they're not very good." Matt frowned.

"Compared to what I draw they can't be any worse." Jax laughed.

"Fine just, don't make fun of them ok?"

Jax nodded and Matt took the sketchbook out of his backpack. Jax looked through it, being careful not to damage it, and looked at the incredible designs that he had come up with. They were so detailed and so much color on them.

There was a drawing of a brown haired man with a blue and yellow uniform, similar to something his dad wore in some photos from his ninja days. It looked like there was lightning shooting from his hands. On the next page, there was a drawing of a girl with black hair in a blue and silver suit. She had a water ball in her hand that reminded him of his mom. He turned to the next page and saw a tall man in a long black cloak with black flames for eyes and jet black hair. He had a sinister grin on his face and he was holding a whip.

"You hate them, don't you?" Matt sighed.

"What? No, these are really cool." Jax told him. "You're a great artist."

"You don't have to spare my feelings, I know they're terrible." Matt frowned.

"No I really like them." Jax said. "Do these characters have names?"

"Not really. I like designing characters, but I'm not good at coming up with stories or names."

"The lightning guy could be Voltage and the girl could be Tsunami." Jax suggested. "And maybe the villain could be Black Diamond and the boy and the girl could team up to stop him from bringing out some evil plan to destroy the universe and..." he stopped as realized he was rambling. "Sorry, I talk a lot when I get excited."

"That's ok, those are great ideas. How did you come up with those?" Matt asked, impressed with what he came up with.

"I don't know I guess they just came to me." Then Jax's father sent him a text saying he was there to pick him up. "Oh, my dad's here. Sorry."

"Oh ok." He sighed.

"I could probably stay a bit longer if I..."

"No that's fine, I wouldn't want you to get in trouble and have your dad pound you."

"Pound me?" Jax questioned. "Why would he do that?"

"You know, as a punishment for when you misbehave or when you make him mad?"

"The most I've ever gotten for a punishment is a lecture followed by no video games or tv for a week or two, but my parents never hit me." Jax said. "Why did you think that they...?"

"You know what, forget it. And please don't say anything, I'm not supposed to talk about it." Matt said as he quickly packed up his stuff and put his backpack on. "It was nice to meet you Jax."

"But wait, I..."

Before Jax could finish his sentence, Matt ran out the door. Jax was worried about Matt. He's never heard of pounding as a punishment before. It was weird for him to think that his dad did it to him.

Jax walked out front and he got in his dad's car.

"Hey sport. How was school?" Jay asked.

"Good." Jax answered.

"We've got to pick up your sister from her friend's house, then we'll head home. Ok?"

"Oh, ok." Jax sighed.

Jay started driving and noticed Jax in the rear view mirror and he kept looking out the window. He seemed distracted like something was bothering him.

"Is everything alright Jax?" Jay asked. "Your mind seems like it's in another place."

"Yeah, I'm good." Jax lied.

"How did your project with that kid go?"

"It went ok." Jax sighed. "Hey Dad, can I ask you something?"

"Ugh... BABIES COME FROM THE BABY STORE!" Jay panicked.

"What? Eww! No! Not that talk!"

"Phew." Jay relaxed. "Ok then go ahead."

"Let's say I do something really bad, what would you do to me?"

"Jaxon, what did you do?"

"Nothing, just... hypothetically, you know?"

"Ok, then what did you hypothetically do?"

"I didn't do anything, but a friend of mine said that his uncle... hurts him... and it's for the smallest reasons. I just feel like it... it's not right. I don't want to be treated like that."

"Listen Jax, you and Lily are my babies. I'll admit sometimes you both need to learn your lesson, but your mom and I would never do anything to hurt either of you, no matter what you do." Jay told him.

"Thanks Dad." Jax smiled.

"Who is this friend of yours?" Jay asked, wanting to know if one of his kids' classmates could be in a bad situation at home.

"I can't say."

"Jax, whoever your friend is, they could be going through a lot of trouble at home and the longer you wait to tell me the worse his situation could get. Do you realize that?"

"If you get involved, his uncle might get mad and hurt him more." Jax frowned. "Please, I don't want my new friend to hate me."

Jay frowned. He wanted to do something to help out his son's friend, but it didn't help if he didn't have his name. He decided to wait until he got back home and talk to his wife to see what she had to say. If he couldn't get information out of Jax, he knew Nya could.

He picked up Lily and headed home. When the kids went to bed, he set with Nya in the kitchen and told him about the conversation he had with Jax in the car.

"...and then he refused to tell me his friend's name so I couldn't do anything." Jay finished telling Nya the story.

"Well we can't just let this go on, maybe we could call their teacher?" Nya suggested.

"And what if they find the kid, drive over there and find no evidence of what he told me? That could get Jax in trouble." Jay said. "There has to be something else we can do."

"I wonder if it's that kid he's doing the project with." Nya questioned.

"That's what I think too, but we can't do anything unless we know for sure. We can't be too hasty about this or we can make it worse for us and that kid."

"I know." She said. "I trust Jax told you what he heard, but we don't know if that kid was lying or not."

"I agree, we need proof."

"I'll see what I can get out of Jax tomorrow, maybe I'll have better luck."

"Good luck."

They went to bed.

The next morning...

It was raining and Nya was driving Lily and Jax to school. Lily was in the front and Jax was in the back looking out the window. He saw a boy in a hoodie that he recognized from his class. He was drenched from the rain.

"Hey, isn't that the kid from our class?" Lily asked.

"I think so." Jax said.

"He really shouldn't be walking out in the rain and we are still a good ways from your school." Nya said.

"Can we give him a ride Mom?" Jax asked.

"Of course." Nya pulled the car over.

Jax rolled down the window and shouted out at Matt. "Hey, do you need a ride?"

Matt was about to keep walking, but he heard a big crash of thunder and got scared so he jumped in the car. He was soaking wet and Jax noticed he had a black eye, but he didn't dare say anything to his mother.

"Thank you for the ride." Matt said to Nya.

"Of course." Nya said. "We're pretty far from the school, why were you walking out there in the rain?"

"Oh my uncle had to uhh... work and I missed the bus so I didn't have a choice." Matt said.

"Wasn't there anyone else who could've taken you?" Nya asked.

"No, we live alone and I don't have any other family." He frowned.

"Well if you ever need a ride again, just let us know." Nya said.

"Thank you Mrs. Walker, I'll keep that in mind." Matt said.

"So Matt, I was thinking since you like to draw and I have story ideas, we could create a comic book for our project." Jax suggested.

"A comic book?" Matt asked.

"Yeah, I can come up with the story, and then you can draw it."

"I love that idea, but are you sure people are going to like my drawings?" Matt frowned.

"I guarantee everyone will love them. They're great." Jax said. This made Matt smile.

"A comic book sounds like a great idea. It's nice to see you finally taking an interest in your schoolwork." Nya laughed. "What are you doing for your project Lily?"

"I like performing and Emma's into cooking so we're going to sing a song about how to make cupcakes." Lily said.

"Sounds like fun." Nya said.

While the girls were talking, Jax looked at Matt and pointed to his own left eye. Matt's smile turned into a frown and he shook his head. Jax took a guess about how that happened, but he made a promise not to tell his parents anything, and he didn't plan on breaking it, but he was worried about Matt.

Nya got them to school and dropped them off. She had seen Matt's black eye and heard him and Jax talking about their project and she now knew that Matt lived alone with his uncle. She had all the pieces she needed, and she planned to help the boy.

Later that day...

After the last bell rang, Nya and Jay walked into the school classroom, ready to talk with Jax's teacher. Jax and Lily were confused why they were there. Matt was still in the room too.

"Mom? Dad?" Lily questioned. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, hello Mr and Mrs. Walker. What brings you by?" Mrs. Puff asked them.

"We came to talk to you about something." Nya told her.

"Matt, we'd like you to stay here too, if that's ok?" Jay asked him.

"Is there a problem between the children? They don't seem to misbehave with each other in class." Mrs. Puff asked. "In fact I would say they've become good friends in the past few days."

"It isn't anything like that, but we think there's something Matt needs our help with." Nya said looking in his black eye.

"You said you wouldn't say anything!" Matt screamed at Jax.

"I didn't need to, they figured it out." Jax frowned. "They used to be ninja. It's hard to hide anything from them."

"Matt it's ok, we know you don't want your uncle to find out and we're not going to tell him." Nya said. "Can you just stay here and talk to us for a bit? We'll take you home afterwards."

"O-ok." Matt stuttered and sat down.

"I'll be in the library with Emma Mom." Lily said.

"Ok, we'll get you when we're done." Nya said as Lily walked out the door.

Matt was really nervous, but he felt safe with the Walkers and his teacher. He knew they were just trying to help, but he wasn't used to people trying to help him.

"So what is all of this about?" Mrs. Puff asked, mainly looking at Matt.

Matt just sat there and shrugged. He didn't want to say anything he would regret later.

"Wait, you said you tripped on the sidewalk and that's how you got that black eye." Jax said, quoting what he had told him earlier. "That's not what happened, is it?"

Matt shook his head and frowned. The others caught on to what had happened.

"Matt, did he hit you?" Mrs. Puff asked, knowing what he would answer.

Matt hesitated. He didn't want to tell them what really happened, even though they all thinking it. He eventually sighed and sadly nodded his head, trying to keep a tear from falling.

"Hey kid, it's ok. Now that you told us what was going on, we can find a way to help you." Jay assured him.

"I don't..." Matt started to tear up. "I don't wanna go back there."

Jay and Nya looked at each other. They couldn't just send him back to that horrible place.

"Matt, do you have any other family that you could stay with for a while?" Mrs. Puff asked.

"N-no." Matt said trying to dry his tears. "M-my Mom and Dad died in a car accident when I was really young a-and my dad's brother Dean is the only one still around. H-he's always been terrible to me but I don't have anywhere else to go."

"Well you're more than welcome to stay with us for a couple days until you get things sorted out." Nya offered. Jay and Jax were nodding in agreement.

"Yeah, you'll have food, shelter, and everything you need." Jay said.

"Yeah and we have this awesome ninja training course and video games and a dog named Bolt and..." Jax said.

"Ok sport, let's not spoil all the surprises." Jay interrupted his son.

"But of course, this is your decision." Nya said.

"What'll happen to my uncle?" Matt asked.

"Well I'm afraid he'll have to be arrested." Mrs. Puff frowned. "I'm sorry but he needs to learn that what he did was wrong."

Matt didn't want his Uncle Dean to go to prison, but he knew it was for the best if he was locked up and couldn't hurt anyone. He was worried what he would do. He's never been happy with his living situation, but at least before he had a place to go.

"I'm going to make some phone calls and then we can send someone over there to get your stuff." Mrs. Puff said.

She stepped out into the hallway with her phone. Jay, Nya and Jax noticed how upset Matt was.

"Don't be scared buddy, maybe in a few years, your uncle will come to his senses and be a better person." Jay said to Matt.

"You think?" Matt looked up at Jay and Nya.

"Hey, it worked for a few friends of ours, so don't give up hope. Some people change, it just takes them some time to realize that they need to." Nya smiled at Matt. "In the meantime, you're welcome to stay with us. That is, if you want to?"

"You would really let me do that?" Matt questioned.

"Of course we would." Nya smiled. "But the decision is yours to make."

Matt jumped out of his chair and ran into Jay and Nya's arms. He broke down in tears of joy. He felt like for once he was going to be part of a real family.

So that day Matt went home with the Walkers and got settled into what would be his new home. He wasn't expecting anything good to happen to him, but he was glad to have them in his life. And Matt and Jax's comic book was a big hit in his class. Everyone loved the story and Matt's drawings. He loved his new family, and his new life.

_______________________

Hey guys, a couple announcements: so I recently reached 100 followers on Wattpad and I'm incredibly thankful! Because I've reached this goal, I've posted 2 new fanfics: Lost and The Curse. Go check 'em out!

Don't forget to vote and comment! Thanks for reading! Stay healthy and stay awesome! 😉

~awesomespecs21