A/N I'm upgrading... triplets.

James turned his alarm off the second it woke him up, and rolled back over in bed, pulling his covers up over his head to keep the light from his window out of his eyes. He wasn't used to having this problem— his old bedroom back in Florida had a window, but it had been above his bed so the morning light had never bothered him before— and was still adjusting to having to close his blinds at night. Thankfully, his covers were thick enough to block out the light, and falling back asleep was easy if he could ignore the lack of oxygen.

Or it would have been easy if his mother hadn't knocked persistently on his bedroom door until he groaned and called, "Come in". He heard the door click open, but he didn't bother to to lift the blanket off of his head, hoping she would see him like that and decide to leave him alone. Instead, she moved into his room and took a seat on the edge of his bed, making the mattress sag slightly with her weight. A moment later, the fabric over his eyes was being pulled back.

"You have to wake up, James," she instructed, and he groaned, turning his face into his pillow and exhaling heavily. "Honey, school starts in thirty minutes and you need to eat first". At the word school, James groaned loudly and rolled onto his back, throwing his arm over his eyes.

"I'll go tomorrow," he protested weakly, knowing very well that in a minute he'd be getting out of bed, not only to simply appease his mother, but because he actually cared about his education. Also, Tyler would kill him if he skipped the first day of school.

"James," his mother said softly. "I made chocolate chip pancakes". James shifted his arm so it rested across his forehead instead of his eyes, and then peeked up at his mother. Her lips curled up pleasantly. The making of pancakes had always been a beginning of the school year tradition in their household, but James had wondered if his mother was going to maintain it. He had so many memories of sharing breakfast with his brother on the first day of school, that he'd been unable to imagine doing it without him, but now, with hunger heavy in his stomach, he was glad his mother had carried on the tradition. "Also, Tyler had been downstairs for the last fifteen minutes pestering me to come wake you up so he can eat".

That had him sitting up in bed. "Tyler's here?"

"Of course he is. I invited him yesterday," his mother admitted, rising from the edge of her son's bed. "It's another first without your brother here, and I thought it'd be easier for all of us if Tyler joined us". With a rub at his tired eyes, James nodded his head in agreement. It was easier for all of them having Tyler around, mostly because James enjoyed spending time with his best friend, and James being happy made his parents happy. "Also, he's giving you a ride to school anyways, so I figured I could pay him in pancakes as thanks".

"Well he will do anything for food," James joked quietly, and his mother gave him a brief smile of acknowledgment. She had smiled a lot more since the move, and James attributed that to the new found lack of financial stress in their lives. It was a good change, James thought, and he felt it in himself as well.

"Get dressed and come down. I'm sorry for waking you but I wanted to give you enough time to eat before you two have to leave," she apologized, and he waved a dismissive hand in her direction.

"It's alright. I'll be down in a minute, thanks". He waited for her to leave before climbing out of bed, since half way through the night he had gotten unbearably hot and had to kick his pajama pants off under the covers. The summer heat in Illinois was far worse than he was expecting– since Illinois had snow in the winter, he assumed that the summer would be more mild than Florida's– and every morning since they had moved in James had woken up with significantly less clothes than he had gone to sleep wearing. He'd have to talk to his mother about the rising heat and perhaps turning on the air conditioning at night.

Getting dressed didn't take long. It never had for James, since what he was wearing was always a non-event, and now that he had a uniform— his mother had folded it and left out on his dresser the night before— it only took him a minute. The rest of the things he needed to do before leaving, fixing his hair and brushing his teeth, could be done after he ate.

What he disliked most about his room was the fact that the second he stepped out into the hall he was visible to whoever happened to be sitting in the living room at the time, due to the elaborate but pointless balcony structure of the entire second floor. At the moment, it was just Tyler who looked up at him, which wasn't the worst thing in the world, but when he completed his night time walk from the bathroom to his bedroom at night with a towel wrapped around his waist, it became problematic when his parents were sitting in the room below.

James made his way down the stairs, hand gripping the rail as he went down, just in case his overtired body stumbled. The night before had been a late one, since him and his parents had stayed up to unpack more, and once he had gotten to bed, the nervousness he felt towards school had him tossing and turning. It must have shown on his face because the first thing Tyler said to him was, "you look tired," followed almost immediately by, "what shoes are you gonna wear?"

"First off, you're one to talk,"James accused, because Tyler looked exhausted himself, with dark bags under his half lidded eyes. His friend shrugged, as if to say oh well. "Second, why does it matter what shoes I'm going to wear?" James eyed the seat on the couch next to his friend before sighing and simply leaning against the back of the furniture instead. He figured the food was ready to eat already, and the second he sat down his mother would come into the room and instruct him to move to the dining room.

"Because, if you wear Armani or some shit I guarantee you, one of those rich boys is gonna try to be friends with you, and you don't want to make friends with them. That, or they'll feel that their place on the social latter is threatened and then they'l be out to get you".

James thought about this for a moment. From what Tyler had said about the school, he assumed a lot of the students got picked on on a regular basis, but it seemed so backwards for someone to get harassed because what they were wearing was too nice. At his old school, back in Florida, the only kid he had seen get pushed around had holes in the toes of his shoes and the cuffs of his sweater.

Instead of saying any of this out loud, James asked, "Armani makes shoes?" And Tyler turned his head to look at his friend with an Are you serious look. "What?" The look remained. "I don't know these things. Sorry I haven't been attending some pretentious high school for the last two years that teaches me of the shoe brands of the upper class".

"Don't be a shit," was all Tyler said in response to this particular issue before turning forward again and looking down at his cellphone. "How do you feel about the uniform?"

James eyes flicked down to look at himself. The uniform was actually quite comfortable, a little warm, but James figured that wouldn't be a big of a deal in the air conditioned school. It had a business casual kind of look, which was something he had been trying to avoid until he was an adult with a job, with tan khaki pants and white button down shirt with a navy vest over the top. Overall, he felt pretty neutral about the whole thing. "It's fine. I think it's a nice color".

"Aren't you upset with the fact that you're being forced to wear something? Most people our age don't like being told what to do". That was the least of James's worries.

"It just means I don't have to pick out something for myself".

Tyler huffed in soft amusement. "And I'm the lazy one". Before James could point out that his indifference had more to do with the fact that he just didn't care about cloths, and less to do with overall laziness, his mother was calling to them to join her in the dining room, promising coffee and as many chocolate chips pancakes as they could eat in ten minutes.

***

They left after five pancakes each, as well as a million Thank you's from James mother to Tyler. While James knew she was thankful for his friend offering to drive him to school– she was unable to, since her husband took the car to work that moring, so she had to take the bus to her own job at the bookstore– it seemed a little excessive after her tenth thank you. Ty seemed to have thought so as well, because he eventually smiled at her and assured, "you know I'd do anything for your family, Mrs. Anders". It made his mother's eyes grow comically wide, and James was sure that his father would share a matching look if the man had been there to hear it.

"I forgot how awesome your mom is. I did not, however, forget how wonderful her chocolate chip pancakes are. Damn, I really wish you had woken up earlier. I could have eaten a sixth," Tyler assured as they wanted to his car, which James had gotten well acquainted with over the past week. "She says thank you a lot though, doesn't she?"

"Yeah," James agreed, sliding his backpack off his arm. "But we had to sell Ace's car when he got sick, and her's to pay for the wake, so if you had been unwilling I'd be walking this morning".

There was a moment of silence as Ty unlocked his car and they both climbed in. It occurred to James at some point over the past week that Tyler wasn't really prepared to acknowledge the fact that Ace had died just yet, which was strange to him, but he supposed it made sense. Ever since his brothers death, James had been forced through the five stages of grief because it was impossible for him to ignore his brothers absence. Tyler didn't feel a heavy absence from his life all the time since he lived so far away. The only thing that had gone missing after Ace's death was the phone calls and text messages they two of them had still shared, and James suspected that was an easy enough absence to ignore to avoid sadness.

"Well it wasn't like I was going to make you walk," Ty claimed, clearing his throat when his voice came out hoarse. "I mean, you don't even know where we're going". There was a tension between them then as they waited to see if James would take the bait and accept the topic change, or if he would force them to talk about Ace's death. Moments like these had already occurred a handful of times since James had arrived in Illinois, and he had yet to force his friend to talk about his brother.

"As if you've ever gone out of your way to prevent me from wandering around aimlessly like a fool". Eventually, they'd have to talk about it, but the time wasn't right. Tyler sighed, and his shoulders relaxed. A lazy smile was directed in James direction.

"This is true". They were silent from that point on, both of them having internal struggles to address.

James was still worried about attending Edgewood, for more reasons than just the gay thing, though constantly having to worry whether or not he was good enough at hiding who he really was was also distressing. He was worried about his classes as well, and about fitting in enough that he didn't completely stand out. In all the stories Tyler had told him, standing out only made you a target, and apparently at Edgewood, you didn't want to be a target. Not wanting to cause any problems at the school for his father's sake– Edgewood was owned by his boss afterall– James hoped this was something he'd be able to avoid.

Ruining his father's new career was what James feared the most. The new position had saved his family in their darkest time, had offered them a place to live for little cost, had promised large paychecks to be coming in every two weeks, large enough that his mother had been able to get a job for fun rather than to support them. His father losing his job wasn't an option for them, so James had made a rule for himself to follow: stay away from the Bradford kids that attended Edgewood. He didn't know much about the family, or how many children were currently at Edgewood, but his father had mentioned it at one point. James figured if he steered clear of them, he could do nothing to offend them, and his father's job would be safe.

The ride to school was far shorter than James had been expecting, giving him less time to address his nerves than he felt he needed. This must have shown on his face, because when Tyler parked his car, and then looked at him, he assured, "you're going to be fine, man. Just take a deep breath if you need to, alright?"

"I don't need a deep breath," James grumbled, slightly annoyed with the suggestion. It made Tyler sound far too much like his mother. "I just don't want to fuck things up here. What I do can impact my dad now, and I-"

"Woah," Tyler cut in, his voice a tad bit louder than James felt comfortable with that early in the morning. "James. Your worrying about this way too much. In order for your father not to be fine you'd have to do something really terrible, like start the place on fire or some shit. Calm down". The look on Tyler's face was painted. "Look man, I wasn't trying to freak you out with all of my warnings. I just wanted to be prepared, but it's not really that bad here. It sucks like any other school does. It's high school. The only difference is the jerks you have to put up with all drive hummers and shit. You'll be fine though. You're quiet and agreeable. Just... if you keep your sexuality to yourself, I promise you that no one is going to have any issues with you".

James thought back two years, to his first day of high school. He had been equally nervous that morning, sitting in the passenger seat of his brother's car, refusing to leave. Ace stayed with him. Even when his close friends had stopped by the front of the car, Ace had waved them away with a small smile. "Come on, kid".

"Not yet".

James could still remember the look on Ace's face then, the drawing together of his eyebrows in conflict. "James. You're my favorite person in the world. You're awesome, and if they don't see that then fuck em".

The memory warmed him.

"Hey man, you good?" Tyler inquired, pulling him back to the present. "You just zoned out there. What're you thinking about?"

Knowing the difficulties that could arise if James responded with, my brother, he took a brief second to gather his thoughts before speaking. "I was thinking it's strange that you're so nice to me. It almost makes me wonder how you're the same guy that threw me in a garbage can on the first day of school before".

The reminder of the memory made Tyler laugh as he unbuckled his seat belt. "That was in forth grade, and to impress a girl. You can't possibly be mad at me about that still". They made eye contact then, and James raised his eyebrows, trying to convey the words try me through his facial expression. It must have come across because Tyler grinned. "Alright man, we should probably head in. You brought your books and everything, right?" In answer James patted his backpack. A few days before, his mother had taken him into school to complete the orientation packet and pick up his textbooks, so he was all set. "Alright, great... What class do you have first thing?"

"Geography," James recalled with little pause. He had gone through the schedule enough times with his parents to know it by heart. "With Mr. Goldburn or something like that".

"Ah, okay, so that's in the east wing, so you're gonna want to go in those doors over there," Ty instructed, pointing. James squinted in the direction and nodded once. "I'd go with you, but I'm in the west wing on the third floor, so I'll need a bit more time to get to my class. You'll be on the second floor, right at the top of the staircase, Alright?"

James didn't really want to go in by himself, but he figured it was kind of his fault they were still in the car, given his nervousness that needed to be addressed. It would be fine though, he told himself. He was sixteen after all and not completely incapable. "Okay," he agreed, tucking Tyler's instructions into the back of his mind. "I'll see you at lunch then?"

"Yeah man. You have Mrs. Kingsley before hand, right? I'll be right next door, so we can just meet in the hall and I can take you to the cafeteria. The best thing about this place is the food. You'll fucking love it".

"That may just be the motivation I was needing to get through the first half of my day," James claimed dryly, leaning forward in his seat to look at the school through the dashboard. He spotted the door Ty told him to go throw. Second floor. Right at the top of the stairs.

***

The instructions had seemed easy enough to follow, but something clearly went wrong, since he was still wandering the hall when the morning bell rang, nearly ten minutes prior to leaving Tyler's car. Panic began to set in then, because James had never been late to a class in his entire life, and his first day at a new school seemed like the worst possible time to start. Frantically, James withdrew his phone from his back pocket, pulling up the picture of his schedule that he had taken as soon as it had been given to him. He had checked it enough times in the past ten minutes to already know he was looking for room 210, but a part of him hoped he had read the number wrong in order to explain his inability to find said room.

James sighed and slowed to a stop in the middle of the hall, clutching his phone tightly as he stared down at it, not really looking at it any longer as he tried to think of what to say to his first hour teacher once he showed up— that is, if he ever found his way there.

Lying wasn't something James enjoyed, but he feared Mr. Goldburn wouldn't believe that he had gotten lost for so long. Afterall, he had passed the entrance exam in order to attend the school, so his teachers were probably expecting him to be capable enough to not get lost. Maybe he'd say that he hadn't completed his orientation paperwork prior, and had to stop in the office first thing in the morning. Then if his teacher asked why he hadn't come in early to do it he could say that he tried but his car had broken down and he was forced to walk to school. Or maybe- ouch.

The impact of something— no, someone judging by the gasp that sounded, which didn't come from him— smacking into him had his phone flying from his grasp, and he scrambled to catch it before it hit the ground. He managed with quick hands, but the other person was not as lucky, and the stack of papers they had been carrying fell to the ground at their feet. "Oh shoot," a boy's voice said, though James didn't raise his head to see his disrupter, already dropping to his knees to help the other boy gather his belongings.

"I'm sorry," James apologized, trying to quickly stack all of the papers. They all seemed to be worksheets, so he assumed he had just been run into by a teacher. A teacher who didn't pay attention to where he was going, apparently.

"No, I'm sorry," was the immediate response. James finished gathering all the papers he could reach, and watched the other man's hands as he finished straightening his own pile. "I'm the one who wasn't paying attention and ran into you".

"Well I was standing in a rather inconvenient place," he defended for the other man, hoping to get on this teacher's good side, just in case he had him for any of his classes. James lifted his head then and held the papers out with a smile, and almost immediately recognized his mistake.

It had not been a teacher who had run into him, but a boy who could not be any older than James himself. For a moment, James wondered why this kid had two dozen worksheets which clearly belonged to a teacher, but his dwelling was cut short when he realized two very obvious things.

The first thing was that this boy was incredibly beautiful. He had coloring that James had never seen before: pale skin and golden eyes framed with incredibly long lashes that were the same shade of midnight black as the boys hair. The breath caught and James throat, and then refused to release, long enough that he was sure his face was flushed an incredible shade of red.

The second thing that James noticed was the fact that this boy was staring right back at him, gold eyes wide with interest. James wondered if anyone this beautiful had ever looks at him like this before.

Probably not, he thought, thinking about his brown hair and blue eyes- a combination that wasn't out of the ordinary, unlike gold and black.

"I...uh," James trailed off, his lips pressing back together tightly as his eyes dropped to the papers he was still holding out towards the other boy, waiting for him to take them. This seemed to snap the boy out of his revere, because his hand reached out quickly, pulling the papers from James grasp.

"Thank you," he breathed, voice barely above a whisper. It made James want to lean into him, to listen better, but a voice in his head— Tyler's, damnit— warned him that was a little more gay than he had been hoping to come off. The thought made him force his eyes away, and hastily rise to his feet.

"It's no problem-" James began to assure, hoping he hadn't already ruined everything, while also wondering if it would be going too far to reach down and offer this boy his hand to help him stand.

It didn't take him long to establish that this was the right thing to do, but he didn't get to act on it before the door to their right was opening. In the time that it had taken for him to turn and see the teacher who was checking on them, the other boy gotten to his feet on his own. "Are you two alright? I saw you collide through the window— oh! Kalen!"

James glanced at the other boy out of the corner of his eye to see him smiling sheepishly at the teacher, cheeks still flushed scarlet. "Sorry for the disruption, Mrs. Rodgers. It seems I wasn't paying enough attention to where I was going. Mrs. Dickenson sent me to the print center and I was just counting to make sure we have enough copies".

"Of course," Mrs. Rodgers said, smiling pleasantly. "Are you okay? It looked like you hit one another hard".

"I'm fine," the boy whom she had referred to as Kalen claimed. His striking eyes flicked over to James's face again, waiting for him to answer as well. James looked away to focus on the teacher, who was looking back at him expectantly, and he was slightly embarrassed to have been caught staring once again.

"I'm also alright," he assured after taking a second to compose himself. Mrs. Rodgers, which was a name that sounded familiar to James for some reason, smiled at him before looking back to the other boy.

"I'm glad you're both alright. Kalen, you should get back to Mrs. Dickenson. She'll probably need those papers." James peered out of the correr of his eye again to see Kalen shift, his expression unsure. To James's surprise, the boy was looking back at him, but when their eyes met he looked away quickly and nodded at the teacher. "Perfect. Thank you. I'll see you in class later".

"Yes Mrs. Rodgers," he agreed softly, moving around James to continue down the hall. For half a second, James stared after him, but once again he recalled Tyler's advice and grimaced, tearing his eyes away.

"I don't believe we have met before," Mrs Rodgers began, cutting into his thoughts of tight khakis that hugged skin. "I'm Mrs. Rodgers. I teach chemistry to the younger students, and organic chemistry to the upperclassmen. And you are?" That's why she sounded familiar. James planned on studying Chemistry in college, so he was taking her advanced organic chemistry class the hour after lunch. The class was the only one he was excited for.

"James Anders, ma'am," he answered, eyes wide as he looked at her. He was waiting for her to be cruel to him, after she had obviously checking out the boy named Kalen a handful of times, but instead she was smiling at him warmly. "This is my first day here".

"Ahh," she said, smiling knowingly. "Are you lost?" Flushing, James nodded. "That's alright. I'll give you a hall pass so you're not marked tarty, and then hopefully I can point you in the correct direction. Where do you need to go?" As she asked this she reached into the mailbox on the door to her classroom, taking out what looked like a bright orange pack of sticky notes.

"I have geography with Mr. Goldburn," James responded, and she nodded, writing something on the small slip of paper with a pen she got from her pocket.

"Ah, I should have sent you with Kalen. Mrs. Dickenson's room is right next door, and I'm sure he would be more than willing to show you the way". She fell silent then as she finished her writing, and James took the time to think of this Kalen and wonder what exactly he had seen in those golden eyes when the boy had been staring at him. It seemed like interest, but James didn't really think someone like that could be interested in anything that had to do with him. Before he could really consider this, Mrs. Rodgers finished writing and tore off the top slip of paper, holding it out towards him. "Alright, so you're going to walk all the way to the end of this hall, and go down the stairs. It should be the first room on your right".

"I thought it was on the second floor?" James asked, taking the piece of paper from her and tucking it into his front pocket. Very clearly, he could recall the instructions he had received from Tyler, and he was sure he had left the stairwell at the first available landing. "Am I not on the second floor?"

Her smile seemed affectionate. "No dear. You're on the third floor. That's why all the room numbers start with the number three". Exacerbated, James rubbed at his forehead, feeling incredibly dumb. He desperately hoped that she didn't remember this conversation when he came in for chemistry later, but he feared she would. "It's alright dear. It's a common mistake for new students. You probably came up the other stairwell, right? Well that one only leads you to the third floor. The second floor entrance is closed off since it leads you to a janitor's closet. It's inconvenient."

It was inconvenient, and it made James feel a little better that he wasn't the first one to make this mistake. "Alright. Thank you, Mrs. Rodgers".

She smiled at him then. "You'd better get to class, Mr. Anders. I will see you soon, if I recall my roster correctly". She waited for James's nod of confirmation before slipping back into her classroom, leaving him alone in the hall.

***

Tyler laughed for five whole minutes when James told him about his morning excursion. "I made it to the rest of my classes on time," James defended. "I can't believe you didn't tell me that the room numbers correlated to the floor I was on".

"Well you're not an idiot, James. I figured you could put that together on your own," Tyler claimed, wiping his eyes dramatically as if tears had fallen. None had, since it hadn't been that funny. "Mrs. Rodgers directed you? Damn man. I am so jealous. That woman could get me to do anything. Literally, anything." James's eyebrows raised, and he looked up from his plate. For lunch, he was having some kind of pasta salad that tasted far better than any option for high school lunch had the right to. He was pleased that Tyler's praise about the lunch had not been exaggerated.

"I guess she is kind of pretty," James agreed, briefly thinking back to his encounter with the teacher. Almost immediately his eyes flicked up and to the right, to the table where the boy he had run into earlier was sitting by himself, eating with a distant expression on his pretty face. James had spotted him the minute him and Ty had entered the large dining room, and his eyes had been drawn to him at least twice a minute ever since.

"Kind of pretty? She's totally the second hottest teacher in school". James's gaze shifted to him then, his expression blank. It must have occurred to his friend then that James and him had far from the same taste, because his eyes widened slightly, and then dropped. "In my opinion," Ty added in a grumble, stabbing a very red strawberry with his fork. "Sorry. Know you don't care."

"It's fine," James assured, glancing over at Kalen again for half a second before looking back at Tyler. "So where are all the people you used to eat lunch with? I figured you'd be introducing me to them". James was assuming his friend had a group of people he had spent time with over the last couple of years. It would be surprising to hear otherwise. While Tyler didn't like many people, he was personable and great at being social. People were often drawn to him.

"They're the ones a few tables behind you who keep looking over here, probably wondering who the hell you are," Ty answered, his eyes shifting slightly off to the side of James's face, as they had done so many times throughout the meal. Initially, James had assumed Ty had simply been thinking at these times, his eyes coming unfocused, so James was surprised to learn the real reason. "Don't turn and look at them right now, because that would be awkward".

"I wasn't planning on it". Tyler ignored this.

"I'm not introducing you to them because they're not really good friends or anything. They all knew one another since they were kids, and just kind of let me tag along when I moved here and didn't know anyone. It was nice, but we never really opened up to one another or anything. Now that you're here I don't really feel the need to hang around them anymore," Tyler explained with a shrug. "I doubt they really care".

It made James feel guilty, but hearing that Ty hadn't gotten a new best friend since they had parted was a bit of a relief to him. It meant the James could fit back into that spot without any tension or issues. "So," he began, "what you're saying is that you're not very popular".

There was a huffing noise that told him Ty was amused rather than offended. "First off, no one is really popular here unless they're a Bradford. That's made sure of. Second, I hate most people, so why would I even want a lot of friends. I just need a few friends who give me a fair amount of attention, or one friend, who gives me a lot of attention". The way Tyler smiled revealed he was referring to him, so James rolled his eyes.

"You need to get a girlfriend".

"That may well be a very true statement".

"So what's the deal with the Bradford kids then?" James inquired, crossing his arms on the table in front of him and leaning forwards so he wouldn't have to speak too loud. He had heard the name Bradford whispered many times throughout the day, but never spoken at a confident volume. Even when James asked the question, Ty's eyes began to flick around quickly, and he also leaned forward. "Are they dangerous?"

"Yes," Tyler breathed, still seeming a bit nervous by the topic, but his eyes were bright with something like excitement. "There's seven of them, all boys, and four of them go to school with us."

While Tyler had been speaking, James had raised his glass to sip at his soda, but he choked at the other boys words and spent the next minute coughing while Ty watched with raised eyebrows. "There's seven of them?"

"Yeah man. Apparently Mrs. Bradford wanted a daughter so they kept trying".

"Why'd they stop?" James inquired, not really expecting Ty to know the real answer, but assuming his friend had at least heard rumors. He wasn't disappointed.

"Well, some people say that there were complications with the last pregnancy and she was told she had to stop having babies. I don't really buy this. I mean, she did have seven kids in less than a decade, but the Bradford's have enough money that if they really wanted to keep trying, they could just pay a surrogate, which they didn't do," Ty explained, all the while twirling his fork in his plate of spaghetti, never actually picking it up. "The second thing I heard was that they had their last son and Mrs. Bradford loved him more than she could ever love a daughter so she didn't feel the need to keep trying for one. This one is slightly more likely, I mean, her youngest is undeniably the favorite, and the older boys are just as protective of him as you hear brothers being protective of little sisters, but I still don't buy it".

"No?" James asked. Ty shook his head. "Okay then, what do you think then?"

His friend looked pleased to be asked that. "I think that they saw how horrid of people their kids were turning into, and they stopped before producing enough demon spawn to actually do the earth some damage". This seemed harsh, and James's eyebrows shot up. "You don't even know how awful they are yet, James, so don't look at me like that".

"Then tell me how awful they are," James recommended, stabbing another bow-tie noodle from his pasta salad and bringing it to his mouth. The taste almost made him want to hum pleasantly, but he had already done that with the first bite and Ty had teased him, asking him to please not have an orgasm at the table. "I've been curious about them for a while actually and you never told me much about them".

"If you were curious, why didn't you ask me when we weren't in the school lunch room, surrounded by Bradford spys".

"Now you're just being overdramatic," James rightfully accused, causing his best friend to narrow his eyes in displeasure. With a soft huff of amusement, James turned his head both directions to look up and down their table. The only people sitting near them were two girls, but both of them were at the very end of the table, far from hearing distance. "No one is around to hear us taking, Tyler".

"You'd be pretty cautions too if you knew what the Bradford triplets would do to you if they caught wind of you speaking negatively about them," Tyler grumbled.

"There's triplets?"

This seemed to exacerbate Tyler, because he huffed loudly, blowing air out of his cheeks. "How do you not know any of this? It's all common knowledge. Didn't you at least do some digging about the school or something before you came here?" James had done some digging, but it had all been about the academic programs the school offered, not the owner's apparently large family. He didn't admit this to Ty, since he knew his friend would either laugh, or scold him for caring about the wrong things as a high school student. "Yes there are triplets. They're seniors this year".

"Are they the oldest in the family?" James inquired.

"No". There was a pause then, in which James looked at his friend expectantly, and Tyler ate his food. "You know, you're going to need to know all of this stuff, eventually. Since your dad is working for Mr. Bradford, you're going to have to go to their tri-annual family office parties, and you're going to meet all of his sons".

"So tell me about them then".

The request had Tyler's lips pressing together tightly, and leaning forward enough to speak under his breath and still be heard. It made James's eyebrows shoot up, but he supposed he didn't yet understand the dynamic of his new school, or the threat they were apparently facing by discussing this. "So the oldest, Brad, is around twenty-three–"

"Brad Bradford?" James interrupted, and while Tyler would normally be annoyed with being cut off, but he cracked a smile just this instance.

"I know. It's awful, and coincidentally so is he. He's in line to take over the company after his father, and he's totally ruthless. Fingers crossed our fathers aren't still there at that time. Brad is closed off and extremely driven and only cares about productivity and shit. He works at Bradford's company, running one of the sales departments, and it has tripled its sales since he started, and it's not because he's good at motivating his employees. It's because he works them, nonstop, for hours on end. It's horrible. I job shadowed there and it was like working with zombies," Tyler claimed, grimacing.

"Garett is the second born. I think he's turns twenty-one soon if I recall correctly. He's a total fucking idiot, so you don't need to worry about him when he's on his own. When he's with his brother Pierce on the other hand, he can be a total prick. He pretty much just does whatever Pierce does whenever they're together, which is practically all the time. They're a year apart, and they're practically attached at the hip. They moved in with one another when Pierce graduated two years ago".

"And what is he like?" James asked. He wanted to store all of this information to memory so he knew who to avoid at the Bradford dinner parties in his future.

"Pierce is the worst one, by far," Tyler claimed, his eyes shifting away suddenly. "He's the aggressive one, and is quick to resort to violence. He's been arrested a few times for assault, but no matter how high bail is posted, the Bradfords can pay it". There was a short pause before Ty revealed, "he really does not like me".

"Oh?" James questioned, his eyebrows raising. "Why is this?"

Ty just shrugged. "I guess he just doesn't like anyone". Something seemed off about Tyler's voice, but before James could ask his friend was continuing either. "I don't like him either, though, that fucking prick. Always shows up to that stupid party in a stupidly expensive suit and too white of a smile like a fucking cardboard cutout. Fucking unnerving". This seemed to be something his friend was actually stressed over, and James didn't want to press the issue by asking so he simply cleared his throat to get Ty back on topic.

With a sigh, and refocused eyes, Tyler continued. "The triplets are bothersome. They don't cause much physical harm, though sometimes they think it's called for. More often they just psychologically torture people and scare them. They're gotten so many kids to leave school here, it's crazy. They're always wearing down on someone somewhere. Anyone who is a little bit different could be a target, and their father is more than happy to turn the other way when his sons are involved". It sounded like a warning, and James was once again reminded of his friend's warning regarding his sexuality. "They're actually in the food line right now, if you're curious. Just, don't like stare, though. If they catch you, they'll come over and talk to you". James was curious, since he had never seen triplets in person before, so he subtly turned slightly to his left to look towards the food stations.

They were easy to spot, since they were the only three in the lunchroom still getting food, and they were all huddled together at the end of the salad bar, laughing about something. James was slightly disappointed to see that they weren't identical, but they all looked similar enough to one another that it was clear they were related. They all shared dark hair, a unique shade of black that seemed darker than normal black, and they were close enough for James to see they all had the same shade of blue eyes. The similarities ended there.

Somehow, they managed to be an interesting mix of one another. Two of them had the same nose, but then a different two of them had the same eye shape. One of them was kind of pale, while the others were more olive in complection. Another one of them had really sharp cheekbones while the other two had a softer looking facial structure. It would be impossible to mistake one of them for the other, since they all looked so different. The phenomenon made James feel strange, so he looked away, but his eyes were quickly drawn back to them. They were striking.

"Hey," Tyler scolded, his foot flying out beneath the table to slam into James's shin. In response to the wince it caused, he defended, "I told you not to stare, and you really shouldn't stare like that".

"Like what?" James snapped, reaching underneath the table to rub at that spot on his leg that was surely going to bruise.

"Like you think they're hot".

"They're attractive," James admitted, immediately receiving a displeased look. "I'm not interested in any of them. What makes you think I'm dumb enough to pine after someone who would try to make me miserable if they learned about how I was–" At Tyler's panicked expression, James cut off to consider his next word, "–different".

This seemed to relax Tyler enough that he was able to quip, "I didn't think you were dumb, I was just worried that maybe we've been apart long enough that you started to take my advice with a grain of salt".

"We haven't been apart that long. I still trust you" James insisted, looking down at his mostly empty plate and deciding not to finish. A hum came from his friend in acknowledgment, and James was happy Tyler knew him well enough to know commenting on such statements would only embarrass him and make him regret them. "So, what are their names?"

"Whose names?" Ty asked, and James looked at him blankly for a moment before flicking his eyes off to the right to look at the cluster of three boys. "Oh. the triplets. Well, the pale one is Michael, the so-called pretty one is Joe, and the shadowy one is Daniel". Immediately, James was able to tell which was which, and hummed at his friends helpful descriptions.

"I know they're pricks," Ty nodded in approval at this, "but they really don't look very scary right now, do they". The pale one, Michael, was in the process of filling a plate with only tomatoes, while the other two laughed at him.

"Most of the time they don't look too threatening, but just wait. They are fiercely protective of Kalen, and when they're with him they just look around and glare and anyone who even dares to glance in the direction of their little brother". This caught James's attention.

"Kalen?" he inquired quickly, recognizing the name immediately. His eyes shot over to the boy sitting alone on the other side of the room before looking back at Tyler, who seemed alarmed at the interest.

"Uh, yeah. He's the youngest. Actually, he's in our grade, but he skipped fifth grade so he only just turned sixteen". Tyler turned his head to look off in the beautiful boy's direction before nodding his head. "He's at that table over there, where the triplets are heading".

Unable to help himself, James looked back over there, right as the triplets joined Kalen at his table, two sitting across from him and one sitting next to him. They were an attractive group, but James found there was one person among them who his eyes were drawn to. The triplets looked marginally less good-looking next to their younger brother. "He's beautiful".

"Oh, James, no," Tyler cut in, and James forced his eyes away from the boy to his best friends concerned face.

"He's the kid who ran into me in the hall this morning".

"James". Ty spoke as if he was trying to reason with him. "You can't look at Kalen Bradford like that. Whatever you do, no one can ever catch you looking at him. You'll literally be signing your death warrant. He's the only good Bradford. Being his mom's favorite has somehow protected him from his father's influence, so he's kind, and gentle, and nothing like the others, which means his brother's are incredibly protective of him. Anyone who so much as lays a finger on that boy faces the wrath of the other six. Even his cold older brothers have a soft spot for him".

When James looked back over at the Bradford's table, he noticed that Michael Bradford seemed to be teasing his younger brother when the other two appeared to be scoping out the area, their eyes roaming around the room in an attempt to catch any lingering gaze. Quickly, James averted his eyes, looking back at a concerned Tyler.

"No need to worry," James assured, picking up his fork to begin eating again, just for the purpose of seeming unphased. "I was planning on staying away from the Bradfords to avoid trouble, and I'm not going to completely disregard that plan because I think one of the is pretty".

Tyler seemed to relax slightly, but James knew his friend was still watching him. He could only hope that his thoughts weren't clear on his face, because all he could think about was those golden eyes, and how they had looked back at him that morning with some kind of interest.

A/N This book is fun. I've always wanted to write an forbidden fruit story