Dark Seed (DeBeers 0.50)

"Yes," I said.

Something in his face changed dramatically. It was like a smile coming up from under the mask he usually wore. He glanced at the others and then looked at me.

"None of your precious friends knows?" I shook my head.

"Big deal," he said after another moment, and then he turned and charged at one of his friends, deliberately knocking him into Mindy Hasbrouck. which started enough of a commotion to make Mr. Anderson chase everyone back into the cafeteria.

I thought that was the end of it, and decided to put my great secret back into the safe locked behind my heart. but Scott surprised me that day by following the van that took me and four other students home after school. He rode behind us on his bike.

No one else noticed him but me. When I got out to walk up my driveway. I waited for him to catch up. He bounced over pavement and skidded to a stop inches from me.

"You gotta go right home?" he asked.

I looked at the front of the house. Amou usually waited for me after school. The Doctor was at his clinic and my adoptive mother was either out with friends shopping or attending some charity event.

"No," I said.

"Good. Get on," he ordered, pounding his seat. Courageously, I did so.

"Hold on." he told me. and shot away. There was a steep hill just down from our property and he didn't slow much to descend. I screamed and closed my eyes, and he laughed.

"Make way!" he shouted. "Make way for the Adopted."

Not only wasn't it a secret to him, he was eager to rub it in the face of Fate.

No adoptive mother would bring him to tears. Was it all a facade, an act to serve as a suit of armor? Even if it is, I thought, I want to be like him. Before our bike ride ended, I was screaming with him:

"Make way for the Adopted!"

3

Love Is in the Heart,

Not the Blood

.

It wasn't until I went to Scott's home one

weekend afternoon that I understood what gave him his self-confidence and strength. His adoptive father was a plumber and his adoptive mother, once a secretary, was now doing only freelance work, but not because she couldn't find a full-time job. Before Scott invited me to his home, he revealed that his mother (he never referred to her or his father as adoptive) was suffering from something called lupus. It was a debilitating illness, and from what he understood and what his father had told him, his mother was getting worse. She had been sick for nearly eight years.

"Sometimes she has a lot of pain." he explained to me. "And she doesn't like to see people, but she's okay right now and she told me you could come over.'

Despite her illness. Scott's mother was a very pleasant woman. She was sickly thin. I thought, but she had a nice smile with soft blue eyes. She was a dark brunette, and almost as tall as Amou. I could see that it was painful for her to move about the house, but she wouldn't let it stop her from making Scott and me some homemade chocolate chip cookies. What surprised me the most that first day I met her was that Scott had told her my secret.

The moment she revealed that, I turned sharply and glared angrily at Scott. His mother saw how upset I was.

"Scott doesn't keep secrets from me. Willow. We love each other too much to ever hide things from each other or lie to each other," she explained.

I turned back to her and saw she was very sincere. Love each other too much? I wondered, But...

"I even know how often he gets himself in trouble at school. don't I. Scott?" she asked, her eyes narrow, threatening.

He nodded and then smiled.

"However, he has recently promised me he won't be getting into trouble any longer, right, Scott?"

"A-huh," Scott said.