Eli Fletcher: Mark of the King: Book 1

I drop my duffel in the hallway and watch from one of the windows a few feet from the door. Miss O and Mrs. Katz are talking with the mother and father of the family. They seem nice enough; kind of hippy-ish from the husband’s long and graying hair and the white beard on his face, full and shaggy to his tie-dyed T-shirt with every color of the rainbow on it with tattered, khaki cargo shorts that fall just above his knees, and flip-flops on his feet.

His wife is no different a bright dress of multiple shades of blue that looks like it was painted with sponges rather than dyed like regular clothing. On top of her head is some sort of weaved headband holding down a full head of long, blonde hair. Where the husband is tall and lanky, the wife is a bit shorter and plump. They look to be in their fifties, possibly older, but their kids couldn’t look more different.

The daughter is gorgeous. Straightened, golden blonde hair falls most of the way down her back. It stands out against her deeply tanned skin. She looks athletic like a cheerleader, or a dancer. She doesn’t leave much to the imagination with her short, belly-exposing white T-shirt, and cut off denim shorts; like both of her parents, she wears flip-flops on her feet.

It’s the son who stands out the most from them all, however. He has hair similar to mine, brown and a little messy, though his seems to fall perfectly over one eye, as if it’s that way on purpose. From the way he keeps shaking his head to move his hair out of his eyes, it must be difficult to see. His skin is olive-toned, though not as dark as his sister’s. His long arms are only two-thirds covered with a shirt that looks like what the little league baseball players I saw back in California wore under their jerseys. The sleeves are black up to the shoulders while the rest is bright white. His jeans are tight, but don’t look uncomfortably so, unlike the weirdos at the California group home; I swear some of them wore girls’ jeans. And instead of flip-flops, he has a pair of black Converse shoes with white rubber over the toes.

He’s so much more different than the rest of his family. While the others smile and talk animatedly with Miss O and Mrs. Katz, he stands back a few steps, his arms crossed over his chest, and doesn’t open his mouth once to speak.

Sighing, I think to myself, If he’s as cool as he looks; maybe it won’t be so bad going with this family.

“I thought you were sneaking out,” Fiona says, startling me from behind.

“I tried, but the back door was chained up,” I tell her.

“She’s pretty,” she says, looking in the office and immediately changing the subject.

“Who?” I ask.

“The girl. Cheerleader for sure; she’s thinking about the squad meeting in the morning and how they have to cut some of the girls who didn’t work out as well as they’d hoped last year,” she says and I stare at her flabbergasted. “Don’t act like you didn’t know I can hear people’s thoughts; you’ve known for a while.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t know how specific you could hear their thoughts.”

“I’ve been working on listening for other thoughts in the back of their minds as well. Like, their son isn’t just bored; he can’t wait to get home and get back to the project he’s working on in their basement. They’ve all been taking turns working on it, but it’s mostly been his project; although, I can’t exactly see what it is he’s imagining,” she says a little frustrated.

“Wow,” I say amazed.

“What?”

I have powers, you have powers; it’s almost as if we’re a team already.

“I thought we were,” she says with a wink. “You better get in there, their son spotted you staring in the window.”

I look through and he nods at me. So, with another heavy sigh, I enter the office and join the Miss O while Mrs. Katz continues to talk to the parents.

“What do you think?” I ask her.

“They’re a bit strange, but they seem nice. Their children are the same age, the boy was adopted a few years ago,” she says.

“Do I have to go with them today? Can’t I have one more night with everybody to say goodbye?” I ask.

Miss O smiles at me and nods. “We’ll talk to them. They seem pretty flexible.”

“Thanks.”

Miss O steps forward, nudging me to join her.

“You must be Eli! Or is it Jefferey? The information we were given says Jefferey Kidd, but they told us you learned not too long ago that your real name is Eli Fletcher,” the wife spits out very quickly.

“It’s Eli,” I say quietly, stretching out my hand.

“Good to meet you, Eli,” the husband says, taking my hand and gripping it like a dead fish. “My name is Ray, and this is my wife, Moon,” he introduces us.

I look up at Miss O briefly to find her biting her lip and trying not to laugh. I only thought they looked like hippies, but to be named Ray and Moon…

“It’s nice to meet you, too, Ray,” I reply uncertainly.

“This is our daughter,” he gestures behind him.

The blonde girl floats over with the graceful steps of a dancer. Objects in my peripheral begin to vanish as a light seems to beam from her. Is she really glowing yellow light? Or am I losing my mind?

You’re losing your mind, I hear a jealous voice say in my mind.

“Hi, I’m Megan,” she says, offering her hand.

I grip hers gently, afraid to break her as if she’s a delicate flower. “Hi, I’m…I’m…” I stammer; I seem to have forgotten my name.

“You’re Eli,” she giggles and it’s music to my ears.

“I am?”

“I’m Aiden,” the adopted boy says, stepping in to rescue me from her enchantment. “We’ll be sharing a room for a while until yours is done,” he says, gripping my hand firmly. “Don’t mind Megan, she has this effect on all guys who meet her for the first time; no worries though, it’ll fade in a few days.”

I grin at him. “It’s nice to meet you both,” I say, looking from Aiden to Megan again.

“Hi,” Fiona says, suddenly appearing at my right shoulder.

“Hi,” I say and then realize the jealous voice I’d heard in my head was hers, but I can’t say anything about it without making her look crazy.

“This is my best friend, Fiona,” I introduce her to them.

“Hi, Fiona, I’m Aiden, it’s nice to meet you,” he says, offering his hand to her.

She shakes his hand and I look down at her to see her cheeks turn pink. Whatever jealousy she was feeling before, I’m now feeling, but I’m also amused by the fact that she’s blushing with him as much as I was with Megan.

“Hi, I’m Megan,” Megan says stepping up and offering her hand to Fiona.

Fiona gives her a fake smile and shakes her hand. “Hi, Megan,” she says in a voice that seems to warn her.

“Eli, can you come here, please?” Miss O asks so I join her. “Eli was asking if it would be okay if he remained one more night so he can say goodbye properly to his friends. You see, Eli has really changed this place for the better ever since he arrived. More of the kids are getting along than ever before and they all look up to him as a sort of leader.”

“Oh, of course! We wouldn’t want to get in the way of something like that. We’ll come back tomorrow afternoon?” Moon says, looking up at her husband.

“Tomorrow afternoon is great! Gives us more time to finish up his room so he and Aiden don’t have to share for as long.”

“His room isn’t ready?” Miss O asks.

“What’s that?” Mrs. Katz interjects.

“Well, we were only just informed about him a few days ago, we haven’t had time to clear out and fix up our spare room for him,” Ray explains.

“That should have been done before you were given any kind of information about him,” Mrs. Katz says, her temper growing hot. “Who is the case worker, Allison? I need to have a few words with them for selecting such a poorly prepared family.”

“Well, Delores, there’s nothing that says they can’t share a room, and it’s just the two boys. There was nothing impeding their approval, and the fact that they’re providing his own room in the near future was a good thing,” Miss O says.

“He’s a growing boy and needs his own space,” Mrs. Katz argues. “No, finish the room and then he can go with you, until then, he will remain here at the group home.”

“Doesn’t he share a room here?” Moon argues.

“Yes, but we have limited space; if you have the space and it isn’t ready, then you’re not ready for him,” Mrs. Katz continues to argue.

I never expected this from Mrs. Katz; Miss O, maybe, but not Mrs. Katz. I can’t say that I’m not happy about it, though. As much as I like Megan and Aiden, I really don’t want to leave Fiona and Abby.

“Okay, we’ll get the room finished tomorrow and we’ll be back for him the next day,” Ray promises.

“You can come for him when I’ve had a chance to inspect the room,” Mrs. Katz says.

“Excuse me?” Moon demands, her temper now rising to match Mrs. Katz.

“Eli is a special kid,” she continues, “I’m not about to let him go with just anyone; and if you can’t be prepared for him in a timely manner, then we may have to look for another home for him,” she concludes.

I never knew how much Mrs. Katz thought of me. Hearing it from her own mouth like this, though, really changes how I see her. Her rigidness has nothing to do with how much she likes me; she’s just strict about the rules.

“Moon, it’s quite alright. They’re attached to this boy and if they’re so attached to him, then we want to give him the best home possible, right?” Ray asks her.

“Of course, there was never a question of whether we would give him a good home or not-”

“Then let’s not argue with their requirements of letting him go; they just want what’s best for him,” he says.

Moon let’s out a huff and then relents. “Fine, we’ll be back when his room is ready.”

“Thank you,” Mrs. Katz says. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have the rest of Eli’s birthday to sort out,” she says and then turns on her heel and enters her office, slamming the door behind her.

I’m stunned to silence by how much Mrs. Katz seems to care about me. I’m not sure what to do now.

“So, can I go then?” I ask.

“Yes, yes you can,” Miss O says. “Why don’t you head to the cafeteria? The pizzas will be here soon. You’re all welcome to join us if you’d like,” Miss O offers, her voice low and calm.

“Thank you, but we have work to do to get ready for Eli coming home with us,” Moon says and then gestures for her family to leave.

“See you later,” Aiden says.

“See ya,” I say and watch them leave; Megan looks over her shoulder one last time, flashing a cute smile and giving me a wink.

“She was definitely pretty,” Fiona says, walking ahead of me to leave the office.

“Who?” I ask, still staring at the Adlers as they leave the building.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” she says.

“What? What did I do?”

“Oh, nothing, Eli,” Fiona says sarcastically. “You may want to wipe up your chin, though; you’re still drooling.”

Finally realizing what she’s talking about, I roll my eyes. “Are you kidding me? Her whole family is crazy, except for Aiden; he seemed pretty cool.”

“Yeah,” she says dreamily.

“Talk about drooling,” I say under my breath.

“I heard that,” she says.

“Out loud or in my head?”

“Knock it off, you two,” Miss O interrupts us. “You both had mini crushes on the Adler kids, so stop before you end up in a silly fight neither of you wants to be in.”

Fiona and I look at each other, angry at first, but then we sigh and smile. “I’m sorry,” we both say at the same time, which causes us both to laugh nervously.

“Well, I guess I can go unpack since they won’t be back for a while,” I say.

“I’d keep it packed, Moon seems tenacious enough to get that room completed tonight; even if it means keeping her family up all night to do it,” Miss O says.

“Are you sure they’re okay for me to be living with? I mean, Ray seems alright, but Moon is a little crazy.”

Miss O shrugs. “Nothing concerning came back about them, besides, they’re just in Manitou, so you’ll only be about fifteen minutes away.”

“And you still can’t find Uncle James and Aunt Juliette?”

She shakes her head sadly. “No, but my brother has people out looking for them; as soon as they have anything, they’ll call me.”

“Okay,” I say disappointed and then follow Fiona to the cafeteria for some pizza.

“So, besides the obvious,” Fiona starts, “what did you think of them?”

I shrug. “I don’t know,” I tell her. “They just seem weird, but weird doesn’t always mean bad, right?”

“Right,” she agrees.

We enter the cafeteria to another round of “Happy Birthday” shouted at the top of everyone’s lungs. Even though it’s the third or fourth time they’ve all sung it to me today, I can’t help but smile; I’m really going to miss it here. Even if the Adlers get that room done, I can’t go with them; this is my family right here.

Pizza slices are dispersed from the two tall stacks of cardboard boxes at the end of one table; Fiona and I take a seat across from Billy, Allaryce and Marco. Billy and Allaryce look confused for a moment, Marco is too busy eating his giant slice of pizza to really care about my presence.

“How’s it going, Billy?” I ask.

“Great, now that you’ve met your new foster family,” he says with a sneer.

“Oh, I’m not going anywhere just yet,” I say and then look up at the college aid who just set a slice down in front of me. “Thanks,” I say to her and she smiles, continuing to distribute pizza slices.

“What do you mean? I just saw them here,” he protests.

I chew the bite of pepperoni pizza in my mouth and swallow before I answer him. “Mrs. Katz demanded that they finish the room they said they’re setting up for me before allowing me to leave. So, I may be here for a few more days,” I tell him.

“Good, so I have a few more days to torture you before you go; I’m looking forward to it,” he says and then vigorously takes a bite of his Hawaiian style pizza; I cringe at the fact that he likes pineapple on pizza.

“Don’t choke,” Fiona sarcastically says under her breath.

“I’d be nicer, Fiona,” Allaryce threatens. “When your boyfriend’s gone, you’ll need friends to hang out with again.”

I glare at her for a moment and then relax with a sigh. “Remind me how you guys were actually her friend,” I say, staring her down.

“I was her friend,” Marco speaks up for the first time; I’m almost surprised at the sound of his voice. I’d expected it to be deeper. I mean, the guy does shave twice a week!

“Thanks, Marco,” Fiona says sweetly.

“Shut up, Marco,” Allaryce says in a mocking, sing-song voice.

“Look, why don’t we just pretend to be friends for the night,” I suggest. “Let’s let everybody enjoy celebrating my birthday and we can go back to hating each other tomorrow.”

Billy wipes his hands and face with a napkin and then stretches his hand across the table to me. “Truce until you’re gone?” he offers.

I nod and shake his hand. “Truce until I’m gone,” I agree.

“Billy, what are you doing?” Allaryce hisses at him.

“Ryce,” he says (sounding like “Reese”), “If all I have to do is play nice for a few days until Eli is out of our way, the group home will be mine again.”

She huffs at him, rolling her eyes annoyed. “Whatever,” she relents and then fakes a smile to Fiona. “You’re welcome to hang out with us once Eli’s gone; I’m sure you’ll need friends to spend time with.”

“Thanks, Allaryce, that’s very kind and unexpected of you. Maybe I’ll take you up on that one day,” Fiona replies sweetly, but I can tell by the tone of her voice that she meant as much of what she said as Allaryce did.

“Great, friends until I leave,” I say and then pick up my plastic cup of soda, holding it out in front of me. The others do the same and we tap them together all at once. Even I realize how cheesy it is and can’t help but laugh. Even Billy can’t hold back his own laughter as Fiona joins in and Marco chuckles with us. Only Allaryce has a sour attitude.