The Heart of Nine

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

“No, he can’t stay.”

All nine of us are sitting in the living room on one side of the room with my dad, stepmom, and stepbrother on the other side.

Yeah, I said stepmom and stepbrother. I guess I forgot to mention that both of my parents have new families. My dad now has a beautiful blonde-hair blue-eyed wife and three matching stepsons. My mom has a tall, handsome, and young husband and two stepdaughters.

They are perfectly happy with their new families and have barely given us nine a second thought……. Until now. My dad wants his stepson to live with us for a while to keep him out of trouble.

Yeah right.

“It will only be for the rest of this school year Zach.”

“No. He’s not going to stay here. We don’t have the money to have another person living here.”

“I’ll send more money monthly for his needs.”

Zach, Jason, Ben, and I just stare at him in shock. All four of us had to get jobs when we all hit fifteen just so we could support everyone because our dad stopped sending us enough. Now he wants to send money just for his stepson? Instead of us? His real kids!

Jason stands up and voices my thoughts, “You’re going to send money for him and yet you stopped sending money to us when you found out that we had jobs?!?!”

“Jason, son, I still send you money every month.”

“Yeah to pay your bills! You don’t send us money for food or gas! We have to earn the money for those ourselves!”

I could see the hurt and resentment on Jason’s face, and hear it in his voice. I look around the room and see similar looks on the rest of my siblings’ faces, but also something that looks like longing. I feel tears prickle my eyes when I see that. 

They just want their dad.

But they can’t help but be angry with him.

My dad sighs in exasperation, oblivious to the feelings of the kids in front of him.

“Jason, we’re not discussing this right now” he says angrily. He looks around the room and clears his throat to regain his composure. “We’re discussing your brother’s living arrangements for the next ten months.”

Jason just glares at him then says, “He’s not my brother.” He gets up and walks away. “I’m outta here.” We all stay silent until we here his car drive away.

My dad sits forward and rubs his temples like he has a headache. Well, what did he expect? A big ‘Hey dad! Of course your new stepson can stay with us’?

“This is ridiculous, Nick is staying here with you and that’s final.”

The rest of us just glare at him as he and Nick get up and go back to the car to get Nick’s bags. The eight of us exchange various looks ranging from dread to anger to irritation.

Someone clears their throat and eight heads whip around toward the sound. It’s our stepmom, Marissa, dang I forgot she even existed. I guess she’s kind of a nice lady, we’ve only met her a couple of times but each time she’s always tried to get to know us and let us know that she’s there if we ever need anything, we’ve never really taken her up on her offer though. She’s actually really pretty, Nick has her dirty blonde hair and hazel eyes, but she has a softer face and a petite frame.

At least she’s not an evil witch.

We’re all staring at her while she tries to put her thoughts into words. We’re about to give up and turn away when she says, “Thank you for letting him stay here. It really means a lot. He’s gotten into some trouble lately and we think it would be good for him to get away. He’s going to your high school. We wanted him away from his friends you see? He’s not too happy about it but I know you’re all good kids maybe living with you will be good for him.”