*This Chapter takes place in the past and is all happening inside Ryder's head, I will let you know when it changes*

Ryder

Everything has changed for me, and I am not sure if I want to think its in a good way. Mom is trying to hard she just doesn't get it and I hate how she thinks Matt coming over for 5 minutes is going to change anything. There is another girl it is like one after the other, the good thing about this one is she doesn't care. School still sucks but since Zachary keeps telling the bullies to leave me alone its getting better. I even became friends with Timothy, Gia and Lacey. I actually had friends, they were all friends with Zachary too. The only one I had to worry about was Tanner he hated me so much, he didn't care if Zachary told him to leave me alone. He would bully me and hit me when no one was around, I would hide the bruises and scars. Tanner scares me a lot, and I am too afraid to say anything to anyone. He hates me because of Max and I can't control what my cousin does, so I am not exactly his biggest fan either. He is of course in high school and bigger than me so I keep my mouth shut. Zachary calls all of us over at lunchtime to explain how he is going to take care of all of us, and that he is here if we need him. He wants us to trust him and if we ever need help he would back us up. I believe him he seems genuine plus I really like his dog. He adopted this dog he was huge his name was Spruce, he always came to me and lay with me. I am not sure what it was but a Rottweiler was my friend.

I had a feeling Zachary was planning something big but he said we needed to all grow up first, I was slowly getting there, even though I was 7 I was still short. I was teased and picked on for so long I wondered if my mind was starting to believe all the rumors and stunt me from growing, Tanner was the worst. I had to hide everything about him to my mom she thought I was doing better I even had friends now she just left me alone. I am not sure what happened but she had a new job. She worked for her own clinic, she was still a psychiatrist but she didn't work for the hospital anymore. She was at work a lot more now, and she always left me with her girlfriends. I swear it changed every week, I know my mom meant well but I hated them all. I have yet to see one good enough for her. I was never going to understand why she needed to date girls either, but my friend Lacey's mom was also a lesbian. I am not sure if it is why Lacey dresses like a boy or has short hair, she is trying to fit in or something, she would be really cute if she didn't do that. I however was not going to ever say anything, I just wanted to be her friend.

Everyday we would get together at Timothy's house and we would waited for Zachary it was like we were all in a gang and he was our leader. I didn't think it was a bad thing though, he was nice and he treated us good. I could feel Tanner he was staring at me and I knew he wanted to hurt me again, he hated it when I was at his house. He would only hurt me if I was alone though, he never did it in front of anyone especially Zachary, Milton was also here and he was working on the computers. I remember he said he had ADHD and no one would hire him so he worked for Zachary, and I am not even sure what he was doing. I felt like he was building something. Zachary arrived, "Hello friends, so it would seem that Milton needs more time with the device. We also need a bit more time to grow, so we will just continue being here for each other and helping out where we can. I promise things will get better" he said. We all agreed as if we were his puppets and he was our master but I felt safe around him despite everything that Max has said.

He finally left me alone though, he had new siblings. My uncle Chase and Aunt Skye adopted babies, I wondered if my mom would ever want to do that? I felt like she had me just to fill a void in her life and regretted it ever since. Sure I know she loves me but it wasn't enough otherwise why would she leave me with all these strange women. None of them cared, heck mom didn't even noticed the bruises or the scars I was hiding from Tanner. I left their house and he followed me. I knew he would but I needed to get home, I remember being pushed and falling onto the pavement, my jeans ripped and I could feel the cut on my knees. "I hate you Ryder and you will never say anything if you want to keep your head on" he said. "I won't" I said out of fear it is what I always said, as he kicked me so hard I felt his shoe print in my back. Then he walked away and I took a breathe for a second and ran home, mom was not here yet, so I ran to my room and fixed the cuts on my leg. I was learning how to take care of myself, I was going to be just fine. I wonder what would happen if I did tell Zachary about Tanner but then again I said I wouldn't.

The next morning my mom was waking me up saying she had to go to work, it was a PRO D day from school and she was taking me to my uncles house. I wasn't sure how this was going to go, I didn't really want to be around screaming babies, but I didn't have a choice. She didn't have a girlfriend that wanted to take care of me. This meant I would miss the meeting at Timothy's today because there was no way I could sneak past my uncle. I texted Zachary and told him and he said it was fine and to just keep my head up and my mouth shut. I didn't even know what I was keeping it shut about but I would never say anything not to my uncle. I knocked on his door and Max answered, I wasn't expecting him to be there. I could just sense him wanting to talk to me. "How are you?" he asked, "fine" I said, "really because I can tell something is going on?" he said, "I am fine Max let it go, I just wish mom was around more" I said trying to make this subject about her. "I am sorry bud she works hard, but we are here for you if you need us" uncle Chase said. "Thanks" I said as I pulled out my phone and tried to just ignore them. Max was not giving up though so I had to tread carefully her otherwise he would see right through my lies. He kept asking me about Zachary and I told him the same thing, nothing he was just nice to me the one time, I don't talk to him. This day could not go by any slower but finally my mom came back to get me and I left with her, I was able to avoid going there again for awhile. I arranged play dates with my friends and my mom seemed to like that, I just never mentioned Zachary by name and I usually used Gia or Lacey as my friends. Not sure if she was ever a fan of Timothy either.

As the years went by things were getting better for me and I had a little more freedom, my mom finally found a girlfriend who stuck around for longer than 5 minutes. She was nice sure but she didn't care too much about me and I liked it that way she allowed me to do my own thing, and she was easy to sneak around. There was finally a plan in motion with Zachary according to him it would happen soon as Milton was finally finished with his device, and I still had no idea what it was. Lacey and Gia were getting weirder around me too, every year it was different, I noticed Lacey even started to grow out her hair. She was really pretty with longer hair, things were finally getting better and I managed to avoid Tanner on most days. I am not 13 years old and I feel like my life has turned around, I no longer need Matt as I have Zachary, and I feel good about where things are going.

*Present day will be next chapter*