Chapter 9 - Ulterior Motive

"You're real name is Marco Liridon?" My mouth was literally on the floor. "I'd been going to school with you for a week and I had no idea. Why did you tell me your name was Fang?"

He shrugged and tried not to look too pleased. "Fang's my nickname. I gave it to myself when I entered foster care."

"I had no idea –"

"Look, it's not something I advertise." His response was curt and slightly agitated. "If you're feeling better I'd like to go soon."

I nodded. There was no way I was staying here any longer. Mom walked along my side in case I suddenly collapsed again. "Where is the rest of your stuff, Marco?" she asked him.

"It's Fang, Mrs. Martinez," he said politely. I was tempted to flip him the bird for being such a suck-up to her. "I have my stuff in my locker."

"Can we help you at all?"

"No, thanks, I got it." He walked out of the nurses' office.

Mom turned to me with a smile. "He seems nice enough, and respectful for helping you here when you had that migraine. And you're friends with him already? You never told me you made friends here."

I rolled my eyes. "Mom, I only have one class with him and I've talked to him a total of like one time. And that class is gym, so we never get the chance to talk. Besides, it's not something I advertise," I said, using Fang's prior choice of words.

"Still, this is good," she went on, like I hadn't spoken. "He already knows you, so the transition should be easier for him. When we get back, I want you to show him around our home and the barn. Get him acquainted with the fact that staying with the Martinez's means that he has to work. I'll figure out something he can do to help out. What I said before at home still applies – he's staying in the downstairs bedroom."

I nodded, not that it really mattered to me. To Ella, she'd whine and complain but then give in because there's no arguing with Mom.

We walked out of the office into the hallway, waiting for Fang to come back. I remembered when Mom had said that we would be getting a foster brother. I expected maybe someone around the age of Gabe or Angel, not someone in my class. I wonder why fate would bring the two of us together. Why would -?

That's when I remembered something very important. This wasn't fates work.

"By the way, I forgot to tell you that Jeb is coming over tonight." She tried to mention it as an afterthought, but the suddent tension rolling off of her showed that she knew it wasn't an afterthought to me.

My blood ran cold. This was all Jeb's doing.

Why had he suddenly taken an interest in what good service our family was doing by housing homeless kids? Why had he suggested us taking in Fang as opposed to someone younger, or someone else for that matter? Why was he so important? Why did Jeb want to ruin my life this way?

"He wanted to meet with Fang after he'd heard about him through Social Services," Mom said, warning in her voice.

I looked at her like she just proclaimed that the apocalypse was coming tonight. "Mom, why did Jeb suggest that we foster Fang?"

She looked confused for a moment, but then realization dawned on her face. "I know what you're thinking, Max, but not everything that your father does is meant to make your life miserable." Her voice was dripping with irritation. "He knew we wanted to do this, and for once when he offers us some help you have to think that he has some ulterior motive."

"He does have an ulterior motive," I muttered.

She sighed heavily, as she did often when we argued about Jeb.

"Why didn't he just foster Fang? He has tons of space at his home. He only lives with Ari." Ari was my seven-year-old half brother; his mother died in a car crash shortly after he was born. I hadn't seen him much since he was a baby, mostly because Jeb lived about an hour away.

"Because he's hardly ever home. You know being a doctor keeps him at the office for most of the day."

"And yet he still finds a way to visit us, despite his busy schedule," I said sarcastically.

Mom shot me one of her don't-you-say-another-word-about-your-father look. I frowned at her; I didn't understand why she felt the need to protect him. "Please, don't act like this when he comes here. If anything, behave for Fang's sake. I'm sure he'll love to meet the man who placed him in a home."

And once he meets him he'll be asked to be placed in another home, I thought. But I didn't say anything more about it. She looked pleased.

Fang returned with a few bags, not nearly anything as much as any one of us would have if we packed all our possessions. I felt bad for him, wondering what his story was. Why was he in foster care? Was he glad to be coming to our home? And most importantly, why did Jeb know about him?

Mom had parked in front of the school, so we were able to put his belongings in the trunk of our minivan quickly. I jumped into the passenger side while Fang got into the back seat. Mom drove off without a word, a little angered by our argument about Jeb, which happened a lot.

"You excited?" Mom asked Fang, looking at him through the rearview mirror.

He shrugged, his face displaying no emotion. "It'll be different," was all he said.

"Well, hopefully you will enjoy it." I rolled my eyes. "In case you don't know, we live on a farm. We expect every member of the family to help out, so I hope you don't mind some physical work. Either way I'll expect you to do something."

He raised an eyebrow. "I can manage," he said, trying not to act arrogant.

"Good," she said with an expectant smile. It will be hilarious to see Mr. Dark & Silent working on a farm with a bunch of smelly animals.

Sorry if this kind of sucked. It's the best I can do while I'm away from my best writing area - aka my room. I have to write with my parents looking over my shoulder constantly. Well, the good news is that I will get home tomorrow, although it won't be until late tomorrow night. And I have family in the area so I probably won't be able to post a new chapter until at least Monday.

I'm really tempted to change the direction of this story, not sure why though. I had something planned, but I don't know how it will work out. If anyone has any advice or wants to help, just pm me. I might post a poll also, depending on how much of the story I want to give away...

Thanks to PaRaM0Re-0394 for the recommendation of Hard Rock Cafe. I convinced my parents to go and it was awesome!! And to anyone who hasn't checked out my blog, I'm posting a link here: .com/ It's no where near as good as Fang's, but if anyone has any college advice/experience it will be fun to hear from you!