Part One

Okay, this is part one, set immediately after the Prologue. This is a short story, and if you are confused, then ask me any question. I had to splice it a bit, cause it was originally a fan fiction, so sorry if there are confusing parts. Let me know.

Part One

David's POV

Sighing, I slammed my chemistry book closed on my desk. "Done!" I said out loud, even though there was nobody around who could hear me, or that would even care. There hadn't been anyone in a long time around here. After spending nearly nine years in a group home for kids, I was back living on my own in that house that I'd lived in with my mother. It was a small brick building at the end of a street that I'd played on up until I was nine. The memories were sketchy at best, but they were slowly coming back to me the longer I stayed here.

One memory in particular had slammed me hard when I first moved back in. The memory of a tall man handing me a folded flag with my mom's medals and ribbons on top of it. It hadn't been a good day. I learned that while on patrol with her unit, they'd been caught in a mudslide. My mom, the unit's medic, had been killed along with three of the others. I glanced over to the pictures on the wall, and I was finally able to look at her picture without flinching.

She'd promised me that she'd come back. Well, that hadn't happened and I'd been swept into the system before I could pack my bags and deposited in a group home for orphaned or abandoned boys. I'd met my best friend, Robert, there. He was what we referred to as a 'Nobody'. Someone they had no clue or records on, but had been abandoned when he was eight. He'd been there a month or so when I showed up and we'd hit it off surprisingly well. I was nine at the time, and we'd bonded over a pack of gum and a smuggled comic. I sighed and wondered how he was doing.

I'd turned 18 the previous month, and been given my marching papers. I was free to go and live my own life apparently. College was paid for by the government, being a Veteran's legacy and what not. Plus, I now owned the house that I'd shared with my mother as a child and since the school was only a 5 minute walk away, I figured the smart thing to do would be to live there, go to school, and see where my life could take me from there.

My friend Robert, had left a month or so before I had. For someone as independent as himself, he'd settled down surprisingly quick. One of the older boys who'd been at the group home, had apparently come back for him and offered him a job, and a place to stay.

I stood up and stretched, popping the vertebrae in my back, and deciding I needed a walk to clear my head of the memories that this house was saturated in. Grabbing my jacket, I locked the door and turned to the quiet neighborhood street. It was all so vaguely familiar, and it sent shivers down my spine. How could I have forgotten so much about this place? I remembered old Mrs. Peters and how she would come over and watch me when my mom was deployed. I wonder if she was still around....

"Hey! Who are you?" I sharp voice snapped me out of my daydreams, and I came to a stop a few feet from my house in the middle of the sidewalk. A tall blonde haired guy was walking towards me. He looked familiar and extremely intimidating. I hid my immediate reaction to him however, and scowled at how he snapped at me. He didn't even know me.

"None of your business! I don't even know you." With those words, I saw his jaw clench and his eyes narrowed. Did I know him from somewhere?

"Do you live there? What happened to the previous owner?" He asked quietly, and more politely I might add. Sighing, and rolling my eyes, I could see that he was probably going to interrogate and harass me until I just answered his questions.

"I'm the previous owner. David Allen, and you're almost trespassing. So shove off." I tried to spin around and stomp off, but he had surged forward, eyes bright and caught my arm in his hand. Glaring down at the offending appendage, I tried pulling free. Dangit, his grip was like iron. I snapped my eyes up to his face, and was floored by the change in his appearance. His eyes were wide, and his face was shocked, like I'd hit him in the face with a brick.

"David? Crap, it is you." Before I knew it, I was pulled into a tight hug and was getting the stuffing squeezed out of me.

"Hey! Hey, what are you doing? Who are you?" I struggled, but in his tight grip, I didn't really have a chance. Finally, I just submitted and stayed still.

"Wow, you have such a crappy memory, Chickenwuss." The grip on me loosened and I jumped away from him, to stare at his face. Oh my gosh...

"Sam?" I whispered. He looked so different. Gone was the boy who had been my best friend before I moved. In his place, a totally different person. The scar on his face was new, and so was the scowl. But his voice, while older and deeper, it still sounded the same when calling me a chickenwuss.

"What are you doing here?" I asked quietly. I hadn't seen or spoken to him in almost nine years. The group home was on the other side of the city, and no one from my old neighborhood had ever made any contact with me. I'd been crushed when my best friend had seemed to have forgotten about me, but in the face of so many changes as a kid, you forget and move on. I had forgotten a lot of things apparently.

He scowled at my question. "I live here. That house across the street. Don't you remember anything?" Pointing at the light blue house, the paint had faded a little, he nodded when I showed some recognition. "Yeah, same house. I'm going to school at the university and I figured it would be easier to stay at home, than to fight for dorm space. I have to say that I'm surprised to see you here at all." He voice got quieter, and I wondered what he was thinking. He better not be one of those people who figured that I was sensitive and overly prone to crying, just because I'd lost my mom when I was a kid.

I snorted. "Why are you surprised? I mean, I am the owner and what not. That means I can live there if I want." I admit, I wasn't really being all that friendly. And I didn't really understand why. Maybe it was because, of all the people from before, I had missed him the most. And I wasn't all that sure that he had missed me...which hurt and made me a little defensive.

His eyes widened at my tone. But he didn't say anything about it. "I figured you weren't ever going to come back." Sam looked away, and I tried to imagine what kinds of things he had been up to since I'd moved. "I thought...." He paused and ran a hand over his face.

"When I saw you walking out of the house, I didn't recognize you...I thought that you'd finally sold the house and weren't coming back..." He trailed off again and shuffled his feet, looking away.

He was acting weird. It was freaking me out a little. "Um, no. I didn't sell it. I am going to the university as well and this house is pretty close to it. So, why the heck not?" I forced a chuckle out and shrugged my shoulders. This was becoming too awkward. Time to go.

"Well, it was nice running into you, um, see you around?" I ignored the hurt look on his face and turned on my heel to head back inside. I fumbled with the keys a little, feeling Sam's eyes on my back as I fought to open my front door. "Crap." I snapped as I dropped my keys again. I didn't hear him climb the porch behind me, but I jumped when I felt his hands grab the keys from me and open the door. Ignoring him, I pushed open the front door and went inside. He followed me and I couldn't make myself get upset at him. It was obvious he still wanted to talk.

Sighing, I turned to face him, watching as his eyes swept the room, and he walked over to the wall to look at the pictures hanging there. "This place is just like I remember it..." He whispered, leaning forward to look at the portrait of my mother in uniform, taken a month before her death. "I remember your mom. I thought she was the coolest adult I knew. Do you remember how we used to dress up in her old uniforms and play like we were soldiers?" I closed my eyes, remembering. The camouflage. To this day I still loved wearing it.

Glancing down, I looked at my camo print converse, and I realized that I always managed to wear at least one camo printed item in my outfit every day. I knew why I wore it everyday. It was the small little bit of my mom that I carried around with me. The shrink that the group home sent me to, had tried helping me come to terms with everything, talk about my feelings and all manner of bullcrap. I didn't want to 'fix' my need to wear camo. I wore it because I wanted to. There wasn't some hidden meaning, or secret imbalance in my head. I just liked it; it reminded me of my mother, who was gone, and there wasn't anything wrong with that.

"Yeah." I grimaced. My voice was way too weak. Sam turned to look at me again, he eyes sweeping over my body, and I cringed.

"I'm sorry. I can not talk about it if you want." His voice was quiet and understanding. I didn't really want that. I remembered Sam being tough; I'd looked up to him.

"No. It's fine." I sighed. It seems like I had a house guest for the next little bit. I went to the couch and moved my textbooks. I was done with my homework, except for sociology, which I could do later. That book was annoying and heavy. I slammed it closed and shoved it onto the coffee table.

"Hey, I have that book. What class are you taking?" Sam asked as he slumped on one end of the sofa, while I sat on the other end.

"Umm, Sociology 103, Environment and Development. Section 3." It was a pretty interesting subject, however, there was always that one idiot jock and his cronies in every class and he'd already made a fool out of himself. Of course, he thought he was hilarious...

"Hey! I'm taking that class too...Section 2. I must have it right before you...what else are you taking?" Sam sounded interested, and I felt a small glimmer of camaraderie in the other teen.

"Well, I'm taking Chemistry, which sucks, English 101, and History 102. What about you?" I tried not to stare at him when he stretched and settled back into the couch.

"I'm taking an English tutoring course, where I tutor clueless freshman, you're welcome to come by." I scowled at him, as he laughed, "And I've got a math course and Criminal Justice 102." The conversation ground to a halt as his phone rang.

"Hello?" He scowled at the number.

"No, I don't want to." Sam rolled his eyes at whoever was on the other line, then reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose.

"Listen, stop calling me. I don't want to, and I never will." He slammed his phone closed and slumped back onto the sofa, breathing out in exasperation and annoyance. I wanted to ask, but I couldn't. It was none of my business, and if he wanted to talk about it, I was right here. Lowering my eyes, I faced forward. What the heck was I doing? I didn't want him here, making me remember him, how much I'd missed him, how angry I'd been at him forgetting about me. And it turned out that he hadn't forgotten about me, but he hadn't exactly tried to make contact before now.

"Hey, sorry about that. It was this girl that keeps throwing herself at me. And she just wouldn't take the hint. I'm not normally that much of an jerk." His voice was apologetic and I smiled a little.

"So, normally, your a jerk, just not that big of one?" I grinned and looked up and he was scowling playfully at me.

"Watch it, lamer. I can still whup your butt at everything." And with that our friendship seemed to pick back up, ignoring the years we'd been a part.

Review if you have a mind too......also, if you would just like the whole story emailed to you, let me know. It's done:D

Short Prologue

Read and tell me what you think.....

It happened on a quiet afternoon with the sun shining brightly. Kids were out playing in the street, enjoying the cool weather before the summer. Unfortunately, their play was interrupted by the army regulation jeep that came to a stop in front of the small brick house at the end of the road. The kids stopped and watched as a stern looking man stepped from the vehicle. Parents who had been watching their kids, turned to meet the eyes of the neighboring adults with worry. A small sandy haired boy lived in that house. A rambunctious young boy, full of mischief and fun. He was all alone in that house, save for an elderly neighbor woman who was staying with him while his mother was away.

The stern looking man shuffled in his car before removing an item that had the whole street gasping in shock. A blonde haired boy less small than the one whose house the stern looking man was stopping in front of, watched this event with sharp blue eyes. He knew the sandy haired boy. He played with him. He understood that when that stern looking man delivered that item, he wouldn't see his best friend again. For the first time in his short young life, he felt hate. He hated the stern looking man, and his regulation jeep. Hated that he stopped in front of the small brick house at the end of the road. Hated that he knocked on the door and saluted his small sandy haired best friend.

But most of all, the less small blonde haired boy hated that the stern looking man delivered a folded up flag, with medals and ribbons laying on top of it, to the small sandy haired boy who lived in the small brick house at the end of the road.

I'm being brave here people.....I don't like it when people I know read my stuff. This is just a short prologue to a short story I am doing called, My Mom Wears Combat Boots.

My Poor Neglected Blog

*pat pat* Poor thing. Sitting here all defenseless and lonely. I'm sorry Blog. I'll be better some day, I promise.

I know!! I'll share some fun stories and some fun pictures with you so you don't get lonely sitting here on the internet all day. First off, I have to tell you about my new friend Nas. Nas lives in France. Yup, alllll the way over the Atlantic Ocean. It's a long ways away. She's an artist and an author who I've seen lurking on the same websites as me. So one day, I read a story and I commented on it. It was really good!! So anyways, I send off this review, and next thing I know, I get a reply! So, I thinks to myself, perhaps she would like some more feedback. So I sent another reply and next thing I know, I've been emailing her for a week and each email is getting longer and longer. So long, in fact, that the simple Private messaging thingy, isn't working. Thinking that perhaps, I should just give her my real email account, she asked to read something of mine! Imagine my surprise! So, I tried emailing it to her. That didn't go so well. For some reason it didn't work. After much yelling at my computer and cursing my email, we finally managed to both log into MSN Messenger at the same time, and added each other.

Which was so awesome!! Cause then I got to talk to her in real time! And we learned that France and Nevada are 9 hours apart. So it was very interesting to learn that when it's 3 o'clock in the afternoon here, it's midnight there. We've learned to adjust:D

That's not the most exciting part, in my opinion. Well, like I said, Nas had written a story that I commented on. And because of my comment, she decided to write another story, which was really awesome too. And we got to talking about it, and one thing led to another, and she asked if I wanted to write something with her. *spaz dance* And thus was born a collaboration which is sucking up most of my time at the moment. No, it won't be published any time soon, as it's a fan fiction*, but it sure is fun to write with another person. Another cool thing, is that Nas is writing an original story and she is running her ideas past me and I am giving her input. I remember having those kinds of conversations with my aunt when she was writing her book, and it was so amazing. I really enjoyed talked to an author and giving feedback. It makes me feel like I am helping a bit for a good story I guess.

So these next couple of weeks will be spent working and writing some stories. I don't see myself ever writing my own book or anything, however, perhaps I will write short stories as a way to pass the time and exercise my brain during long boring days. Not that Aubry lets me have long boring days, but still, when she is ignoring me, I get bored.

Here are the most recent shots of Aubry. I usually wear a beanie in the mornings because it is pretty cold here in my house, and she grabbed it off of my head and proceeded to put it on her head, and dance around. Enjoy these silly little Aubry shots.

I had another really good one, but it was tilted sideways, and I couldn't figure it out, so I will work on it. Later.

Holy Crap!

Holy Crap!! Amber's posting something!! Yeah for the New Year!! I've decided that I can do better than last year. It's been rough, but we've pulled through. Money troubles are better, we're smarter, and Aubry is bigger. So far in 2011, I've got a few new piano students, we are still taking guitar lessons and we're still trying to expand the family a bit.

First off, I have been working on my writing skills these past couple of months. Not for any particular reason, but because it challenges me and helps me fill long hours stuck at home. I am proud to say that my piano lessons are still going strong. I have a few wonderful kids and I'm really proud of the work they have accomplished. I was hoping to get back in school this semester, but money was super tight this past year, and I've put it off again. I will finish my education at some point, but not just yet it seems.

Chris has been doing great with commuting to Vegas for work. I feel really bad he has too, but rent is cheap here. The great thing is, he doesn't have to work on Sundays so we are able to go to church together.

Aubry is still a little stinker. She is having a hard time learning to talk. Or she is just stubborn. She understands so much, but she never wants to mimic me when I speak to her. However, sometimes we will hear her jabber a lot and use 'no'. So it's not totally hopeless:)

That's about it from last year. Hopefully this year will prove to be a little more fruitful. Have a Happy New Year!!