Welcome Back.

Half of us have been sold already. There was only one more person, a skinny punk named Edward Grey, before I was up. All the calmness I built up steadily went away as it got closer and closer to my turn, and since it was almost my time, I was scared out of my wits. It took a lot to keep acting like I didn't care.

"Going once, going twice…and Edward is sold, to the lady in red, for five thousand!" The announcer said and the wardens grabbed Edward, who subtly tried to fight back until he was poked harshly in the ribs by a nightstick, and led him back into the back room. I audibly gulped. It was my turn.

As the announcer talked me up to the crowd, the wardens unlocked my cuffs from the rest of the group and brought to the center of the stage. I looked over at Cat, who was looking at me and begging me to be strong with her eyes. Then I looked over at Jade, who, although guarded, was asking the same thing of me. The funny thing is, I've been strong and calm for such an long and difficult time, this tops the cake and makes me wonder if I can still do it, especially if I get separated from those two. I guess I could, but I wouldn't have to act anymore; I wouldn't be feeling anything.

"Who's ready to bid on Andre here, for a starting price of a thousand?" He asked and put his hand on my shoulder. I knew enough from watching the others that it was test; if you shrugged it off no one wanted anything to do with you. My whole body was telling me to get his gloved hand off my body, but I didn't.

Someone in the back raised their card. He smiled and said, "And we have a thousand, do we have fifteen hundred, two thousand –" Another person raised their card. Soon another did, and another. I didn't really pay attention; I was just focused on not making eye contact with anybody. But that focus shattered when I heard her bid.

"Ten thousand," She called out, and raised her card. I didn't mean to, but my eyes darted towards her. She was confident about the price and didn't expect anyone to bid against her. I didn't know how to feel about that, so against my better judgment I kept staring at her, trying to get a better feel on her thoughts.

"We have Andre up for ten thousand. Does anybody want to bid anything…higher? Going once, going –"

"Twelve thousand five hundred." A familiar voice said, to my horror. There, sitting in the front row, was Judge Helen herself. I called it. No wonder she had that smile on her face in the courthouse, she wanted us here so she could get us. She really is fucking sick. I'm not even going to try to imagine what she would want us for.

I did see Tori's face falter, before she said, a little less confidently, "Thirteen thousand."

"Fifteen thousand."

"Sixteen thousand."

"Whoa now, looks like Andre here is quite the popular prisoner! Before we go any further, I must inform you two that you can't go over twenty-five thousand. So whoever gets there the fastest will get the kid."

I saw Tori talk to Trina for a few seconds before she said, "Eighteen thousand."

"Nineteen thousand." Helen said, but it was less confident than her other bids. She's losing money.

"Twenty thousand." Tori said.

"Twenty thousand five hundred."

Tori smirked. "Twenty-two thousand."

Helen didn't reply. The announcer waited a few seconds for her to bid again, but she never did. "Alright, looks like Helen here is done. Any other bids? No? Going once…going twice…sold to the deputy's daughter, Miss Tori Vega!"

I relaxed visibly, but it was just for show. As the wardens guided me to the back room, I couldn't help but hang my head once we were out of the publics' view. I was still worried about Jade and Cat, and if Tori's friends manage to get them, I'll find a way to make sure they're okay. I made a promise to Jade's mom that I would take care of her, and there's no way I'd let anything happen to either of her or Cat.

It wasn't until he said the deputy's daughter did I realize exactly who I was dealing with. This was a curse and blessing, all wrapped into one. The particular Vega that bought me had never bought anyone before, so theoretically, I would be her first. That was the good part. The bad part was that I didn't know if the family dealt with the help as one unit, or person to person. So I don't know if daddy will take over once I'm there, or she'll be the one in charge of me.

I prayed it was the latter.

I was put back into a van and had to wait there until the auction was over. They gave me a turkey sandwich and a bottle of water to eat while I was waiting. The sandwich was really cold and the water was lukewarm, but I hadn't eaten in hours so I was just glad there was something to put in my stomach. I went to sleep pretty quickly after I ate, but was woken up by the wardens. Apparently the Vega family had their own car for 'the service' and I wasn't taking an unnecessary stop at the barracks; my clothes would be sent. I was going to the Vega estate tonight.

I needed to know if Jade and Cat were okay. I took a risk and asked the guy walking me to the car if he'd heard what happened to them, and surprisingly he answered me.

"They're leaving in the same car as you. The two young boys got them, but not without a price. Both of 'em paid twenty-five." He said. A smile broke out on my face and I almost hollered. I swear, if I wasn't cuffed I would've hugged him; but since I was, I thanked him (a little enthusiastically – he laughed at me) and almost ran to the car.

We all got to the car at the same time, and fidgeted as the wardens took off our cuffs and left us in the custody of the security guards. The moment we were all out we embraced eachother in a bone-crushing hug; because never in a million years could we ever imagine being this lucky in such an unlucky situation. And as Cat and Jade reunited, I got down on my knees and thanked God. I must've done something right by him, because this was a miracle only He could work out. The four who got us walked up a few minutes after, and I didn't know if they saw our reunion, but I hoped they did. Maybe it could've persuaded them to keep us together.

The three of us piled in the car and the four got into their limousine, and soon we were off to Los Angeles. Jade was the first to leave the car, and Cat and I gave her another hug (even though she protested the whole time) before she left the car and walked away with Beck. When we pulled away, I told Cat about my suspicions and what I saw him do. "We need to make sure he doesn't do something to her," I said.

She was really worried. "What are we gonna do?"

"Try to convince the guy you're with to get us together. Tell him you need to speak to us, or something."

"Okay…Andre, I'm scared." She said, sounding so scared and hopeless. She put her head on my chest, and I immediately wrapped my arms around her, pulling her towards me. I only pulled her closer when she started crying. This would be the last time she could do this, break down and have someone there to comfort her, before our plan was put into action and we wouldn't be able to see eachother every day, like we were used to.

She stopped crying right before she had to leave. We pulled away and she left the car, looking back at me one last time before her and Robbie walked away and I was left alone. It took me another thirty or so minutes until the car stopped for me, and in that time I thought about the good times. When we were nothing but three kids with a dream, sitting in Cat's backyard and eating ice cream. When all we had to worry about was schoolwork and getting the leads in plays and musicals. When I could forget about my situation and AWOL parents, Jade could forget about her estranged father and step mother, and Cat didn't have to listen to her brothers' crazy ramblings. Good times…

The security guard driving the car parked in the back and showed me where I would be sleeping, then left me to my own devices. I didn't really know what to do, considering there wasn't anything for me to do and everybody else was asleep, so I took the opportunity to find out where things are in the house. As soon as I found out where the clothes were kept I jumped in the shower; that was my first priority. Once I was done I chose a room at random then lay down on one of the beds not occupied (which really wasn't all that comfortable) and tried to go to sleep. It didn't take long.

The screech of an alarm clock woke me up. Even though I was fully awake because of it, I lay on the bed as still as I could with my eyes closed. I tried preparing myself for the first day of what felt like the rest of my life. It didn't take me long, but I still didn't want to get up. Maybe if I tried hard enough, I would realize that this was all a dream, and I'd wake up on the day of the heist and convince the others not to do it. And we'd live out the rest of our lives, without this ever happening. It didn't happen, no matter how hard I tried.

Someone walked in and called my name. I didn't know who it was but I sat up quickly and called out, "Right here."

She walked up to me and introduced herself as the mother of the house, then told me that I needed to hurry and get dressed, because her daughter was coming for me. That got a few chuckles from some of the people in the room, but a harsh glare from the woman silenced them. She left soon after, leaving me wondering why they were laughing and just which one was looking for me. I figured at least I could find the answer to one of my questions here, so I walked up to the guy closest to me and tapped his arm. "Andre," I said and held out my hand.

He looked at it before shaking it firmly. "Sergio," He said.

"Why were you guys laughing when she said her daughter wanted me?" I asked.

He smiled slyly and was about to reply when Tori walked in the room. "It looks like you don't need to worry about it right now, but I'll tell you when you come back." He said. "I don't know if the miss here is willing to wait for me to tell you."

She didn't move from her position in the doorway. "Change into your uniform and come outside, I'll be waiting for you. I'll…tell you where everything is." She said and waited for me to nod before leaving.

"That's weird." Sergio commented once the door was closed behind her. "She's never volunteered to do that for anybody else. I always thought she felt above us." He turned to me and saw the confused look on my face. "You must be special, my friend. Wait, did she bid on you?"

"Yea, she paid a lot too."

He whistled. "Congrats, my friend; you are very special indeed!"

"I just hope that's a good thing." I said. "Where are the uniforms?"

I walked outside, uniformed, to meet Tori. She was leaning against the wall beside the door, waiting for me with a serious look on her face. I was fine with it; I'm gonna be out of here two years tops and anything from here on out would be simply a formality to help my situation. I refuse to stay here any longer.

"Like I said in there," She gestured to the small house behind us, "I'll give you a tour of our estate. As I do, you'll meet the people who live here. It's expected that you treat them with…" The hard stare she tried so hard to keep up softened and she released the tense posture she had.

"I'm sorry, I can't do this." She sighed, and turned to me. "I don't want to be mean to you. You have to believe me when I say I'm sorry this happened to you, and I'm not going to treat you like my family treats the others." She started rambling; talking all this crock about never wanting this to happen, and human beings, and being progressive. I didn't know what to say.

I stood there, listening to her. Maybe she was talking out of her ass, maybe she was trying to see if I would believe her, or maybe she was actually being serious; I didn't know. She was acting pretty crazy, though. It needed to stop before her family heard her or saw her. "Calm down, will you?" I said a little harshly; the first words I ever said to her.

She actually listened and didn't say anything about my tone. "You're right, I should stop." She extended her hand towards me. "I'm Tori, Tori Vega. But you probably already know that." She said, with a smile.

Is she serious? I stared at her, then her hand for a second before taking it. "Andre." I said skeptically. "But you do know that. This isn't how this normally goes, is it?"

"No, not at all. But I was given the money to get you without any restrictions so I can basically do whatever I want with you. I don't need to follow the normal procedures if I don't want to." She explained. I didn't get why she was so happy about it, but it's probably a good thing she doesn't have to follow the rules. "I mean yea, you might have to take orders from my sister, or my parents, but not without my permission."

Even she reacted when she talked about her sister! What's wrong with her? "What's so weird with your sister?" I asked.

"…What makes you think there's something weird about her?"

"When your mom mentioned her in there, the guys started laughing. Then when you talked about her, you sneered." She looked surprised that I paid so much attention. Guess she just found out I'm observant. Now she'll probably make an effort not to show what she's thinking.

"Well… she fools around with the permanent help." She said with another sneer. I cringed when she said permanent help (it felt so dirty when anybody that's not me said it), but she thought it was for the fooling around thing. "Don't worry, she normally doesn't with the ones she didn't pick out. At least…I hope she doesn't." That certainly didn't make me feel better, and now it's about Trina.

I shook my head to get the bad thoughts out of my mind and focused on what Tori was saying. We walked around the outside before going into the main house, where we walked straight into her parents, whom she greeted with a hug then told my name. They didn't care about me but pretended to a little for Tori's sake, even though her mother outright told her she was already treating me the wrong way. I stayed quiet about it as best as I could, but I opened my mouth to reply rather harshly after she said something particularly offensive, even though Tori beat me to the punch. She said something that didn't make any sense to me about someone named Gary, and her mom visibly recoiled. I was led away before I could hear her parents' conversation unfortunately. It would have been juicy, judging by her mom's reaction.

I didn't ask her about it because I knew she probably wouldn't tell me. Maybe later, but not now. She showed me the first floor of the house (a very large first floor), then the second floor (which was just as large), where the family slept. As we walked by Trina's room, said girl walked out and stopped us. "Hey; Tori. Introduce to me to your friend." She said.

Tori rolled her eyes and replied, "You know who this is, Trina."

"I'm Trina, Tori's older and much hotter sister." She said to me flirtatiously, ignoring Tori. "I've been so excited to meet you since I saw you. I just know we'll be so close. How about we talk tonight, get to know eachother a little better? Without my sister." Smiling seductively, she slipped closer.

I didn't have a chance to reply. With a pissed look on her face, Tori forced her way between Trina and I. "Can I talk to you for a second?" She asked – more like demanded – and pulled her sister a good ten feet away. They started arguing, and it was pretty loud; I didn't have a problem understanding them even though that was the point of the distance.

Of course, they were arguing about me. Tori kept saying I wasn't Trina's to 'play with' (I get what she's saying and why, but it just sounds all kinds of wrong) and Trina was arguing that if Tori didn't want to take advantage of the situation, she would. I tried not to make it obvious that I was listening, but it's hard not to react when you hear crazy chiz like that. They argued for a good five minutes, never once lowering their voices, or coming to a decision. It ended with Tori storming away and pulling me with her, and Trina waving to me as we walked off. I waved back once before turning around completely.