Chapter 4: The life never dreamt of.

T.J collect his bags from baggage claim. He walked through the crowded airport hoping to see some sign of Jayce. There didn't seem to be anything.

'Fuck! I don't know his last name.' T.J chucked his bags on the floor outside the pickup zone. He took out his Ipod and quickly checked his email.

'Come on Spin!' he thought as his mail loaded.

"No new emails" he groaned.

"Someone's in a good mood today!" A cheerful voice came from behind T.J. He spun around to see his older brother walking towards him. He couldn't help notice how much of swagger Jayce had. He wore grey jeans with a black top and a flat top hat. His messy brown hair could be seen sticking out from underneath the cap.

"Yea, I had no idea where suppose to go or who I was going to meet." T.J picked up his bags and walked forwards. He shook Jayce's outstretched hand and accepted as his brother took his bag off him.

"How was your flight?"

"Slow and boring! Lucky for me I had my laptop" T.J pulled his jumper over his head and threw it over his shoulder. L.A heat was unbearable. Jayce walked even further ahead and T.J had to jog to keep up.

"Hey! where are we going?"

Jayce stopped and turned around. "Where going to my house!" As he finished his sentence a black car pulled up behind him. Jayce opened the door and motion for T.J to get in.

Jayce slammed the door behind T.J and leaned through the window. T.J looked taken aback.

"you're not coming?" He questioned moving to look out the window as Jayce leaned against the car.

"Na! I prefer my bike!"

T.J turned his head to see Jayce race away on his Motorbike. The driver turned round to him, he was a middle aged man. He had dark skin and short black hair. He wore a red shirt with a black best over it His eyes were hidden by think black glasses. He did not look like a normal driver. When he spoke, his voice was deep and hard. T.J took a gulp of air, he could still bolt, open the door and run for his life.

"You got two choices kid?" The man never broke his stare with T.J. With the boy in front of him clearly shocked he spoke again.

"We can catch up with your brother and break all kinds of road rules or we can take a nice tour of the city. It's up to you?"

Still unable to find his voice T.J said nothing and sat frozen to his seat as the big dark man stared at him from the front.

"No answer eh? Well looks like we're taking the first option."

The car roared to life and began to rumble underneath them. The driver revved the engine a few times before he turned around once more.

"I would put your seat belt on kid"

He did as he was told. If hadn't he would have been thrown to the other side of the car. He took off with such speed that it had to have been illegal. T,J gripped the seat as hard as he could and tried not to scream. He didn't want to look like an easy target in front of this guy. The wind from the open window blew through the car like a vacuum and caused the driver to swerve. Though it didn't seem to be effecting him. He had one hand out the window and the other on the steering wheel, effortlessly drifting in and out of traffic like it was a game.

The sound of angry pedestrians , car horns and city noise swirled in and out of the car. The drove for what felt like hours, in fact it was only twenty minutes.

T.J stole a quick glance to the front seat, the driver had a huge smile on his face. He pulled on the steering wheel and the car turned sharply and continued to zoom down the road at break neck speed. Before being able to gather his thoughts again T.J was thrust forward with the car as it came to a sudden stop.

The two of them exited the car, One rather clumsily. They were standing in front of a huge factory building.

"What are we doing here"

"This is where you'll be staying for three months"

T.J felt his heart sink.

A short walk through a big black door and the two men were walking down a very long corridor. Now that he was standing the driver looked even bigger than before. Standing about 6"10 he almost had to duck to avoid hitting his head. The big man turned around and looked at the small teenager struggling to keep up with him.

"So you're Jayce's brother?"

"Yea i guess so" T.J stuttered , her glanced up and realised who he was talking to. He puffed out his chest and deepened his voice.

"What of it?" The big man in front of him laughed, it echoed through the halls booming off the walls. It could have scared little children. The two walked a little further until they came up to a big red metal door. The large man put both his hands on the door and smiled at T.J.

"That things looks like it weighs a ton. No way you can move it"

"Ha" He took a deep breath in and pushed. The door flew open and a bright light shone from inside.

T.J covered his eyes and watched as the big man stepped through door.

"Come on!" The big man beckoned, T.J followed orders.

He caught a glimpse of the room he had just entered. His blue eyes widened and his jaw dropped open.

"NO WAY!"

The room was as big as a gymnasium, if not bigger. The building had different levels, each level had a different them of sorts. T.J peered over the bar and looked down. Bellow him were 5 different cars, they were half stripped. Upon closer inspection there two different pairs of legs beneath them.

On his level there was a bridge out the middle where a hanging platform was visible. There was a bed, a desk and about five different computer screens all over. There were no walls, just short, waist high metal boarders. On the other side of the of the room was a lap. Even more computer screens covered the space of fifteen desks.

circuit boards, half assembled computers, wires were piled up in one box. The other boxes had frames and cases.

T.J's attention was brought over to the corner of the bottom level. There was a gigantic pool, above that was a climbing wall.

"Ahem!" Came from above him. T.J craned his neck upwards to see his driver standing on another raised platform.

"you coming or not?" he questioned

"How do I get up there? and where do I put my bags?"

The man motioned for T.J to turned around and he saw a ladder that lead up at a boardwalk. He followed instructions and climbed the ladder and followed the boardwalk to the upper level of the ware house.

The upper level was nothing like the others. It looked more like an apartment than anything else. Couches were facing a big flat screen TV. A small kitchen was in the corner. There were three pathways leaded away from this area, Probably to more bedrooms. After looking around in awe, T.J attention was turned to the three people standing in the kitchen. One of them was his driver, the other was a drop dead gorgeous women. She was shorter than T.J, her long brown hair in a pony tail. He wore blue reading glasses that made her already sparkling blue eyes stand out even more. She wore a short dress and long sleeve button up shirt. Next to her was the only man T.J could recognize, his brother Jayce. Still wearing his clothing from the airport, he looked up and smiled at T.J.

"Made it here in one piece eh?" he motioned for T.J to join him.

"Barely!" Jayce laughed and then rounded on the big man, who was now sitting on the couches behind them.

"I told you to take it easy on him" He turned his neck and shrugged. Jayce turned his attention back to T.J.

"I assume you're tired? well your sleeping through that walk way over there" He motion to his left. The walk way ended with a big green door.

"Take a rest and we'll start fresh once you're awake ok?"

Without answering he walked past the walkway and into his bedroom for the next three months. He dropped his bags on the floor and without bothering to turn on the lights he closed the door behind him and fell onto the bed. Within seconds he was snoring.

T.J stirred underneath the covers. The room around him was dark. through his barley open eyes a desk, a computer a window were visible. It looked as though the window led out to a balcony. Pushing the covers off him he stood up and walked towards the light of the window. He rubbed the fatigue out of his eyes and smiled at the dream he had.

'Damn why did I have to wake up?'

T.J walked out on to the balcony and his jaw dropped, not for the first time since arrival. The room had a spectacular view of the ocean. The waved crashed on the rocks and moon's rays shimmering off the ocean created the calmest of surroundings. He caught his breath and breathed in the ocean smell. A shiver travelled from his neck down to the base of the spin. The scenery could calm any soul.

T.J ran his hands though his hair and looked around his room. A hole in the floor caught his attention. There as a ladder protruding out from it. He walked forwards and followed the ladder down.

He turned around and realised he was between the third and second floor, he glanced down to see the subtle ripples in the pool. a bit further below was a small platform.

'What's with all the platform?'

A small thud echoed as T.J landed flat footed on the platform. He walked over to the edge and glanced down beneath him. The pool had to be able thirty-five feet below him. It suddenly clicked. First went his shoes and socks but he didn't bother to remove anything else.

'Here goes nothing'

T.J launched himself off the platform, fully clothed, and plummeted fifteen feet before letting out a ear splitting scream.

"WOOOOOOHOOOOOO"

A loud smack echoes through the ware house as the sixteen year old boy hit the water. The freezing water engulfed T.J body. Human instinct is kick up once you enter the water. T.J opened his eyes and floated beneath the surface. The ice cold water untangle every knot in his body. His bones tingled and his muscle sprung to life. He turned his head upwards and kicked hard.

Wet jeans and T-shirt dragged him back down. He kicked even harder.

Fresh night air ran through his lungs like blood through veins. Feeling his heart pump a million miles a second he let out a scream of adrenaline.

"WOOO! That felt good"

water splashed around as T.J pumped his fist in the water. A few snickers came from behind him and he spun around quickly. His eyes widened to the realisation that he was no longer alone.

Jayce and the driver were sitting a work bench on the other side of the pool.

"Subtly isn't his strong suite huh?"

"Didn't think it was" Jayce walked over to the edge of the pool and handed T.J a towel. T.J hoisted himself up out of the pool. The weight of his wet clothes dragging him back down. Instead of standing up he opted to sit against the edge of the pool. Jayce turned and sat down at the bench again. He turned towards T.J and say him sprawl over the edge of the pool.

"Enjoy your swim?"

"Yea, it was fun" he gasped for air as he strained to answer back.

"The water is freezing cold. You better get dry otherwise you're going to get sick"

A warm towel slapped across his face as T.J tried to dry himself as quickly as possible. He groaned out loud. He had to drag his wet body up 3 flights of ladders to get into dry clothes.

"Your clothes are in that room over there. I chucked in some track pants I case you wanted something warmer.

twenty minutes later T.J came out wearing black track pants, a white singlet and his lucky red hat, backwards of course.

"Feel better?" Jayce questioned as T.J approached, he handed him a takeout box.

"Much! This Indian food?"

"Yep"

"nice"

The two brother and the driver wordlessly ate their dinner. T.J quickly looked between the two men. Clearly the big man wasn't just a driver. The two interacted more like friends, it reminded him of the friends hip he and Vince shared.

"So what's the deal with the giant over there?" He tried to put as much arrogance in his voice as possible, to aid this he glance up from his meal.

The two men snickered and took their places at the table. The big man was the one to speak first.

"My name is Axel James, AJ. As for who I am? your brother can tell you than when he tells you about who he is"

"Great so it's my job to teach him?" He let out a long groan, the sarcasm was very well hidden.

"Well I am your little brother, so you claim, and you did drag me out here during my summer break. So yea I think you should start explaining" T.J threw down his take away and stood up. His frustration with these two was growing. They were acting like kids and they weren't giving him answers. Looking at his brother face he knew he had gone too far. Jayce put down his dinner and look T.J straight on. Axel took this as his queue to leave and exited the table with a nod in Jayce's direction.

"You're right T.J. I'm sorry. I owe you and explaining and I owe you the whole story. I'll put it up to you again. Any question you want to ask me I'll answer with one-hundred percent honesty."

He sat back down and motion for T.J to do the same.

"Deal?"

"Deal!"

"Fire away lil brother!" T.J couldn't help but smile at what he has just been called.

"How do you own a place like this? What do you do? And most importantly who are you?"

Jayce brushed his hand through his hair and smiled. The boy across the table mimicked the smile.

"Well. My name is Jayce Hale. I am twenty-six and I am the president of Hale industries." T.J sat shocked. Jayce examined his little brother and kept on with his story.

"My parents were geniuses. So being their son I had a few expectation to live up to. Apparently the world didn't realise I was adopted and gave my parents smarts. I graduate from MIT at the age of 15 with Phd in aeronautical engineering and a master in software engineering. Whilst i was at school i met Axel. He may not look like it but he was a child prodigy. Graduated with a phd in electrical engineering majoring in software development."

T.j glanced back to Axel. His large frame working on the other side of the bottom level. Jayce saw this and replied.

"He's big now but you should have seen him at university. Could have snapped him with a twig."

"I heard that"

"Anyway!" Jayce placed his feet up on the table and continued his story.

"After i graduated Axel and I began developing software and hardware for companies around the world. We decided to go into a business and that's how Hale industries was created."

"But you guys don't wear suites or don't look like businessman at all."

A loud "HA!" echoed from Axel. Jayce snickered as well.

"You see, we never wanted to be suites. We loved working with our hands and doing the hands on stuff. So we asked our parents, who were much better with the business type stuff that we could have ever hoped to be, to help us out. With their contact and business skill we got clients and when we began to impress we got recognized. "

"You two are brothers?"

Another "Ha!" echoed across the floor, but this time T.J met it with a response.

"Would you shut up!" he screamed across at Axel. Jayce smiled again as his brother.

"No. Axel is just my best friends and work partner."

For hours the brother continues their talk. T.J asked questions and Jayce answered them. His company created everything. From person computers to military vehicles, software for computers to security based algorithms for banks and jails.

Jayce himself was probably one of the coolest people T.J had ever met. He designed and built his own cars from scratch. All of his computers and operating systems were of his own design. The brother had a lot in common, from sports to tv shows. Person problems to the way they interacted with people. Jayce was a bit of a prankster and the boys spoke about the pranks they pulled in their lives.

"Man! you've lived a pretty amazing life!" His eyes were wide open, the admiration for his newly found brother flowed out of him like a river.

"The thing I want most in life is family." His little brother smiled.

"Well you got it now so I guess that's something else you've achieved."

"I guess so" The two brother smiled and the realizations finally dawned on them. They each had the brother they always wanted. After a few moments of silence Jayce spoke again.

"So that we have me out of the way and you trust me now. Tell me about your life? friends? School? Girls?"

Without hesitation T.J burst into a detailed story about his life. His adventures in grade school. Being crowned kind of playground. Joining the soccer team in high school. Jayce didn't interrupt his brother once. T.J continued his story telling him about his gang. Vince, Mickey, Gus, Gretchen and of course Spinelli.

Jayce's POV

Ashley Spinelli. There he goes again. Another story about Spinelli. I wonder if he has realised that he has mentioned her about 30 times. No need to ask, my little brother is in love!

I looked over to Axel, he had a smug grin on his face. He came over and joined us when T.J began to tell us about his life.

"This Vince guy sounds pretty cool !" Axel piped up with when they spoke about the dodge ball tournament they had in middle school.

Vince and Axel would probably get along really well. Ever since Axel started to hit the gym he became very competitive. I had to follow him to keep him in line. Guess I got to thank him for keeping me fit over the years.

T.J is a remarkable kid when you get down to it. He is a natural born leader, a friend to everyone, and most importantly he doesn't seem to judge. If he did why would he be here.

I Laughed to myself.

This was going to be a really good summer.

END POV.

The Detweiller brothers and Axel stayed up for hours talking about themselves and their lives. By the time they were even closed to finished the time was 1 a.m.

"Woah! it's one am." Jayce spoke up. The boys had moved to the couches and were surrounded by a landfill of junk food wrappers. They all stood up and stretched out and headed off to bed.

Both the brothers heads filled with the stories the other had told them.

"sleep tell T.J you're going to woken very early!"

"Why" He groaned at the idea of being woken up so early in the morning. Axel laughed behind him.

"Cause we're working out tomorrow"

"But i just got here"

"all the more reason to start early now move!"

END.