"Mark!" Jake called out; the entire family was wandering the streets in search of their runaway brother. He didn't even know where he was going, nobody did but when the time came where someone in the family needed help, everyone knew what they had to do.

Jake swerved passed a corner, calling Mark's name when he heard someone call his name. He skated over to a group of guys and he recognized some of them right away. Two of them were the kids that he and Mike got into a fight with for picking on Mark; they were with 3 other guys, bigger and older guys.

"I see you and your family fights together, so does mine" One of the boys said and out of nowhere one of the older kids threw a punch and landed it on Jake's left cheek. Jake stumbled backwards with his left eye closed so one of the bigger guys grabbed his shirt and held Jake close to him.

Jake tried to release the grip on his shirt but the man wound his free arm back and began striking Jake in the face. After 5 blows Jake felt the blood pouring from his mouth and nose but he didn't stop. He would have fallen over by now but the man was holding Jake's shirt, holding him in striking range. After a while the assaulter let Jake fall to the ground head first as he and one of the two boys from school began kicking Jake. Kicks were landed on his stomach as he heard his ribs crack; kicks were landed on his face as Jake's vision was getting blurry.

One of the boys from school grabbed Jake's skate board and swung it at his knee. Jake screamed but not long enough to be heard, with every blow it was harder to scream. A few minutes after one of the guys grabbed Jake by his back collar and held Jake's head toward the boy with the skate board. Jake looked up at him in terror as the boy wound the skate board back behind his shoulder and swung it at Jake's head. Jake's cheek bone was struck by the metal part of the board between the wheels as he fell over barley conscious as the group of assaulters walked away.

Jake lay on his back on the side of the street for a few minutes with his eyes slammed shut, breathing hard. Eventually he rolled over on his stomach and tried to stand by his right leg wasn't strong enough to hold his weight. Jake through his left leg forward while he was on his right knee and forced himself up. He looked down at ground and watched his blood drip down his face onto the concrete.

Jake limped over to pick up his hat and was fortunate enough that the bullies left his skateboard on the ground. He was in no condition to skateboard back to his house so he carried it as he slowly made his way back. He was approaching the front yard when Sarah caught a glimpse of him from down the street and came running.

"Jake, what's up? You find anything?" she called as she came running towards him but slowed down as she got a better view of her brother.

"Jake what happened?" Sarah questioned in a bit of a panic

"I….fell off my skate board" He answered, he didn't want her or anyone to know what had happened. It was partially because he didn't want them to worry but also because he felt that if they knew then he would seem weaker.

"Fell off your skateboard? What did you take a trip to the skate park?"

"My skateboard caught something while I was going down a hill looking for Mark. I'm fine, you should go back to look for him Ill catch up." He assured her, she didn't buy it but for now she needed to help find Mark so she ran off.

Jake tried his hardest to rush to the bathroom and clean himself up before his parents saw how bad it was, he looked in the mirror and was shocked at how beaten up he looked. He just stared into the mirror, disappointed in himself that he could let this happen to him. He spent about 10 minutes cleaning off the blood and patching up the bruises, it didn't look so bad now but with all the bruises and scraped there was no way to hide the fact that something had happened to him.

He rejoined Sarah, Mike and his mother, Kate, and continued the search for his younger brother, Mark. Eventually Kate got a call from his father, Tom, and said that he found Mark and would meet them all at the train station. Together they got in the car and sped off.

When they arrived at the train station Jake's mother finally got a look at him now that Mark was safe.

"Jake? How did this happen?" She questioned, he usually acquired a few bumps and scraped from skating so much but never this much at the same time.

"I just fell off my skate board" Jake answered as he exchanged a quick glance at Sarah.

"Looks like you need a bit more practice on that thing" Kim teased with her tongue out, Jake just looked at her menacingly and scowled.

"You really should start wearing a helmet mister" Kate scolded

"I don't need a helmet, it wasn't my fault" Jake answered

"Oh, hows that?" his mother questioned suspiciously, Jake paused for a few seconds

"There was something in the street that made me trip that's all, it was just because it was dark out that I didn't see it but since I'm never skating out in the dark it doesn't matter." Jake said; he was satisfied with that excuse and so was his mother who accepted it for now.

When Tom and Mark arrived on a train the entire family ran to greet Mark. Everyone apologized for neglecting him or making fun of him, the family looked like they were reunited and it would stay this way. Tom questioned the bruises on Jake's face but quickly accepted Jake's excuse now realizing what had actually happened. The large family returned home anticipating their lives going back to normal, well as normal as a family with 12 children can possibly be.