When I walked into my room Belle was sitting on her bed reading a book.

“Hey Jane, how was your walk? Hey are you okay?” She got up from her bed and walked over to me. I shook my head and tears started to fall. She sat me down in the desk chair and I told her what happened.

“That doesn’t sound right Jane. Zan wouldn’t do that to you. Are you sure that’s what you saw? I mean you couldn’t even hear what they were saying.” I nodded, Belle’s right, Zan wouldn’t do that to me. “Maybe you should talk to him about it.” I nodded, yeah I’ll do that. Deciding to talk to Zan about what I saw I started to get ready for our date tonight. I put on a tight, low cut white halter top and a yellow skirt. I left my hair down to frame my face a grabbed a little sweater to put on if I got cold. He picked me up from my room right on time. He looked so happy when I opened the door. He took my hand and we started down that hall. “(Tarzan, I have to ask you something.”

“Okay, what’s up?”

“Well earlier I was taking a walk in the garden when I saw you.”

“Oh, why didn’t you come over and see me than?”

“You were with a girl… and she was kissing you.” He scratched his head for a moment.

“Oh you mean Terk.”

“Terk?”

“Yeah she’s my cousin.” Tarzan stopped mid stride and looked at me. “You thought I was cheating on you.” I blushed and looked down at the floor. He grabbed my chin and lifted my face so I looked at him. “Jane.” He dropped his hands to my shoulders and pulled me to him. “I would never do that.”

“I know.” He looked down at me.

“Then why would you think that?” I shrugged

“I guess it just looked like you guys really loved each other.”

“I do love Terk, she’s my family Jane.” I nodded and hugged him. We went back to walking when I thought crossed my mind.

“How are you related to Terk?”

“She’s my cousin, I told you that.”

“Yes, but you two are… different.”

“Oh, I was adopted.”

“Will you tell me about it?” He shrugged

“There’s not much to tell. My parents died when I was a babe. My mother found me and rescued me. It wasn’t long before she adopted me and I was treated like family. Terk, Tantor and Flynt and Mungo are all around my age so we all stuck together.

“You never told me that you were adopted.” He shrugged again

“I don’t really think about it. I was so young when it happened that I don’t feel like I was adopted.” I smiled at him. We walked down to the parking garage and climbed into one of the school cars. He drove us to a bar and grill, the place was packed. A band was already playing a rock song and the people were dancing to it. Zan walked me through the crowd of people, there was a table packed with people close to the stage. As we got closer to it I saw the girl from the garden sitting there. She spotted us and waved us over, getting out of her seat she came over to us and hugged Zan. With a huge grin he hugged her back. “Terk this is Jane. Jane this is Terk, Tantor, Flynt, Mungo, my mother Kala and Kerchak.” I smiled and said hello. I looked every one over, Terk is beautiful with her milk chocolate skin, dark brown eyes and long black hair. She wore a purple corset with a black suit jacket over it, black skinny jeans and black ankle boots. Flynt and Mungo are twins, both tall, muscular guys with dark chocolate skin, dark amber eyes and short black hair. They were dressed the same in baggy black jeans and purple t-shirts. Tantor surprised me, He’s tall, skinny, blue eyed with a head full of curly red hair. He wore blue jeans and a purple dress shirt over a black t-shirt. Kala, Tarzan’s mother is beautiful. She’s average height and size with shoulder length curly brown hair, green eyes and caramel skin. She wore brown leggings with a tan dress that came down to her knees and belted around her waist. Last was Kerchak, he’s a tall guy with dark brown skin, almost black eyes and a shaved head. He looked a little scary, no emotion showed on his face. “And every one this is my girlfriend Jane.” I looked up at Tarzan and smiled. He called me his girlfriend.

“It’s very nice to meet you Jane.” Kala said and smiled at me, the guys surrounded us, smacking Zan on his back and giving me hugs. He laughed as he told the guys to knock it off. We stood there talking and laughing until it was time for the band to go up on stage. Flynt played the drums, Mungo played a djembe drum, Tantor had a trumpet and Terk sang. Terk started to scat and everyone started to join in and played along. The song was fast and fun. Tarzan pulled me out to the dance floor and we danced to it. Everyone clapped at the end of the song. “For our next song I would like to invite my cousin up here.” Tarzan smiled at me and headed up on stage. Flynt and Mungo started on the drums, Tantor joined in on a tuba and Terk played the keyboard. Tarzan went up to the microphone and started to sing.

His voice was deep and filled with emotion as he sang to the crowd. He captured the audience with his energy, putting his whole heart into what he was singing.

“He’s amazing, isn’t he.” I looked over a Kala who was standing next to me.

“Yes he is.”

“He didn’t want to be a part of the band, but when they wrote this song he told them he would sing it.”

“I understand why.” Kala look surprised.

“Do you?”

“Yes, he told me. So I know this song is about the loss of his maternal parents and his gaining you and his family. He’s talking about how you all love each other even though he and now I’m only guessing but Tantor are adopted.”

“I’m surprised he told you that, but I’m glad you understand. What you don’t know is that Tarzan’s birth mother and I both gave birth to two beautiful baby boys at the same hospital, on the same day. During labor she lost her life and I lost my son. I walked over to the nursery to look at all the beautiful children who were alive and well, and that’s when I spotted Tarzan, he was screaming and crying, I asked one of the nurses to let me hold him and as soon as I did he stopped crying. The nurse told me what happened with his mother and that his father had died in a car accident not soon after that. That day I decided he would be mine.”

“You’re an amazing person, and a wonderful mother. Thanks to you Tarzan was given a chance to live and you raised him into a wonderful man.” She smiled at me

“Thank you. I can understand why he loves you. You have a beautiful heart.” When Kala went back to the table Zan ran over to me. I looked him over, He’s tall, tan and muscular, with long brown dreadlocks and golden brown eyes. He wore baggy jeans and a black tank top.

“So what did you think?” I smiled up at him and raised my hands to rest on his chest.

“I think your amazing.” With that I raised up on tip toe and kissed him. Slowly we pulled apart and he smiled at me.

“I love you.”