The Masters Brothers - Driven (Completed)

3. Simon - Then

Mom and the dads never shared what happened in the conversation with Bea's parents but from that weekend she spent nearly all her time with us.  Mom of course loved her and very quickly she became part of the family.  

There were comments at school, mainly from Steph and her group but we ignored them and whilst she made other friends, non were part of our inner group.  The staff liked her and after Steph transferred out to another school, everything settled at school as well.

On the occasions her mother returned home, Bea returned to the house but would always return withdrawn and it usually took a couple of days to get her back to herself, and what a self it was.

Once she had felt confident with us and our family her quickly little character traits had started to peep through, she had a wicked sense of humour, could prank with a totally strait and innocent face, she fit in so well, everyone loved her, Ama had even had girlie days out with her and we frequently found her and Mom in the kitchen trying out new recipes.

Her first birthday with us... her sixteenth we had a party and a cake which had led to tears from her,  the whole family had come to dinner and had brought thoughtful little gifts and she had looked overwhelmed when the evening finally ended, Mom giving her a hug and sending her up to bed before we could corner her and try to talk her down.

Her mother had come home the weekend nearest it , three days before the actual dates and they had gone out shopping for a birthday gift her mother thought suitable but we knew it stayed at her mothers house, designer handbags were not her style.  Her father had sent a card and a cheque, he didn't even bother to phone her on the day and we had heard the short conversation the day after when she phoned to thank him, she had come off the phone sad so we had packed up a picnic and spent the day in the woods on quad bikes.  she had been terrified at first but once she got the hang of it, it had been us warning her to slow down or take care.

That Christmas was her first with us as he parents both had other plans but she seemed resigned about them and happy to be with us.

The holidays had been a rush of showing her new things, the dads had found us a couple of old cars and had taught us all the basics of driving in one of the fields, we would practice before heading off to explore local places and then it was time to go back to school and exams, exams and more exams.  We all aced them of course and started looking at future options. 

We had discussed with the dads our lack of interest in a career in intelligence and they had laughed, telling us not to worry but to do something we wanted to do, Bea hadn't know what she wanted to do either so was coasting along with us until we decided.

Our seventeenth birthday we had got a car each, passing our tests almost immediately and we would take turns driving her to school.

Her seventeenth birthday her parents gave her money, so the dads took her to do her test and helped her buy her own car, not that she needed it as she was always with us.  And life continued with her as part of the family.

It was our great uncle who set us on the path to a career we wanted, he got us all summer jobs at a motor racing circuit and each evening Blake and I would take to the track as Bea timed us.  Uncles friend who owned the circuit watched us silently the first few times, then other joined him, we were encouraged to use other cars and asked for feedback and the racing adrenaline burned through our blood and we were hooked.

Back to school we balanced visiting the track at weekend or holidays as we studied hard during term, always performing better when Bea was with us, our lucky charm.

Her parents had pulled away even more and Bea probably saw her mother one a month and now she went to London for that visit.  Bea had felt her parents were taking advantage of mine and had said so but Mom had quickly put her straight, she was there because they wanted her there, her parents be damned.

With the end of school nearing and all our exams finished we had been looking at universities, Bea had found a passion for writing and was looking at creative arts and writing courses, both Blake and I had been offered contracts to race but we recognised the benefits of getting a business degree behind us and racing part time before we committed to a full time racing career.  

Then we had found Bea one day sat in the garden tears in her eyes and panicked that something was wrong and she had told us we would be going in different directions now and she wanted to thank our family for giving her so much support over the last couple of years.  Blake and I had been shocked, we had never contemplated being without her, she was our lucky charm, our third musketeer, why would she leave us. We had marched her straight to mom and demanded she help us and she had, she helped us realise we had applied to the same universities and with the grades we were anticipating getting we could choose when we wanted to go, we could go together if we wanted to.

Again Bea parents hadn't cared, they had padded her account and left her to it.  Mum and the dads had come with us to check out the universities, they had helped us find a flat close to our chosen one and they had helped us move in.