411 All Right (1/2)

We left shortly after that, both feeling at ease with our reflections. We went home and found the table full with: the boys, Mrs. Atkins, Dr. Moore, and Mr. Duncan. Noah saved me a spot between him and Mr. Atkins chair at the head of the table. The two of us sat down, joining everyone else.

There was an awkward silence as all eyes were trained on me. Their faces looked just as scared as how I felt. And that made me happy. They cared that much.

I gave a small smile. "I'm okay you guys." For now.

The twins and Noah seemed to let out sighs of relief at the same time. Dr. Moore and Mr. Duncan watched me closely from the other side of the table, but didn't say anything.

Mrs. Atkins looked the most nervous as she looked at her husband. "Did you tell Jake? Should I tell him now? Or should we do it as a family?"

"Mom and Dad are going to try to adopt you!" Noah blurted out, not giving Mr. Atkins a chance to reply to his wife. The silence surrounded us again as they waited for me to reply.

"I know." I glanced at Mr. Atkins. "We talked." I gave them my best smile. "Thank you."

"Let's eat, everyone." Mr. Atkins said. He reached out and started to load up his plate. His actions sparked movement from the twins and soon, everyone started to fill up their plate to eat.

I followed along, happy for such a warm atmosphere. Zeke didn't even say anything about me skipping practice, nor did he look angry. Maybe today isn't so bad after all.

After eating, Dr. Moore asked me to make an appointment on Friday, after school, to talk this out. He said he would give me time to digest the news and come up with questions or topics that I wanted to talk about. Then he left.

Mr. Duncan didn't leave as quick as him. Instead, he addressed the whole table. "For now, I'd like to keep this matter under wraps."

"What do you mean?" Noah asked. "We can't tell anyone that we're adopting Jake?"

Mr. Duncan lips thinned. "Maybe not just yet. It's going to take some time to get through to Mr. Patterson and his uncle. They have agents and lawyers so it'll take some time to figure this all out."

"Will they try and take Jake away?" Dave asked.

"No way!" Kyle's jaw dropped.

"They already had their chance." Noah pouted.

"Most likely, they won't interfere." Mr. Duncan gave me a tight smile. I could tell that he felt sorry for me, knowing I had family and yet they didn't care about me. "As you boys know, Jeremy Patterson is a big name in baseball. If we deal with this improperly, news stations will catch wind of this."

"So he can't even tell others that Patterson is his brother?" Noah frowned. His anger was evident in the way his fists gripped the table.

"Let's just give Mr. Duncan some time to do his job." Mrs. Atkins spoke up. "Besides, you know how much Jake abhors attention from the masses. Think about him, okay?"

Noah glanced at me and relaxed a little, seeing that I wasn't as upset as him. I honestly felt numb to it now. You can't choose your blood relationships, but I already had a family here that I wanted.

Mr. Duncan instructed us not to spread the news just yet as he didn't want anyone to look like the 'bad guy'.

"Yea, well, it's not like he's a good guy." Noah snorted as his parents walked Mr. Duncan to the door. He looked me in the eyes. "Are you sure you're okay with this?"

I shrugged. "I'm okay for now. Don't you guys want me?"

"Of course!" Dave nodded.

"Yea, we need someone more gullible than Noah." Kyle snickered.