Jace's POV

I walked in the doors of my old house and made my way to the living room.

"Mom, Dad, I'm home!" I yelled through the house. I walked through the doorway to find it empty, the lights were on and it was clean to the last pin.

"Jace?" I heard from the stairway. I stepped back from the living room into the hallway to look at the direction I heard my name being called. "Jace!" Max, my eight year old brother, yelled as he ran done the rest of the way of the wooden stairs and flung himself at me. I laughed and hugged him back as I seen Maryse and Robert descend the stairs.

"Hey Jace, I wasn't expecting you come around. How have you been?" Maryse, my adopted mother said to me as she gave me a quick hug as Max let me go. Robert smiled as he gave me half of a hug.

"I'm good, I just thought I would stop by and see how you guys have been doing. Its been a while." I said as we all made are way to the living room and sat down.

"Yeah, Its been a while since any of my kids dropped by." She said looking at me accusingly.

I gave a half laugh. "You know Alec and Isabelle, always doing there own thing." of course I know the real reason why they didn't visit often. Actually Isabelle, Alec, and I all hung out and were really close. The reason they weren't to close to our parents was because of their homophobia, and Alec being gay and all. He still never got the nerve to tell them, though Izzy and I found out halfway through high school.

"yeah, yeah, I know." Maryse said looking disappointed and waving it off. I knew she felt bad about not spending more time with us growing up but she and Robert still had their job. Both of them worked for the same company, both business people. Lots of times they left for days at a time on business trips.

"So what have you been up to?"

"Well I've just been writing songs lately, I am suppose to be recording them in about two weeks from now."

"Well that's good!" Maryse said looking happy. Robert just rolled his eyes while turning the other way. I knew he never thought I would make it as a singer and thought that I should go for a more 'realistic' job, but I have gotten over it. I was going to do what I liked and not go by his judgment. Another reason Alec was afraid to tell his parents was Roberts strictness.

" I do a couple of performances at Java Jones every know and then. I just back from there right now."

"oh, well you should have told us! We would have came to see you." Maryse excited.

I just looked at Robert who looked like he was paying no attention to the conversation. "Well Maybe next time." Maryse seemed to understand as she just gave a look to Robert.

"Can I here your new songs?" Max asked with a hopeful look in his eyes.

I smile, "Maybe next time I can take you along to see me."

He cheers up at this, "Cool! Mom got me new manga's at the store. You should see them, their very cool…" Max went on as he grabbed my hand and dragged me upstairs to his room. Once we got to the second floor of the very ordinary suburbs home he opened his door and led me inside the blue painted room I sat on his bed as he grabbed the books lying on the floor. Max showed me all the new ones he got and went on and on about what they were about.

I just smiled and listened.

We talked for a long time about how he's been, school, my songs, and Alec and Izzy.

When something caught my eye on his nightstand close by I turned my head to get a better look at it. It was a drawing, obviously done by a child.

"What's this?" I asked grabbing the picture to examine it better. Max looked up to see what I was talking about and his eyes widened a little as he saw what I was holding. He quickly shot up and tried to grab the picture, but of course I was to fast for him. I stood up and held it above my head so I could look at the drawing without Max taking it.

"Give it!" Max said trying to reach the paper. The drawing was of a classroom and with a teacher in the front. The teacher had red hair and was wearing a dress. I instantly saw that max was in the front row. It wasn't to bad for a eight year old.

"Why are you so defensive? It's just a drawing of a classroom.

I look back at the drawing to see if I missed anything. I notice how there aren't many other students in the classroom and how they all look like he didn't put much effort into them. I see that the drawing was mainly about the teacher teaching what looked like art. I look back down at the blushing blue-eyed boy in front of me who stopped trying to reach the paper. A smile creeps on my face.

" Oh, I get it. You have a crush on your teacher don't you?" I say mischievously. His blush deepens as he stutters out a reply.

"I-I do not." he says defensively.

"You do!" I laugh at max's embarrassment, this was adorable. He crossed his arms and looked down.

"Hey, its ok, I'm just teasing you." I reassured him. After we talked some more we went downstairs to the kitchen for ice cream.

"Jace? Do you think you could babysit Max next week?" Maryse said as she entered the kitchen. "Me and Robert have another business trip. Are babysitter already said that she couldn't be here."

Max's face lit up instantly looking at me expectantly. "uh… yeah sure, I don't think I have anything going on." I said.

"Great. We leave Sunday night. You'll have to make sure he gets up and take him to school…" Maryse went on telling me all the things that I would 'need to know' about taking care of Max. I drowned her out, I heard it all before. Its not that hard to take care of a kid.

Once I left, I went back to my apartment which was in city. I lived about twenty miles from my parents house, which is why they live in a more suburban area. When I got back to my average- size pure white apartment it was just past ten so I got ready for bed. I sat on my bed with my acoustic guitar and my notebook and started to work on song lyrics.