Not What You See
A/N: Soooooo? And just to let you know, I just finished reading this horribly sad true story about these twins who were abused by their stepfather for twelve years. What's scary is it happened in my province. If you want to read it, it's Where Children Run, by Karen Emilson. I warn you though: don't read it if you're weak-stomached.
DISCLAIMER: I own only whom I own.
Chapter 2:: Of Police And Foster Homes Galore
"Kai! Rei! Max!" Kirk hollered up the stairs. "You're going to be late!"
Rei and Max both clattered down the stairs, arguing loudly over who got first dibs on the toaster. Marina and Griffith were discussing what they would do first when they reached school. Regine had already left for her job as designer for a children's fashion boutique and hair salon downtown, which explained why all her children always had the latest in fashion. Kirk was just about ready to leave for his own job as an interior designer/decorator, also downtown. He would habitually give all the kids a ride to school and they took their respective buses home, Marina and Griff by school bus, the other boys by public.
"Hey, where's Kai?" Kirk asked as he was rushing each kid out the door. "Kai!"
Kai had actually left an hour or so earlier, choosing to walk and skip his first day, seeing as it would probably be years before his school files caught up with him. He had his own stash of bus tickets, but simply walked down through the neighbourhood, past the school until he reached a more affluent neighbourhood.
"Hey, Kai!" a voice called and Kai looked up as a red-haired boy dressed in the private school uniform of Ives Academy, the school he had attended for a couple of months about three years back. "Long time no see!"
"Oh, hi, Tala!" Kai called back, cracking a slight smile.
"Do you realize that they still think you're enrolled at Ives?" Tala Nanase asked, rolling his eyes.
"Oh, so that's why they can't find my school files anywhere." Kai mused.
To look at Kai and Tala, you would never guess they were cousins. Actually, they didn't even know this, and probably never would. Tala's deceased biological mother had been Kai's deceased father's sister. They had always been inseparable friends for the past two years, even though Kai got sent off packing to yet another foster home what seemed like every two months. And even after that, they always seemed to run into each other, at the malls, on the streets, in the parks, at the pier…
Kai and Tala continued to talk animatedly until they reached the gates of Ives and then they bid their see-yas and Kai kept on strolling down the boulevard.
After the school day had ended, Kai grabbed a bus back to the Toshiros from the megamall downtown, the same one that Regine worked at, and thus it being a miracle she didn't spot him.
When it stopped at Montague High School, Rei climbed on with a group of friends, talking the whole while. When he saw Kai already sitting on the bus, he frowned.
One of his friends, Mariah Keilin, looked over where Rei was staring and she nudged, whispering, "So that's the guy everybody was trying to find today?" Rei nodded. "He's cute." (A/N: NO! NO THIS IS NOT KAI/MARIAH!! UGH!)
Rei and his other three friends (A/N: guess who?) Li Bailon, Gary Long, and Kevin Akki all looked at her like she was some weird person. She immediately reddened and mumbled something about it being true if you're into those kind of guys.
Kirk and Regine were both nearly beside themselves with anger when the three teens arrived home.
"Kai!" Kirk snapped immediately. Max and Rei both zipped out of the kitchen, leaving Kai looking slightly startled for a moment, then impassive again. "What did you think you were doing?! Being 15 doesn't give you the right to leave the house without telling us and skipping the entire school day!"
Kai shrugged. He knew this facade of nicety wouldn't have lasted too much longer. It had been the same way with Sebastien. He had trusted him, even liked him, but then his real side came through. Mentally, Kai shut out Kirk and Regine's rantings until the words "To your room all night and no dinner," poked their way into his consciousness.
"Now," Regine ordered, pointing towards the staircase. Kai simply shrugged and the door clicked shut forlornly.
Max had been listening to it from upstairs and was quite intrigued that Kai hadn't even argued. Silently, he slipped out of his own room and slid down the hardwood flooring to Kai's room, where he finally remembered to knock on the door. He wasn't used to that: he and Rei just both came rampaging into each other's rooms at odd random moments.
"Whaddaya want?" Kai growled, quickly shoving something under his pillow.
"N—n—n—nothing," Max squeaked, surprised at the angry tone and forgetting why he had come in the first place.
"Then beat it!"
Max complied. Pushing Rei's door open, he threw himself down on the bed and plucked out one of Rei's Rurouni Kenshin mangas from the small bookshelf, and slipped back to his own room.
"MAX!" Rei hollered down the hallway after dinner. "WHERE'S MY MANGA?!"
"WHY WOULD I HAVE IT?!" Max hollered right back.
"BECAUSE YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE IN THIS HOUSE THAT TAKES MY MANGA!"
"OH RIGHT! I TOOK VOLUME 28[1]!"
"I KNOW THAT! GIVE IT BACK!"
"SHUT UP!!!!!!!" Kai's voice hollered.
"WHY SHOULD WE?!" Rei and Max both hollered back.
"BOYS!" Kirk yelled.
"SORRY, KIRK!" Max and Rei both called in unison.
At 10:00, Regine went upstairs. "Rei, Max, Kai, bed." She ordered softly. She knocked briefly on Kai's door, more as a warning then a request, before she opened it.
This room had always been a spare, so it had pretty much the bare necessities and no more: a bed, dresser and desk. It was easily the most boring room in the house and Regine could tell Kirk was eager to start attacking it with paint and brush and go shopping for decorations. The white walls were immaculate, the desk and dresser free of any clutter, the bed made up. Kai's duffel bag was lying on the ground by the door, clothes still folded neatly inside it. What looked like a notebook of some sort was barely visible from under the pillow. Inside a second, much smaller duffel bag, what appeared to be graphic novels were neatly stacked, all without a scratch on them — quite a change from Rei's well-used ones. A Discman and a few CDs were set carefully on top of them.
Then she realized Kai wasn't there.
Three hours later, there was a knock at the door and Regine opened it to find a pair of policemen, who were looking distinctly disgruntled, hauling Kai back between them.
"Kai, I am appalled." Regine told him sternly. "Go into the living room and wait for me." Kai slunk off, defeated for tonight. "Thank you so much, sirs." She said to the officers.
"Ma'am, if you think you're going to turn him respectable, good luck," the older officer told her frankly. "Plenty of people have tried and failed. I've been hauling him back to foster homes all over the city for 3 years. I don't think the kid's capable of a decent act."
Rei and Max were both eavesdropping at the top of the stairs. They looked at each other and silently agreed that this time, Regine and Kirk had gotten in over their heads. They both crept back to their bedrooms before Kirk caught them.
"Kai, what were you thinking?" Regine raged. "No, wait, scratch that. You weren't thinking! You're only 15! Who knows what could've happened?! Out on the streets by yourself at this time of night!"
"Regine, calm down," Kirk said quietly.
Regine ignored him and continued to rant and rave. Kai continued to ignore her, eyes closed and arms crossed.
About six and a half hours later, the household awoke into activity again. Both Kirk and Regine had to get to work early that day, so the kids were on their own for getting to school. The school bus came at 8 for Marina and Griff. The three teens were sitting in the kitchen quickly inhaling breakfast. At least, Max and Rei were. Kai was just sitting.
"I guess we'd better leave now if we're going to make to school on time." Rei said softly, still unsure of how to act around Kai.
"All right," Max acquiesced.
"… and the police brought him back?" Li asked interestedly at lunch.
"At one in the morning," Rei affirmed. "The officer told Regine he's been picking Kai up all over the city at all hours for three years. He's a hopeless case, apparently."
"Not a big talker, is he?" Kevin asked. "He's in my English class. Didn't say a word the entire class. Not even when Aichi asked him a direct question."
"He nearly killed Darrell Sanasuko in gym," Gary said. All the group's eyes widened. "We started out with boxing. They had to haul in three teachers to separate him and Darrell. They brought in the police."
Mariah shuddered. "So that's why he never showed up for art class."
"Art class?" Rei asked skeptically.
"Don't ask me." Mariah said. "He's on the list."
"Art class." Rei repeated disbelievingly. "No way."
To Rei's surprise, Kirk was waiting outside the doors of the school, Max, Marina and Griff already in the back, Kai in the front, looking irritated.
"Hey, Kirk." Rei greeted, then turned his attention to Kai. "Are they telling the truth? Did you really get hauled off by the police for getting a little too violent in boxing?"
"Hmm-mm." Kai responded.
"A little too violent?!" Kirk exploded, causing them all to jump. "That Sanasuko boy is hospitalized!"
"Ouch." Rei muttered.
"He's got a rap sheet as long as my arm!" Kirk hissed to Regine later that night, when they thought all the kids were asleep. "He's a nutcase, Regine! He attacked that boy because he wanted to!"
"Kirk—"
"No, Regine, this time I'm putting my foot down. We can't keep him. We'll be compromising the other children's safety. What if it's Rei or Max next? Or worse yet, Marina or Griff? He's a bomb waiting to go off."
Kai was listening from the top of the stairs. When he heard this, he slipped back into his room and jumped out of his second-story window silently five minutes later. He didn't hear Regine pleading with Kirk that he just needed time and treatment like a blood child.
'Should've guessed it.' Kai thought to himself. 'Should've known it wouldn't last long. My own parents didn't want me, what would make me think somebody else's parents would?' He swung onboard the public bus as it stopped.
At the entrance to Ramsay Estates, Kai got off the bus and headed down William Blvd. Reaching number 3131, he tossed a couple of pebbles at the second-story window. A minute later, Tala's sleepy head poked out the window. "Oh, hi, Kai." He yawned, tossing down a rope ladder. "C'mon up."
"You what?" Tala asked incredulously.
"Went a little overboard in boxing." Kai answered sheepishly.
"Repressed rage, anybody?" Tala said half-jokingly. "So what'd this set do to you?"
"The usual," Kai answered. "She screeched at me, he ignored me and is probably phoning Dickinson right now to tell him to take me back cause I'm a nutcase. You want exact phrasing?"
"Sure," Tala said.
"'He's a nutcase.' 'He's a bomb waiting to go off.'"
"Ouch. That hurts."
"Yeah. So, you think yours will mind if I stay here a couple of nights? They don't have a clue who you are, so I'm fairly safe. I'll head back once Dickinson finally thinks he's gotten rid of me. You would think he would've just given up after the first… ten… homes."
"This is home number 11?"
"No." Kai answered. "In Tokyo, this is home number… 14. Overall, this is home number… 25."
"Yi." Tala winced.
"Tala, what's goin on in there?" the sleepy voice of his older brother Nicholas called down the hall. "You talkin' to yourself again?"
"No." Tala called back.
"Well, shaddup and go to sleep, will ya?"
"Fine then, Mr. Grumpy-pants."
"Thank you."
Tala and Kai both rolled their eyes at each other before Tala tossed him a spare pillow and blanket. Kai took them gratefully and dropped off moments later, still dressed in his day clothes.
[1] I'm not aware of how many volumes there are of Rurouni Kenshin, so let me use my imagination.