Chapter 17

It took several days for me to return to my normal self and now it was Christmas Eve. This past week all of James and Tessa’s other adopted kids had been showing up. I put on my happy face and introduced myself to all of them as they arrived. They had three other kids in total and they ended up arriving in order of oldest to youngest. 

Myles was the oldest. He had short black hair and was just as tall as James if a few inches shorter. He had a little bit of a mustache and beard. I’ve really only seen him in t-shirts and jeans. He was twenty-six years old and worked as the manager of a large grocery store. He was adopted at fourteen when James was twenty-four. He seemed to be very friendly but picked on everyone, including me, pretty often. However, he was able to be serious when needed. As soon as Tessa had asked for help with something he was quick to help. 

Myles was married to Valerie, who had come along for Christmas. She had dirty blond hair that reached her shoulders and was about half a foot shorter than Myles. They had met each other at a bar and Valerie was actually four months pregnant with their first child. They were going to name it Regen for a girl or Forrest for a boy, and Myles was very excited about it. 

The next to arrive was Chris. He was a few inches taller than Valerie but still shorter than Myles, right in the middle. He also had short black hair but where Myles had a little bit of weight to him, Chris was as skinny as could be. This was because, as I found out later that day, he had Type 1 Diabetes. It was hard for him to gain weight. 

Just like Myles, he favored t-shirts and jeans. He was twenty-three years old and was adopted at sixteen when James was twenty-eight and Myles had moved out. Currently, he worked as a produce manager at the same grocery chain that Myles worked at, just a different store, while he went to college to be an accountant. James was very happy that someone was following in his footsteps. He was a little bit more serious than Myles and picked on us less. 

Last to show up was Marley. She had long blonde hair that past her shoulders and landed about halfway down her back. She was the same height as Valerie and they seemed to get along really well. She was twenty years old and was adopted at fourteen when James was thirty. She went to college to become an elementary teacher, but dropped out and now worked at a large department store. She didn’t really pick on us but really enjoyed to laugh at what the others said or did. 

James took great care to make sure that I spent a little time to get to know each of them and that I was comfortable. 

That night, we all had pizza and I got to know them more as we ate. Once that was done, they all headed to the living room to watch a movie while I stayed behind with James to wash the dishes. It took us a while to clean and put away all of the dishes and once we were done we headed into the living room to watch the rest of the movie. Once the movie was finished we all headed to our rooms to get some sleep. It would be a long and exciting day tomorrow.