Disclaimer: I think it's a given, but I own nothing except for any original characters you come across.

Family Relations

By Be Boring

Chapter 1:The Casteau's

The lunchroom was bustling with high school students carrying trays that they were occasionally studying with a wary eye. If pre-Pulse school food was considered gross, post-Pulse was downright horrendous. Kids only ate it if they absolutely had to, which most did because it was the only free meal they'd be able to receive. For one girl in the room, it was the only meal she was guaranteed to get at all.

Watching the students move past, Jondy almost shoveled her food down. She could easily get past the taste if it meant getting something into her stomach. Most of the people at this school believed that she had it all: beauty, brains, and a rich foster family. Well, they were right about the first two even if she wouldn't admit it, but the last one was taken with a rather large grain of salt. She did have a rich foster family, but she herself was not rich in any sense of the word.

The Casteau's had more money than they could possibly know what to do with, but the same could be said of how many foster children they had. In these days there were so many homeless kids that foster homes received a respectable break in taxes for every child they took in. Like most rich people in this post-Pulse world, the Casteau's were stingy with their money, so they brought the foster kids in by the truckloads. There were already fifteen kids in that huge mansion, but they weren't as happy as some might have expected them to be.

It was hard to decide what was the worst: being locked in one room with four kids without having any personal space, having their foster parents forget to feed them occasionally or take away food as an unnecessary punishment, or the effect the combination of these things was having on her body. Jondy knew she had turned sixteen already, but she was much smaller than the other girls in her class in many ways. She was only 5'1", had a waist that was so tiny people joked one punch would break her in half, and she had practically no breasts. In fact, she hadn't gone through most of the things that girls experienced in puberty. She understood that she might not have the menstrual cycles that normal women had, but shouldn't she at least look like a woman? Everybody called her a liar when she claimed to be sixteen, she looked much closer to twelve. Other than a minor growth spurt and the length of her hair, she hadn't changed much since the escape from Manticore. She had to wonder if this lifestyle was stunting her growth or if she had been meant to turn out like this.

"What are you thinking about?" came an all too familiar male voice from mere inches away from her ear.

"Nothing that concerns you," Jondy grumbled in reply, deliberately not looking in his direction. A rather good-looking seventeen-year-old boy lowered himself into the seat next to her, apparently not noticing her hostility. With his short, spiky black hair and shockingly dark brown eyes, Victor Genteman undoubtedly had the most dangerous appearance of any of the guys in school. He always wore baggy jeans without a belt, long black T-shirts sporting profane statements, and a tattered denim jacket that looked as though it had seen more years than he had. As much as Jondy didn't like how he seemed to feel the need to come off as a bad boy, that wasn't what she considered to be the worst thing about him. He was one of the foster kids sharing a room with her at 'home'.

"C'mon Hannah, you're always so negative. I just don't get that. For a girl with such rare beauty as yours, you don't seem to realize how much life can offer you. Instead you ponder old, forgotten days that bring you no joy," he commented, with a slightly British accent that wasn't convincing in the least.

"Great, now you're becoming a poet of some sort?" she snorted, finally turning to look at him. She had never heard anything remotely that intelligent ever leave his lips before.

He frowned, as if he'd just realized the same thing as she had. "Sorry, I just came out of American Literature. Poetry happens to be what we're studying right now, and I haven't been able to stop talking like that since class ended. Don't be too impressed though, those were just phrases I picked up from the poems. Do you really think I could come up with that on my own?"

"I hadn't even considered giving you credit for what you said, I didn't think for a second that you could say anything that nice. Why aren't you sitting by anyone you actually get along with? Do you have to bother me when I'm trying to force down the only meal I could get today?"

"It's not like I'm going to enjoy this crap much more than you do. Besides, the guys all decided to skip school today."

Most people would have asked why he hadn't skipped along with them, but Jondy knew better. The last time he had tried that was two years ago, shortly after he had arrived at the mansion, and he hadn't even thought once about doing it since. When the Casteau's had found out about what he'd done, Mr. Casteau had taken a belt after him and left at least twenty-five welts on Victor's backside from head to toe. He hadn't been able to sit right for at least two weeks, but they had forced him to go to school anyways. That was probably one of the few times that Jondy had ever felt sorry for him.

"Wow, I never thought I'd see the two of you sitting next to each other!" chirped Brandi Mazdi, Jondy's best friend and the only person in this building that seemed to be happy twenty-four hours a day. She wasn't much taller than Jondy, which suited Jondy just fine, and she had short auburn hair that stuck out in almost every direction but still managed to look good. Her sharp eyes moved back and forth between Jondy and Victor, then a sly smile stole over her face. "You know, you two would make the cutest couple. I mean it's like a cross between Miss America and America's Most Wanted."

Victor scowled, he'd never liked Brandi very much, but Jondy's milk nearly shot out of her nose as she tried to stifle her giggles. Brandi was right, they did look like a cross between Miss America and America's Most Wanted. For every bad boy feature that Victor had, she had something to contradict it perfectly. Her hair was a light honey brown, but not quite light enough to be considered blond, and fell in a mixture of various waves and curls to the center of her back. Large, round, innocent blue eyes often made her look like a deer in the headlights, but most people said they were suited for her. Mix into that her smooth, always tanned skin, high but not bold cheekbones, and slender frame, and she certainly sounded like she'd fit the role of Miss America perfectly.

"I don't date little kids. Besides, I'm taken," Victor snapped, glaring sulkily down at his tray.

"Fine, be that way," Brandi grumbled, doing an incredible impression of his mannerisms as she started to eat. Jondy choked back some more giggles, then quickly swallowed the last of whatever that meat was on her tray.

"I've got to go talk to Mr. Rodriguez, so don't you two kill each other while I'm gone." She was aware of their glares as she left the table, but she forced any guilty thoughts aside. She didn't really have to talk to her Advanced Algebra teacher, she just had to be alone. She needed at least twenty minutes to herself each day, which usually happened between leaving school and when she had to return home, but today was different. Today their foster parents were doing their monthly check of the rooms.

*****

Getting home early was something Jondy had never tried to do, but she couldn't stay away when the house needed to be ready. Usually this was done on the weekend, so they had all day to make sure their room was in perfect shape, but her parents were going away this weekend and postponing the check was something that would never cross their minds. Everybody had done their best to pick up stray things that morning, but they would have to practically scrub the room from top to bottom in order to pass their foster parents' scrutinizing eyes.

Jason and Mindy, the only kids that hadn't started school yet, were already doing their best when she entered the room. Jondy reached down and fondly ruffled Jason's white-blond hair. It was so sad that she had to see such an innocent four-year-old face like this lathered in sweat from all the work he'd done to please a pair of old rich bastards. Even Mindy's hair was wringing wet in its ponytail, which hung limply and was letting loose strands out around her face.

"Come on guys, sit down and take a break. I'll take over, and Victor and Cassie will be here in a little while to help out too. Why don't you guys sneak in a nap before everybody else gets back?" By everybody else, she was pretty much referring to Victor. Cassie, who had to be one of the quietest twelve-year-olds on the face of the planet, would be able to avoid waking the little ones up, but Victor liked to make a racket. If he had to work, then by God those little kids were going to work too. That's how he saw it anyways. Neither Jondy nor Cassie liked his way of seeing things. Those poor kids had probably been working at their slow but determined pace all day, and he would be sure to make them start working twice as hard as soon as he saw that they were lying on their beds.

It was at least a half hour before Cassie showed up, her face flushed as though she'd been running for a while. "Sorry about being so late, but I got a detention in World History. I don't think they're going to send anything home though." She sounded immensely relieved about this. "Where's the living nightmare?"

"Probably screwing his girlfriend before he has to come home and face the real world. I just hope he makes it back before the check, or we'll be the ones paying hell for it." Jondy finally sat down on her bed, which felt more like a load of golf balls shoved into a scratchy cloth bag. The room only needed for its linoleum floor to be swept and washed, and for its tiny carpeted area to be vacuumed. She figured Cassie could do the vacuuming and sweeping, which was easy enough, then Victor could get down on his hands and knees when he came home to scrub the floor. Cassie walked out of the room, heading for where they could both hear the steady hum of the vacuum cleaner in the next room.

She returned with a worried look on her face. "Poor Kyle, he's the only one in there and that room is still a mess. They get breakfast taken away for a month if that room isn't to our parents' liking."

Jondy was about to make a comment about the fact that Cassie had called the Casteau's their parents, but decided against it and instead headed over to the next room where Kyle was running around frantically trying to make the room look decent. His young face lit up with relief when she came in, and together they had it looking pretty damn good in no time. It wasn't until they had finished that she turned back to him. "Where's everybody else? I swear they do this to you whenever they get the chance. Where did they go?"

"The girls snuck down to the kitchen to talk with Patty, and the boys are hiding in one of the closets. I'm just no good at this parenting stuff."

This might have sounded strange to anyone living somewhere else, but for the Casteau mansion this kind of talk was natural. There were three rooms of this house that each held five kids compacted together, although there was more than enough space in this house for them all to have their own room and not even see each other if they didn't want to. There was usually a pair of teenagers that ended up acting as parents for the others, someone in the middle to help out with anything extra, and two little kids. This room was the only one that didn't follow suit. Kyle was the oldest, but he was only thirteen years old. None of the other kids in here had even reached ten yet. This meant that Kyle was worn down to his breaking point from the stress of taking care of four children when he was still a child himself.

She opened her mouth to assure him that he wasn't doing a bad job at all given what he had to work with, but at that moment she heard heavy footsteps making their way down the hallway. Victor had finally made his way home. "Go down and get everybody so we can wait for the room check. I'll be back later." She slid silently out into the hallway to follow him to their room. His dark eyes immediately told her he was in a dangerously bad mood.

"What do you want?" he snapped, his eyes flashing down over her work clothes.

"First, I want to know where the hell you were, and second, I want you to wash the floor. You knew the check was coming today, but you weren't here to help us get ready! They'll probably be up here in five or ten minutes, and we're the ones who did all the work!"

"Just shut the fuck up, if you want to know so badly then I'll tell you where I was. I was out getting dumped by my girlfriend! Are you happy now?"

"As a matter of fact, I am! It'll keep your mind on task, which is where it should be! You're lucky you haven't knocked her up by now, unless that's the reason she's breaking up with you."

He scowled and threw his jacket onto the nearest bed, which finally encouraged Mindy to climb out of it and slip out into the hallway to go into Kyle's room. Jason followed closely behind, while Cassie wildly began to make the beds again. Jondy quickly noted that she'd already washed the floor even though they were supposed to be saving that for Victor to do. At least one of us around here is thinking clearly. Her attention was quickly returned to Victor as he nearly overturned their tiny homework table. "Do you really think I'm that stupid? We used protection, I'm not looking to have kids anytime soon. She's just breaking up with me because she thinks the only thing I'm interested in is sex."

"But isn't that true?"

"Of course it is! Come on, you must feel like going out and getting laid every now and then. This place is a hellhole! Fucking Michelle was the only thing I ever had to look forward to. Frankly, jacking off just doesn't cut it anymore." Jondy saw the look of disgust flash across Cassie's face from over Victor's shoulder. "How do you suggest I get rid of that extra stress now? I don't have anybody available to me right now." Suddenly he paused and ran his eyes down her body again, much slower this time. Now Jondy was pretty sure he wasn't looking at her work clothes. "Unless, of course, you felt like getting rid of some stress with me."

Her face immediately told him what she thought of that. "Sorry, I'd rather screw one of the guard dogs. They'd probably be better equipped." A smirk crossed her face at the new flare of anger in his eyes.

"Excuse me? How about waiting to judge the merchandise until you've seen it?" His entire countenance seemed to undergo a complete change as he stepped towards her, suddenly far too close for comfort. She quickly stepped back, just barely managing to keep herself from falling as her foot slipped on the teddy bear that Mindy had accidentally dropped on the floor. As her focus was momentarily pulled away from him, Victor took the opportunity to reach out and grab her arm to pull her flat against him. Her eyes widened slightly as she felt what he apparently hadn't been able to use earlier that afternoon and seemed dead set on using now. Then, for the first time in seven years, her soldier instincts kicked in.

Victor didn't even know what had hit him as he was suddenly flung over her shoulder and spun around to be slammed face first against the wall. He grunted in pain at the same time that Cassie cried out with shock, making a noise loud enough to easily carry downstairs to where their "parents" were getting ready to start their room check. Light footsteps rushed down the hall as Mindy, Jason, Kyle, and his younger charges Haley, Dawn, David, and Mark came running into the room. There was some movement heard from the third room down the hall as the other five kids heard the commotion, but they didn't come running to check it out. Unlike everybody in the second floor with the exception of Jondy, they could hear the heavy footsteps of their foster parents and their security coming up the stairs.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Victor yelped as she twisted his arm nearly to the point of breaking and tightened her fingers on the back of his neck. Although she could hear the approach of the exact people that she didn't want to see her in a position like this, she couldn't make herself let him go. It seemed that her long-forgotten muscles enjoyed being used again, and no amount of common sense was going to make them release him. I'd only have to move my hand a little to break his neck. It wouldn't take much, just a little twist. Fortunately or not, she would have to decide later, the room was suddenly flooded with adults and she was being pulled away from the temptation of killing her eldest roommate. In only moments she was brought face to face with her foster father.

"What's going on here?"

She was saved the trouble of answering him as Victor spat out, "The psycho-bitch attacked me! I only brushed against her and suddenly she pulled some kung-fu thing and shoved me against the wall! You might want to test her for steroids, 'cause there's no other way she could have pulled something like that."

"Only brushed against me? You were about to rip off your pants in front of me! And don't waste your time, I'm not on any fucking steroids!" she growled as she pulled her arm away from one of the guards who had pulled out a syringe, apparently thinking of taking a blood sample on the spot.

Her "father" held out a hand to stop the guard from persisting with the needle. "Don't bother, I have a different job for you. Keep the children here, we're taking this one downstairs. We're going to have a little friendly discussion in the library." While his words almost sounded warm, the strange shadow in his eyes made Jondy's stomach lurch unpleasantly. She couldn't interpret what that look meant, but something told her that it was foreboding something bad for her.