True Family: Chapter 10

"So you think Justin was talking about Martin and Mavis?" Tracey asked.

I nodded my head, feeling horrible. "I have a strong feeling he was talking about them."

Joey shook his head. "Those good for nothing, back stabbing-" Tony cut Joey off before he could finish.

"Why don't we ask Justin?"

I laughed without humor. "As if he'll tell us. He hates my guts."

Tony shrugged. "It's worth a try."

Lisa smiled. "If you want, we'll come with you."

I didn't answer for a few minutes, thinking things through. At the end I decided to talk to Justin. I mean, what have I got to lose?

I nodded. "I'll talk to him but I want to do it alone."

Joey instantly started shaking his head. "No. I want to be there. We'll both talk to him."

I gave him a weak smile, touched that he cared. "Thanks Joey but I want to do this on my own."

Joey slowly nodded looking hesitant. "If you're sure."

"I am."

********

I walked to my locker feeling miserable. I had a surprise test this morning and it wasn't a nice way to start the day.

I was taking out the books I needed for my next two subjects when I heard someone cough next to me.

I turned towards the sound to find Katrina.

She blushed and gave me a small smile. "Hi Jackson."

I smiled at her. "Hi Kat. How are you?" I asked. I hadn't talked to her in such a long time. With her dark red hair that rested just below her waist and deep green eyes, she was a sweet girl.

"I'm good, thanks for asking. I wanted to ask you something if you don't mind."

I smiled at her. "Go ahead."

"I know it's none of my business but I noticed that you aren't acting the same towards Martin and Mavis. I keep thinking you've fought."

I didn't answer her, feeling miserable all over again. Katrina must have noticed because she quickly said.

"You don't have to answer. I mean it's none of my business. We barely know each other and I was just curious because you looked sad and-" Before she could finish her blabber, I placed my hand over her mouth.

I smiled as her eyes went wide. "Kat it's fine. Ya we aren't friends anymore. They did something and.....we're not friends."

Kat nodded as I removed my hands. "Well in that case, would you like to join me for lunch today? I mean you don't have to but I just thought it would be better than staying by yourself. Not that you don't have any other friends or anything.."

"Kat stop talking." I laughed.

Katrina blushed and mumbled a sorry.

I chuckled. "Don't be. I'd love to join you for lunch."

Katrina smiled brightly. "That's great. Well I'll see you then."

"Bye Kat."

"I like it when you call me that."

I smiled. Realizing what she said, she blushed and walked away. I shook my head, amused.

And for the first time in a while, I felt happy.

*********

"Hahahaha Kat stop!" I complained, laughing.

Kat chuckled. "I'm sorry! But I'm just reading what the guy wrote."

I continued to laugh, almost wetting my pants. Katrina and I were currently sitting on the grass and she was reading this horrid book she found.

While we continued to laugh, Mavis and Martin walked up to us.

"Wow Jacky, you have other friends. I didn't think you'd hit that low." Mavis sneered.

Katrina blushed and looked away, hurt flashing in her eyes. That made me angry.

"First of all don't EVER call me Jacky. Second of all I hit low when I called you guys my friends."

"Ouch." Martin faked hurt, placing his hand over his heart.

"You guys can leave now." I coldly said.

"Whatever." Mavis replied. She walked away followed by Martin.

I turned towards Katrina. "I'm sorry about that. Ignore them."

Katrina nodded. "It's fine. I'm just shocked. What happened to them? Why are they being so mean?"

I shrugged. "Beats me."

"What happened between you guys?"

I gave her a small smile and told her everything. I wasn't sure why, but I knew I could trust her.

"Wow." She said at last. "That's horrible. I'm really sorry."

I shrugged. "It's fine. Life."

"When are you going to talk to Justin?"

"Right now." I replied, spotting Justin talking to a group of people. "Excuse me." I said, getting up.

I walked towards him. "Justin, we need to talk." I said.

Justin sent me a death glare. "What do you want? Can't you see I'm busy!" He snapped.

"Wow, someone is in a bad mood. Look I just want to talk."

"Fine. Hurry up, I'm a busy guy."

I looked at the group of people listening then turned towards Justin. "Alone."

Justin raised an eye brow but nodded. We walked away and once we were out of ear shot, I said. "Did Martin and Mavis plan all this?"

Justin smirked. "Finally, you realize that your so called friends set you up."

I rolled my eyes. "Just tell me what's going on!" I demanded.

Justin gave a short laugh. "You still haven't figured it all out, have you?"

I clenched my fist from anger. "Look are you going to tell me or what!"

"Calm down will you. Fine I'll explain."

I gave him a curt nod. "Good."

"Where to start." Justin mused, sitting down on the grass under a tree. I decided to follow his lead and sit down as well.

"Well it all began the day Martin was caught smoking. When he found out that he couldn't be captain, he was furious."

I nodded, indicating that I understood.

"But he was even more furious when you didn't quit. Jackson, he knew that I wouldn't be able to be captain with my bad record and all but he knew you had a perfect record. As perfect as his and you were his only competition. But now you had no competition. He became jealous."

"Wait, how do you know all this?" I asked, suspicious.

Justin laughed, shaking his head. "It's obvious. And besides, he came to me right after he got caught smoking. At the time, he didn't know if he could trust Mavis. I mean, you two were friends before he came into the picture. But he knew I hated your guts. No offense."

I rolled my eyes. "None taken."

"Anyway, he plotted to bring you down."

I interrupted Justin. "But he was always covering for me?"

Justin glared at me for interrupting. "I'm the one telling the story. And ya, he did cover for you but that was because he didn't want to just bring you down by getting you detention. He wanted it to be hard core."

"That's why he wanted you to go to party. He thought it would be fair for you to lose your dreams the way he did. But you would never go."

I nodded. "Ok."

"Then the unexpected happened. Mavis declared her love for Martin. That's when they became a team, working against you. To be honest, I pitied you at that time. You were so sure that they were your true friends, your family. You always defended them and went against your real family."

Before I could ask Justin how he knew, he said. "Mavis and Martin told me."

I didn't reply, too hurt.

Justin continued. "Well, after that they gave me your locker combination and told me to steal the papers and hide it there."

"Then your dreams were ruined. But that wasn't enough for them. So they told me to give you a hint that I know your locker combination."

Justin paused, waiting for me to give him a sign to go on. I simply gave him a nod.

"They didn't tell me what they were planning at first. Anyway they knew you'd go and tell the principal about me knowing your combination number. Then they told me to leave the medal on the floor since they knew what class you'd have."

I shook my head. "Unbelievable." I muttered.

Justin nodded. "I didn't know what they were planning until the end. When the principal said you were kicked out of the team, I knew that's what they wanted."

Seeing that was the end of the story, I got up and so did Justin.

"Thanks." I said.

Justin shrugged and started to walk away when I called him. "Wait."

He turned around. "Ya?"

"Why did you warn me? And why did you tell me this?"

Justin then did something i never thought he would do. He gave me a sympathetic smile.

"I hated your guts but I would have never wanted you kicked out of the team. Losing your dream of being captain was cruel enough. What Martin and Mavis did was heartless. And......you didn't deserve any of it."

Before I could say anything at all, Justin walked away. I stared after him, realizing that my enemy had more of a heart than my so called 'friends'.

********

"I just love chocolate ice cream." James said, face covered in ice cream.

Tracey chuckled, trying to wipe his mouth.

My parents decided that we needed to go out as a family and gave us kids money to go out for ice cream.

"Tell me about it." Trent agreed, licking his strawberry ice cream.

"Vanilla all the way!" Tony declared, his face as messy as James.

Joey snorted. "I hope no one from school comes. You guys are total losers."

Linda glared at Joey. "Then why don't you just leave."

Joey stared at her, shocked. "Chill dude, I was kidding."

Lisa scoffed. "I doubt that."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Joey demanded.

"It means that your embarrassed of us!" Linda yelled.

I sat there, flabbergasted. We were enjoying ourselves one minute and suddenly war the next.

"Guys calm down." Tory demanded.

"No I won't. He's so embarrassed about anything that has to do with his family." Lisa said.

"I'm not." Joey argued.

"Then why did you throw away that picture that our parents got us for Christmas!" Linda demanded.

Silence filled the air as well as tension.

"Seriously, after all this time, your bringing this up." Joey said.

Lisa shook her head. "Leave it."

"I bet none of you even have it." Joey continued.

Lisa and Linda opened their bags and took out the picture.

Joey looked at them, shocked. "I-I bet it's only you two." He stammered.

James took off his shoe and took out the picture and showed it to him. "I have it too." He announced, a smile on his face.

Tracey opened her wallet as well as Tory and took out theirs. Trent took it out of his back pocket. Tony and I both reached into our pockets taking the picture out.

"Actually we all carry it around." Tony said.

Joey stared at us and sighed after a few minutes. Then he reached into his back pocket and took out something and placed it on the table. Even though it was crumbled, I could still recognize the picture.

"After you all went to sleep that night, I went and took it out of the trash." Joey said.

Lisa and Linda looked at each other, shocked. We were all shocked.

"I know I don't show it often but I do care about you guys."

**********

After we ate our ice cream, we decided to go to the park. And that's when I told them what Justin told me.

"Wow, that's cold." James said, giving me a hug. "I'm sorry. Their meanies. I'll hit them if you want."

I chuckled. "Thanks bro but I don't want you to hurt them. You're too strong "

James nodded. "Ok."

Joey shook his head. "I should go there and teach them a lesson."

Tracey shook her head. "That's not going to help."

We all stayed silent for a while, not knowing what to say.

"What if we paid?" Tory suddenly announced.

"Pay?" I asked.

"Remember Finch, the guy who graduated five years ago. I heard he was kicked out of the team but his parents paid them and they let him back in." Tory explained.

I nodded. "I remember that story but Tory, it's really really expansive."

Trent spoke up. "I'll give up my guitar lessons."

I stared at him, shocked. Trent loved playing the guitar.

"And I'll stop going to soccer camp." James declared.

"Lisa and I will quit the dance school that accepted us. It's a lot of money." Linda announced.

"And we'll sell our collectable cards." Tony said.

"I can give you the money I've been saving." Tracey suggested.

"And I'll threaten to leave the team. We all know that I'm the main reason we're winning the games." Joey bragged.

I stared at them, all of them planning on giving up the things that they loved most just so I can play football.

I laughed. I laughed so hard that I started to feel pain on my side.

Everyone looked at me, shocked.

"Ummm... Jack? Are you ok?" Tracey asked.

I finally managed to subside my laughter. "I'm sorry. It's just you guys are so amazing. Wonderful."

Joey snorted. "Tell us something we don't know."

I punched him on the arm, chuckling. "Thanks guys but I don't want you guys to give up your dreams like that."

"But what about your dreams?" Trent asked.

I smiled at him and shrugged. "There's always next year."

********

I went home that day feeling happy. I realized the true meaning of family.

Family are the people who are always there for you. Who would give up their happiness just so you could be happy. This whole time I thought Mavis and Martin were my family but I was mistaken. I should have listened to my blood relatives, the ones who cared for me.

I paid for my actions. But I'm happy how it turned out. I'm happy I realized what kind of people I called my friends.

And as I stared at my family, playing games at our usual Family Game Night once a month, I realized how lucky am.

"Jackson, are you planning on joining us or staring at us like a creep." Grandma Suzy demanded.

I chuckled. "I'm coming." I replied, walking towards the living room where everyone was laughing and playing games.

Just then the door bell rang. "I'll get it." I announced.

I opened the front door to find Katrina, dressed in a sweater and jeans, shivering from the cold.

"Kat? What are you doing here?"

Katrina chuckled nervously. "Isn't that a nice way to say hi."

I shook my head, embarrassed. "I'm sorry, that was rude. Please come in." I said.

She walked in, rubbing her hands together. "Thanks. I'm sorry to bother you. I just wanted to give you this." Kat said, handing me a piece of paper.

I took it. "What's this?" I asked, opening it. There was a title written.

"It's your project. You didn't show up for class and I thought I'd give you your topic."

I smiled at her. "Thanks."

Just then my mom called out. "Honey, whose at the door!?"

"It's a friend from school." I replied.

"It better not be that horrid girl, Mary or whatever." Grandma Suzy called out.

I rolled my eyes. "No Gran, it's not Mavis."

I heard shuffling feet and then Grandma Suzy walked towards us.

"Well, who is this pretty girl? Hi, I'm Suzy, Jacks grandmother. And you are?"

Katrina blushed, extending her hands to shake my grandmothers. "I'm Katerina."

"Nice to meet you. I don't mean to sound rude but what are you doing here?"

"Oh, I was just dropping by to give Jackson his topic for his history assignment. He wasn't in class today."

Grandma Suzy smiled. "I like her." She said to me. "She's a keeper."

I noticed Katrina blush and smiled.

"We don't usual allow guests to play with us on Family Game Night but I like you so stay. Whatever I say goes around here so don't worry about the others agreeing or not." Grandma Suzy said. And without waiting for a reply she walked away.

I looked at Katrina. "Sorry about that."

"It's fine. I like her."

"I hope you can stay. You're the first person she allowed to play with us. Even Martin and Mavis weren't allowed."

Katrina beamed. "Ya. I can stay."

We walked to the living room together.

"Well, I didn't know Jackson had a date?" Trent smirked.

I blushed along with Katrina.

Grandma Suzy smacked Trent in the head. "Behave."

Katrina went over and sat done next to Lisa and Tony and started chatting.

I smiled.

******

There are times when our family annoy us, irritate us and make us angry. But at the end of the day, there is no one that means the world to us as much as our family means.

You never know how much something means to you until you lose it. So cherish the moments. Arguments are something that happen from time to time but no matter what, family is family. They have your back when others are stabbing you in the back.

I learnt a lesson. My friends stole my dreams away. I thought my family were jealous of my relationship with them but they were warning me, looking out for me. I ignored them and I paid for the consequence.

But at the end, I'm happy my family didn't give up on me. That's all that matters. Family don't give up on family. Their love is rare.

Cherish it, embrace it, and don't take it for granted.

🔸🔸****🔸🔸
(A/N) IT'S OVER!!!

I can't believe it's actually done. It was an amazing journey but I couldn't have done it without you guys!! Thank you for all your supports! I really hoped you enjoyed this book and understand the message I was trying to deliver!!

It was an amazing ride and even though this story is over, don't think I'm done writing. I love writing and I'll continue doing just that! If you liked this book, please please comment, vote and tell your friends! It would mean a lot and encourage me to continue my writing!

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Until next time, take care❤❤❤