By Chance (Accidentally In Luck #1)

The Tale of Daniel Roberts

When we moved from New Jersey, you know how absolutely furious I was. Mom and Dad took me away from the wrestling team, everyone I knew, my best friends Allie, Kevin, Jahkeem, Ashley, Abby, and Brandon. Hell, they even took me away from my girlfriend Bri. I was mad and I wanted something. I tried to convince myself that I just wanted friends, I really did. I knew I didn't want into anything stupid, but part of me wanted something more. You knew that too, though, didn't you? You always were the only one who could ever read me, Sis, and even come close to understanding the way I was.

Remember how we moved in May, right after school? Well, that meant I was going to have to wait months for school to start to even try to meet anyone, get involved in anything and I didn't know if I wanted to, or even could, wait that long. Beyond wanting friends or something to do, I wanted to throw it in Mom and Dad's faces that I wasn't the perfect little boy they had raised, despite the fact that I had been up until that point.

I was just mad. There's no excuse, no real reason. All I wanted was to hurt them as much as possible, so I asked myself what a parent's worst nightmare is. Their precious little boy growing up and joining one of the worst gangs in LA seemed to fit that pretty well.

It wasn't like it was instantaneous either. It had to have taken something like 3 weeks to actually find one. It was the dumbest thing too, how I got in. I'll never forget. I saw a perfectly painted, completely decked out black '18 Mercedes G63 get sideswiped on the street. I got the license plate off the car that hit it. More proof of how I was still completely the perfect child Mom and Dad raised.

Literally, as I watched a guy, a big guy, ran out of the place the Mercedes was parked in front of, screaming at the driver who hadn't even bothered to stop. He saw me watching all this and started cussing me out, walking over like he was going to beat my ass. I won't lie, I was scared. The guy was about my age and well over 6-foot, twice as wide as me at the time because of how ripped he was and a killer tattoo sleeve. Thanks to Dad, I could tell his nose had been broken more times than it should've been, and he had a few very prominent scars on his arms, which were extremely evident thanks to the sleeveless shirt he was wearing.

I stood my ground, but quickly told him that I wasn't involved and that I'd gotten the SUV's plate. He was suspicious, but when I gave it to him without hesitation, it was like I'd flipped a switch in him. He was immediately giving me this huge smile, telling me he was my best friend, and promising he owed me and that he'd pay be back someday.

He threw an arm around my shoulder and steered me into the building he'd come tearing out of while introducing himself as Neo and telling me he was gonna introduce me to his boss, who I was to call Valentino.

Part of me knew that what was happening was exactly what I'd been looking for. There's no way a guy like this with a car like that wasn't in some kind of gang. The other part of me hoped to God it wasn't what I was looking for.

We got in and were standing in front of Valentino, who was—I shit you not—sitting in one of those big ass chairs with the winged back or whatever, and he started asking me all these questions like where I was from, why I was there, stuff like that. He never once asked my name, which I thought was weird. I found out why he didn't after a while, but I'll get to that later.

Anyway, Valentino asked if I could be trusted and when I said I could, he looked at Neo for reassurance over this. Neo vouched for me, and to this day, I don't know why, but he told Valentino that I would be loyal and that if I wasn't, Neo would take the punishment that came with vouching.

Neo was my guy, he stuck by me for a long time to just make sure I was loyal, which I was. To a fault, almost. Eventually, he stuck by me because we were friends. He introduced me to all his other buddies right off and I fit in fast. Neo taught me to fight and I was a quick learner. No one but Neo knew, but that's when I joined the same underground ring Sebastian here is in. I was good, undefeated actually. I was actually supposed to fight in the tournament going on now, but I refused to off a guy who ran to blab to the police. I got the return punishment for not carrying out an order, which meant a couple broken ribs, so I couldn't fight. I just didn't think it was worth offing a guy who didn't tell the police anything of real importance and was just going to be a message to others.