AN: This story will be told in Alexis's perspective so buckle up and enjoy the ride of Max's free spirited, trouble-making sixteen year old. Review and I might just let her meet her real family :)
Chapter One: Not A Bad Girl
"You have about ten seconds to hand over your money before you force us to take it from you." I said threateningly to the guy behind the counter.
My face was covered with my black ski mask, but I could still see out of it, and right now, my brown eyes were staring at the thirty year old behind the cash register who stood unmoved.
"Did I stutter?" I asked angrily, slamming my hand down impatiently. Luckily I was wearing gloves as well or else the courts would look me up in the System and I'd be sent back to juvie. I don't think I could do that to my f&p's again. Especially since Rockie got busted last time too.
Let me explain before you get confused. 'F&p' is the term Rockie and I came up for our foster parents. It sounds sort of like an insult or a new cuss word, but really it's their names. Fran and Patrick. I know, right? Could they be any dorkier?
They're nice people though and really seem to be wanting to keep me around so I try not to get into any trouble. They even are filling for my adoption so I can be another one of their Brady Bunch kids...but more on that later.
Anyways, I've been stationed here for a year, nine whole months longer than I've ever stayed anywhere. I'm what people in the System like to call a 'drifter.' I go where I want to and don't stay with a family for longer than necessary. I'm basically just biding my time until I turn eighteen in two years and can legally go out into the real world.
I guess I could just do that now; run away one night and never look back. But I have a Crew to protect, so I'm stuck here in the 'wonderful' city of LA with the Spearmen's.
Let me introduce the Crew while I have a spare moment. The guy at the register is still stammering to find the key to the drawer and from the look of his meaty hands, this might take awhile.
My name is Alexis Shadows. My birth parents picked Alexis, though at this point I could care less about what they wanted. They abandoned me after all. I was the one who chose my last name though so I feel like I earned it a little more. It was all thanks to one of the nuns who found me. Shannon Shadows. Since she was my practical mom until she died and I was sent into the foster care system, I pretty much owed it to her.
I'm the leader of the Crew, as was to be expected since I united all of us. I'm the feisty speed demon who takes nothing from no one and has a natural right hook and killer instants. I'm not bragging or making things up to sound good; I'm seriously that dangerous.
Unknown to anyone but Rockie, who doubles as my best friend, I'm also part bird. Not sure how much and quite frankly, I don't care, but I do know it was enough for my real parents to give me up. All they left was a crummy note and a stupid, taunting necklace that I wear at all times even though Rockie says it would be better for me to trash it.
Rockie, or Raquel as she was known to 'f&p', was our brute fighter. She ended up at the Spearmen's because her stepfather beat her for most of her life until she finally snapped and ended up hospitalizing him, thus causing her mother to abandon her at the age of thirteen. She's fifteen now so the wound was still fresh. She bounced around twice, before the Spearmen's took her in and adopted her.
Sixteen year old Susie was our third member. She went by anything resembling a tantilizing treat since that was her part in our missions when we went really off book. She was beautiful and knew how to charm her way past guards or even calm down a riot of grown men about to attack the Crew. Not much of a fighter though, so we usually didn't bring her on things like this. She was here today though, sitting in the car patiently.
Our fourth and last member of our all girl gang was a fourteen year old known only as "Ghost." She was from another foster family down the street, but we were drawn to her like a moth to a flame. The second I saw her, I knew she was going to be important to us.
She's a decent fighter, though not as strong as Rockie or me, but her real strength came in her speed. There was a reason she was called the Ghost after all. She was fast, but more importantly, she was a genious when it came to computers. We should have called her the Hacker because she could wipe a hard drive and leave not a single trace of her activity.
"Lex," Rockie said to me hastily, "take him out."
Though I was an amazing fighter due to the extra abilities I had because I had freaking wings, Rockie was still almost as good of a fighter as I was. She was all brute force though and very little technique like I was, so I usually took out guys behind the register whenever we robbed a place.
Now, don't look at me like that. I know that stare. I've seen it one too many times from social workers and foster parents over the years.
I wasn't a bad kid, none of us were, we just needed extra cash every now and then and we were certainly good at getting our hands on it. Besides, this was for a good cause for once. Annabelle was sick.
She's our youngest foster sib, making our total five (not including the Spearmen's actual son, Taylor).
She's six years old and dying of a simple cold. Her immune system has been shutting down for months, but no over the counter medicine has helped. She was rushed to the emergency room for the third time last night and the doc bill was way above the Spearmen's price range. So, to keep her healthy, they had to leave her at the hospital on a breathing machine while Patrick was out pulling a double shift tonight and Fran was by Annabelle's side.
The Crew figured this was our only option.
Back to the present, Ghost was standing by the door on lookout and Sugar was waiting in the car since other than me she was the only one with a driver's licesnse. Rockie was staring at me, urging me on, as I stepped forward and tied up the man who refused to hand over the much needed cash. I emptied the drawer just as Susie honked the horn signalling another customer about to come in.
"It's been a pleasure." Rockie said, lifting her mask just high enough so the man could see her grin before we fled the scene.
