Raising The Stakes

T.C.  I lay on my cot as I waited for my new foster parents. This wasn’t my first time being sent to a new home, and I’ve been to plenty in my seventeen years. Closing my eyes, I thought about my gang. The only family that I knew would have my back, but I couldn’t help to wonder, Where the f**k they were at?. I mean, damn, it’s been hours since the police took me to juvie and then to the orphanage. Finally, I fell asleep as I thought of how to get out of this f*****g orphanage.   Three hours later.  The door to the big room creaked open, and four sets of footsteps came in. As they approached, I noticed that the sound was coming closer to my cot. Someone with little fingers prodded me further awake. When I opened my eyes, someone’s bright green ones were staring at my face. Focusing my eyes more, I saw that the person was a little girl, who was staring down at me. The girl smiled and looked up at the woman behind her. Sitting up, I surveyed the people around me. The woman was slender with blonde hair; the man that must have been her husband was tall, a little chubby, and had dark brown hair. The little girl was a dirty blonde, a mixture of both parents, and really petite like her mother. She seemed to always be smiling; her eyes were bright with innocence.    I turned and my gaze landed on the director, how I hated this man and his stern face glaring at me the whole time. He then turned and said to the husband, “Mr. Chruchhill, I would consider adopting one of the other boys, and this one just came back off the streets.”   “Well, my daughter always wanted an older brother that looked kind of like her.” Mr. Churchill turned his gaze on me and then upon his daughter, who buzzed with energy.  “I have many other older boys with the same hair color if that is what she wants.” The director motioned to the other boys watching the encounter between him and Mr. Churchhill. That was when the little girl turned to her dad, grabbed his shirt, and tugged on it to get his attention. Her eyes were pleading with her father. “But daddy, I want Tom.”   I sat straight up when she had mentioned my real name, a frown forming on my face as I gazed at her. “How do you know my real name?”   The little girl spun around from her dad, excitement radiating from her. “I got it from your file. When I saw your picture, I just knew!”  “Well, call me T.C., OK,” I told the little girl; her smile brightened, and she squirmed with more excitement than before.   “Well, kids, let us go sign the rest of these papers, and we will be right back,” Mrs. Churchhill told us as she placed a small kiss on her daughter’s head.   The girl jumped in my lap while the grownups went to sign the paperwork to get me out of this hell hole. She just sat there looking up at me, as if she could not believe she was getting a big brother. You know, when you first meet a new pet, there is so much excitement because it's something new? Yeah, it kind of made me feel weird. She continued talking a mile a minute while she described, in detail, what my new home was like and what we would be able to do once we got home. When they eventually finished with the paperwork, the little girl had fallen asleep. Her, I mean our parents, came up to me and smiled. They motioned me to follow them, and I carried her out with my new parents. The car that we entered was something I never even would have dreamed of being in. I placed her in the seat beside me and buckled her belt. I leaned back into the seat, buckling my seatbelt.   Mr. and Mrs. Churchhill climbed into the driver and passenger seats of the vehicle. Mrs. Chruchhill turned and smiled at me. I grinned at her before looking out the window at the night sky. I was so glad to be out of that hell hole and I hoped that these people were not like my other foster parents before them. On the bright side, I only had one more year to deal with these people, and then I could be out on my own. Not having to deal with anyone telling me what I didn’t want to do.   “So Tom, what do you like food-wise? Any favorites?” Mrs. Churchhill had turned back around in her seat to look at me.   “I don’t know, Mrs. Churchhill. I really haven’t had much before.” I answered her truthfully, glancing at her from the corner of my eye.   “Well, before you start school, we will have to change that. And you can call me Laura. Mrs. Churchhill is too formal,” Laura smiled again at me.   I didn’t know how to answer her, so I just nodded to her. She didn’t seem to mind my quietness. Her husband kept looking back at me in the rearview mirror, and I don’t know what I thought of him at the moment.   “Do you like sports, Tom?” Mr. Churchhill spoke to me, his eyes on the road before us as he maneuvered the car down the road.   I was a little taken back. They were making me a little uncomfortable. I didn’t know how to answer them. These people were trying to get to know me, and I was not used to people asking me questions or all this attention.  “I don’t know; I wasn’t allowed to play sports before. Since I was always in trouble, I do like baseball and soccer, though, I guess.” I eyed him in the rearview mirror; Mr. Churchhill grinned and then went back to watching the road.   The rest of the ride to the house was silent. This was fine by me; I didn’t want to get to know them, and I didn’t want them to be nice to me, which would make leaving them easier. Because that was how my life had always been, a revolving door of people. To keep from getting attached to those people, I tried to stay as far from them as possible.  When I got to the house, I saw that it was, in fact, enormous. Mr. Churchhill pulled into the garage and turned off the engine. We all got out, and I grabbed the little girl beside me. Taking her in my arms, I could not figure out why she had already grown on me, but she had. I walked with her up the steps leading from the garage to the door into the house. Once I was inside, I noticed that it was spotless, like it had never been lived in. Hesitating on the rug, I glanced down at my shoes, which were caked with mud that I did not want to track into this immaculate house. The little girl was still sound asleep in his arms. Laura turned to me as I stood on the rug and smiled at me.    “Oh, just come on in. We will get the cleaning staff to clean that up; they do an amazing job.” Laura motioned for me to follow into the house. I reluctantly stepped on the floor, following Laura and her husband through the house and up the staircase to the second floor. The house was very modern and lavishly decorated.   “Her room’s right down the hall, and yours is across from it,” Mr. Churchhill pointed me to the door down the hall and then to the other across from it.   I nodded to them and walked past them down the hall. Pictures of the three of them hung on the walls, showing a timeline of their lives before today. Would they put pictures of me up on these walls? I doubt it.  I took the little girl to her room and put her into bed. As I walked out, she opened her eyes, pulled off the cover, and ran to me. She hugged my leg, and I looked down and behind me and saw that she was awake. She let go and stood back as I kneeled and picked her up. “What’s wrong?”  The little girl sat in my arms twirling my long hair on my head around her finger as she frowned at me. “T.C., you still don’t know my name.”  “But wouldn’t I just call you sis?” I looked at her green eyes and I then sighed, “but I guess if you want to tell me. Then that’s OK too.”  The girl smiled and let go of my hair, “My name is Emerald, but people call me, Emi.”   I looked at her, and she kissed my cheek. Shocking me a little before, I brushed a piece of her hair out of her face.  “T.C., can I sleep with you tonight?” Emi pleaded with me.  I stood up with Emi in my arms and carried her to my room. As I laid her on my bed in the next room, she climbed under my covers as I lay down on top of them. I lay facing her, and she moved over, closer to me, and cuddled against my chest; I wrapped my arms around her tiny body.   “I’m so glad you are my brother, T.C.,” Emi said as she cuddled closer.   She eventually fell asleep, letting my thoughts wander again to my gang that had left me behind, my family that I would probably not see again. They did nothing wrong. I got caught, and so, therefore, them leaving me was part of the code. It still sucked, though.   Sighing, I closed my eyes, trying to fall asleep on the soft mattress under me. I looked around the room I was given; yeah, it was dark, but the moonlight illuminated a portion of it. It was a beige color with white trim; shelves lined the walls bare of anything on them. Well, they will stay that way. There was a desk facing the window, a computer, keyboard, and mouse laid on it.   I finally laid there long enough to fall asleep. Emi slept close against my side.   ***  I groaned as the sun blazed into my closed eyes. Resting my arm over my face, I opened my eyes. Glancing around the room, everything was quiet. Glancing to my side, Emi was not in my bed. I got up and sat on the edge of the bed. I ran my hand through my hair and then down my face. I heard a knock on my door; looking up, Laura came through the door with a tray.  “Hey, I didn’t know what you would like for breakfast, so I started out with pancakes, scrambled eggs, and bacon,” Laura said as she set it in my lap.   I looked at the plate that was in my lap; it was all there, like she said, along with milk and O.J. I glanced back at her, and she smiled at me. Patting my shoulder, she got up and walked out of my room, and I watched her as she walked up to my door.   “Oh, you do have a bathroom that is connected to your room. That way, you don’t have to share with the family,” Laura   turned to me, closing the door as she walked out.   I looked back down at the food and decided to try it. Dousing the pancakes with syrup, I cut a piece off and scooped up some eggs. Putting the food in my mouth, I could not help but groan at the taste. Damn! This is amazing! I could not help but scarf down the food. Drinking the milk to wash down the pancakes and eggs, I placed the tray on the bed and stood up, stretching my muscles out. I looked around the now sunlit room; it was a simple room that could be molded to what I wanted.   Two doors were on one side of the room; I made my way there, opening up the first one. Damn! It’s a walk-in closet! I thought to myself, walking into it. It didn’t have much in it, just some ties and other accessories in the back.   Walking back out, my eyes landed on a pair of white basketball shorts and a blue T-shirt. I grabbed them and made my way to the other door that should hold the bathroom. Opening the door and I stood there in shock. The damn bathroom was just as big as my f*****g room! This house was beyond enormous. It seemed I had a whole section of the house to myself.   I entered the bathroom and laid my clothes on the sink. Going to the cabinets, I searched for a towel; finding what I needed, I turned to the shower. The motherfucker had two shower heads hanging on the wall like normal, and then the other suspended from the ceiling. Smiling to myself, I turned the shower on and adjusted it to the right temp. I got in observing the shower; it looked like it was made from river rock. Running my hand over it as the water cascaded down my naked form. Deciding to wash since I could not remember the last time I had showered in warm water. It felt nice to be able to take my time and not have to hurry because of the water being cold. I used the liquid body wash pump to squirt on the soft scrubber that was hanging in the shower. I scrubbed my body and then looked around for the shampoo. Spotting it, I grabbed it and probably used more than what was needed.   I really needed to get my hair cut; it was almost a little longer than what I liked it to be. Turning around, I rinsed out my hair; looking down, I noticed that the water was a bit murky as it ran down my body to empty into the drain. Damn, I really needed a bath!  Once I had gotten the soap rinsed out of my hair, I stepped out onto the bath rug pulling the towel from the bar that hung next to the shower. I quickly dried off and then put on the underwear, shorts, and shirt that I found on my bed. Brushing out the tangled mess of my dry hair, I looked in the mirror.   My dirty blonde hair was definitely too long for my liking, but that’s what happens when you live on the streets. My face was cleaner than it had ever been, and my cheekbones stood out a lot, making me look too thin. But what can I say? It was another hazard of living the way I wanted. I shook my head and grabbed the toothbrush and paste, and began to brush my teeth.    Gazing back at the boy staring at me, this was who I was, yet this family adopted me. I snorted to myself, whatever they thought they had in store for me was not going to happen. My baby blue eyes glinted as I glanced back in the mirror. I ran my hand through my hair to try to fix it decently.  I went out of the bathroom and into the room; someone had apparently taken my sheets off and put new ones on. The only reason I could tell was that the color was different. Walking out the door into the hallway, I noticed a couple of ladies dusting the hallway.   “T.C.!”   I turned to see Emi running up to me, and luckily, I caught her as she jumped into my arms. She smiled up at me and then shocked me even more by kissing my cheek.   “We are going shopping! Are you ready to go?” Emi asked as she wrapped her arms around my neck.  “Why are we going shopping?” I gave her a curious stare as I carried her past the ladies dusting and then down the stairs.  “Because momma said you need school clothes and a haircut,” Emi informed me as she gave me a skeptical look.   I snorted and gave her a slight grin as we made our way to the foyer. Laura was standing there talking to a man in a suit; she looked over at us and smiled like she was genuinely happy that I was there. She motioned me to come to her; I walked to Laura as she was saying goodbye.   “Well, are you kids ready? We are going to go to get fitted for your school clothes. Then we will get some lunch and then get your hair cut,” she smiled at me.  I just simply nodded, fitting for school clothes? What kind of school would require clothes to have to be fitted?  Stepping out onto the porch, I glanced around as Laura stood beside me, waiting just waiting. Then I saw the limo come up the drive. It was a white SUV limo; the damn thing was loaded. When it pulled up in front of us, the passenger door opened, and a guy in a suit got out.   He looked like one of those bodyguards that famous people had following them around. I watched as he walked to the very back door and opened it. Laura motioned for me to follow her, and when she got to the man, I could tell he was probably a few years older than me.  “Jake! Good morning! When did you get back in?” Laura stood in front of him with a smile.  “Yesterday, Mrs. Churchhill. Mr. Churchhill instructed me I had an assignment.” The guy named Jake cut his eyes to me.   So the man of the house wasn’t as trusting of me as he put on. That’s fine; Jake was a few inches taller than me, with jet black hair and green eyes. He had a pretty imposing physique.  “Jake, this is Tom. He’s the one you will be guarding. Tom, this is Jake; he will be your bodyguard.” Laura introduced me to him.  He nodded to me and then helped Laura into the limo. I placed Emi down, and she crawled in, leaving me with Jake. I could tell he was sizing me up as I was him, trying to figure out if we would be getting along or if he was going to try to be my parent. I finally got in the vehicle sitting opposite of Laura and Emi. They both smiled at me; I grinned back at them and watched Jake close the door and make his way back upfront.   “Mrs. Churchhill, where are we proceeding first?” came a soft-spoken older voice through the speakers.  “The clothes shop first, Mr. Walker. We need to get clothes for Tom and Emi,” she said to the man on the speaker; she turned to me and continued, “So Tom, I know this will probably be a bit of a change for you, but the school you are going to be going to has a few rules about dress code and appearance. So we are going to be getting some casual suits for you to wear and formal suits, so those will need to be fitted. Then, after that, we will need to get your hair cut, and since it’s a little long, we can do a few things with it.”  “Suits? And a bodyguard? I don’t see a need for a bodyguard; I’m no one, and not a single person in this world would care about me. Don’t you think this is a little much since I just came off the street? I mean, how do you know I’m a good fit for your family?” I asked her bluntly.  Laura continued to smile as she answered me, “Tom, you are no longer a simple person. You are a Churchhill. Do you not realize the danger you will be in? We own a multi-billion dollar company. So you need the best education that we can give you. Because you see one day we hope that you will take over the company.”   I frowned at this. I couldn’t run a company like that; hell, I could barely take care of myself.   “Why not Emi? Is she not the rightful person to take over?” Questioning her as I glanced over at the small girl beside Laura.   “Yes, she would be rightfully. But she does not want to take over, and she wants to become an actress or model,” answered Laura, smiling down at Emi.   Emi smiled up at her and then back to me, nodding. I shook my head and leaned back against the seat. This was so crazy; this was not something that I would have dreamed of for myself. I ran my hand through my hair.   “Is that why you adopted me? To become your successor?” I shot her confused look.  “No! My parents adopted you because I wanted a brother,” Emi answered me.  “No, Tom, like Emi said. We wanted another child, and Emi wanted an older brother, so that’s how we came to you,” Laura said to me with a smile.   The limo stopped; I glanced out, spotting a building that showcased suits of different designs. The door opened, and Laura and Emi stepped out. I followed them both out, Jake three steps behind me. We entered the store, and an associate came up to Laura; they spoke for a while until she pointed to me. The associate came up to me and started to look me over.   “Let’s get him to the back, and we will measure him to find out his size,” He told Laura, she nodded, and the associate led me to the back.  That’s when I saw her and her mother. She was beautiful, chocolate curly brown hair, her eyes, the color of slate grey, locked with mine. Holy s**t, this girl is gorgeous, and when she smiled and cast her eyes to the floor, it nearly took my breath away.    “Ah, Mrs. Emerson! How are you doing?” Laura walked up to the girl’s mother.   “Mrs. Churchhill, I’m doing great. How have you been doing?” Mrs. Emerson countered with a smile.   “I’m doing wonderful. Just doing some school shopping,” Laura answered, smiling back at her.  “School shopping? For Emi? This store is for older kids,” Mrs. Emerson gave Laura a questionable stare as she took a glance at me.   “Oh, you have not met Tom! Mrs. Emerson, this is Tom, our son. He will be attending Oceanside as well,” Laura told her.  “When did you get a son?” Mrs. Emerson's stare became a glare as she let her eyes roam my form.  “We adopted him; now our family is complete,” Laura said proudly.   “Well, aren’t you so compassionate? He doesn’t look refined to go to that school. You sure he won’t hurt the children there? I sure would not like Aurora being around him; he looks like he had just come off the street,” Mrs. Emerson probed with a scandalized look.   “Well, I’m sure that he will be fine at Oceanside. He is a smart boy, and he will be able to do what he wants with his life,” Laura countered, as she brought herself to her full height, “And I expect you to respect him. As he is the heir to our company and a lot more powerful than your family.”   I could not believe that she was defending me, someone that hardly even knew me. I walked up to her and placed my hand on her shoulder.   “I don’t care what people think of me, Laura. Her words don’t affect me,” I told her as I stared back at Mrs. Emerson.   “Well, don’t you have some balls for someone who wasn’t born an elite,” Mrs. Emerson coldly told me, “Come, Aurora looks like some people want to wallow in filth.”  I stood tall as she walked past me; her daughter glanced up at me through her eyelashes. She seemed to be looking at me from head to toe. I kept her in my peripherals, watching her and her mother walk out the doors of the store.