A/N: 'Ello. First official chapter ready. This was pretty fun to write.

Chapter One

Jude's POV

We're standing on the front porch as Bill knocks on the door. Callie's hand finds mine and she squeezes… hard, two hard grips in quick succession. I glance over to see her eyes already filling with tears. She takes the hand that's not holding mine fisting it and digging into her eyes trying to wipe the tears before the door opens.

"Callie, we'll be okay, I promise." My voice is barely loud enough to be heard, audible only to the two of us. This is the first time we'll be in their house. We met Lena two days before in the center on 5th street. It's called a drop in center, and it's supposed to be a neutral location where foster kids can go for help, and social workers can go to try to find help getting placements for especially "difficult cases", which is what we were like it or not. I refused to leave my sister, fought tooth and nail at the idea of someone even suggesting it which explains why Bill was aggravated. It had been days, hours of meetings with his superiors, the judge and Rafael, trying to fight for us to stay together. And then, the Adams-Fosters had come forward.

A boy opened the door, looking at us with curiosity. He had to be around fifteen or sixteen with dark brown hair and eyes. His eyes then locked onto Bill, standing to the left of us and he seemed to realize what was going on.

"You wanna come in?" He stepped back allowing us entry. "I'll go get Moms."

Callie's head snapped up at the use of the plural. The look she gave was one of a deer in the headlights. I shrugged.

"That'd be great. Thanks Jesus." Bill smiled.

"No problem." He walked away, around the corner leaving us alone… or not.

No sooner had Jesus left, a girl came down the stairs nearly running directly into Callie in her rush down as the bag in her hand fell to the floor.

"Oh my god! I'm sorry!" The girl looked up apologizing as Callie bent down grabbing her bag and handing it to her with a shy smile. "Thanks… uh…"

"Callie. Her name is Callie." I jumped in automatically.

"Couldn't she tell me that herself?" The girl's eyebrows knit together. The question didn't come out rude, just curious.

"She doesn't talk." Bill said before I could open my mouth to respond.

"Oh is she…?" Mariana pointed to her ear.

"She can hear just fine." I snapped, the anger at the usual set of questions rising up. I felt Callie put a hand on my arm applying gentle pressure. Breathe, calm down. Please don't start a fight before we even meet them!

"Sorry." I could hear the rise in the girl's voice, a bit of attitude to match mine creeping in, but before I could register her reaction, she was smiling again holding out a hand to Callie. "I'm Mariana, thanks for saving my dance bag."

Callie nodded.

"Sorry again! Maybe I'll see you around. I'm already late!" She shimmied around us as she ran out the door.

Callie turned around then giving me a sharp look, but then the spell was broken and she smiled roughing my hair, a thank you and a warning all within a matter of seconds. Only my sister could do that.

"Hi, nice to see you guys again." We looked up to see Lena standing in the entryway that separated the kitchen and the living room. "Why don't we sit?"

AJ's POV

"Hey," Mike walked into the living room where I was sitting on the couch with my sketchbook open on my lap. It was another new one. It had been an adoption present from Mariana, pretty much the only one I used on a regular basis. "You gonna be okay? I can call Brandon and we can go somewhere else if you want."

I shook my head, a smirk coming naturally to my lips. " Mike you don't need to do that. Me and Brandon are cool. Just order pizza or something."

"Sure." Mike smiled as he sat on the couch next to me. "What's that?" He nodded to the sketch I was working on. "Another one of your superheroes?"

I examined the sketch. I had been trying to come up with a new character for a few weeks now. I wanted to start a comic, but so far I didn't have any sort of idea of who it was I'd been drawing. I had come up with a few designs, but I still didn't have any of their stories.

"I guess so."

Mike scoffed. "You guess so. Looks like one to me."

"Could be a villain." I shrugged. "Or a sidekick."

"Right." He nodded. "So how do you know?"

Before I could come up with an explanation, we were interrupted by a knock on the door. "Dad, AJ?" Brandon's voice floated through the small hallway.

"In the living room B." Mike said.

I sighed bracing myself. It had taken a while for Brandon and I to reach an understanding. His relationship with his dad had been a sensitive issue for a while, I was the new kid living with him while he only saw his dad on certain days. I understood that. There were days where I wasn't even on his radar, until me… and Mike finally snapped. I confronted him three days before my court date… and during his brother and sister's shared Quinceanera celebration. It got ugly, Mike pulled us out and we aired everything. Now… well now we were cool, at least he was. I'm still not sure what to think about any of this. Good relationships were never easy to come by for me, family or not.

"What's up?" I looked up from my drawing when Brandon walked in. "How'd your jam session go?"

He laughed. "You mean rehearsal?"

"Yeah." I nodded. "You get any further with that girl of yours?"

"I'm gonna go order the pizza." Mike stood walking over to the kitchen. "Half cheese half pepperoni okay?"

"Yup." Brandon flashed an 'okay' sign. "Dude!" He put his head in his hands.

"Just figured I'd ask. That's what brothers do right?"

"We're going to be playing at the back to school party Friday night."

"Cool."

"Oh…" Brandon looked at his phone. "Before I forget, Mom and Mama invited you to family game night tomorrow."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Don't ask."

I smirked. "I actually like the Hallmark moments."

"We're not the greeting card type." Brandon murmured.

"Even better."

A/N: Yes, I included AJ's superhero drawing pastime. I'm not quite sure if the backstory behind the drawings will be the same as in canon, relatively except I'm not sure if Ty will be making an appearance. Any opinions on that? How'd I do with Brandon and AJ? Their relationship won't be as rocky as in canon, kind of similar to Jesus and Brandon with a bit more of an edge at times. They've had more time to get used to each other in this AU and of course there's no jealousy over Callie. For some perspective, I'm thinking AJ's been fostered by Mike for most of the summer, getting adopted roughly sometime in the midst of the second month of summer vacation. These opening chapters take place in the last few weeks before the beginning of the school year.

Anything you want to see? I'll try to incorporate any suggestions if they fit with what I have planned. Next chapter: Lena talks to Jude and Callie, Stef and Brandon meet them for the first time and a conversation with Bill and Moms among many other things.