The Story of Carbon (Part 1)

Chapter 6: The Gang

We went to the address printed on the card. Despite the sun peaking up, the narrow alley we found ourselves in was darker than night itself.
"This is the place," I sighed. We stood in front of a tall, ebony door with an emblem of a Koopa shell engraved into the dark wood. It had the initials KK in the center of the shell.
"This place is pretty sus," Kooper said nervously.
"This place might be our home, so start getting used to it," I said as a greasy fat rat scurried over my foot. I shuddered.
"But do we really have to join a gang?"
"If we want to live, yeah. We have nothing, Kooper. These guys will take us in. For a time, at least, until we figure out how to get our money back and a move on. Plus, the toughest of the tough are in gangs."
"Toughest of the tough...." Kooper pondered the thought.
I knocked on the door, half-expecting the crazy man with the skeleton wife to jump out at us. Instead, a dense voice came from the other side of the door saying, "Nobody's home."
"Ummmmmmm...."
"Oh, it's you!" The voice came. He must've recognized us through the peephole. On the other side we heard violent shushing and something along the lines of "Act civilized." Moments later, the door opened to reveal the same Koopa that approached us on the street. The guy didn't look much older than me, but he sounded like a man. He had a purple shell that was well polished, and dark shades that shaped his countenance so that he looked perpetually unamused. Around his neck and wrists were spiked bands. The guy looked pretty lethal; pretty tough.
"Ummmmm...I came to take you up on that offer," I said timidly.
"Come on in!" He said with excessive joy, taking me in by the shoulder. "So I'm Grover, and you are?"
"Ahhh.. oh yeah! My name is Koops."
"Koops, ehh?" he said pensively. "Alright. What about the little guy?" He bent down.
"This is my friend, Kooper." Kooper nodded slightly.
"Well isn't that adorable," Grover cheered.
I looked to the kid. "I mean—I guess so."
When we entered, I noticed the room was far more extensive than I'd imagined. There were two couches to the left that were set perpendicular facing a pathetic box TV. In the left corner there was an old pool table lit up by an amber ceiling lamp. A large jukebox stood next to it. To the far right corner, there was a humble kitchen with a big wooden table in its center. There were multiple doors and some stairs indicating that this was only part of the apartment. These guys must be rich! I expected a grimy cave with a sock mountain in the corner. This place was actually clean.
"Welcome to Koopa Klan Kingdom. It ain't much, but it's what we got."
"You got that right boss. This TV hurts my eyes," groaned a Koopa on one of the black couches. He was holding a video game controller and playing Bowser Kart with another Koopa next to him who was playing upside down, his legs hanging over the back rest.
"I guess I should get introductions outta the way. Again, I'm Grover. The head of this Klan. I keep the landlord happy, an everyone else here. These goons over 'ere," he pointed to the Koopas aggressively playing the game, "are TJ and JT."
"Howdy!" They said simultaneously, pausing their game to get a quick look at me.
"Yeah, they are twins, hence their names, hence the creepy talkin' at the same time thingy. They can be a little much, but they're usually alright."
"Ayy JT, ya hear that? Boss thinks we're alright"
"Alright!" They gave each other high fives and resumed their game.
"That o're there is Pablo." Grover pointed to a puny Koopa sitting on the couch perpendicular to TJ and JT. He was tuning a guitar double the size of himself. "Pablo's a pretty wacky dude. He ain't got no self control. If he feels like dancin', he'll dance! If he feel like puttin' a lamp shade ova his head, he darn well will do it. Anotha thing is that he speaks Spanish, and only Spanish. Can't undastand a word from him 'cept sí, biblioteca, and me casaré con mi guitarra."
"Well," I said trying to laugh, "Kooper could probably translate if you needed him to. He can speak Spanish."
"¿Es eso lo que es esto? ¿Español?" Kooper preguntó.
Pablo instantly turned his head to Kooper and ran to him and hugged him. "¡Mi hermano! ¡Finalmente! ¡Finalmente alguien me entiende!"
"¡Quitate!" Grover ordered. "My apologies. Like I said, a little loco."
Pablo unhinged but still held Kooper's hand in excitement. Kooper looked at me, disturbed.
"And that one over there is Jadine." Grover gestured to a girl at the right sitting cross legged beside a fan. She didn't look up; she was intently reading. She wore her hair down so that it graced the floor, and it bore a soft glow like a summer moon. She wore a white t-shirt that went down to her knees. Her eyes were sapphire, like a vast ocean, and her face was pearl. All that seemed to be missing were angel wings and a halo. I felt...love? But I had never met Her. It wasn't love...but I felt love?
Grover continued as I tried not to gawk too obviously. "Jadine is a hard one to figure out at first, but once you get to know her, she'll open right up like a book. She'll bite if you get too close though," Grover laughed. Jadine looked up and scowled perfectly, silencing him, making me even more silent and in awe. "She's kinda the mom of the house. She cooks most a the meals and is pretty tidy, but don't make her mad, else she'll starve you.
"And last but sometimes not least, we got Milo." He pointed to the last Koopa over at the wooden kitchen table, and I had to pry my eyes away from Her. He had headphones on and was staring at his computer screen while he sloppily ate cereal.
He looked up at us and said way too loudly with a mouth full of Koop Loops, "Yo, whattup newbie!" Chunks of cereal went flying. "Welcome to the Klan. If ya play nice and stay outta my stuff, I'll play nice and stay outta yours. If you're cool, I'm cool. Deal? Good." He looked back down.
"Need I explain him? That kid needs a whack upside the head every once in a while, but we like to keep him around. He runs his mouth; you have my permission to shut it," Grover joked. I laughed nervously. "So these are your brothers—and sister—for the time being, so I would start gettin' to know 'em. And also, we gotta get you training.
"Training? For what?" I said from far away, staring at the angel on the floor.
"Hey boss!" Milo yelled. "Don't newbies have to go through initiation? Ya know, to join the Klan? We're almost out of cereal!"
"Oh, yeah I guess we can do an initiation." Grover rolled his eyes. "Aight. Initiation, and then we'll get ya in the gym."
"Initiation?" That caught myself attention. I looked to Kooper, and slapped myself in the face. "Alright, let's do it. Whatever it is, I'm up for it." I tried to sound tough, for Her, but you could hear the tightness in my throat, not because of initiation, but because of Her... I forgot what initiation meant for a minute.
"And everyone's comin'." Grover ordered. "Koops 'ere may be part of our Klan. The least we can do is act like it. Get to know him; he's your brother for the time being." I looked at Jadine pleadingly.
They all groaned and marched out the door. I bit my lip and followed them.