A New Chance, A New Start (SWR)

Chapter 14: Weekend Fun... Or Not?

During Zeb's football practice, all he talked about was his new little brother. About his backstory, his personality, and even what they've been doing since they got him. And everyone could see the new sparkle in their teammates eyes, making them smile along with him.
After the practice filled with sweat and talking, a group of Zeb's friends approached him. Chris, Abrav, and Wedge all came up to him with smirks.
"So that's what got our player all happy?"
Chris, the tallest, questioned. Zeb looked up from the bench and smiled when he saw the blonde, blue eyes friend. He nodded and glanced to the other two, "You wan' to come mee' hi'? I have to go pick hi' up." They nodded and quickly went to go shower, not wanting to smell as they were now.

As they where walking down the halls, Abrav questioned, "Zeb, where exactly are we going?"
"The art room." Was his short answer.
Not a minute later they arrived at the door and they could distinctly hear the sounds of a radio. Glancing at each other, they opened the door to enter a small room with two square windows on the back wall. The tan walls had splatters of paints and counters paired with shelfs lined the walls. And there in the middle of the room was Ezra.
He sat on a stool in front of an easel with a radio on another beside him. He obviously had on an apron, baggy shirt, and apparently an unfolded bandanna, protecting his from paint. With his back to them, they couldn't see what he was working on.

Ezra having already knowing people were in the room, reached over and paused the music. Smiling, he said loudly, "You know it's rude to enter without knocking, Zeb and people I have never met."
The boys jumped at the sudden voice and watched as Ezra glanced over his shoulder with a smirk. Zeb chuckled already knowing Ezra could tell he was here and said amusedly, "Hurry up and change so we can leave. I can already tell you want to help with dinner."
The teen smiled at his elder and jumped off the stool, ignoring the snickers. He started untying his apron as he was walking over to the counter with his shirt. Lying the cloth on its hook, he pulled his shirt off and flinched when he heard the gasps.
"You have tattoos?!?" All of Zeb's friends chorused together.
Ezra furrowed his eyebrows, "Yeaaahhhh, I thought Zeb would have told y'all everything at practice."
He turned around and smirked at Zeb's red face and shuffling feet.
Chris smirked, already liking the boy, "Naw, he told us a lot but not that. You mind if I look at them?"
Ezra shook his head and approached cautiously with his wrists out. Chris gaped at the designs.
There was a beautiful compass with cursive letters for directions and a blue feather at the end of the south arrow. The circle at the center held dots and lines, carrying out some blue to match the theme. On his other wrist, the moon phases wrapped around all the way around in plain black. His shoulder held a paw print with the face of a wolf inside of it, the eyes glowing a hazel brown. And of course, his cursive saying on his lower back, 'Family is just as important as breathing.'
"So where did you get them done? I'm pretty sure no one would tattoo a 14 year old." Wedge asked as he looked with Chris.
"I was actually twelve and I got them from my fourth abusive foster home. He was a tattoo artist and wanted to do some designs but found my sketch book and did those instead. After about a week of him doing it, someone saw the marks and I was transferred to the next."
The looked at him sadly as he walked back over to change his clothes. He pulled off his bandanna his hair already growing down his back. He slipped on his shirt and started to unzip his pants. He slipped them off and ignored the gasps as he held onto the counter. Slipping back into his other jeans and beanie and turned around with his backpack. He walked back to his easel and the group saw for the first time what he was painting.