Recap:

Jordan was released from jail by his father. However, after understanding Declan and his value of family, Jordan decided to take his father's outstretched hand as their first step to bonding again. The gang then went to go paint over Jordan's painting -a painting of a bear wearing headphones listening to the Plain White T's song, "Hey There Delilah"- for Declan's sister which was the reason he was in jail in the first place.

And that's what you missed on GLEE!

~

"You owe me an explanation," I said after I fell back onto the couch, exhausted. I looked at the white paint on my fingertips after helping Jordan paint over his artwork so he wouldn't get a fine for it.

"We owe you more than that, Naomi," Bennett told me from the kitchen, boiling some water for coffee or tea.

"Especially what Gio did to you," Declan grumbled to himself, his fists visibly tightening. He looked at me. "I want to wrap you around a blanket and never have you experience that again."

I was touched- pun not intended. But I laughed regardless.

"As much as I would love to be subject to your overprotectiveness that your poor sister will fall victim to," I began, "I do have to show my worth as... the Fourth Musketeer..."

We all became quiet.

"Looks like we're gonna spill the tea," Jordan said.

Bennett's head popped out of the kitchen. "Don't," he warned.

"They shouldn't have known that there was a Fourth Musketeer," Declan said. "No one should."

Jordan looked away. "It's all my fault. I... shouldn't have opened my big fat mouth."

"Well, who would ever be able to?" I told him. "It was really reckless of you, but you were proud, weren't you?"

He smiled. "Yeah. That my little Naomi is part of our team."

Jordan reached out to ruffle my hair but Declan moved it out of the way. "No touching, even from any of us."

"His maternal instincts come out naturally," Jordan commented like he was a narrator of some animal documentary.

Declan decided to ignore that for once. "I'll protect you this time Naomi."

"What's the worst that he can- Actually, yeah you're right."

"Hey..." Jordan complained.

"Word was bound to get out sooner or later," Bennett said, carrying a tray of mugs.

He handed me and Declan our tea while he and Jordan had their coffee.

"The Musketeers have always been a three-man group. With a Fourth, it was gonna turn some heads from the news."

"I don't want you guys to regret-"

"Don't finish that Naomi," Bennett told me.

"The tea?"

"What? No." He shook his head, smiling. "You know what I meant."

"That's why I want to do my share of this, and I can't unless you tell me more about these things and stop having to hold my hand through all of this."

"What if we don't want to stop holding your-" Jordan realized what he was saying. "Don't look at me like that. I didn't mean it that way."

"Alright, while my tea is still nice and hot, spill it."

"Stop using that saying," Bennett said. "It's such a waste of tea."

We all laughed.

"The city was run by one gang, Royal Blood, or Royals for short," Declan explained. "There were still lots of turf wars going around but no one fought against them."

"I remember that," I said quietly.

Walking around school was hard enough, but it was hard walking back home or around the city especially late at night without facing any trouble. I never faced any actual problems but I have heard stories from the news and around schools of people getting mugged or worse.

"Each one of us got ourselves caught into a mess with Royal Blood," Jordan told me. "The only way we could've stopped them was that if we worked together."

"In the end, we not only ended the gang itself but took their place," Bennet said before taking a sip of his drink.

I remember hearing on the news how some big gang was caught and ended many of their underground businesses. After that, the city has felt safer since.

"We can't do anything about it right now," Bennett finished. "We're still trying to clean up some of our messes, but we're trying to make a plan with the other lead gangs to leave the city in good hands."

"So you're trying to leave this... life?"

"Of course," Declan said. "We never wanted to be in it in the first place."

I was silent for a moment. I have never stopped to question what made them get into this life and what was keeping them in it.

"Where do the Lost Boys come into play?" I asked.

"Well, Gio seemed to confirm what we've been gathering information on," Declan explained. "The Lost Boys are either some branch or partner of Royal Blood trying to avenge them. But they're not the main gang with hardcore, guerrilla tactics as they don't have the firepower or ruthlessness Royal Blood is really known for.

"What really gets me is that they're around our age, either in high school or college, from security camera footage I was able to get a hold of them," Jordan muttered. "Going up against us and our partners is a death wish if it was some minor gang either having some sort of initiative phase to join Royal Blood or are just pretending they're connected to them as an excuse to go against us."

"Seeing that you don't have much information on them, they must be a new group." I thought for a moment. "What if they were neither? They don't have many resources to do something really terrible, at least so far, yet they're still willing to fight against the lead gang in the city. What if they were related to someone in Royal Blood?"

"That... would actually make a lot of sense," Jordan said. "From the past months, we have been cutting off all professional connections and resources of Royal Blood. And if that were the case, even if they were related to the Lost Boys, they would be unable to help them."

Bennett looked at me. "What do you think our next steps should be?"

I blinked, realizing what was happening and the excitement rose in me. "We should start compiling data of all past members of Royal Blood, both in or not in prison. There's still a chance that they aren't blood-related to an actual member, but perhaps close partners who benefited from doing business with Royal Blood. From there, we can cross-check with their family members- mainly sons and nephews."

Bennett nodded in approval. "That would be a good start. You should help Jordan work on that. Then, you can help me work on the program for the next main-gang meeting next month for these new updates."

Before I could respond back, Jordan nearly tackled me into a hug cooing how proud he was of me. Suddenly, we were both smacked with a couch pillow -though it should have been just for Jordan.

Declan, with better aim, kept hitting Jordan with the pillow. "Don't just tackle her like that! And did she asked to be hugged?" He suddenly said darkly, "I'm gonna teach you the value of consent..."

After Declan taught Jordan an example of what consent not is by beating Jordan up without his permission, we went our separate ways around the base. I went to my room to work on developing my initial plan of finding the true relationship between the Lost Boys and Royal Blood. Add in the few minutes of consideration of how long it took for them to come up with those names. When I felt I have done enough, I went to Jordan's room to begin working on the database with him.

I went into his room saying, "I believe we should create a side database on relations not blood-related such as neighbors, sons, and nephews of friends, and mentees, but..." I faltered when I saw what he was doing.

Jordan shushed me. "Let me just finish this," he muttered.

He was working on the rough sketch of the artwork for Declan's sister, Delilah. Only, it wasn't the original painting of the bear with headphones that was once in an abandoned alley. Instead, it was a collage of objects -musical instruments, food, paintbrushes, and books- with the original bear at the center.

"She's part of our family now," he told me, smiling as his work.

Something suddenly caught my eye.

"What's with these paints?" I asked, picking up a paint tube of the color blue which was alongside other paints of red, green and purple.

Jordan set down his pencil, staring at the notebook, and said, "I'm going to try painting in color."

I looked at him. "That's great Jordan."

"Yeah... I hope it won't be a mistake or something." He was quiet for a moment. "Can you be my eyes Naomi?"

I smiled. "Sure, as well as your brain."

Jordan laughed. "Well, I'm set for life then."

Once I finished discussing with Jordan the list of the types of relations we should be researching, he inputted into a program to search all such relations. When the database is complete, we would have to go through each one and compile a list of potential suspects. But, we can only base the members of the Lost Boys themselves are from the security camera footages and eyewitness accounts- both of which are unreliable. The Lost Boys wore masks parallel to the animal costumes of from the movie, Peter Pan. Jordan got angry at the fact that they were mocking him as they stole the idea of using masks for his paintings, probably.

"They don't know that you're Graea."

"Yeah, I guess," Jordan grumbled. "But it's not original."

"And your idea, of using a mask to hide your identity, is?"

He stopped typing for a second before resuming. "Just let me do my work."

There was a knock on the door and Bennett came into the room.

"Can I borrow Naomi for a moment?"

"She's not an object, Bent," Jordan said sassily.

"I didn't assume- I'm sorry. Naomi, may I speak to you for a moment, or are you guys still working?"

"Yeah, it's alright. We can't do anything until we finish creating the database."

"You mean until I finish creating-"

I suddenly pointed in a random direction. "Jordan, look! Colors!"

"Where?" He exclaimed, then froze. "Wait..."

He suddenly burst out laughing. "That was a really good one. I applaud to you madam."

"I tip my hat to you, kind sir."

Jordan pretended to wipe a tear away. "Look at my Musketeer go off to see the world. Proud of you sweetie! Go get 'em tiger!"

I rolled my eyes and waved him off before following Bennett out onto the hallway.

"What did you want to talk about?" I asked him.

Bennett looked at me for what felt like a long time.

"Jordan shouldn't be proud of you. None of us should be," he said quietly.

I felt my heart get ripped out of my chest. I thought I was finally useful to them. I thought I was able to return all the kindness they have given me. "W-What?"

"Because we made a mistake."

I didn't want to say anything because I knew that if I did, the crack of my voice before I sob will be the switch to spill the tears welling in my-

"You've always been this brilliant person and we've never let you have the chance to do something as a Musketeer," Bennett began, looking away as if he was unable to face me. "We have always wanted to protect you, but by doing so, we made it seem that you were useless. And you're not. You never were. So it was our fault for holding you back and making you believe this. We can't be proud of you because you never changed to become someone better, you were just finally given the opportunity to actually show- Naomi, why are you crying?"

I laughed through my tears as I did my best to wipe them away, but the tears refuse to stop. "N-No reason."

"What the hell did you do to her?" Declan demanded, having come out of his room to see the mess- me.

"Nothing!" Bennett snapped, then looked back at me in a panic. "Was it something I said? Are you mad? I'm so sorry, Naomi."

"No, of course not."

Hearing all of this was overwhelming, especially having heard it all from Bennett. It was like a weight was off my chest, but it came with my tear ducts becoming broken.

"Thank you," I said between sobs.

"Can I hug you?" Jordan asked hesitantly, having learned from Declan's lesson. "I don't really understand what's happening but you look like you need a hug."

I held out my hand to stop him. "Give me a second, I'm ugly crying," I said with a laugh. Finally, after being able to calm myself down, I said, "Group hug?"

That hug was a home.

The first midterm season is over and I thought I would award myself by finishing this chapter before studying all weekend to prepare for the next set of midterms.

The life of a college student is a tough one guys. 

Enjoy your high school lives but still do your best to find yourself and the best school. Remember, there is a difference between a good school and a fit school.

Also, I'm so happy to finally have gang stuff in the plot. So exciting!

Until next time!

Rubix