This chapter has a bit of information on the other foster children that the Bolton's have. I personally never like original characters in a story, having to get background information on them becoming a drag and taking away from the fact that this is fan fiction. However that being said I gave the Bolton's a family and they will either be mentioned once in a while or they will pop up and I wanted to get though all the info. at one go so when they are mentioned in future chapters we will know who they are. None of them will become main characters in this story as it will solemnly focus on Troy as I want to keep it with the high school cast we know.
Chad himself will be making his entree in the next chapter or the following.
The next few days went without many hick-ups along the way. All of them more or less feel into the rhythm of the day. Jack would wake up in the mornings and go over to Troy's room to get him up. He usually found him awake and after seeing him reading they offered him the use of their book collection to browse through. It looked like Troy was in a hurry to read through the book collection because Jack could swear that the boy could speed read and Julie even made a comment that she was glad that they had so many books. Of course all these comments they kept to themselves.
After their morning exercises, which Jack found that he enjoyed immensely and hoped that Troy was at least enjoying himself, they would have breakfast together and then Jack or Julie would do something with Troy until lunch.
Julie and Troy spent a very enjoyable morning planting her new flowers and tending to her garden at the corner of the garden. Troy was fascinated with her garden and the idea of getting fresh vegetables. He even braved a conversation with her about the vineyard in France and how you grow grapes.
With Jack they had spent an interesting morning trying to set up the new play station. Jack had never been good at connecting technology hence the reason Daniel had insisted on coming over to help but he had found out that Troy could read the directions and do it far better than him. They then spent the rest of the morning test driving the four games that they had picked up. They also spent a memorable morning trying to put Troy's new car together and had to give up on it. Jack made sure to wait for Maxim to come home before they attempted the project again. Maybe he should have chosen a car where you could just put the batteries in and be ready to go.
An intriguing morning was when Julie took Troy over to visit Mrs. Watson. When she had seen Troy she had given him a hug and then Julie had asked if they could talk privately. Mrs. Watson (Jennifer being her name as Julie had found later) set Troy up to play the piano and had led Julie outside onto the patio to talk. She was devastated to find out what had been going on at his home. She spent half an hour blaming herself for not noticing the signs and for not taking the small things into consideration. It had taken a while for Julie to calm her down and ask her if she could continue to give Troy lessons. The answer she got had more than shocked her.
"I would love to continue to work with Troy however I know that I am not in a position to help him. I mean he surpassed my skills almost two years ago. I had told Mark this however he told me that he really didn't care, Troy was a basketball player not a musician and he was getting these lessons for the sake of his mother and if I didn't want to do it then Troy could simply not have any lessons anymore. Of course I wanted him to play so I kept my mouth closed. My god I am sorry."
"So it wasn't just us," said Julie ignoring the woman who blamed herself. She would have liked to have said it was ok however after knowing Troy for only a week she was feeling very protective and not in a mood to forgive people who could have helped her son. "We weren't too sure but we thought that Troy might not be your average piano player."
"Oh, no I mean yes, he is not your average player, he still has some more to go but he has the potential to be great."
"What do we do now?" asked Julie.
"There is more than one instructor in town that would love to work with him. Why don't I give them a call and see which one would be willing to work with Troy," suggested Jennifer.
"That would be really nice, to be honest I would not be able to know where to begin to find him an appropriate teacher, nevertheless if you give me their contact numbers I could do it if it would be too much work for you," replied Julie.
"Please, it is the least I can do. Why don't I give you my number and you can give me yours and we'll talk once I have made arrangements."
"That would be really acceptable," said Julie and they spent a few more moments talking about Troy. Afterwards a reluctant Julie left Troy with Jennifer for an hour to give them the time to enjoy their time together.
The weekend was what was worrying the Bolton's. Normally Saturday was a free to drop by and use our pool day for all their children. And it was a day many of them took advantage off to drop off grandchildren and have a few hours by themselves. Then Sunday was a family day, around lunch Jack would start the barbeque, Julie would provide the salad and as a rule if you were going to drop by you had let them know before Friday night so there would be enough food and you had to bring something.
Five of their children still lived in Albuquerque. Three of them married with children. When four had called to let them know they were coming on Sunday Jack and Julie were not surprised. The rest of the family of course was curious about the newest member and wanted to welcome him. Jack and Julie had convinced all of them not to show up on Saturday but welcomed them for the Sunday barbeque. They did not want to isolate Troy from the family and this was normal for the Bolton family, they wanted Troy to get used to being with the family. They spent quite a bit of time explaining to Troy what would happen on Sunday. Troy had politely had said that he could stay out of their way if they had wished. They had refused fiercely and told him that they expected him to be part of the family lunch.
Their oldest, Claire who had married right after finishing university and had two children ages 12 and 9, was the first to arrive and just like Jack had predicted had a present for Troy.
She gave him a hug and said "Welcome to the family, if you ever need anything you are welcome to come to me." She then handed him the present and added the words for Jack's benefit, "This is a little something to welcome you to the family. If you are not a Star Wars fanatic yet, you sure are to become one just like the rest of us."
She then laughed as her two children dragged Troy away to open up the present, which turned up to be a Lego star wars star ship to build.
Then came Mark with his two children ages 7 and 5. The moment they entered the house they ran outside to create enough noise to last everyone a lifetime. Mark also had a play station game for Troy, having learnt from Daniel that he had gotten a play station.
Daniel was their trouble child. He had come to live with them when he was seventeen and a half. He had been an orphan since he was 11 having lost his family of five in a fire with him being the only survivor. He was on drugs and had been in a correction centre twice. They hadn't been able to get him to quit while he lived with them although they had tried. He had left home the day he had turned 18 leaving behind a beautiful thank you note. Jack and Julie had searched for him for six months and had never given up. They had found him sitting on their front porch one morning when he was 23 saying he had enough. He had stayed at home for two days before Jack had driven him up to a rehab where he stayed for three months and then lived at home for another six months before deciding on what he wanted to do.
He had gotten into computer game design, being a hacker (which they found out later), and had never looked back. He was handsome and rich and had the optimum look of a bad boy. His family had found out through the years he was a bad boy with a heart of gold. He still had bad days and weeks where he spent time either at home or with one of his siblings. Over the years the Bolton's had become a tight knit family that supported one another trough anything. However he was protesting the weekend, Jack not having let him come to test drive the play station right away. Julie had called him to get him come but found out that he was going away for the weekend with a girl. She had come away from the telephone conversation with a smile on her face. Their son had become a player and she hoped that he didn't leave behind to many broken hearts.
Next to show up was Tess. She had been married for four years and had a little girl of two. Although everyone loved the two year old Chloe she was also a nightmare by nature. She was picky and moody and got her way one way or another. She entered the house being carried by her father and Tess gave Troy a hug and handed him a present.
Troy couldn't help but blush. He had never gotten a present before let alone so many. Just this week the Bolton's had brought him a toy and a book, not to mention the play station that everyone seemed to think was his. Christmas was a normal day at their house and he always dreaded his birthday.
His father would take him out of school for the week claiming that he was taking his son fishing for his birthday week. The part about the fishing wasn't a lie they would end up at a secluded cabin in the mountains where his father spent the first two days beating Troy to a pulp with anything he could get his hands on. Where his father normally demanded his silence during his punishments and discipline he wanted Troy to scream on his birthday claiming that his mother had died screaming and it was the least her son could do to remember her on the day he had killed her. Troy would then spend the rest of the week in a corner in agony as his father went fishing.
Troy's breathing became quicker as being with these people this last week he was beginning to realise that what happened to him might have not been normal. He backed away from them as what happened to him on his birthdays began to flash before his eyes he tried to get rid of the images of by shaking his head.
He came to himself when he felt someone was talking to him in a soft voice telling him he was alright and there was no one here that would hurt him. He opened his eyes, when had he closed them? He looked into the eyes of Mrs. Bolton who was standing next to him but not touching him. It looked like he had managed to back himself to the wall. She smiled at him when she saw that he was back with her.
"It's ok, you're fine. Why don't we go into the kitchen and get you a glass of water?" she suggested and guided him to the kitchen. He suddenly realised that the house had gotten quieter as everyone suddenly seemed to find their way outside.
Julie handed Troy a glass of water which he drank down eagerly never realising how thirsty he was.
"It's a bit overwhelming isn't it," said Julie and without waiting for a reply went on, "don't worry about it, you are not the first to be overwhelmed by the family. They all had a similar treatment when they joined the family and hopefully you would get to return the favour someday too." She smiled remembering other Sunday barbeques where they had welcomed new members including husbands, boyfriends and newborns.
Troy was silent thinking he was probably going to be sent upstairs now that he had managed to destroy their Sunday when he suddenly felt a tugging on his leg. He looked down to see the most beautiful eyes looking up at him. There was a toddler there holding up her arms.
"Chloe! Where are you?" came the voice from the hallway and Tess came into the kitchen looking for her daughter.
"Oh, I am sorry that she is bothering you. Here let me take her," she said as she bent down to pick up her daughter. However the moment she reached for Chloe she let out a scream that had Troy backing away from her frightened. At this Chloe turned to look at him and threw him a stare that said 'where do you think you are going?' She then moved towards him again and lifted up her arms.
"Her majesty wishes that you pick her up," laughed her mother.
"But...but I don't know ... know anything about babies," got out Troy trying to back away once again however every time he took a step back the toddler would take a step towards him.
Tess laughed once more, "Don't worry toddlers are pretty resilient just reach down and pick her up," as Troy reluctantly reached for the toddler, Tess moved towards both of them and helped Troy adjust Chloe in his arms so she was snuggling against his chest. Chloe seemed to examine Troy from up close and whatever she had found seemed to satisfy her as she promptly put her head on his shoulder, curled one hand in his shirt and stuck her thumb in her mouth and starting humming.
"Well, officially welcome to the family," said Tess as she smiled at him. "She won't let you go easily just so you know," she went on moving towards the door that would take her outside. "Join us outside whenever you are ready."
"You might want to get out there before the others tear into the last gift" was her parting comment.
Julie calmly led Troy outside to join the others where they found that Mark's kids were already in the pool with their clothes on and Mark was trying to get them out.
Julie guided Troy to a quieter corner of the garden where he could sit under the shade. He seemed contended to sit there with Chloe who on occasion raised her head looked around and made gibberish comments about the group to Troy and he seemed to agree with her.
People in the family drifted over to the two of them and sat down and started conversations with Troy. He seemed to be holding his own thought Jack as he tried to observe Troy without being too obvious about it.
Last to show up was Maxim, he being sensible came with a book and it was a book on basketball to which Troy's eyes lit up. He introduced himself to Troy and said that the room next to Troy's that was a bit messy belonged to him.
"A bit messy!" came the noise from somewhere in the crowd, "Under statement of the year!" followed that comment.
It seemed that the Bolton's kept a foster child's room until they were settled into their own home and then someone else would move into it. So Troy thought that if the Bolton's decided to keep him the room that he was staying in would be his until he graduated from university or found a job and somewhere to live before they readied it for another child. When Troy would leave their home his room would still be there as they only took one child in at a time and they would ready Maxim's room for that child who hopefully would have moved on by then.
Troy found out that Maxim was attending U of A and would be coming home quite often in the following weeks as well as into the school year. Troy wondered if he couldn't come back because Troy was so messed up. If he had learned one thing this week was that his father was right about something and that was that he himself was a lot of work. He didn't think he deserved this much attention but didn't know what to do about it.
He spent the next two hours sitting under the shade. Someone brought him a plate of food that had more food then he could possibly eat. He wondered how he was to eat it all as Tess and her husband Ben wondered over to sit with him. Tess promptly started to eat of his plate as well as her husbands' and got Chloe to eat something as well. They made light conversation with Troy which he found that he enjoyed.
He was then dragged inside by the children as well some of the adults to try out the new play station. As evening fell people started to make noises about leaving Troy imagined that he would be responsible for the cleanup. The Bolton's might not ask him for work in the week but they would definitely need someone to clean up this mess. However when Julie declared it was time for clean up everyone chipped in, Troy ("new members don't chip in for at least a month" was what he was told) he found himself on the couch with Mary, who was Mark's wife (who was considered to clumsy to help out) and Chloe (too little to help) watching 'Tom and Jerry'. And in no time the whole house was back to its original order with everything back in its proper place. Mark and Claire and their brood said their goodbyes and left. Maxim had decided to spend the night and leave in the morning and it looked like Tess and her family also had no intention of leaving.
As the evening went on Troy observed that many settled into do whatever they wanted. He quietly went upstairs and lied down on his bed to read his book. After about five minutes he felt something trying to climb his bed and looked at the end of the bed to see Chloe trying to climb up. He gently reached over and lifted her up onto the bed where she curled up next to him. He looked over to the door to see if anyone would follow her and ask for her but seeing no one settled back down to read. A huffing drew his attention as Chloe was looking at him he got the impression that he was to read to her, so he started to read in a quiet voice which seemed to be what she wanted.
He woke up when he felt something was moving and had a momentarily panic about what was going on.
"Shh, it's ok, don't worry about it," came a quiet reassuring voice that he was not really familiar with. He opened his eyes to look into the eyes of Tess who was moving Chloe.
"I am afraid it is time for us to go home," said Tess ignoring the negative comments Chloe seemed to be making in her sleep. "It looks like you have a fan," she said as she carried her down.
Troy got up to follow her downstairs he hadn't meant to fall asleep. He was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as Tess and Ben were saying their goodnights.
"Good night Troy, it was nice meeting you," said Ben.
"We are a phone call away if you need anything," added Tess.
After they had gone Coach Bolton turned towards Troy, Troy once again wondered if he had done anything wrong. The Coach didn't seem to be pissed. He was led into the kitchen where they went over his schedule for the next day and he was sent upstairs to get ready for bed. He didn't question the time, it had been a long day and he was looking forward to sleeping.
He really enjoyed his bed times and now wished that he didn't have to take the pill so he could savour the time Mrs. Bolton spent reading to him. Tonight he was too tired to realise that he was actually reciting along with Julie and missed her complete shock when she stopped reading and he continued to recite the story from memory from where she left of and drifted into pleasant dreams that involved many smiling people talking all at once from all corners of the room.