A Legend Is Born

Chapter 1

My story begins not long after I turned sixteen years old. I was happy. I had friends, a life-depending on who you asked though-and a boyfriend who actually cared about me. There was nothing more I could ask of anyone.

Well that wasn't completely true. It would have been nice to feel like I belonged in my family, when in every physical aspect I was the complete opposite of the family common of brown hair and equally brown eyes; I had blond hair and dark blue eyes. Even my personality was the opposite. They were outgoing and rebellious while I was docile and never questioned what I was told. None of it ever made sense to me. It wasn't until today that I found out why.

I had come home from a study date with Jesse, my boyfriend, and my parents were waiting for me. "What's going on?" I asked when I saw their two upset faces. "Whatever it is I didn't do it unless it was homework." I said inserted quickly before they could start on me.

"Sit down." My dad said calmly, his face giving away nothing.

"Okay what's wrong?" I asked feeling very nervous. I didn't like that tone he used. That was the tone he used whenever me or my brother did something and he found out about it. He used that tone a lot with me; we were never on very good terms.

"There's something we've been needing to tell you." My dad replied, face solemn.

"Are you sure? We could wait awhile longer." My mother whispered timidly to him, her eyes flicking between my dad and me.

"No. She's at the agreed age. It's time she as told." He said to her.

"Tell me what? What's going on?" I sent them both puzzled looks that borders on panicky.

They looked at each other then back at me. "We haven't exactly been completely truthful with you." My mother said.

"I'm going to get straight to the point, you're adopted." he said as if it were nothing. My dad was never one to beat around the bush.

It took me awhile to digest what I just heard. I simply couldn't believe it. I was half expecting one of them to speak up and say it was all a joke.

"What?" was all I could manage.

"No one knows except you and us. Not even your brother was told." My dad explained.

"I don't understand. Why are you telling me this now?" I asked still bewildered.

"You have a license and a car. Everything you'll need is in the Explorer. I would suggest you call your friends before you leave tomorrow." My mother said, deflecting my question with ease.

"What do you mean?" I asked even more confused, if that was even possible.

"It was part of an agreement made a long time ago. You must leave in the morning. Now, go get ready, you won't be coming back; ever." He said flatly.

As I walked up the stairs the man I was knew as my dad said "And don't tell anyone anything about this. Just make up something." I could tell they were completely serious. The way they relayed the information in a completely composed manner and the way they looked at me when they spoke told me how serious they were. I climbed the stairs to my room to do as told with a heavy heart.

I continued up the stairs, tears forming in my eyes. How could the expect me to do this? I couldn't just leave. Where was I supposed to go? They made it clear that I was supposed to leave town, but I had nowhere to go to. All of the family I had was here in Alaska. How could they do this to me?

I composed myself enough to talk to the few friends I had over the phone, telling them my family was making me go on a trip and weren't letting me talk to anyone. It wasn't a total lie, but they still didn't understand. I never tried to explain what my parents did because most of the time I had no clue myself. This would just add to the tally.

I hung up the phone after the last call had been made and felt terrible. I was lying to the people who cared about me for people who could care less. It hurt me most though when I had to tell Jesse because he could tell I was lying. It hurt having to say one lie after another to try and convince him of the half-truth I told him that even I didn't want to believe. He had that uncanny ability to know whether a person was telling him the truth, and in this case, it was working against me, not helping in any manner.

I lay on my bed and stared at my ceiling trying to pretend nothing had happened. I wanted it all to be nightmare to wake up from. I cried myself to sleep that night only to be awoken by my parents to confirm everything that happened was real; I was leaving my family for good.

Before I left, the people I knew as my mom and dad said they would cover for me at school. I figured they would go with was that they were pulling me out for homeschooling. That was the threat they used to make sure I did well in school. I was sure this was they had wanted to do that for a long time, now they were finally getting the chance.

I knew I was going to have to leave soon enough and that stalling would only hurt me more, driving nails in deeper, but before I did I went by the school. There were several books in my locker I wanted, but most of all I wanted to say good bye to the one place that felt anything like home.

On my way out of the main building I walked past the music hall where I had spent most of my free time improving and writing my own creations. As I walked on, trying to leave before anyone noticed me, my teacher, or one of them at least, walked out of the music hall, forcing me to stop and face him.

"Morning Mr. Pennington." I said politely, trying to keep back the few tears that threatened to surface.

"How are you Forrester?" he asked using my last name. He had given up long ago trying to pronounce my first name correctly,and instead settled with my last.

"I'll admit I've been better. I'm sorry I won't be in class anymore." I said.

"Don't tell me you're dropping. You're doing so well." He said shooting me shocked and disappointed look that assured me at leat one person missing me in my soon-to-be absence.

"I can't really explain, but I won't be coming to school anymore." I said as several tears fell.

"What's going on? Are your parents pulling you out? You know you can tell me anything." He asked concerned. He was like the father the choir wish they had; at least I did.

I looked into his eyes and knew he would understand. I knew he would try to comfort and care for me like his own child. And in any other circumstance where I could tell him the truth, he'd do a lot more than that. He would jump down my foster parents' throats for making me leave for no reason, and not worry about what they said in response. His military background had helped with that.

I knew he was like this because he had already done so many times before when my life was going down the drain. He was the first person I told about my parents' ridiculous demand of A's and the threat of homeschooling. He sat with me and listened as I cried about the whole matter and told me it was going to be okay.

The only problem now was that this time was different. I had been told not tell anyone, and I didn't know whether or not to tell him the truth despit what my "parents" had said. I had already come this far and I wasn't about to get him or me into anymore trouble than I had already bargained for.

"I can't tell you. I want to, but I…" I couldn't finish my sentence. The tears falling from my eyes wouldn't let me. Before I knew it he had me in a hug and began rubbing my back in a soothing motion.

"I understand." He said. I pulled away and looked into his eyes again.

"I promise I'll come back, and when I do I'll tell you everything." I replied.

"I know you will. You've never lied to me before, and I know you won't start now. I'll be waiting for you." He said and hugged me one last time. I saw the tears in his eyes. He always tried not to cry when someone else needed him to lean on, but this was a special case. I was going to miss him, and it was going to be the same for him. I only wished I didn't have to leave.

"I'm sorry P-Ton, but I have to go now before someone else sees me." I said pulling away. He released me hesitantly and gave me one last look before going back to his job. "I promise I'll be back." I said one last time to no one in particular and hurried off before I lost my composure. The hurt in his eyes was far worse than anything I had ever seen in my life. I could only pray that I would be able to keep my promise.

For the next two weeks I traveled from my Alaskan home and went to the lower forty eight. Crossing the border was the most interesting though. To my surprise my parents had created a false I.D. for me saying I was eighteen meaning I was able to be on my own. I still got several questioning looks from the guards since I didn't look or act like I was eighteen, but the false birth certificate they had packed cleared the way for me.

I was actually surprised at the things that were packed in the car. There was a duffel bag full of clothes that included several leather jackets and chaps that I had never seen before and heavy winter gear. They had also packed my bow and arrows and several thousand dollars. It made me wonder what they thought I would be doing.

After getting through Canada into Montana I started to go to the east coast. I wanted to be as far away from my "parents" as possible and I figured I would start with this. I didn't know what else to do. I had always wanted to travel more and I was finally getting the chance to. That didn't make everything better, but I had to try to find something positive somewhere in this mess.

It wasn't too long before I found myself on the east coast in some random town in North Carolina. I had stopped paying attention to town names after the first two days when they just kept reminding me of how far from home I was. I drove around not knowing what I was looking for, but I knew I'd find it; whatever that was. The whole time I drove, I couldn't stop thinking, what could I possibly expect to find here?

I stopped the car in the parking lot in front of a small landing strip. I didn't know what else to do. I scanned the area for the sake of something to do when a broad billboard sign caught my attention. It proclaimed the words: Dan's Flying Service. Take you anywhere, anytime. At the moment that sounded rather appealing.

I drove around to the front of the main hangar and went inside to see if this Dan guy was around. There were several pilots standing around talking and I asked if they knew where Dan was.

"Sorry kid. You just missed him. He should be back in an hour or so." One of them answered.

"No he's not." Came a deep voice from behind me. I turned to see a man, about late twenties with short messy brown hair, walking into the hangar. "My battery just died, so I'm stuck here unless one of you has a set of jumper cables. Was someone looking for me?" he asked.

"That would me." I said waving my hand at him.

"Come on over here and talk to me." He said walking out towards one of the planes. He stopped and leaned against the one that I assumed was his and said, "So, what can I do for you?"

"Well, I'm not really sure. I've been traveling for awhile and your sign caught my attention." I said nervously.

He looked at me strangely and asked, "So what exactly do you want me to do?"

"I hadn't really thought much beyond that. I don't really care where I go at this point. Anywhere but here would do just fine." I said.

"Well that doesn't give me a whole lot to go on kid. I'll tell you what. I was about to head for lunch when my car died. What do you say to talking about it over lunch? My treat, of course." He added.

I didn't see any harm in it, so I let him drive to a local diner that he said made the best hamburgers in town.

"Okay kid, why are you trying to get so far away from home?" I was taken slightly aback by his question. Nobody else had ever asked that.

"What makes you think I'm running from home?" I argued, trying to mask my shock.

"You're what, sixteen? Maybe seventeen? You want to fly far away in any random direction, and you have Alaskan license plates. That screams runaway." He deduced. I had to admit he was very observant. Most people didn't give those signs a second glance.

"I'm not running away from home." I said simply. He let out a long sigh and tried again.

"Okay, I guess we got off on the wrong foot. I'm Dan. What about you?"

I didn't know whether or not to tell him my real name. For all I knew he was going to take my name, and after trying to search it call up my "parents" only to be told off more than likely. "Jaden" I finally replied aloud.

"Okay, Jaden, why are you here?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked wondering where he was going with this.

"Why this town? You could have gone anywhere but decided to come here. Why?"

"I don't know" I said meekly. I honestly had no clue why I had come here. I had just been driving anywhere not really caring where I went. I didn't think I would ever have to explain myself to anyone.

"I know that's a load of BS. Tell the truth." He said as a father would to a kid who didn't want to tell a big secret.

"I honestly don't know. I've just been traveling, okay? I didn't really plan anything." I said defensively.

"Most runaways don't." he said.

"Will you stop calling me that! I didn't runaway!" I said raising my voice, something I rarely did. I turned away from him not wanting him to see the tear that rolled down my face.

"Okay kid. I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to get you worked up. It's a fatherly habit of mine." He apologized.

"You have kids?" I asked trying to change the subject slightly.

"Two. One's ten and the other one is seven, and even though they aren't really mine, I still love them. My wife wanted kids but didn't want to go through all the pain for it. She had a soft spot for orphans anyway since she was one to begin with, so it all worked out." He explained. This tidbit caught my attention, driving my mind in a new direction.

"Would you ever give up your children if you had to?" I asked. I knew it would sound odd, but I had the burning need to know if all parents were like mine.

"What do you mean? Why do you ask?" he asked perplexed.

"If you made an agreement to give up your children when they reached a certain age would you give them up?" I asked trying to be clearer.

"I could never give up my children. I love them too much. Even if I did make that kind of agreement I would fight to keep them. What kind of question is that anyway?" he asked again.

"Just wild curiosity." I said trying to cover up.

"Is that what happened to you, Jaden?" he asked, and instantly I could feel the anger welling up inside me. Anger for being forced to run and at the fact that he figured it out so easily. The last part shouldn't have surprised me so much, but that didn't change how I felt about it.

"I don't think that's any of your business." I said coldly.

"It is if you plan on having me fly you anywhere."

"Maybe I don't. Maybe I'll just ask someone else who isn't so nosy about other people's lives." I said getting worked up again.

"I don't even know why I bothered trying to be nice with you. It's obvious you're just a spoiled little brat." He said averting his gaze in an irritated manner.

The last comment pushed me over the edge. I had never been called a brat before. I was always well behaved, did as told, and never said word against anything anyone said. I was far too timid to do anything else. I had never raised my voice to an adult like I had done or like I was about to do. "You don't know what you're talking about, so just shut the hell up! I was not raised to be a spoiled brat, and I certainly wasn't raised to take crap like this from someone like you!"

The words were out of my mouth before I could consider them. I was shocked, and for the remainder of the drive we both remained silent, both of us staring out the windshield into the perfectly blue sky tinted with light.