Jay hadn't really made any friends in the neighborhood, but he did make a few acquaintances, and they played a good games of basketball whenever Jay had free time between chores around the house, and training with Jason.

The other boys liked Jay, but they didn't understand why he brought his little sister everywhere with him.

Whenever Jay wanted to ride the new bike that Uncle Dick had given him last week, he had Justin sitting on the handle bars. Whenever he was climbing the tree with the twisted limbs in the retention pond on the side of the neighborhood, he would carry Justin up with him in one arm. Whenever he went to play sports with the other boys, Justin would sit on the side, watching him play.

Everyone could see that the two were inseparable. Jason didn't like it at first, but eventually he got over it. He admitted that he couldn't protect his daughter twenty-four seven, but with Jay, his daughter was completely safe.

Kim and Jason had tried to put Jay into a high school, but Jay had tried it for a week, disappeared for two days, then turned up again, with his GED in his hand.

After Jason was done yelling, and Kim was done hugging the life out of him, he just said, "School sucks. Can I go play with Justin now?"

Matthew tried to snatch the ball away from Jay, but Jay jumped to the left, shooting the ball into the hoop. "Horse!"

The boys on the other team groaned, while Justine jumped up and down, laughing, "Go Jay! Go Jay! Go Jay!"

Jay scooped up Justin, "Come one, dribble down the court!" He rushed to the other end, scooping up the ball, handing it to Justine. She clutched at it, as he lifted her up as high as his arms could reach, "Come on, shoot!"

Justine threw the ball, and it bounced off the hoop, nailing her in the face. "Ah!"

Jay immediately pulled her down, making sure her nose wasn't broken. After he was positive that she wasn't really hurt, he just held her, telling her she'd be fine, and let her cry onto his shoulder.

Matthew walked up to him as the other guys stared, "Dude, what's wrong with you? You go everywhere with this baby."

"She's not a baby." Jay insisted, "I take her everywhere because she's fun to play with."

"She's a little kid!" Matthew said, slapping his forehead, "And a girl for the love of God!"

Justine poked her head up, a grin spreading over her face, done with her drama. She pointed at Matthew, "You're a girl!"

Jay cracked up, as did the other boys, while Matthew turned red.

"I'm not a girl, you're a girl!" Matthew snapped, "Girl's are stupid!"

Justin shook her head, "I'm not stupid! I'm Batman!"

Everyone laughed at that.

Jay put Justin down at the edge of the driveway as the boys lined up to play another game.

Matthew paused after a few minutes, "Hey, it's that freak."

The boys stopped, looking across the street, seeing the only other kid in the neighborhood everyone hated. His name was Blake, and he looked like he was dead. He had pale skin, and ice blue eyes. He died his hair black, and wore black clothes with weird leather studded chokers and wrist bands. He painted his nails black, and wore black eyeliner. He listened to music that talked about depressing things.

He creeped all the kids out, even though he hardly talked.

He didn't just look creepy either, Matthew's friend Derek had seen Blake with a gun once, a real one. Blake had weird scars on his wrists that all the kids had seen him with. Concerned parents were constantly talking to Blake's parents about it, but nothing ever changed.

Blake didn't even have his own room, he lived in his parent's basement, someone had heard him say he liked it because it was darker down there. The other boys would see him reading books about anatomy, and torture techniques. He had stolen Matthew's Robin action figure, and had tied him up with rubber bands, and had used the Chinese method of drowning him. When Matthew asked for his action figure back, Blake had poor gasoline on him, and set him on fire.

No one ever talked to him after that, not much anyways.

Jay didn't really care how Blake looked, but it was the weapons that raised a red flag. jay used weapons too, in training, but he doubted Blake was training as an assassin. So Jay chose to carefully avoid him, and keep Justin completely away from him.

Jay shrugged, "Let's just keep playing."

As the boy's played, Justin got tired of watching. A big blue butterfly flew past her head, and she jumped up, rushed after it. She chased it around the Andrew's car, and across the street.

It landed on the side of someone's mail box, and Justin jumped up to grab it, but before she could, someone grabbed her, yanking her out of the road. The minute she was out of the way, a red truck rushed down the road, the driver talking on the phone, rushing over the spot she had been standing in.

Justine stared wide eyes, not fully comprehending what might have just happened to her. She looked up at her savior, pale skin, ice blue eyes, big black circles around his eyes. He looked like someone had used black crayon on his eyelids.

The boy was a little taller than Jay, but a lot thinner. He raised an eyebrow, looking at her, then across the street where he knew her older brother was.

A grin spread across his face, and he looked back at Justin, "Do you know anything about ancient Roman torture?

"What does Roman mean?"

Blake grinned, "This'll be fun."

By the time Jay found out Justin was gone, Jay had already taken her down to the basement.

Jay, Matthew, and the rest of the boys rushed around the neighborhood, looking for the girl, but they didn't find her, not even at the retention pond.

Eventually, the other kids had to go home for dinner, and jay was not looking forward to telling Jason he had lost Justin.

Jay walked home, going into the kitchen where Kim was trying to make dinner, and Jason was leaning against her, arms wrapped around her waist, trying to get her to pay attention to him.

"Um… Kim, Jason?"

They both looked up at Jay, and Jason frowned, "Where's Justin?"

"Um, that's the thing, you see-"

There was a sudden knocking on the front door, and Kim rushed to get it, desperate to get away from Jason's attempts at seducing her tonight.

Jason groaned, "Great, I'm not getting lucky tonight."

Kim opened the front door, seeing a boy about Jay's age with a very heavy emo look about him, clutching the hand of her daughter, Justine. "Excuse me ma'am, but does this belong to you?"

Kim's eyes widened, her daughters face was covered in white paste with huge black circles around her eyes, and caked on black lipstick. Her hair had been a brownish red this morning, tied up in pigtails with red power ranger bows. Now, her hair was jet black, with skull barrettes clipped on, and gelled heavily, slicked back. Her black batman t-shirt remained, but her jean overalls had been taken away, and replaced by a hot pink and black frilly tutu.

"Oh my God, what happened to her?" Kim asked, covering her mouth with her hands.

The boy smirked, "We were playing in my room, and she got into my make up. Then she found one of my girlfriends tutu's."

Justy beamed up at Kim, "Look Mommy! I'm a goth!"

The boy frowned at her, "Justy, remember what we talked about."

"Oh, yeah… I'm not a goth, I'm an honest picture of the human soul, dark and empty. Conformists have taken over our world, and I am one of the few people here who recognize life as what it is, dark, cold, painful, and meaningless." Justin droned.

The boy smiled, "We had fun, and she really likes my books. Especially the one about the specific tortures that Count Dracula forces upon his wife's that bore him sons instead of daughters."

"Spikes through their heads! Spikes through their heads!" Justin said excitedly, jumping up and down, still clinging to the boy's hand.

Kim paused for a minute, before looking over her shoulder into the kitchen, "Jay! You better have a really good explanation for why my daughter is suddenly in a cult!"

The teenage boy scowled at her, then looked down to Justin, "Wow, sorry kid. Looks like your mom is a conformist. She's worse than my mom."

Justin gasped, "Mommy!? You're a conformist!? No!"

Jason and Jay entered the room, and Jay paled, and Jason's eyebrow shot up, stepping around Kim, and scooping Justin up, "Wow. I don't really like the tutu, but Kim, our daughter is seriously hardcore!"

"Daddy, Mommy is a conformist!"

Kim groaned, "It's to early for this."

Jason and Kim turned to Jay, and Jason frowned, "Jay, why was my daughter even with this kid?"

Jay paused, and then Blake interrupted, "While Jay was playing sports, Justin was kind of bored, so Jay said I could take her over to my house. You know, to keep her from chasing butterflies into the street, and getting hit by cars."

Jason groaned, "Alright, whatever, but next time, have her home earlier."

Kim glared at Jason, "Jason, you're daughter looks like she just stumbled out of a KISS concert!" Kim grabbed the tutu, carefully pulling the mess off of Justin's legs, leaving her in a diaper and t-shirt. She handed it back to Blake, "Thanks for watching her. Did you want to stay for dinner?"

"Nah, I better go lock myself in my room before my old man gets home. Maybe next time." Blake said, walking away from the house, and running across the street.

Kim sighed, "Jay, can you go give Justine a bath?"

Jay nodded, taking Justin in his arms, "Come on, let's go get this grease off your face."

"Conformist!"

"You don't even know what that word means."

"A conformist is someone who conforms! You're conforming with Mommy and Daddy!" Justin protested. "I don't wanna get a bath! I have rights! I have liberty!"

"Blake." Jay growled, walking into the bathroom with a struggling Justine, "You've ruined the next five weeks of my life."

Kim turned to Jason as soon as Jay was out of ear range. "Jason, you don't think that-"

"I'll watch his house tonight Kim. But you have to understand, he's a kid, and he's in the rebelling stage. He's probably just upset his parents aren't agreeing with his clothes and music and stuff."

Kim nodded, but she knew that look in Jason's eyes. If Blake's father laid a hand on that boy tonight, Jason was going to kill him.