Hi everyone! First off I would like to thank slashdlite and Blazing Glory for their reviews! Also thank you for your advice Blazing Glory…and for the hug. =D lol! Also slashdlite thank you for your review also for your reviews on every chapter!

I'm glad you both are enjoying the story. =)

Also thank you to everyone who read the story and enjoyed it!

Matt read the first few pages to his book. Completely enjoying it, he used to read to pass time in his old house. When he wasn't working of course.

There was a soft knock on his door.

"Um…come in." Matt said.

"Hi." Jeff entered with someone Matt had never met.

"Umm hi." Matt said.

"Shannon this is Matt, Matt this is Shannon. My best friend. Shannon this is my brother." Jeff introduced the two.

"Hi nice to meet you." Matt said and stuck his hand out.

"Hi." Shannon shook it. "How old are you again?"

"Sixteen." Matt told him.

"Oh." Shannon said. "Three years older than Jeff right?"

"Yeah." Matt said.

"Cool!" Shannon smiled. "Did you ever know you had a brother? You know, before you found out you were going to come live here?"

"Honestly? No. No one told me anything." Matt answered honestly.

"Oh." Shannon said.

Jeff stayed rather quiet; he had no idea what Shannon thought of Matt. In fact he didn't even know what he thought of Matt! He looked at Matt one more time; he was almost confused with what he saw. Matt was wearing basically a sweater and long pants…in the summer? It was burning today!

"Are you cold?" Jeff blurted out.

"Huh?" Matt asked.

Jeff pointed to the sweater.

"Oh…I came here in it. Also um I am kind of um…sort of cold." Matt had no idea what to say! He used the sweater all the time at his old house to cover the marks!

"How can you be cold?" Shannon jumped in. "It's burning out!"

"I'm always cold." Matt mumbled.

Matt was honestly a little worried. He didn't want them to know what happened! They would tell his Dad and what if Gil confronted his old 'Dad'? Or even worse…What if Gil didn't care?

"Shannon let's get back to work on the fort." Jeff said.

"Okay." Shannon said. "Hey Matt, you want to help us?"

"I'm sorry my mind was on something else what?" He asked.

"Do you want to help me and Jeff build a fort?" Shannon asked.

Matt bit his bottom lip thinking about it.

"You don't have to if you don't want to." Jeff added.

"Or do you not know how to build a fort?" Shannon asked. "If so it's okay! We can teach you how. We have been building it for a week!"

Matt smiled a little. "I guess I can try to help…" He said.

"Cool!" Shannon smiled. "Follow us!"

Matt nodded and followed them to where they were making the fort.

"You guys are doing a great job making it." He told them with a sincere smile.

"Thanks!" Shannon and Jeff both said.

Jeff looked at Matt again. "You sure you won't be to hot in that?"

"Yeah I'm used to wearing these." Matt said then winced a little wondering if that was the right thing to say.

"Why is that?" Jeff asked.

"I'm uh…cold a lot." Matt said.

"Oh." Jeff stared at Matt for awhile. Not exactly believing that but decided not to push the subject.

XXX

After a few hours of building the fort Matt and Jeff's Dad called them in.

"See you later Shannon!" Jeff said running up to the house.

"Okay! Bye Jeff! Also nice to meet you Matt! Thanks for the help!" Shannon added.

"No problem! Nice to meet you to!" Matt said walking up to the house.

Matt walked into the kitchen since it was time for dinner.

"Weren't you hot out there?" Gil asked Matt.

Is that the question of the day? Matt thought. "No." He said.

"Oh." Is all Gil said.

"Dinner looks great." Matt changed the subject.

"Thank you." Gil said. "Take a seat."

"Okay." Matt smiled and grabbed a chair.

Matt looked at Jeff. Jeff seemed okay. But you never know. The people at the Foster Home told him that the people that he stayed with were nice people…look what happened.

Matt sighed and took another bite of potato.

Jeff was wondering about Matt. He hadn't found out much about him even after working on building something with him for a few hours. Matt didn't seem like a mean person at all though. He just kept to himself and didn't talk a lot about his old homes. This made the already curious Jeff's curiosity worsen.

"So you met Shannon?" Gil asked.

Matt nodded.

"What did you think?" Gil asked Matt.

"I liked him." Matt answered glancing over at Jeff who was quiet.

"So did you boys have fun out there?" Gil asked.

Matt nodded and was happy to see Jeff nod too.

"That's good." Gil said.

XXX

After dinner Matt went back to his room to eat but Gil stopped Jeff.

"What?" Jeff asked.

"I want to ask you something." Gil told Jeff.

"What is it?" Jeff asked.

"What do you think of your brother?" Gil asked.

"Honestly I don't know much about him…but he seems okay." Jeff said honestly.

"I hope you boys get along." Gil told Jeff.

I kind of hope we do too. Jeff couldn't help but think.

Well that's the end of this chapter! =) Hope you guys enjoyed it! This might be one of my better ones…well at least I think it might be. Tell me what you think! =D!