Winter

I love my family. Well, not my real family, but my new adopted family, who I am so lucky to be a member of. Three months ago, I was adopted by this affluent family looking for a smart kid to sponsor through college. With little more than half the year to go until I graduate from high school, I just saw this as a free ride to college, so no complaints on my side. The Jacksons’ lived in a suburb of New York City, and being a foster kid there seems to be more and more common.
Stepping off of the train, the full force of winter hit me in the face as I shuffled through the snow, when I felt a tug on my bag. Growing up in Queens, and an orphanage in Queens taught me one thing before anything else: people will steal your shit. So I turn around to haul this guy off when I see it’s Tom Jackson, my new father figure.
“Hey there Finn! Some weather we’re getting, right?” he shouts against the screaming wind, the words torn from his mouth. “Here let me take your pack.”
I smile under my scarf and hand him my bag, as we slog through the quickly accumulating snow. We pile into his car, where I see his wife, all wrapped up in expensive furs.
“Afternoon, Finn.” Karen Jackson states. Of what I know so far through our meetings in the city, Karen is soft-spoken, and talks very little, but when she does, her beautiful voice dances through your head. “I’m surprised that the train was on time, especially in conditions such as these. How was your trip?”
“It was pleasant enough, ma’am.” I politely respond. “How are the roads?”
Tom speaks this time as he turns the engine over. “A bit slippery, but the plows have been running non-stop since it started last night. Is the city in better condition?”
“For the most part, Midtown is spotless.”
“Not really any surprise there.”
He continues to inquire into how things have been for the rest of the half hour drive. Although I am sad that I’ll be living so far from a train station, and even farther from my city, supposedly the town I live in has a few stores and is only a short drive to the mall.
We pull into their driveway, and thats when my jaw first hits the floor. They live in quite possibly the biggest house I have ever seen. It seems like something from a movie, the snow covered trees, the long winding drive, and the sports cars in the garage. I snag my pack from the trunk and stomp my shoes free of snow as we enter into their, I mean our, house. We come in through the kitchen, I take my shoes off and a notice a picture sitting on the counter.
“ Oh, that’s our family. There is Tom, Jeff, Katie, who is currently at college, and me. Jeff is probably in his room, one minute. Jeff! Come down here and say hello to Finn.” Karen calls, her voice, although quiet, carries a certain intensity that cannot be ignored.
Jeff Jackson rounds the corner, shortly followed by the family dog. We exchange pleasantries, and he seems interesting enough. I shake his hand and notice the rough callouses.
“Guitar or Bass?” I ask him.
“Oh, uh guitar mostly, but I sometimes like to jam on my bass as well.” He replies. “You play?”
“Yeah, the orphanage had a music room, and I got pretty good on playing this beat up old Strat.” I think back, about how my life was, and look around, and think about how good it is going to get.

The Jackson family gives me a tour of the house, going through rooms that are bigger than an entire floor back the orphanage. We climb the stairs, Master bedroom, Jeff’s room, Katie’s, a bathroom, and stop at a door with a bow on it.
“I know it is kind of corny, but welcome home, son.” Tom says, putting his hand on my shoulder, and I look back, tears are coming to his and Karen’s eyes.
I open the door, and… wow. I mean, this is as big as the entire boys dormitory. I look around, I see a dresser, a desk with a laptop on it, an then my bed with a box on it. I open it, and it’s a brand new Les Paul.
“I… I don’t know what to say.” I stammer, now my eyes begin to water.
“We’re so happy to have you, Finn.” Karen says, her tears now flowing. She sits next to me on the bed and just holds me, trying to protect me.
The rest of the day isn’t quite so emotional, Tom cooks dinner for us, and we all just hang out. As the night wears on, I begin to relax, and to open up. These people really want me, and for the first time, I feel like a real person.
“Well boys, you better be heading to bed, you both have school in the morning. Jeff, why don’t you help Finn get his new computer set up and ready for school tomorrow,” Tom says.
“C’mon man, the school has you put this program on and it can be a bit hard to use.” Jeff says.

“So man, you got a girlfriend?” Jeff asks as he fires up my computer.
“Well, not really. The only girls I would meet are ones from the orphanage, and the bitch in charge doesn’t want kids dating while in the orphanage, it creates ‘a sense of attachment’.” I state, working on tuning my new guitar.
“You a virgin then?”
I sigh, “Yeah.”
“Bummer. I give you two weeks though at school though and you’ll get your cherry popped.”
“Seriously?!?”
“Yeah. It isn’t that the girls are sluts, but most of the kids at school are computer junkies and the ladies are always on the prowl for some fresh meat.”
“Nice. So how about you?”
“I got a girlfriend, yeah. Here,” Jeff says, tossing me his phone. I see a picture of him and this pretty brunette smiling back at me. “Her name is Mia, I’ll introduce you tomorrow. And she’s got some hot friends, if you’re interested.”
I could feel the grin creep across my face, as Jeff says, “I’ll take that as a yes. I’m done here man. I’ll see you tomorrow, school starts at eight, so get up around seven.”
“Thanks. Oh yeah, one more thing, what’s the deal with your sister? Where is she?”
“Oh right. She’s pretty cool, you probably won’t meet her until spring break. Katie will probably stop here a few days before going down to Miami.”
“Alright, just wanted to know if she was a bitch or what.”
“I know where you’re coming from. Later.” Jeff says, shutting off my computer, and closing the door on the way out. I take the time to unpack the few things I have, but the need for sleep quickly catches up with me, and I strip and fall asleep.

7:10 rolls around pretty quick and I grope for my alarm clock, my senses coming to one by one. The sweet scent of bacon tickles my nostrils as I realize that I am not in the shit house anymore. Welcome to the penthouse.
I go through the morning routine, grab some breakfast, and hop in Jeff’s car; a piece of shit compared to his parents.
“While our family is nowhere near the richest in school, I still don’t like showing off. Hell, it’s got four wheels and it goes, so I’m pretty fucking grateful.” Jeff says, as he coaxes the engine to start on the cold winter morning.
The 15 minute ride to school is uneventful, with Jeff giving me the last minute briefing before I get to school.
“Depending on your schedule, I’ll most likely see you at lunch,” he explains, pulling into his spot and cutting the engine.

Jeff leads me to the main office, where the headmaster gives me the welcome speech. I get my classes from the secretary, and thank her. I turn to leave when she says, “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I…I…” Stammering, I turn back.
“You need to wait here for your guide. Wouldn’t want you getting lost now would we?” She smiles, pointing towards the door, where a smiling girl is waiting.
“Welcome to Merriweather High School. I’m Alex, and lets get started.” she chirps. At first, I barely looked at her, but as soon as we left the office, I gave her a good look, and I found it to be quite nice. I started from the ground up, following her long legs to a well defined ass, following her swaying hips upwards, I see her shoulder length black hair catching the cheap fluorescent light. She turns, and giggles, “C’mon silly!” Alex reaches for my hand, “We got a lot to see, it’s a pretty big school.” Her cool hands feel good in mine. “Don’t worry, Finn. Jeff told me to take good care of you.” She flashes that dazzling smile again, and she catches me staring, and blushes.
“I’m glad to be in such good hands,” I say, squeezing her hand. She goes from pink to crimson as he realizes that we have been holding hands. She sheepishly mutters an apology as we continue on the tour. Reaching into her pocket, she retrieves a copy of my schedule, and glances at it.
“Huh, seems that we have most of our classes together. That will make things easier on you. As part of the new student welcoming committee, I can help you with anything.” Alex says, putting some extra emphasis on anything. She leads me into the Library, quietly continuing her talk.
“This is our library, we have lots of books, and it’s really great to come here during your free periods to get some work done.” Leading me through the stacks, she suddenly grabs my shirt and throws me into a small room. “Ohmygod, Jeff said that you were… but I wasn’t expecting anything like this!” she moans, pressing her lips against mine, our tongues meet, clashing and dancing about as we fall into a rapturous pace.
I pull back, reeling from our kiss, to gasp out, “Jeff set you up to this?”
“N-no… Well, kind of. He just… he got me assigned as your student helper, but that was it. Oh, and he told me that you were a cool guy and that I would like you. But he never told me to do any of this.” she explains, lunging at me again. I accept her, and we drop our bags as we fall back onto the table. I kiss down her neck, stopping at the collar of her sweater, and then moving around to nibble on her ear, which awards me with a moan.
“Ohhhhhh… Guys around here don’t really know that one…” She says, grinding her hips into my leg. I break off the kiss once more. “Why did you stop? Am I doing something wrong?” Alex leans forward to resume our activities, but I lean out more.
“I am thoroughly enjoying this Alex, don’t get me wrong, but I would love to get to know you more.” I explain, hopping off of the table and picking up my bag.
“Awww, you’re so cute, and I wish we could stay here forever, but we must be pressing on…” she gushes. Alex grabs her bag as well and flattens out her shirt and jeans. We quickly leave the library, and we hurry through the rest of the tour. Right before we enter the classroom, she grabs my arm once again, and quickly writes her number on my hand, and seals it with a kiss. My head spins as we enter class, and I hardly remember my name to introduce myself to the class. I see Jeff waving at the back of the room, and he flags me down to an empty seat at the back of the room, two rows over from Alex.
“I see you made a new friend already,” he smiles, shaking my hand, as the teacher continues his lesson. “Alex is Mia’s best friend, and she suggested her for you. I would consider myself lucky, Alex is one of the hottest girls in school, next to Mia, and she has only had a few short term boyfriends. So she is pretty conservetive, and judging by the way she keeps looking at you,” I turn to meet her gaze, and she gives me a small wave and blushes, returning to her notes. “Alex probably forgot all previous reservations about men.”

I don’t respond, but keep thinking about what my brother had to say. I focus on the teacher, and pretty soon the period is over. The rest of the morning, my thoughts keep returning to what my brother had to say, and Alex’s dazzling smile. Physical Education and Math fly by and pretty soon the lunch bell rings. As I pick up my things and leave, I see Jeff coming towards me.
“Yo Finn!” he shouts, and he grabs my pack, and we spin around and start heading for the parking lot. “You’ll be glad that we don’t have to eat the cafeteria, we get an hour for lunch, so I thought that we would go out for lunch, and you can scope out the town.” By the time we arrive at his car, a number of cars in the lot are also pulling out, and I reach for the handle to get in.
“What are you doing? We’re going with Mia.” he says, grabbing my shoulder and pointing to a girl standing and waving a few cars down in front of a black SUV. I can understand where Jeff was coming from when he said that Mia was the hottest girl in school, her beauty is pretty much unparalleled. Mia was hot in a very typical way, you know, long natural blond hair, blue eyes, fair white skin, et cetera. To be honest, I found myself more attracted to Alex though, her short, dark hair and piercing green eyes seemed to be exactly what I was looking for in a girl.
“Hi there. You must be… Finn, right?” Mia says, extending her hand. I take it, her grip is not typical of a woman, more assured, more confident, more intense. Jeff hops up front, and I open the door behind Mia, to find a bit of a surprise.
“Hey.” Alex quietly says to me, instantly going red. She scoots over, but once I get myself in, she sidles back over and snuggles up to me. “I missed you.” she says, her voice dropping to barely a whisper in my ear as she gently kisses and nibbles my ear.
“Woah kids! Save it for later, I want to keep my apatite.” Jeff moans, and Alex slips from red to crimson. She backs off a bit, but when Jeff turns around she quickly nuzzles up under my arm. “Kids these days…” Jeff chides as Mia smiles and pops it into drive.
We idly chatter on the way to town, Mia and Alex asking me questions about my old life in New York City, and where I was before that.
“I came from England when I was 10, my parents and I lived here for 2 years before they died,” I bleakly stated. It wasn’t that I still was living in the past, but I just stopped really thinking about my parents at all, I mean, I could hardly remember them.
“Oh, cool.