2. Years after from the time of their adoption in 2000, the kids are now ten years older in the year of 2010. With the kids now being from eleven to eighteen years old.

The youngest of the eight children is Cora, a Thai and African American girl at the age of eleven who happens to be very shy and is deaf, she usually keeps to herself and spends her time being a swimmer and writing.

Seventh is Celsius, he is French-Canadian and Icelandic, at the age of twelve. He is known to be the obnoxious one, sometimes even strange, but with him dealing with schizophrenia, things can be a little rough for him.

Sixth is Melodie, a Japanese girl, at thirteen years old, she is quite ditsy, but very creative, and she dresses in costumes a lot and loves to wear bright hair colors.

Fifth is Maximus, an Italian kid who loves learning, even at the age of fourteen, you can always catch him reading.

Fourth is Valencia, a Brazilian girl with long almond curly hair as her signature look, with a wild and talented personality that can get her in trouble at times, even at the age of fifteen.

Third is Victor, a Syrian kid who loves photography and is known for his laid-back mysterious appeal and ambitious personality, even at the age of sixteen.

Second is Astrid, a South Korean girl with no boundaries of what to watch for, always paranoid at times and usually shows herself as being mean towards others, but she hides it by being intimidating, at the age of seventeen.

Then First is Arrow, he is Kenyan, and the serious and careful one, he mostly cares for himself, and assumes his family is the problem, at the age of eighteen.

One night, the kids finally got to meet their grandparents, James and Melissa arranged for them especially, to hopefully make them feel better over the years of stressful activities that the children had to deal with.

“Now, everyone, wear your proper outfits and tidy up nicely, your grandparents are finally here to see you all.” James says while sounding stressed as usual. 

“Come on, stand by the door, please.” Melissa says this with a more composed attitude than James.

Their butler, Frederick, opens the door, and there on the outside are the grandparents and the kids all in line before them, waiting for them to walk in. 

Their grandmother rushes to hug them, while their grandfather stands back as if waiting for a seat in a restaurant.

They all sit down and eat the food their chef Michael made them, but the grandma does all the talking and asking of questions, while the grandfather sits back as if waiting for the waiter to come in with a check.

When they leave, the grandma gives them gifts, but the grandpa just gives them strange words saying in a deep old raspy voice, “you guys are in danger...” Saying this creepy thing right as they both leave. 

Astrid quietly curses under breath, saying the f word amongst herself.

“That was strange, my father has never not spoken with guests.” 

“Don’t worry about it James,” she turns back towards the kids, “you have three hours until bed, older four, four hours until bed.” After saying this, Melissa sneaks over to Astrid saying, "and don't you use profanity in this house, especially to important people like him." 

Astrid rolls her eyes and walks upstairs with Melissa shouting at her, "and don't do that either!"

Then later that night, they all get undressed and relax, with Celsius laying in their lounge room couch saying, “what a loon of a grandfather,” then Melodie replies with, “don’t say that, Celsius, our grandfather just has a personality similar to the likes of Astrid, that's all.” They sit down and watch TV laughing together.

“Would you two be quiet, I’m trying to read.” Maximus says annoyed. 

“Read in your room then, you bookaholic.” Celsius replies. 

Maximus looks over to Celsius, “what? I was relaxing here first?” 

“You can’t talk like you own this room, we all come in here, especially after a day like this.” Celsius says with surety.

“Maximus, you always read that book, shouldn’t you have learned whatever is in it by now.” Victor says to Max.

“At least I can see enough to read even without wearing sunglasses indoors.” 

“Oh yeah, alright alright, well maybe if I break them, your eyesight will be as dark as my sunglasses."

“Stop! You two, stop fighting over stupid stuff," Valencia says, putting her hands on her hips like a mother would, then she turns to Victor, saying, "can you help me with my braid please? I need to see if it looks okay." 

Victor walks over to Valencia, saying in her ear, "gladly," before backing up and helping her.

“You guys are so annoying.” Astrid says to them as she walks lazily into the room. 

“Astrid, did you cut your hair again?” Valencia says, immediately noticing. 

“Yes, and?” 

“No, it looks super cute on you.” 

“Thanks.” 

“My hair is so long, but I know I'll never cut it, a lot of people can’t rock shorter hair,” Astrid raises her brow as Valencia talks on and on, until Valencia notices the look that Astrid is giving her, chuckling and then saying, “you are rocking that look though, don’t worry.”

Then Victor budges in on the conversation, saying to Valencia specifically, “you better not cut it, it fits you well.”

Valencia turns to Astrid, “aw see, Victor loves my hair.”

Astrid turns aside from them saying, side eyeing Victor before saying, "of course he does..."

Arrow then comes in the room after, barging in and saying to everyone, "alright keep it down in here!"

Astrid crosses her arms, "here you go, already yelling at us."

"Because I'm the only one who knows how to tame you all." Arrow replies.

“Why do you always have to be so cocky, Arrow.” Celsius says to him.

Arrow walks over to Celsius, "I'm so tired of having to hear all the foolish words your brain tells you to say, just shut it off, huh."

"Alright alright." Celsius replies, a little scared of Arrow as Arrow gives off a threatening tone, looking bothered by something.

Arrow leaves the room and Cora leaves the room with him, she gets water and sees Arrow talking to himself, she obviously cannot hear him, but he starts to look sad and walks away as Arrow has been acting this way for the past year. 

That next weekend, on a Friday night, James and Melissa go on a date together, leaving the kids with Arrow in charge and with the maids and butler. 

“Hey Cora.” 

Cora continues to write, causing Celsius to take her special headphones off saying, “want to play a game with me and Melodie? Here come on.” Celsius grabs her arm and they play Mario Kart Wii together.

Cora gets up to use the bathroom and she leaves her headphones on the couch.

Celsius, being nosy, picks up her headphones, saying, “what is with these anyways, like, why would you wear headphones if you are deaf? Shouldn’t she be wearing her ear piece?” 

“Yeah, but it broke, remember?" Melodie replies while doing her nails, with her getting up and leaving after. 

Astrid comes in seeing Celsius listening to what's on Cora’s headphones, so she snatches them out of Celsius’s hands, saying, “leave Cora’s stuff alone, haven’t you learned from the other times you almost broke her stuff?” 

“I was just looking at them, you crazy.” 

“I’m keeping these until Cora comes back.” 

“Give them back, it’s fine here!” 

Astrid shakes her head, "not with you, you always break stuff."

"No I don't," he puts his hands up, putting a soft look on his face as he says, "I have delicate hands..." 

The two of them fight to get the headphones, but the headphones end up breaking by the wire being shortened. 

“Oh no," she looks up at him, "Celsius, what did you do!” 

“What did you do?” He counters. 

Cora comes out devastated, she immediately runs to her room after seeing her headphones. 

“Cora! Wait” Astrid yells.

Astrid runs past Melodie into Cora’s room seeing Cora writing to herself with her tears covering her writing. 

Astrid sits down with Cora and signs, “we will get more of your headphones Cora, I’m sure of it, actually tonight we will," she looks at the clock, "it’s still early, I’ll have Dack take us there, you can come if you want, actually no, stay here and we will surprise you.”

Cora agrees with this, wiping away her little tears.

Astrid smiles and then leaves the room, making it back to the lounge room saying, “alright guys, we are going to the store to get more headphones, pronto.” 

“What? Tonight? But Best Buy is closing soon?” Celsius complains. 

“We'll get there in time.” 

“Really, I just brought our drinks up here to have fun, and now we have to go out?” Melodie replies annoyed as well, looking at Celsius. 

As Astrid is about to speak again, Maximus walks up saying, “while you are at it, I do need more of my green drink, but I can just...”

Astrid cuts him off saying, “so the supermarket too then? Okay, get everyone else, we need to leave before James and Melissa get home, and it is..." She checks the clock again, "7:46 right now, we can make it back before nine.” 

They all leave to go to the store, and they leave Cora with maid Shelly.

Their chauffeur drives them to the supermarket from their gated community, driving in the city, pass dark areas and lighter areas of the summer night, with Melodie laughing off of Celsius and their dark jokes, Maximus annoyed over them, Valencia staring at Victor as he watches the night sky, with Arrow keeping a straight face looking through the opposite window, and Astrid sitting back thinking of Cora and the dangers that surround her, only though it's a coping mechanism for her own problems.

Their chauffeur drops Astrid and Celsius at Best Buy, while dropping Arrow and Maximus off at the supermarket, then he parks the limo waiting for them in the lot. 

“I honestly am trying to figure out why Cora's stuff breaks so easily.” Victor says. 

“Just our parents being cheap.” Valencia replies. 

Then Dack looks in the rearview mirror, saying to them, "sorry to bother, but there are three guys coming towards our car."

"How do we end up in the ghetto?" Valencia questions.

"They are in the parking lot." Dack confirms.

“They are not bothering us though...Or yet.” Melodie says back, already feeling scared. 

They all look out and see three guys standing there, looking vicious, one holding a bat, a knife, and a stick. 

*Gasp*

Valencia kneels in the limo hiding from the guys.

“They look dangerous and stupid, but we have to do something.” Victor says. 

“Yeah, scream and hide.” Melodie says. 

“No you dunce, we call the cops.” Victor replies. 

“No, you guys hide, I’ll get out and confront them on whatever it may be.” 

“Dack?! That's stupid?” Valencia shouts to him quietly, in embarrassment almost. 

“No, I’ll be alright. Just sit back.” He says in a straightforward tone, as if he knows exactly what he is doing.

Dack gets out and confronts the kids with one of them saying to him, “where is Valencia?” 

“How do you know Valencia? Why do you look for her?” 

“Do you not know who I am??” 

“No, I do not.” 

“How?" The kid puts his arms down, "whatever, I know you are lying, she knows about me and my crew.” 

“Your crew? Wait a minute...Are you not Mrs. Vandova’s son? Nehemiah?” 

“Yes, and…?” 

“What are you doing like this? Does she know about this?” 

“Let me see Valencia!”

Still hiding out, Valencia says softly, “why do they know I’m here?” 

“Wait a sec, Valencia…You know these guys?” Victor questions. 

Valencia gives a guilty stare, then says, “we all do.”

Meanwhile Astrid and Celsius come out of the store, “um...Astrid what is going on in the limo?” Celsius instantly notices.

“I don't know, who are those guys..?” As Astrid questions this as well, she then runs over to the limo with Celsius following her.

"I can’t take this anymore, I’m not hiding from these guys.” Victor takes out a knife and gets out, “wait…Victor!” 

“Where did Victor get that knife from? He still has one of those?” Melodie questions.

And Meanwhile with Arrow and Maximus, “uh…Arrow something’s happening,” Maximus says in a worried voice. 

"Something else huh?" Arrow says without worry in his voice. 

They run to the limo as well and start yelling at the guys, “hey!! Back away this instant!” Maximus says, trying to be brave.

“What did you say to me!” the kid yells. 

“He said, stay away from my family…” Arrow says, his voice calm but stern. 

Victor comes out with his knife saying, “you are surrounded, idiot.” 

“This kid is like fifteen years old.” Celsius says carelessly.

“You better leave before I call the cops.” Arrow says. 

“Astrid, I think we should beat them,” Victor says, as if wanting to fight.

“Well, come at me then!” The main one running his mouth says.

They all start fighting, until Valencia comes out of the limo and jumps in front of Victor saying, “stop, please Nehemiah!” 

“Valencia?” He stops, then he tries to hug her, but she pushes him away saying, “I told you that I didn’t want to smoke and hang out with your dumb friends! Now leave my family alone!” 

They look at Valencia, then Victor starts saying, “you dated this dude…? Really? Without my, well our permission?” 

“I’m sorry guys.” Valencia looks around, guilty. 

“Hold up, we were not prepared for this,” Maximus says. “None of us were, Max.” Astrid replies. 

“But Victor, apparently.” Melodie adds in, pointing at his knife. 

They all look at it, with Arrow saying, “you didn’t even need to bring the weapon to destroy these idiots.”

“Please Arrow, we’re not trying to hurt anyone.” Valencia pleads, but Nehemiah grabs her arm, forcing her his way as he says, “so, you think we are broken up, because of your crazy family.” 

“No, because of our age, Nehemiah, and the stuff you were doing.” 

Nehemiah gets closer to her, but Victor pushes him out of the way saying, “not a chance, did you not understand what you are messing with, as long as you've been around us?”

Nehemiah pulls out his knife and starts fighting with Victor, then as everyone tries to stop it and as Dack calls the cops, Valencia jumps in front of Nehemiah, but with his knife her by her waist, she gets stabbed by it on her side, causing her fall down in pain, instantly.

As the police are called, making their way to the scene, the boys flee, letting them take Valencia to the hospital as soon as possible, with her on the brink of passing out.

”If only we still had it...” They all simultaneously thought.