"So boys," Jedd began, "Everyone knows practically everything about your day to day life, but I want to know, how do you think your history affects you? You guys are in a pretty unique position. I can't think of any other celebs that grew up in foster care."
I smiled, genuinely not expecting the question. Most people wanted to know about our movies, or if we were dating a certain co-star, but they usually avoided that question.
"Well," I started, looking at my brothers, "I think it definitely makes us much more appreciative about what we have. Other than that, I don't think we're much more different than regular people." I watched as my brothers nodded along.
"Interesting. Do you ever speak to any old foster siblings or parents?" Jedd asked. This time Ivan answered.
"Not as much as we'd like to, but we spent a bunch of time with this one family, so we're friends on facebook and see what each others up to. It's really interesting because they specialize in rambunctious boys, so we see post all the time about these boys their fostering, and all we can thing is 'that used to be us!'" Jedd chuckled but then looked confused.
"But if they only foster boys, how did your sister fit into that?" He asked. All us Volkov boys' mood died down a bit in memories, but Alex answered.
"Our social worker was afraid that she'd get overly attached to us, since she'd only ever been with us since she was a baby, or that she'd get into trouble like us, so she sent her to a different home two hours away. After she went with Dmitri to his first interview, she moved homes and her foster parent didn't let us have any contact for about two and a half years, when Dmitri finally turned eighteen. No phone calls, texts, emails, letters, nothing." An awkward pause followed after.
"I'm so sorry guys, I had no idea. That must have been really hard on your family."
Drew smiled. "Yeah, but we got through it. I know sometimes we seem really overprotective of her, but that's just a bit of worry left over from not being in her life for so long. And anyway, Ebony turned out very well behaved, so I guess we owe her fosters a big thank you." Jedd smiled, and the conversation turned to Dominick's movie he just finished and whether or not he's dating his female co-star. The interview went by quickly, which I was happy for. I was nervous about leaving Ebby alone. She didn't know how crazy things could become so quickly. All we had to do was wait fifteen or twenty minutes for security to clear away the crowds of fans, and then we would be there to protect her. Ivan started a Instagram live to pass the time, and was answering questions. The rest of us were just messing around. When someone asked Ivan to sing an acapella version of the song Count on Me by Bruno Mars, he sang a bar before Nikolai joined in, and then slowly the rest of us joined in two, making up a silly routine to go with it as well. All of us Volkov's were pretty good singers, and could carry out a tune. We never really sang publicly though. Ivan started out as a musician, but the rest of us started in the movie industry. We did sing quite a bit around the house though.
When we were just about done, the door to our green room opened, and the head security man, Josh, walked in. We all stopped singing, and Ivan quickly signed off. We all walked out with a smile on our face. Josh gave us sunglasses and a hat to try to hide us, and it seemed to work well, as no one bothered us. We made it to the tour bus and unlocked to door, and almost immediately the bus took off. We could hear the shower running, and I didn't see Ebby anywhere, so I assumed that she must be in there. We were told by our driver that we would stop for a proper breakfast in about twenty minutes, and decided to just get ready while we waited. We did the radio interview in proper clothing, but we planned on just wearing pajamas the rest of the day. I knocked on the shower door to tell Ebby, and she gave a curt answer back.
I frowned, worried. Ebony was usually a very happy and easily content person, but she had these days when she'd bite anyone's head off if they looked at her wrong. The other boys and I were afraid that she was depressed when they first happened, but by the next day or so she'd be perfectly normal again, and didn't want to talk about it. We tried to measure how many days she was moody, because if it went on too long I was going to take her to a doctor or something. Ebony was so important to us, and even just the idea of her hurting makes all of us want to tear out our hearts to give to her to mend her's. We knew we were overprotective, but she's our baby sister. And, when you think about it, every good thing in our lives came from her. She was the last gift our parents gave us, and the only reason I auditioned for my first movie is because she encouraged me over the phone when we first were separated, and I thought that maybe we'd be able to see her more if I had enough money to drive down to her foster home. Of course, by the time I made any real money, she was put in that other house, and they didn't let us have any contact.
I was deep in thought when I heard Cruz, the bus driver, swear. I was surprised, as he usually was on to us about what language we used. He was a nice man, and we all got along wonderfully. He was like a cool grandpa figure in our life, and we spend most the rides telling jokes back and forth.
"What's wrong?" I asked. Cruz gave an agitated smile back to us.
"Looks like the road is blocked off ahead of us. The local authorities seem to think the roads might be dangerous tonight. Seems there is going to be a storm tonight. We're going to have to stay at a hotel tonight."
While I knew that larry would probably be upset at this delay, I couldn't help but feel a little excited that we'd get a day and night off. I texted Larry.
Hey Lar, just a heads up that there is a storm coming through tonight and the road is going to be blocked. We're going to need a room tonight
Just heard. I'll arrange something for 2nite
Suddenly, a thought popped into my head.
No need. found a place.
I muted my phone, and gave cruz directions to a motel I had seen advertised earlier. It was shady enough that no one would look for us there, but nice enough that we weren't likely to die. It also sort of reminded me of places we'd stay between placements . We pulled up, and each of us grabbed a bag. I instructed cruz to try and find a nice place for himself tonight, and we headed inside.
The 90 year old man who was keeping the storefront didn't seem to care much that we were there. He gave us two room keys, and we decided to split up. Alex, Andrew, Ivan and I in one room, and Nikolai, Dominik and Ebby in the other room. The rooms are right next to each other, so I kept our room key and gave the other key to Nik. We all split up and put our bags in our room, and soon enough we all met in front of our door.
"Where's Ebony?" I asked, noticing her absence. Kola rolled his eyes.
"In bed. She's throwing a tantrum, says she doesn't want to go anywhere." I sighed and told the others to head out to the street and find a place to eat. While they left, I went to check on EJ, who was face down on the bed.
"EJ, what going on? Why aren't you coming to breakfast?" I asked, rubbing her shoulders. She mumbled a response. "I can't understand, babe. What was that?" She groaned and pushed up onto her elbows, pushing me away as well.
"I said I don't want to!" She exclaimed, scowling at me. I put my hands up in the universal sign of 'take it easy'.
"Hey, hey. Calm down young lady. Don't raise your voice at me!" I said. She scoffed and slammed down on the bed again. "Stop with the attitude. That's not doing you any favors. Now, get up, we're going to breakfast." She groaned again but didn't move. "Come on, now." I said. When she still didn't move I grabbed her by the armpit and hoisted her up, disregarding her complaints.
"Ebony Jade Volkov, you either get up right now or be prepared to be grounded for the next week. I'm serious." She grumbled, but got up, arms crossed and followed me out the door. She kept up the silent treatment as I received a text from Alex saying that they found a small diner about a ten minute walk from here. As we began the walk there, I decided that this would be a good time to talk to EJ.
"So what's up with you?" I asked the sulky teen next to me. She rolled her eyes again.
"Nothing"
"Eb, I know you. I get that you have days when you don't want to talk to us, but this attitude is unacceptable." She huffed, but seemed to scowl little bit less.
It may not be a big milestone, but it might be a start.
A/N:
HELLO PEOPLE! Sorry for the long absence, but in my defense I'm busy with my last semester of high school EVER! Plus, one class that I'm taking is a creative writing class, so I'm hoping in the next few weeks my content will be better. I hope to start a more regular update schedule in the summer, so please don't give up on me just yet :)
So, How y'all enjoying 2019?
XOXO,
abikat