Edit (5-26-13): Yay! I'm back! As in, back to edit this story so I can work on the next installment. I've deleted the crazy, mostly stupid notes, and have gone through this story-painfully-to edit over some of the not so great things. So far, I've changed very little in the story, but if I do, the author's note will tell you.
Expect the unexpected. That's what.
Gabriel Duncan had just turned thirteen years old, and despite being a teenager, he was still the same old Gabe. He was still five foot three inches, he still had the same color eyes (brown) and the same color hair, which was oddly enough, different from the rest of his family. Sometimes, it made him wonder, because he wasn't stupid, no matter what people said. But he'd always brush it off and continue with life. He still lived in the same house he had all his life, with the same people (not including Charlie) and the same basic furniture.
He was a boy (or now-a-days man) who, like all other men, feared the thought and idea of change. Just like when he started school, when all he wanted to do was stay at home with mommy. Just like when Charlie was born, and he wanted so desperately to be the youngest child again. Just like now, the last days of summer, when he was about to enter a new school year, with new standards, ways, and people. All he wanted to do was turn around and run backwards in time to keep things like they were. But that's not the way things worked.
Now that he was thirteen, he was suppose to be able to do cool things with his friends, like go see PG-13 movies without having to lie to the nice lady who was at the ticket counter. Now that he was thirteen, he was suppose to slap pretty girls asses when they came around the corner. Now that he was thirteen, he was suppose to be free from everything. But he wasn't. Life could be a real asshole every now and again. But for Gabriel Duncan, life was a constant asshole.
Maybe, just maybe, that's why when he went into the attic looking at his old memories and toys and life before life got in the way, he was terrified. Terrified he had finally solved the answer to his age long question.
Earlier that day...
The sound of a buzzing alarm scared the crap out of him. He wasn't use to it. There he was, a new man to the world, and he was scared by a little alarm. It couldn't even kill him. It couldn't explode. It couldn't implode either. It was just a child's alarm. And yes, he was a man, the Jewish community even recognized it as so. Just, he wasn't Jewish.
As he reached for the source of the noise, he knew that the moment he turned off that alarm, he would fall right back to sleep. Which didn't bother him so much, not as much as the fact that when he didn't wake up, someone- usually Charlie-would come into his room and force him to get up. Then he put on some pants and go downstairs for breakfast, before sneaking back up to fall asleep in his nice, soft bed. It didn't help that after your alarm rings your bed seems so much more comfy.
But that morning, nobody came to get him. He waited for Charlie to come padding in his room, or for Teddy to kick down his door and demand he get up, but nothing came. Not a scrape or a knock or anything. He tried to listen for noises indicating something was alive, and nothing. That worried him. He bounded down the stairs, practically falling down them, before coming to a halt and realizing where everyone was. "Dammit." He seethed.
The Duncan family, minus Gabe, was a church. Usually the brown haired part of the family hated going to church, which was one of the good things about Charlie. But ever since he had been going, Gabe had had his eye one on of the newer member of the church, who seemed to have as much fun as him. They had talked a few times, and he found out her name was Lucy. Really, it wasn't much to go on, considering he'd only seen her a couple Sundays, and he wasn't really looking for anything but to talk to her. Now, though, in the summer, he wasn't forced to go to church, and so far he had missed two weeks in a row. It was a good thing school started on Tuesday, because that meant he was woken up for church, and then he could see Lucy.
Since no one was home, he didn't see the need to put some pants on. He simply walked into the kitchen, grabbed a bowl, the milk, and some cereal, and enjoyed his quiet morning. That was a new thing about him. He liked quiet mornings now, more than the loud ones. Everyone always said he would mellow with age, and he didn't quite believe it.
The attic was one place he was never, under any circumstances, allowed to go. Did that stop him? No. Sometimes, he would quietly sneak up there, and just sit, looking through the old memories before any kids were born. Then PJ who had a whole floatilla. Maybe because he was the oldest. Anyway it was a monument to horders everywhere. Then there was Teddy. Not as much junk. Still, a steamboat of things were up there. Five steamboats. There was more stuff on them than anyone else, even though he hadn't looked at his own boxes. Today, he would look at his.
Getting up to the attic was easy, just a matter of pulling himself up. He climbed to the rafters, and lower his box down after locating it. It wasn't a very large box, but he still had countless memories in there. Pictures from every birthday he had ever had. He looked so cute the first three years, cake all over his, face. At age four, more cake made it on the floor instead of his mouth, after he threw a fit. At age five, he was racing down the sidewalk on his new bike, when he decided to see if he could jump a car; he couldn't. His shoulder had to have five stitches, but he was fine. Age six, was the first birthday he had friends over, with a pool and a slide. Age seven, eight, and nine, he was a in trouble, so he was in his room while the party went on without him. Age ten, and his cake was ruined with Charlie touching it. At eleven, he had his friends over for the night. At twelve, he had his party at Laser Quest. Thirteen years old, and not happy, he sat in his room all night, and for the next three days. Gabe smiled at the memories.
A few old toys sat in the box, dusty, but still useful. An old rattle that no longer made any sound. A plastic hay bail that was dirty and colored on. A cow that had it's legs bitten off. Mr. Train, wanted by every three year old in Colorado, was a train with a face and a remote control. It could zip downstairs, push open doors that were slightly a jar, and run on carpet.
At the bottom of the box laid a black folder. A CD with the title 'Gabriel's Favorite Music' was on top of it. He took out the CD, and placed it near the exit. Then he took out the folder and leafed through it, reading only the ones he saw important out loud. "Birth Certificate, Hospital Rules, Adoption Papers, Book of Names... Wait, what the hell?" Slowly he went back to the Adoption Paper, his eyes wide with disbelief. "No. That can't be true." But as he read further, Amy and Bob Duncan were not his biological parents. They had adopted him on December 1, from Manitou Springs.
He shivered at the thought of not being who he was and growing up where he had and being someone else. He quickly grabbed his birth certificate, nearly ripping it in the process, and checked it. His real name was Gabriel Jesse Santiago. He was born on November 23, 1999. His mother's name was Courtney Jane Santiago. She was born June 3, 1982. Quickly he did some mental math, something he hated. 30. His mother was 30 years old. He looked at his father. Unknown. He didn't have a father.
What was he talking about? Of course he had a father. And a mother. And a big brother, sister, and a little sister. He wondered if they had known about him. And if they did? No, he didn't care. Obviously that didn't change anything. But a small voice in the back of his head would always from now on, claim, 'They aren't your real parents, Gabe. Your real parents didn't love you. Your real parents gave you away.'
From downstairs he hear the door opening, and his mother calling, "Gabriel, get up!" That scared him too. One second, it's quiet and he's contemplating whether or not this is some kind of sick joke, and the next, he's getting a jury summons.
Gabe folded his birth certificate in fours and grabbed the CD, before practically jumping down the shaft to the attic. He closed it, hid the items he cared for, and walked into his bedroom, closing the door with just seconds to spare before his mother came up to his room. 'That was extremely close. Too close. I have to watch time. I have to be careful. God, is everything in life this heart-racing? Then boring? Wait, stop, get your thoughts together. Okay, so you're an adopted child who had no idea about it. Your life is turned upside down. God, it sounds like a TV show commercial on USA. Where do you go from here, Gabe?'
God, I cringe as I read this.