Lost Boys Chapter 1

Hey guys, new story which me and the muffin roleplayed first to kinda of get the idea of how we are going to plan it all out and how many chapters we will do and that kinda of thing. This is the second time I have started this chapter, I got about three pages in then lost all my work so hoping I don't lose this too.

This is an alternative universe and please don't forget that if you feel like I have gotten some facts about the boys wrong, I will be changing ages to teenagers and switching the age order around and the heights to suit the story. So here are the guys and the ages they are at the start of this story:

Aron Erlichman- 18 years old

George Ragan- 17 years old

Jorel Decker- 17 years old

Jordon Terrell- 16 years old

Matthew Busek- 16 years old

Dylan Alvarez-15 years old

Daniel Murillo- 14 years old

Jorel p.o.v

I am currently in one of the music rooms at the boy's home, waiting for the rest of my friends to get here so we can mess around. I am only 17 and I have been here since I was two, some of my friends like George who is also 17 have been here since they were born and others like Matt have only been here for a few years. Aron is 18 and like George he has been here all his life and he is about to leave soon. Jordon is 16 like Matt and we have a few more years here I think because no family wants us. Dylan is currently the baby of the group because he is only 15 and he's been here since he was 3.

Here is Los Angele's home for Lost Boys, a fancy name for an all-male orphanage and an adoption center. Some of us have never really seen girls apart from when we go to school because they don't have the capabilities to teach us here even though they would like too, and we only have a couple of female social workers here. The most popular method of being brought here is being dumped on the doorstep when you are a new-born or dumped when you are younger than the age of five. Other people like Matt get brought here if they lose their parents and no one wants to take them in. I have heard of a few who were brought in because they were abused but we hardly see them anymore.

I decide to go and look for Jordon because he usually is the first here unless he is still sleeping or something. When I walk into his room, I noticed there is now a bunkbed and the bottom bunk is more like a sleeping den. Jordon is helping Caleb set it all up on the bottom for someone else because all his stuff is on the top bunk. "What's going on?" I ask, feeling curious. We really need to have a new guy in our group to change it up a little and Aron is starting to get on everyone's nerves. "We are getting a new guy in tomorrow and we decided that Jordon is going to share with him and that you guys are going to help him settle in," Caleb replies, and I help them set up the bottom bunk with what they give all new guys.

Regardless of how old you are when you first arrive it is the home's policy to provide you with a stuffed animal. It could bring comfort and give them an item which would help them associate it with the good times they may have here or if they get adopted where they came from. This new guy is getting a little stuffed fox, I have a wolf and Jordon got a jaguar. The others got one too; I can't remember what they have though. "So, what do you know about this new guy that we can know?" Jordon asks, a fair question considering they will be spending at least two years sharing a room.

"He is a year younger than Dylan; he's got brown hair and brown eyes. He's quite short and his personality seems to be shy so far. His name is Danny and he is a local boy, he has some Costa Rican heritage though, so he might speak Spanish around you guys without meaning to. He will definitely need your help because he is coming from probably one of the worst cases of child abuse I have ever seen in my entire career and you know how long I have been doing this for now," Caleb answers and I immediately feel sorry for Danny. Caleb has been working here for the past 30 or 40 years now so he would have seen some stuff.

So, Danny is 14 which makes him just the right age to be starting high school, this will be good, so we will all go to the same high school together and even when us older kids leave, we can still hang around with them for the 4 years it will take before we are all done with high school. I think Dylan is in the same grade as him since he failed it last year, so he must redo it, so Danny will have a friend for his classes when they have the same ones. "I am going to visit Danny later on, so I will tell him some things about you guys, so he knows who he is going to be helped by. I know right now Aron will not do anything, but he will be moved out by the end of the year. I also know that you boys will do me proud and help this kid," Caleb tells us, and we nod.

When Caleb left the room, we decide to finish off making Danny's bed before joining the others in the music room. Aron wasn't there because he was with his nine lives friends and doing whatever he wants to do. "Hey, I was wondering where you guys disappeared to," George says when he sees us enter the room. "Hey, we were working on a slight change to my room," Jordon answered, and he picked up and acoustic guitar and started strumming on it. The guys immediately became more interested when Jordon said that, but he was more concentrated on the guitar. "We are getting a new guy in the group tomorrow," I explain, wondering if Jordon was going to elaborate on this or make me tell them.

"Yeah, he is called Danny. He is sharing my room and he is gonna need us a lot," Jordon adds when he pauses from his strumming session. Dylan and Matt were also very interested. "What do you mean he is going to need us a lot?" Matt asks and Dylan nods. "Danny is 14 so he is younger than Dylan. From what Caleb has told us he is coming from the worst case of child abuse that he has seen in his career," Jordon explains and when they look to me and tilt their heads to question whether or not it's true and all I can do is nod. "Caleb might tell you this when you see him next, but you'd already know it from us and we were also told he might speak Spanish to us without meaning to," I add.

"Damn, he does need our help if Caleb says it's the worst case he has seen. Forty years of being a child social worker does mean he has seen a lot of bad shit going on in families," George says, also feeling sorry for the new guy who we haven't met yet. I knew he was going to help me and Jordon take care of the little guy, George has always been labelled the father figure in the group. He will be a big help in making Danny feel safe while he is with us. "Well if he needs our help then we will help him," Dylan says, and we did a little group fist bump. "You would be in the same classes as him at school, wouldn't you? You failed that year," Matt asks Dylan who nods, he isn't that fussed about failing last year then.

"Yeah, maybe once he knows he is going with someone he will get to know a bit will make school better for him," Dylan says, if Danny had someone easily recognisable as a friend it would help him settle in, I think. Then again, I don't think Danny is going to be starting school on Monday anyway since he will have the week to settle in and get used to being around people. I think Danny might be in a hospital at the moment because if a child or teen gets removed from an abuse situation unless they need medical treatment then they are brought here straight away. "It's a shame Aron will have no interest in the poor dude. It might change Aron for the better to have a younger guy to mentor and influence," George says.

"Aron is too busy to even care about us anymore George. He isn't going to care about the new guy or if he does it will be to influencing him to make the wrong decisions and do the wrong things," Matthew says. It seemed like he was being an asshole but unfortunately he is telling the truth. Aron doesn't care about anyone but himself and one day the nine lives group will learn that. It will be enough for Danny himself that there will be 5 other people around to look after him so having that toxic asshole around won't be that helpful. "Yeah, Danny doesn't need that asshole anyways. He has all of us," I tell them, and they nodded in agreement. We know already we will be better help for the poor kid.

Caleb walked in with a stack of papers. "Hey boys, I am sure Jordon and Jorel have already told you about the new boy I plan to introduce to your group tomorrow. I just want to make sure I have your permission to take some pictures of you when I go to see him in a little while, so I can start getting him used to being around you. Then you won't be total strangers to him when you are introduced tomorrow," he tells us, and we are eager to sign the papers because we wanted to help Danny out which might be a bit weird considering we are not the best-behaved students in the school or kids in the home. He said he would try and bring a picture back with him of Danny and some information on him.

This is going to help us get to know him a little better and know what to expect when we meet him tomorrow for the first time. We want a better idea on his personality and how he can help him the best. It is going to take a while for him to warm up to and to be able to trust us. If he has gone through the worst abuse like Caleb has said then he is going to struggle to adapt to being in a house with people caring for him twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week. He leaves again, and we just mess around with the guitars for a while. We will wait for him to come back before we talk about Danny again. We were in the middle of writing songs, so we wanted to continue with that while Aron is gone.

He wanted to make songs, but it was apparent after we planned a whole album out that he would rather go with nine lives to make worse songs which was fine by us. We could make better songs without him, so it made no difference to our writing abilities and our ability to make chords fit together to make a track. I was looking at George who was working on a song called SCAVA and the lyrics were quite deep and meaningful like our swan songs album wants to be. I just wanted to make music for fun for now, maybe when we are a bit older we can start looking for record labels and make something out of our idea. Maybe we can get Danny to join in with our idea once we get to know him a little better.

"Hey, maybe Danny can join our band? He might be a good singer," Jordon suggests after we had been practising for about half an hour. We had all stopped for a break, so we could get a snack and a drink. "Maybe, we would have to get to know him a little better first though. He might not know if he wants to join the band. We will see how he does," George says, being the sensible one in the situation. That was also what I was thinking of. I have to make sure Danny is comfortable being around us first before we even try and push him into talking about joining the band. He might not even want to join the band, or even hang out with us after the initial settling in period has passed.

"Yeah, it was just a suggestion because we might find that he is musically gifted or something. Maybe if we find something really positive to focus on, then he will be able to adjust more easily and open up," Jordon says, bringing up a point I hadn't even considered. We have been told multiple times that we are wiser beyond our years and this goes to prove it. Distractions might be a good tactic in helping Danny recover. "Good suggestion Jordon, we will just have to see what happens when Danny arrives tomorrow," Dylan says. Either way I was planning on helping make the situation as pleasant as possible for Danny. I think the others will too because that's why we have been chosen to look after him.

"That's good, if we all keep this attitude then we can really help someone," Matt says, the fact that Danny has been through hell makes us even more determined to change his life for the better. We have all been through some kind of hell or loss which has made us arrive here, but I don't think any of us can say we have ever been abused by our parents. Jordon lost both of his parents, Matt and the rest of us got left here because our parents could not handle us. They couldn't afford to keep me at home, so they said it was better for me to come here and then be adopted into a family who were better able to look after me with finances. I was only 10 at the time and I didn't care, their love was enough for me.

I don't resent them for what they have decided to do. If they decided that it was in my best interests to be here, then I don't feel anger towards them. At the end of the day they had to make a decision which would benefit me the most and they picked this one. It doesn't stop me from going back to them at 18 if I want to. I have talked to them a couple of times and they said I could come back when I turned eighteen and I left the place unless I can own a house by that time. I love that I still have a family and I do not take it for granted one bit. I know the rest of my group do not have that luxury to have a family who cares about them as much as I do, but at the same time I wish they could take me back.

We messed around until lunch time when one of the care workers came and told us we had to go and make lunch. They observe our mealtimes and don't really cook for the teens for lunch. They only cook for dinner time for everyone since we should know how to make a sandwich. They make us dinner to make sure that everyone gets at least one meal a day. I think they will be monitoring Danny closely though since he might have issues eating. We weren't going to tell anyone else that we were getting a new member to the group, it will be obvious enough tomorrow when he arrives. I was glad it was a Saturday and we have some time to get to know him before we have school on Monday.

They said he probably won't be going to school for the first couple of weeks just, so he can adjust to the new life he is going to be living. Caleb came back at around half past 3 in the afternoon. We are all in Jordon's room and we left George in peace in the corner to read Paradise Lost for the fifth time or something like that. I never bothered counting. "Hey boys," Caleb says, and we all say hi back, even George who was reading. Caleb noticed that George was reading and sat down. "Hey George, do you think you would mind teaching Danny how to read? As far as we can tell he has Dyslexia and he has warmed up to me a lot, so he trusts me with things," Caleb asks, and George did put down his book.

"Sure, I don't mind teaching him. I'll wait until he starts warming up to me first. Don't want to force the kid, I think I might look a little intimidating to him," George says, he is a big muscly guy. You could tell he works out a lot, but he is a gentle giant. That is how I would describe him anyway. I could see Caleb was happy with how willing we are already to help someone we haven't even met yet. He passed me a picture, I saw a pale young teen with brown eyes and brown hair. He looked afraid, but that was probably taken a few days ago because I saw the bruises on his face. I passed it to Dylan next. "I'm glad. The picture I have passed around is the only one I have of Danny. He has done quite well today though. I think he will trust you guys pretty soon," he says.

I was glad that he was doing well with Caleb and he was trusting the care worker. Caleb is an incredible guy and does everything that he can to help children in his care and Danny is not going to be an exception to this. "This does look like a bad case, you can even see a little bit of bruising down the neck," George says when he hands the picture back to Caleb. "Yeah, like I told Jorel and Jordon earlier today it has been the worse case of abuse I have seen in my career. Danny is going to take a long time to heal and to start trusting people since he has been locked in a tiny bedroom for the last fourteen years. That's also why we suspect he might be dyslexic. He can tell me some words, but he has been showing the signs of having it," Caleb says.

I felt sorry for Danny, it must be horrible to be in a tiny room on your own for all of your life and the only interaction you get with someone is someone coming in just to hurt you and to say nasty things to you. "Yeah, we will take our time building trust with him since it is going to be hard for him to adjust to what is going on around him," Matt says, that was something we are all going to be doing. We will let him come to us and show him that we will care for him and we will support him. "I knew you boys would make me proud," Caleb tells us, and we smile. We are not going to let him down and we are going to make him even prouder than he is now. I can't wait to meet Danny in person. He is quite an adorable kid.

"When I was talking to him today, I introduced him to you guys and I told him that you are basically going to be like his big brothers and you would be here to support him no matter what. He seems to be interested in your passion for music and the nurses have told me that they get him to calm down with music," Caleb tells us, which is great for us. I have now thought of a way to help him, we can play our guitars and teach him how to play too. "That's cool, we don't mind being brothers to him and we could help him out with music," I say, I felt a little bad speaking for everyone, but they seemed to agree with me, so it didn't feel too bad. "Yeah Jorel is right, it will be cool to have another little brother on board," George says, and I smiled. Everyone here will be Danny's big brother, even Dylan who is only a year older.

We talked more about Danny's personality and things like that. Danny is quiet and shy, but when you get to know him a little better he can be quite giggly and friendly to people. He will have a lot of trust issues, but we will work through with him and these issues will only be temporary. He's going to have a lot of cuddles and he will have a lot of people looking out for him from now on. He is going to have friends and brothers for the rest of his life. Aron walked in around ten minutes after Caleb left and George had gone back to reading peacefully in the corner. Even though I think it is going to be interrupted quite badly in a moment. Caleb has been paying more attention to us than he has some of the rest of the children since he is helping us get Danny prepped for tomorrow.

I wanted to leave, the amount of arguments that happen now because of Aron are too much for me to deal with. He wants all the attention and cannot stand it if someone else gets even the slightest bit more praise than he does. "Why has Caleb been paying more attention to you dweebs?" Aron asks, and I watch Georg hold himself back from punching Aron. He stopped reading his book because he heard Aron walk in and knew it would be futile to read. "because it has nothing to do with you, if Caleb wanted you to know then he would have included you in the three times that he has come to speak to us today," Matt says. He was keeping the anger and frustration back I could tell from here.

"Matt's right Aron, if Caleb wanted you to know why he was speaking to us then he would have included you in the conversation, but he didn't so go away," Dylan says, we wanted him to go away. We don't like him anymore. Aron bickered some more but then saw one of his nine lives mates waiting for him and he walked off to be with him. I felt glad that he left so soon since I didn't want to fight with Aron any longer today at least. I don't even want to fight with Aron tomorrow. The last thing we need is to frighten Danny off with all the shouting Aron can do when he gets into an argument with someone. Danny is going to be frightened enough with the new things he will experience he doesn't need added upset.

Dinner was uneventful as usual, the only things that happened tonight happen every night. Aron was being a disruptive piece of shit like usual. George and I were tasked with feeding the toddlers. They loved it and they idolised us, so they were well behaved the entire time that we were feeding them. I knew little Luke was going to end up with half on his dinner on his face, but that was okay I would be able to clean him up. It is not the end of the world to have some food on your face. Luke looked at me with his yogurt before he smeared it all over his face. He giggled at me and I just let it slide since he was very adorable. "Luke do you just want Jorel to bath you?" George asks, for some reason Luke prefers me to bath him over anyone else.

"Jay jay do bath time!" Luke cheers and I smile, that is what he wanted all along and I am happy to give it to him. "Okay Luke, I will bath you in a little while okay," I tell him, and he smiled at me. He cheered again, and I lifted him out of the high chair when he was finished. Since I had already eaten my dinner I decided since he was the only tot that needed bathing that I would do it now and get it out of the way before the care workers take the tots to bed in an hours' time. Luke loved me bathing him and then cuddling him afterwards. I am sure he believes I am actually his brother or something. I know I am not, but he doesn't know that since he is only two. He doesn't know what a family is bless his little heart.

I feel sorry for him and a lot of the other children here. They might never know what a family is. Luke has a bit of luck on his side, he is only two so more people are likely to adopt him when they come looking for a new addition to add to their family. It is more likely for Luke to be adopted then I am since I am 17 now, a year away from being a legal adult in most countries. I would have to move out of here once I leave school next year too. It's going to be the same for George too, we would move into a house together hopefully then wait for the others to join us. Danny will be the last one to leave here, but we will still be here for him no matter what. I share a room with George so once all the little ones have gone to bed we all meet up in there.

"What books are you going to start Danny on when that does happen?" Jordon asks George while we relax. We are almost buzzing with excitement about tomorrow. "Probably the very basic books like little children ones. I have been thinking that I should do it on a one to one basis because that would be best for him and I will be reassuring him that it isn't embarrassing that he will be reading at that level for a small while," George says, I could tell he had put a lot of thought into that. When he does get round to teaching Danny how to read properly we are going to respect his wish to do it on a one to one basis and we can let him use either this room or Danny and Jordon's room to teach him. Maybe when he has more confidence then we can help him read to the little ones to build his confidence further.

We chatted the evening away until Caleb came in and told us to all go to bed since we would have a busy day tomorrow and Danny was arriving at around 1 pm if the morning rounds at the hospital go well. They just had a few little issues that were going to be solved during the night hopefully which would allow him to be healthy enough to leave the hospital and join us here. They predict that he is going to have night terrors and nightmares when he settles in but after that he should be fine, and they have medication to give him which Caleb will be organising and supervising. He doesn't want any children to take their own lives with medication while he can do something to prevent it from happening.

One by one the guys reluctantly left the room until it was just George and I left. We were excited still for tomorrow and we couldn't wait to meet the new member of the group. I want to help Danny as much as possible. "Hey, Caleb is right you know Jorel, we need to get to sleep now. I know you are excited about Danny arriving tomorrow but tomorrow comes quicker when you sleep," he says, quoting one of the care workers from when we were little. She would always tell us either the day before our birthday or the day before Christmas that the next day would arrive quicker the sooner we fall asleep otherwise either the birthday fairy or father Christmas would not arrive, and we would have no presents.

Later on, when we were a bit older we knew, and we realised that it was a lie to get us to sleep sooner so we would be quiet, and she could leave the presents in our rooms and then go and do whatever she wanted for the night. She got fired for having a relationship with one of the teens a few years ago. Serves her right for being such a stuck up bitch all the time. "Yes dad, I will go to bed now," I say, with a lot of sarcasm which made George look horrified. "Just go to bed Jorel and never call me that again," he says, and I chuckle at him. "Okay George, I will never say that again," I tell him.

And that is the end of the first chapter of my new story I hope you enjoyed. Like slave this is only going to be ten chapters long, but it is a once a month update so we will have about nine months to enjoy the storyline and what not.

8 | Page