As Alex stepped down the last step all the eyes in the room were on him. He took another deep breath and looked at George. Their eyes meet and George nods his head. Alex takes another shaky step forward.
"Hi, I'm Alexander...but you can call me Alex." He says looking at the boys. The boys all look at each other, then at Martha and George, then back at Alex. All at once they stand up in a line and the one with a beanie begins to sound out a beat.
"Yo, I'm John Laurens in the family to be, two brothers over here but I'm working on three," the smallest boy with freckles says pointing to Alex,"those other families never wanted me, but now I'm here with the Washingtons happy as can be!" He finishes with a smile. Then the tallish boy with curly hair in a bun jumps up.
"Oui oui, mon frère. Je m'appelle Lafayette, the Lancelot of Washington family set. I came here from France 'cuz I knew it was my chance. I met Mr. Pants," he says pointing to the kid with the beanie,"Who's the best kid? Ç'est moi." He says pointing to his self.
"Brah brah, I am Hercules Mulligan, up in here, livin here, yes, that's my mother 'said 'come on in"' he says in a high voice, the other two wink and holler 'ayeee'. "Lock up your candy and chocolate, 'course it's hard to take some when your to short to reach the cabinet!" He says giving the taller boy a high five.
"No more sweets, hand me another juice son. Let's raise a couple more to the Washingtons!" He says hugging George and Martha. Alex is smiling broadly because of all the energy shown towards George and Martha, that shows him they truly are good people.
"Ok boys, why don't you guys go play with Alex so you can get more acquainted?" George suggests with a smile. The boys nod their heads excitedly and rush towards Alex. The smallest one, John, grabbed Alex's hand and pulled him upstairs again. John's cheeks reddened slightly but he continued to pull him up the stairs. When they finally reached the top they pulled Alex into one of the rooms he had popped his head into earlier. It was painted green and had turtles everywhere. He later found out it was John's room.
John let go of Alex's hand and went to a tank on one of his dressers.
"What's that?" Alex says trailing behind John.
"My turtle Shelly." He says with a toothy grin, Alex notices he's missing a tooth in the front.
"So Alex, tell us more about yourself." Says the tallish one, Lafayette.
"Um well, I'm five but I'll be turning six, I'm from the Caribbean, I can like to read and write, and I love books about the war. Also I can speak Spanish and French." At this he could hear a loud gasp from Lafayette.
"Finalement! Quelqu'un qui peut vraiment me comprendre. Les autres ont déjà essayé, mais ne réussissent jamais vraiment!" He says in rapid French. (Finally! Someone who can truly understand me. The others have tried before, but never really succeeding!-translation)
At this Alex laughs. John and Hercules just look between the two very confused.
"Oui, J'ai parlé français puisque j'avais environ trois ans, ma mère m'a appris elle-même." He responds.
"Ok guys we get it you can speak a different language, can we go back to English now?" Asked an annoyed Hercules. Alex and Lafayette just laugh and nod their heads.
"Ok, so I've told to guys a little about myself tell me about you guys." Alex says sitting on the floor crisscrossed.
"Well I'm eight, I was adopted from France when I was four and I've been with the Washingtons ever since." Said Lafayette.
     "I'm seven but I'll be eight soon, George and Martha adopted me from Ireland when I was five, and I've been crashing here since." He says laughing.
     "I'm three, but very ma-ture," he says stumbling on the word,"I'm from South Carolina, and I've been with Martha and George since I was a baby." He says blushing, Alex smiled at John's blush, he was a cute little boy.
     They spent some time playing and finding more out about each other when Martha called them down for dinner.
     "Boys! Time to eat!"She yells from the bottom step. All the boys rush down the stairs to get to the food as quickly as they can.
     Alex feels like he's gonna like it here.