31Wow! I never expected people to actually review my story, apart from loopstagirl! She has to because we're family! Thank you so much for the lovely things you all said! I'm still getting used to dealing with the Tracy boys and the whole TB fandom so be easy with me! Oh, and I am British so feel free to correct me on anything! It all helps me learn! (;
Thanks to loopstagirl, Tikatu, cmiddleton and .wombat for leaving reviews! I will reply to them soon because you need hugs!
I still don't own any of the Thunderbirds or the characters, apart from the mean ones! Haha!
A couple of days passed since the fight and ever since then, Gordon had not spoken as much as a word to anyone. It was as if he had withdrawn into himself and only came out of his room for school, food, the bathroom and a drink. Whenever someone tried to get into a conversation with him, all they were met with were a few sounds and the occasional nod. It was so out of the ordinary and, being the mother hen, Scott was beyond worry. No-one had seen him like this since just after their mother had died.
Scott had tried for a long time to push that particular moment of their past far from his mind, but it was times like this when it was flung right to the front with such a brutal force that he winced. Alan had been too young to remember much about their mother, but Gordon, though only a couple years older than the youngest, seemed to understand exactly what had happened and hadn't been happy about it in the slightest. Going from a child that didn't know the meaning of 'stop' to one that didn't move or do anything in the slightest was bound to be noticed by someone. It wasn't until a month or so after that something (and to this day no-one knew what) had made Gordon laugh. Whatever it had been seemed to break the solid silence and before they knew it, they were yelling at him from yet another little prank. Something told Scott that this would not be as easy to solve.
He sat at the kitchen table of yet another morning, a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice cupped between both hands. It was times like these that he wished he was younger, just so he could keep a closer eye on his brothers. Taking a small sip, Scott heard the echo of some nearing footsteps coming down the stairs. With years of practice and the fact that they were a little quicker than most, he knew even before the kid came around the corner that the footsteps belonged to Alan.
"Morning, sprout," he smiled, taking in the mass of blonde bed hair sticking up in all directions. "Managed to get Virge up this morning?"
Alan scoffed as he grabbed some pieces of toast from the plate in the middle and poured himself a glass of orange. "We are talking about the same brother here? Virgil? The dead would have more luck waking up than him!
"And Gordon?"
Alan stopped buttering his toast for a moment, an uncharacteristic sour look taking over briefly.
"He's up, but I think John snuck him some toast earlier before he headed out," he replied, looking up and sighing.
At least they knew he was eating; however, Scott would have to have words with John taking him food when they knew it would be better if he ate with the rest of the family. With one last sip of his juice, he pushed himself away from the table and collected his plate. "Alan, when he comes down...keep an eye on him, will ya?"
A brief nod was that was needed before Scott headed up to get ready. He could rest easier knowing that at least someone had their eye on his red-haired brother.
OMOMOMOM
Being the last stop before for school usually had its advantages. The school bus always came past their house last so they had a while to get things ready and make sure everything had been packed for the day or, in the case of the youngest three, their grandmother had packed them a lunch bag and had put it near the front door for them to grab on their way out.
"Gordo! Virge! You better get a move on if you want the window!" Alan yelled, pulling on one of his sneakers and giving it a quick tie.
One eye may have been on the shoe, but the other was watching the stairs and doing as it had promised earlier. Gordon duty. Never had the youngest seen his nearest brother so slow and without energy. He couldn't remember a time when they were younger where Gordon wasn't running around like a lunatic or pulling some wacky prank just to get a laugh out of someone. It just wasn't normal! Eventually, he saw him walking down the stairs, jacket on, fake smile in place and yet eyes elsewhere. Alan frowned down at his feet. There was something on his mind, but what was it?
"Did you know that Grandma is dating Mr Hudson across the road?" he said suddenly with a small grin, straightening up and grabbing his jacket from the hook.
"Mm," Gordon mumbled with a nod.
"And that Johnny got awarded for blowing up school?"
"Yeah..."
"Oh, and that you were secretly adopted when you were younger!"
"What?"
Before he knew what was happening, Alan felt his back hid the back of the wall hard as Gordon shoved him back, eyes burning with a fire that he had never seen present in them before. Never had a look of such anger been thrown in his direction before and the only time he had seen these eyes was before Gordon had thumped Tony Hadley back in sixth grade. Gordon had grabbed Alan by the front of his jacket, clumps of the front grasped tightly in his white-knuckled fists.
"Gordon! Let go!" Alan exclaimed, trying to pull away and trying to dislodge himself somehow, his back also now beginning to ache from the force it had been hit with.
"Who told you I was adopted?" Gordon snapped, gripping the fabric tighter as if the pressure would give him the answer.
"What? No-one! It was just a joke! Jeez!"
"HEY!"
Both brothers turned at the sudden new voice. Virgil stood at the bottom two stairs, his coat half on and with a look of slight anger and confusion. "Gordon, let Alan go."
Gordon looked like he was contemplating whether to ignore Virgil's order for a moment, but with a one final deep glare at Alan, he released him and muttered, "Just keep the hell away from me."
With that said he grabbed one of the three paper bags in the porch and stormed out through the front door, yanking it close with an almighty SLAM! Alan tried to fix his crumpled front whilst desperately trying to think of what had done so much damage. He had only been joking. They had always said things like that between one enough before so what had changed? Virgil came down the last two steps, shaking his head.
"You okay, Al?" he replied, his eyes on the front door.
"I think so," he muttered quietly. "...but what did I do?"
"I don't know, Al. I don't know."
OMOMOMOM
The ride to school was as noisy as it normally one, girls sharing the latest gossip with one enough, a few boys in the middle swapping baseball card for another. The only difference were the three young Tracys, two sitting together at the front and the other sitting towards the back, head leaning on the window, deep in thought.
"GORDON!" yelped two female voices from somewhere down the school corridor and an echo of laugher followed by running followed soon after! Gordon had been planning to prank the two popular girls in his grade for weeks and finally, he had been able to sneak into the girl's bathroom during an 'I need to go see the nurse' break. Who knew that a bucket of glue and glitter could make such much mess and yet such a fantastic look!
"Well, they wanted to look shiny," he sniggered to himself, halting near his locker and pulling the door open, using it as a shield from rival attacks.
"You think you're so funny, don't you, Tracy?"
These were one of the voices that Gordon had been hoping not to hear. He cringed slightly at the voice before taking a deep breath and shutting his locker. Standing beside him was the angry face of one of the school bullies, an older and in his opinion 'uglier' Tony Hadley. Gordon leant his back against the back of the locker door, a smug smile pulling at the corner of his lips.
"I'd say I'm pretty funny," he replied, looking right into Tony's eyes, the smile widening as he spoke. What could he say? That two glitter-covered girls wasn't absolutely hilarious?
"Well, you're not!" Tony growled, his face inching closer towards the comedic redhead. "You wouldn't be laughing if you knew what I knew."
"What's that, Hadley? You finally managed to get past second grade?" Gordon gasped, a look of mock-shock now on his face.
"Laugh now, Tracey, but I bet your mom and dad were laughing harder when they got you from S. Michaels!" Tony spat, a look of a more deadly mocking now entering his eyes.
Gordon's smile faded slightly, confusion setting in. What the hell was he talking about? He knew that St. Michael was the only orphanage in Kansas and that a couple of kids that went there came to this school. What did that have to do with him?
"You'd better take this," the trollish bully hissed, forcing a small piece of paper into Gordon's pocket and trudging off, an evil smile now present. The redhead scowled at the departing bully's back and leaving a moment, he pulled the paper out and opened it, the scowl immediately deepening at the words there. Normally, he would have just laughed at such a statement and dismissed it with a second thought and yet, those few words started pulling a feeling that he never expressed to anyone, including his family before.
The feeling that wasn't the right piece in the family.
His dad had dark hair and his mom had blonde. Obviously, John and Alan had gotten the blonde from their mother and Scott along with Virgil had Dad's brown, but nowhere in the mix was anyone ginger. He was pretty certain that his grandmother would have been brown when she was younger and he could hardly remember anyone else in his family having red hair. Why did he have it and no-one else?
There was only one explanation that he had come up with.
He had been adopted.
Gordon shook his head, dispelling the memory from his head, hoping that no-one could see the tear that had somehow fallen down his during his thoughts. It couldn't be true. His parents would have told him! Maybe they were planning to when he was older, but then their mother had died and it had been forgotten. So many troubled thoughts were running feverishly through his mind, wishing that they would just go away.
How could he face his family knowing that they weren't really his?
An idea came to the front of his mind and suddenly, he knew what he had to do.
I know! I know! Don't kill me! This chapter wrote itself! People wanted to know how Gordon found the note so I had to explain it! You couldn't expect a note like that to be given nicely, could you? Next chapter should be done in the next few days!