Adopted

Chapter 12

"Sweetie. Time to wake up, hon," Sarah's calm voice woke me up. "You feeling okay?"

I rubbed my eyes and sat up and looked around.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay," I said.

Sarah sat on my bed.

"Good. I was a little worried, but we did have a pretty busy day. So, everyone's here. I wanted to talk to you about something though."

"What?"

"Well, I think we ought to tell everyone about your diagnosis, too. Trust me, they'll all be fine with it, but I want to start out on the right foot with everyone. But I wouldn't do it without telling you first, because it's only fair."

"What if they hate me after?"

"They won't. I guarantee it," she said, taking my hand. "They're in the music industry. Do you think you'd be the first person they've ever met with HIV?"

"I guess not," I said.

"Ready to come and meet our friends? Your family, really. You'll probably be seeing a lot of them."

"Okay," I said.

We went downstairs and I heard that everyone was outside in the backyard. We walked to the back door, and Sarah put her hand out asking me to wait for a second.

"Hey everyone, so, um, Brendon and I have an announcement," she said. Brendon came up to Sarah's side, smiling. Everyone quieted down.

"So, you know how Brendon and I talked about having a kid?" she said.

A voice called out.

"You're pregnant!? Sarah!!"

"No, no. But we do have a child," she smiled and waved for me to join them. I stepped through the sliding glass door and Brendon pulled me over to him.

"Guys, this is Jessica," Sarah said.

"That has got to be the shortest gestation and the fastest growth spurt in the universe," one of the guys said, grinning.

"Very funny," Brendon said. "We adopted Jessica yesterday from the orphanage over on Pine."

"Did you really?" a very slim and sweet-looking girl said. She was sitting with a bigger guy, with glasses and a beard. He was in cargo shorts and a black shirt. I noticed a lot - if not all of them - had tattoos.

"That's one hell of an impulse buy," the guy with the beard said.

"We've been working and planning this for months, actually. We've had social workers over, and all kinds of assessments and evaluations. I think a tax audit would be less painful than the audit you go through with Children's services," Brendon smiled, putting his hand on my head.

"Jessica is an amazing kid," Sarah said. "I mean, we've been her parents for 24 hours, and I am amazed at her resilience. She's a smart kid, too, so don't think you're going to be able to pull - well - most of your pranks on her. I think she'll see right through you."

"So, Jessica, meet, everyone," Brendon said, pointing people and telling me who they are. "Over by the barbecue are Zack and Kala. Zack's my security guy. The guy with the yellow hair is Josh. He's a drummer. He's in TwentyOne Pilots. Beside him, the guy with the ponytail, that's Pete. He plays guitar and sings, badly, for Fall Out Boy."

"Hey!" Pete said.

"The tall guy over there is Dallon. He's my bassist. The shorter guy beside him is Kenny. He plays guitar, and the guy next to him is Dan. He's our drummer and drum tech. And that's everyone."

I waved.

"Hey, Jessica. Welcome to the family," Zack said, coming over and shaking my hand, then pulling me into a hug.

"Um... Hi," I said, not used to people just coming up and hugging me.

"Now, there's one very important thing you all need to know about Jessica," Sarah said.

I looked down because I didn't want to see anyone's reaction when Sarah told them.

"Jessica's parents, and Jessica, were in a car accident. She was the only survivor and according to the Matron at the orphanage, she was pretty badly banged up. Because of that, Jessica had a lot of surgeries and blood transfusions. Jessica has HIV."

"Awww, kiddo. I'm sorry to hear that," Zack said, hugging me again.

Kala came up to me and bent down in front of me, taking my hands.

"That's horrible, sweetie. How are you?" she asked.

"I'm alright," I said, shrugging.

The rest of the guys started coming up to me and saying hello, and giving me hugs and high fives. It was obvious that no one cared about my diagnosis. At least not in the sense that any of them were afraid of me.

Sarah and I brought out all the salads and the potatoes, which she'd baked in the oven. Brendon cooked the burgers and steaks and we all sat around and ate outside. Josh and Pete were a lot of fun, and Dan and Josh pretended to have some sort of drummer rivalry. At some point, Brendon's guitars came out and they were all singing. I got an impromptu concert and heard a few of Brendon's songs I had never heard before.

In all, it was a really fun, night. Brendon and Sarah's friends were a lot of fun.

Suddenly I found myself floating on air. I opened my eyes and saw Brendon was carrying me upstairs.

"You fell asleep while we were playing you our songs. I didn't realize my music was so boring," he smiled.

"Sorry Dad," I mumbled, falling back to sleep.