Beautiful Disaster.

By the time one year passed Jacob and Brendon were no longer Bland’s, they were now West’s, fostered West’s, but they were still West’s. They joined Alicia West, Andrew West, Dean West, Lee West, and Me, Maria West.
It was like they had always been there, and that first year together passed quickly, almost in a flash.

When Jacob and I were four, Jacob learnt his first swear word.
He’d scream ‘fuck’ at the top of his lungs, shout it to teachers and tease our parents with it, the entire time his eyes would light up full of mischief. Jacob knew what the word meant, I know he did, he knew it was bad and he still did it.

Jacob used that word to his advantage, if he wasn’t getting his own way in class, he start to say it until he got his own way and our parents tried continuously to get him to stop saying fuck, but Jacob would always sweet talk his way out of it, he’d just blink his blue eyes and he’d be free.

Four was also the age we first met our next brother.

He was strange you know, this blonde haired, blue eyed boy. He wasn’t like the other kids in our class. He was the new boy, the new, quiet, reserved boy who sat in the corner.

My brown eyes stayed on the blonde boy; he seemed so out of place in our classroom.
Jacob’s hands wrap around my arm, tugging me softly as he attempts to pull me over to play in the sandpit where Gracie stood, her blond hair pulled high into two neat pigtails as she built sandcastles, her hands buried in sand.
I shake my head to my brother, keeping my eyes on the new boy, he reminded me of myself.
“Ri-Ri come on, come play with me and Gracie!” Jacob whines to me, sending me a pout and I shake my head to Jacob again, telling him a firm no.
Jacob storms off towards Gracie, having a normal four year old strop as I turn back to the boy slowly advancing towards him.

His eyes watch me as I arrive in front of him, the blue was different to Jacob’s. Jacob’s were a bright blue, while this boys were icy, almost a grey colour.
His uniform was new and crisp, it looked too big on the extremely small boy, the blue stood against his tanned skin, his skin was a beautiful golden colour, and his blonde hair hit the tips of his ears, falling into his eyes.
“Hello” I greet him, copying what Jacob had done the year before and taking the seat beside the boy, “I’m Maria.”
“Bon- Um, Hello” The young boy greets back, his voice was funny, and I let out a small giggle, smiling warmly at him, “I am… I am Sebastian” Sebastian struggles out to me, and I tilt my head to him.

“Your voice sounds funny” I tell him softly and he grins at me, his blue eyes lighting up.
“So does yours” He tells me, his voice making me giggle more and he grins at me as I offer him a hand, silently inviting him to play, and he accepts my offer.

Sebastian was the second person to teach me how to value things.
By the end of that day, there was a new person to our group. It was no longer just Gracie, Jacob and me. Sebastian was our friend now too.
We waited with him after school, just like I had done that day more than a year ago with Jacob, and he told us why he was here.

Sebastian had lost everything, yet he was able to stay positive. He reminded me of Brendon in so many ways, he was like another man in a child’s body and when it came to watching him leave with his foster parents, I didn’t want to let him go.

It happened around four months later, Sebastian came into school crying and even at four years old, it broke my heart to watch him hurt.

It was heart breaking, watching him cry over the fact his foster parents couldn’t keep him anymore, and at the age of four. I didn’t quite understand at the time, at the fact he could possibly be going and not coming back, but I was still upset at the thought of losing him.

When I come to think of situation like this, my parents come in and always seem to act like the heroes.

We were sat around our dining table, there was eight places at this table, one was empty, and it was old to our home, not fitting in with my mother’s new chic dining room.
My father sat at the top of the table, a pile of papers sprawled out in front of him and my mother sat to his left, Dean on his right.
I sat beside my mother, and Jacob sat beside me, while Brendon sat in the middle of Dean and Lee, all us children were confused, and it was clear on all of our faces.

“Dad what’s going on?” Dean questions our father, and we all watch Dad as he pushes his old bottle top glasses up onto his nose higher.
Andy looks over us all, we were his children and he adored each of us, his eyes holding pure affection as he looks us over.
“Your mother and I want to know what you all would think if Sebastian would stay here” Our father asks as and all of us children look around to each other, smiles hitting the corners of our lips.
“Stay here?” I question in my squeaky four year old voice curiously, I was sat on my knees to get a better view of the table and my father smiles fondly at me as I brush my curling hair over shoulders.

“Yes, stay with us, become part of the family” Andy confirms and Dean grins widely, he’d instantly put Sebastian under his wing the second the small blonde boy entered our home for a visit.
“He’s going to live with us? You’re going to foster him?” Dean asks Dad and Andy instantly nods his head at us all, and we all let out happy exclaims.
“So when’s he going to move in?” Brendon questions Dad, and Dad chuckles at Brendon, looking down to the papers in front of him, his eyes flickering over the pages in an almost teasingly slow manner.

We groan loudly, making Ali and Andy laugh at us all and our impatience as they roll their eyes at us, this time teasing us on purpose.
“Well…” Dad starts to us, the tease present in his voice and instantly at the same time, Jacob and I pout, crossing our arms over our chests and turn towards Dad.
“Daddy” We whine together, both of our wide and Andy laughs at the two of us, his teasing immediately leaving his face as we concur him over.
“Okay, jheez, you two should have been born twins” Andy tells us, a teasing tone back in his voice as he rolls his brown eyes at the two of us, holding his hands up to silence us all, before he sets them down, “He’s moving in with us on Monday.”
“This calls for a bigger dining room table” Mum concludes and Andy groans while we all giggle, more spaces for our growing family.

Sebastian couldn’t remember his birth parents, he couldn’t remember much about his past home in France, but that was understandable, he was the only one out of four to survive while on holiday in Britain. One out of four to survive a car accident, thinking back on it now, I sometimes felt sorry for him, he’d lost a family, but in my own selfish way, I was glad he came to us, we gained our brother in his loss.
He watched his mother, father and baby brother as they died, so as I grew older I came to understand why he wouldn’t want to remember his parents. Apparently though, before he came into our life they were good to him, his family loved him.

Sebastian was rich from the age of four. He real parents came from old money, money that he now inherited when he reached eighteen.
It’s not like we were poor, but compared to Sebastian’s apparent riches, he seemed to be able to piss gold.

And that’s it, that’s how our next brother came to us, he couldn’t remember the misery, but you could see he’d matured from it, and the few foster homes he’d been placed in had messed his innocence about.
Ali gave that back to him though, and with the touch of her hand, just like Midas touch she was able to turn his bleak innocence to golden innocence once again.