Moving Forward

Conflict

Kota's POV

I didn't understand Mr. Blackbourne lately, technically, ever since he kicked Victor and Luke off the team. He was the one who insisted that we take this mission, claiming it would be easy. It was as if he wanted us to fail now that the Toma Team took lead. I was with Nate; I wanted to know what Axel meant when he said we did jobs in Doc's place. What was going on with Gabe, I was furious. It had been obvious to us all that Gabe has been struggling and needed help, yet, neither of our so called leaders had paid him any attention. What kind of head of the family let one of his brothers drown in mental illness? I was starting to see between the lines and I was not happy with what I was finding. I don't think that Gabe was the only one with mental issues. Mr. Blackbourne has been acting erratically for some time; it wasn't as noticeable because of his constant iron control. When I thought about it, he hadn't accomplished as much as he claimed. Nathan had been living alone since he was twelve, his father beating him whenever he came home. The difference in him since his aunt came into his life is amazing. He was more protective than I have ever seen him and he had settled into his own skin, as if he finally found someone who he belonged to. I wasn't sure I could explain it, even to myself. I could just see the differences in my best friend and the happiness that radiated from him. He and Tilly, they squabbled a lot, but they protected each other's back. They used their squabbles to let off steam and to tease each other and I freely admit that they were entertaining to watch. That brought me to Gabe. I couldn't understand why Mr. Blackbourne and Doc hadn't known that Pam was getting Social Security for Gabe. I thought they had investigated us. Shouldn't that have come up in the report? Gabe has spent the past five years busting his butt to pay bills for him and Pam, since he was eleven years- old. While Pam should have been the one supporting them since she was receiving the money, they let her get away with it. In the six years we have known them, they had never attempted to make things better for Nathan and Gabe. There had been plenty of talk, but very little action.

I wasn't naive, I didn't expect them to fix every difficulty in our life, but I did believe in keeping promises. My four brothers and I busted our butts to paint the house, inside and out, and clean the attic for my mom to keep my promise to her. Gabe had gone the extra mile and painted her favorite flowers above the doors in her room. He did the same for Jess. You would have thought that we had given her a fist full of diamonds, the way she acted. She was happy and made us all dinner to celebrate, her famous meat loaf and scalloped potatoes. While it had been a lot of work, it had been worth it just to see her smile and eyes sparkle with excitement. I still had a crick in my neck from her hugging me.

I have been watching how the Toma Team interacts with each other. None of them called Axel Mr. Toma or treated him any different than they did the others. They were truly brothers, bickering and all. Something else I noticed, not one of them asked Brandon or Corey for money. They earned their own way, even Raven with his broken English. Raven taught gun safety for the Academy, he also did bartending on the side. Kevin picked up extra money by DJing, I have heard that he was a master at spinning vinyl. Brandon customized motorcycles, Corey made programs and apps, Marc was one of the cooks at an omelet shop and Axel worked part time at the Aquarium. What I found most interesting was that they weren't always in each other's pocket, they had outside activities and friends. I noticed the same with Victor, Luke and Raschel when we were visiting them. All three had received phone calls from friends at school; none seemed to be the same people.

It made me understand one of the things we had been failing to do. By keeping to our team, we made no outside friends or acquaintances. People we could mine for information. Not only should we mix with other Academy teams, we needed to mix with the regular populace. Having the same friends limited us in collecting Intel; we were always asking the same people and not getting any new answers. By each of us having a larger variety of people we socialized with, we had a bigger source to gain the info we needed. We hobbled ourselves.