Through Hard Times. (Fantastic Foursome Fanfiction)

Obstacles

“Victor Jameson Fredrick, the court has given you absolute discharge. You will be released to your legal guardians and under house arrest until you are a legal adult, and then released with probation for the following year. Your parole officer will take you home and your monitoring system will be installed. The court will reconvene to check your progress next month. The court is dismissed.”

Victors POV (First Person)

I braced myself as the slim black car pulled up to a cracked driveway, my parole officer having driven me home.

Home. It was a sad excuse for a home.

The walls were crumbling and several windows were cracked. The whole perimeter was lined with chain linked fence, weeds and thorns growing up it. I absentmindedly touched a couple of scars on my arms from trying to climb the fence throughout my childhood.

The car door opened and Officer Edwards was there, holding it open so I could get out, I hated looking at him. His judgmental green eyes piercing through me. I got out of the car and stayed by his side as we approached the metal gate to the fence, my wrists cuffed behind my back. I squinted at the fence, a little confused. It used to be padlocked shut so I couldn’t leave. That’s why I had the scars, that’s why I had to jump the fence.

We went past the fence and up to the porch, rotting wood creaking under our weight. Officer Edwards knocked on the door three times and I flinched when the door opened.

My jaw dropped as I saw my mom, blonde hair piled on top of her head and face clean of makeup.

Her old look was still burned into my brain. Hair straggly and hanging around her face, smeared makeup running down her face at all times. Another ‘all times’ thing was a cigarette in her hand, which was now gone. She smiled at us and I felt like I was in the twilight zone. She stepped back, dressed in jeans and a button-up shirt, not the usual stained nightgown, and let us in. I looked around the house and felt the surprises piling onto me.

It was clean. It even looked nice. The old furniture was there, ugly green sofas and dark wood tables, but they were clean. There weren’t any beer bottles sitting on every surface or ashes ground into the cushions.

We sat down and Officer Edwards started explaining how a mechanism worked as it clipped around my ankle. It worked with a GPS in it—tracking where I went. He told me that I could go to school and home. If I went anywhere else, even an alternate route to school, an armed team of policemen would come down on my ass.

“When that light beeps red, you have 15 seconds to get back to the green area. Try and remove it, we’ll come and take you to prison. Try and run, we’ll come and arrest you—if you resist, we’ll be forced to shoot.”

I let out a halfhearted laugh, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” I’d get shot at? Isn’t that a little bit overkill?

“It won’t tickle.” Was all he said as he got up from the couch.

My mom followed him to the door, seemingly gushing about me, “Oh, thank you for giving him a chance, officer. I’m so glad that me and his father can have a second chance with him. You see, after he got affiliated with that terrible gang, we haven’t heard from him, and it’s all thanks to you brave men that we get to see him again.” I tried not to choke on my own spit as she said this. This was not my mom. I’ve never heard her say a nice thing in her life!

“It wasn’t my decision.” Officer Edwards said shortly before leaving, my mom clicking the door shut softly. She went over to the window and pulled the ugly brown curtain to the side and watched as he left. After a few moments she took her hair down and lit a cigarette, undoing the top half of her shirt.