The first time he had stood in a corner and concentrated. After a while he heard a rushing sound and he concentrated on that instead. Soon his chest felt uncomfortably hot. He followed David's advice and tried to move it into his arms. That was when he blew up.

 The good news was that he could make fire. The bad news was that he couldn't control it and unless Jess was standing around then he was a hazard to himself. He had spent the past few days and he wasn't any closer to throwing a single fireball. 

      He was walking home with Chuck. He didn't plan to go the do this weekend. It was a Friday and he and Chuck had made plans to spend the weekend watching one of Chuck's favorite Anime's it was called Naruto and it was about seven hundred episodes long and besides it was Tim's birthday.

      Back at the home everything was in chaos. It was Timothy's birthday and mrs Floyd had "tried" to bake a cake. It hadn't ended well. They ended ordering a cake. All twelve inhabitants of the house were present. Jason found out that Timothy was one of the pioneer children. He, Chuck, and Yolanda.

      Timothy had a party cap on and he looked more embarrassed than happy. Yolanda clapped her hands for attention. 

      "Come on let's have a toast. It's not everyday Timothy puts on on another year."

      "And besides Tim's sixteen, hell probably hit puberty anytime now." Chloe said. Everyone laughed even Mr Floyd who didn't talk much and was standing in a corner.

      "But on a serious note it still feels like yesterday when me and Tim came up to this place and Ma Floyd couldn't stop flustering around." Mrs Floyd giggled.

      "Is been what? Two years already and a lot changed. There are new faces. Lots of new faces, Tim's about to start growing pubes..."

      "...and Yolanda's no longer as flat as a board." Tim retaliated. That one got a lot of laughs.

      "I'm still fat." Chuck volunteered.

      "Will at least somethings are still the same." Tim said.

      "Yes. And that's we're still a family and always be." Mr Floyd whooped and clapped. Tim cut his cake and Mrs Floyd passed root beer round.

      That night Jason laid on his bed staring at the ceiling. He was pumped on sugar and worried that he might not fall asleep.

      "Psss...Jason!"

      "Yeah?"

      "Are you asleep?"

      "Yeah, I'm probably just sleep talking."

      "Can I ask you a question?"

      "Ask ahead."

      "I used to dream about being adopted, you know. I used to dread birthdays, it meant I was getting older and we both know no one wants a teenager. When I came here I was pretty depressed, but I came to love here and it's pretty darn good. Tim said Mrs Floyd told him a little about you. So umm... Don't leave." Jason lay on his bed and stared at the ceiling, he didn't answer Chuck. it reminded him of the first home he had went to after his mom disappeared.

   

                                       * * *

       It was a year later after his mother had abandoned him and against all odds Jason despite his bad attitude was up for adoption. The Bishops seemed nice enough. They had been married for fifteen years without kids though they had been trying. James Bishop had some nine to five job that Jason had long forgotten. While Margaret Bishop stayed home and kept the house. They were even more nervous than Jason.

       They walked him to his room. It was painted blue, he didn't like blue. But he liked the idea of having his own room. They enrolled him into school, they got him clothes that actually fit (back at the home they used to give the children clothes that were way larger them telling them that they would 'grow' into them). He didn't have to wake up 5 am and pray so much. There was no Henry, there was no father Ignatius, his bruises and cuts healed up. Jason started thinking that it might not be so bad after all. Deep down he knew this weren't his parents and might never be, but they were supposed to take care of him and so far they weren't doing a bad job. 

      Mrs Bishop was into photography she had a spare room and the walls were decorated with vivid pictures of the most random stuff. A dead grasshopper, a Harley Davidson, A half eaten Hamburger. She was the one who got Jason his first sketchpad and she was practically his coach all was going well until one hot summer afternoon.

       Mr Bishop had been gone on a business trip for a week and still had two more left. Even at that time he still had the nightmares, he had woken up from a nap soaked with sweat. He pulled off his shirt and threw it in corner as he searched through his suitcase Mrs Bishop walked in. She stopped and looked at Jason's sweat soaked chest. 

       "Jason did you know you had a beautiful body?." Jason had heard a lot about his body but he was more used to words like scrawny, battered and unkempt he wasn't used to such flattery but that didn't mean he didn't like it.

       "Do you want to do a photoshoot?" 

       "Uh?"

       "You have a beautiful body and it would be a waste to let it go undocumented. And besides." She stepped forward and raked her hand through Jason's ruby red hair. 

       "You have such beautiful colored hair and it's all natural and it just Augments the storm in your eyes." Jason hadn't exactly been a good son to them, he refused to wash the dishes if he didn't want to, he wasn't mushy to them the way he saw other children do, he knew he wasn't smart and his grades wouldn't be any special. They had given him a second shot at life and he should probably be more grateful.

       "Okay."

       "No problem, I'll go get my camera. Meet me in the living room."

       Jason put on his shirt and went to the living room. Mrs Bishop was adjusting her camera. She tapped the couch.

       "Come and sit down Jay." Jason sat down were she wanted him to. She took some pictures of Jason in different poses, then stopped.

       "This is not exactly what I had in mind. We're supposed to be taking pictures of your body, so why's it covered."

       "Oh..." Mrs Bishop helped Jason take his shirt off even though he could do it himself. Her palm stayed on Jason's chest.

       "Your running a temperature. Are you alright?"

       "Umm... Yeah." 

       "It's probably the weather. It's real hot." Jason nodded. Her face brightened.

        "I know what would be great how about some ice cream?"

        "That would be nice." Mrs Bishop walked over to the kitchen. Jason sat petrified on the couch. Nothing in his thirteen years of life had prepared him for this. Before he could prepare a proper line attack Mrs Bishop came back. She passed him a chocolate chip ice cream cone.

        Jason focused all his attention on his ice cream till he held a small Yelp. Mrs Bishop had dropped a bit of ice cream I her shirt.

        "Jason can you get this for me?" Jason reached out and tried to wipe it off as best as he could. He could feel her breasts under the thin material of the shirt. 

        "I'm not sure I can get it all of."

        "Don't bother." She handed her ice cream cone to Jason and in one fell swoop she took off her shirt. She wasn't wearing a bra. Jason turned red and looked away.

        "There's no need to fret, I'm your mother after all. And besides the human body is a beautiful thing and should not be hidden." Jason nodded, still looking away.

        "Look at me Jason. Do you think I'm so ugly that I need to cover myself up?" Jason shaked his head.

        "I can't hear you." Mrs Bishop said.

        "No it's not."

        "Good. let's continue the photo shoot." 

                                  • • • 

         Chuck strolled down the street. It was his turn to buy groceries. He was in a good mood. He felt at peace with the world and even had a little skip in his feet.  

     He heard a little baby crying. He hated hearing little kids crying, in fact if he ever had kids they wouldn't ever let them cry. An image of him and Yolanda holding little kids came to mind. He blushed and shook it off. There couldn't be anything between him and Yolanda, he wasn't blind he could see that there was something between her and Timmy and if there wasn't something that wouldn't last long.

     The baby cried again. The cry reminded him of himself long time ago. A little boy holding the hand of a state trooper and crying. A little far off two cars lay wrecked and in one of them lay the boy's parents. The baby cried again dragging him out of his reverie. He followed the sound of the baby crying down into an alley. The sound came from behind a dumpstar. Chuck wondered why anyone would ever throw a child away. 

     Behind the dumpstar was the scariest thing Chuck had ever seen. It was small like a baby, had little chubby arms, chubby legs and little cheeks but that's were the similarities stopped. The baby's skin was grey and hairy. It had only three digits on its hand and feet and attached to them were long claws. It smiled at him and he could see that it's mouth was full of razor sharp teeth. 

     "Psyche!" It took him a while for him to realize the voice came from the baby and when he did he passed out.