Don't Believe Everything You Hear

"Selena! You're home, how was school?" my foster mom asked me.

"Fine," I told her.

"We have somebody for you to meet," she smiled. He was spending the night at a friend's house yesterday, but he's our son," she smiled.

"Can I meet him in a second?" I asked.

"Um, okay," she said weirdly. I went up to what would be my new room and changed out of my uncomfortable clothes. Instead of a collared shirt and tiny ass shorts, I put on a random t-shirt and a pair of basketball shorts. I had nothing that I had to dress up for, so why bother dressing up for it?

"Okay, so who did you want me to meet?" I asked.

"Why did you change out of your nice clothes?" she asked.

"Because I'm just chilling around the house," I said. Truth is, I was probably going to start bringing back up clothes to school so I could change.

"Oh, okay, our son is up in his room now, it's right next to the bathroom," she said.

"Okay," I sighed and walked back up the stairs. I knocked on the door, silently. I looked at the clock in the hall way, it was now about 3:15.

"Come in," I heard a strong Texan accent say through the door. I opened the door and took a step into the room.

"What did you need?" He asked. He spun around to face me, "Oh my god, what are you doing here?" He yelled, sounding scared.

"I'm guessing you go to my school?" I asked him.

"Yeah," he said harshly. "I've heard nothing nice about you," he said.

"Well at least you know that I have no dog fighting business, and that my parents aren't in the fridge," I sighed.

"What are you talking about?" he asked me.

"I live here now," I sighed.

"What!?! Why?" He yelled. I sighed and just walked away, not wanting to deal with it. I walked out of the room and back to my own.

I sat around doing math homework for a little while. I didn't like it at all. I tossed my math book off of my desk and picked up my sketch book. I decided that I would sketch my new 'brother'. He may not have a great impression of me, but he still seemed like he'd be fun to draw. About half an hour later I was done with the sketch. I looked at it for a second. I neatly ripped the picture out of my sketch book and stood outside Jonathan's door yet again. I bent down and slid it under the door, knocked, and then ran back to my own room.

"Selena, there's somebody here for you!" I heard Mrs. Cook yell. I looked at the clock and it was a bit past five. I sighed because I knew that it was Austin, the boy who probably fears me more than anybody.

"Hi," I said when I reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Hey," he said quietly.

"I swear I won't hurt you," I whispered. That didn't seem to change his mind one bit, because he still looked scared.

"Okay, so would you rather work in the living room or my room?" I asked him. He just shrugged. "Then we'll work in the living room," I sighed.

"So tell me about yourself," I sighed, wanting to get this over with. Not only was it awkward, but I felt really bad for him.

"Well, I play guitar and a bit of bass and singing. I like hats on occasion…can we come back to me so I can think about some more interesting things?" he asked nervously. "No offense, but I'm kind of scared of you.

"Yeah, everybody is," I mumbled. "So I kinda got that when you sat as far away as possible," I sighed. "You can't believe everything hear though," I sighed.

"Well, I heard a lot of things…" he trailed off.

"Again, I figured." I sighed. "Would you like me to clear some things up for you?" I asked.

"I’m not sure if it'll help, but might as well try," he said, still far away.

"Okay, so what have you heard, I'll explain them and this'll be like working on our project," I sighed.

"Well I've heard that you stabbed a kid for looking at you the wrong way," he told me.

"I don't believe in fighting for any reason, I think it's just pointless," I told him calmly.

"What about your dog fighting thing?" he asked.

"I had a dog before I had to move, but it was just one dog, and he was blind," I told Austin.

"I heard you got a tattoo in jail."

"Oh I heard that one, that's just ridiculous, I don't even have a tattoo, I'm afraid of any sort of needle," I said loudly, causing Austin to shrink back a little. Great, I'm actually scaring him more.

"Why do you dress differently here? Are you trying to impress people at school?" he asked.

"Not even close, I was forced to wear those clothes. I would much rather wear these." I said.

"Are you really an alien from space?" he asked weirdly.

"Oh yeah, that one is true," I said seriously. He moved into a corner, so far that if he were to move back any further, he's probably have to make a hole in the wall first. "I'm just kidding. I'm not a silly green little alien. I'm just a bit too white," I said.

"Lastly, are your parents really in your fridge?" he asked.

"No, they're ashes," I said.

"WHAT!" He yelled.

"They died in a fire," I said quietly. "Did this clear things up at all?" I asked. He looked at me skeptically. "I'll take that as a no, well at least I tried," I sighed.

I went upstairs really fast and grabbed my sketch book, bringing it back downstairs.

"So tell me about yourself now," I said, flipping to an empty page. Austin looked at me skeptically before starting to talk. While he started talking, I started to draw.
"Well, I like music. I play guitar and a bit of bass. I go to school. I'm still kind of afraid of you. I'm not entirely sure if I believe what you said, I'm Christian. Sometimes my mom tells me that she would have rather had a girl. I think Will Smith is pretty awesome. I like soccer, they say I could get a scholarship from it. You drawing me is a bit odd. People tell me I look funny with these glasses on. Right about now, I'm just rambling aimlessly. There's like nothing interesting about me," he sighed. He was surprisingly easy to draw. I smiled and held up the drawing for myself to see. "Were you listening at all, we have to present this stuff tomorrow, you know that right?" he asked.

"Calm down, I was listening," I rolled my eyes. "You like soccer, you play bass and guitar, you're Christian, I scare you, you think that my drawing you is weird, and you have a man crush on Will Smith, does that cover it?" I asked him.

"Hey, it's not a man crush!" he defended, laughing a little bit. I smiled widely.

"We have a break through!" I laughed, which wiped the smile off of his face, "and then there's the relapse," I sighed. "You want to see the drawing?" I asked.

"Whatever," he sighed.

I held it up for him and his jaw dropped. "Is it that bad?" I asked him, he shook his head.

"Dude, that's so awesome!" he said.

"But you still think it's creepy that I was drawing you?" I asked.

"A little bit, you know, you're really not as bad as people say. I'm not gonna say that I'm not afraid though," he said.

"I'd hope so, none of those people have ever talked to me,"