I'm the quiet and shy one. Not as outgoing as my siblings. I do speak up for myself thanks to Brady making me do so. When I'm at school I tend to stay in the shadows most of the time not wanting to draw attention to myself. I do go out for sports, and I'm not bad. Nowhere as good as my best friend Apollo Drakos though. My older brothers were the sports stars in the family. I found out in junior high that my favorite sport was Baseball. I was the starting pitcher. So at least I'm good at one thing. If something is bothering me I tend to withdraw into myself. Stewing over things till I explode.

[smear:#192ee6]Positive Traits:[/smear:#2be546:0]
1)Nature-Focused: Preferring natural resources over artificial ones; being strongly attuned to nature.
2)Courageous: Possessing the mental or moral resilience to face opposition, danger, or difficulties despite one's fear.
3)Empathetic: Able to recognize and identify with the emotions of others.
4)Discreet: Intentionally unobtrusive; conducting oneself with care, sound judgment, and a respect for privacy.
5)Just: Having a strong sense of fairness.
6)Passionate: Being capable of or expressing deep feeling.

[smear:#808080]Negative Traits:[/smear:#192ee6:0]
1)Pessimistic: Inclined to focus on the negative and expect the worst possible outcome.
2)Perfectionist: Perceiving anything less than perfection as failure.
3)Withdrawn: Detached from others, having retreated inside oneself.
4)Nervous: Having an uneasiness of the mind or a brooding fear.
5)Stubborn: Unyielding or obstinate.
6)Defensive: Marked by the need to defy aggression or attack.

I came into this cold and cruel world on August 25th. What day of the week it was I have no idea, and pretty sure my mother would never have remembered if I were to ask. My name is Bode Creed Hart. I usually don't talk that much unless my siblings can get me going or my best friend Apollo Drakos. I can be shy and keep quiet especially if I don't have anything to say. Which was a problem when I started school which only made it worse.

My first day of preschool I was crying when the teacher was getting after me for not answering her, and she was practically yelling at me. I was taken to the office, and my mom was called, but of course she didn't answer. When they couldn't get a hold of her they had Brady brought over from the junior high and he got me quieted down. He explained to them that I was quiet and not too sure of strangers either. That I was shy. Brady got to go to class with me then to try that otherwise they said I would have to wait to start preschool the next day. Things were explained to the teacher who wasn't happy. The other preschool teacher said she'd take me as she had come out in the hallway listening. She was a lot nicer than the other teacher who was older. By the end of the day I was actually sort of talking to the teacher as well as a couple of other kids with encouragement from Brady. He'd whisper to me to go ahead and answer the teacher, and I would get it out in a whisper. It was getting easier though. It helped that my new friend Apollo was in this other class too.

The next day he walked me into the class holding my hand, but I was fine then when the teacher smiled at me. He gave the teacher his number to a burner phone that he had in case she or I needed him and he headed onto the junior high school with a note saying why he was late. Recess though that day was a different story. It had been rainy the day before so we'd stayed in. I was overwhelmed with how many kids were on the playground. It wasn't till Tobi ran up to us with Apate that I realized my older siblings minus Brady and Aiden were there. I noticed Wolfer and Deserene were also on the playground and I relaxed then. During the rest of the year if anyone bothered me Toby went after them, and Wolfer and Deserene would pull her off of whoever she was pounding on. If she wasn't around one of my brothers would suddenly be there, and the older kids learned not to mess with me.

I was eight when mom got a call that my dad had died in prison. I really didn't know my dad. He'd been in prison most of my life. If I needed something it was Brady or Aiden I went to. Mom was hysterical yelling at Toby, Romy, and I to get into the car. I remember getting in the front, and wishing I would have put a seatbelt on. I hadn't even thought about it till mom crashed into the car backing out of the driveway as fast as she had. I was holding onto anything I could then. Ended up bracing my hands on the dash. I heard Toby yelling at mom to stop, and I saw the pickup right before mom crashed into it. I remember flying through the air and there was excruciating pain, before everything went black.

It was a few days later that I woke up in the hospital and Brady was there with me. When I asked what had happened he told me what happened. It wasn't sinking in that mom was totally gone. It didn't till after I was out of the hospital and being taken to the funeral. With a broken arm I wasn't able to use crutches so either Brady or Aiden would carry me wherever I needed to go. It was embarrassing having to have help in the bathroom. Really awkward, but they made it so it wasn't. I was pretty helpless.

As for my parents dying it didn't even hardly phase me since I didn't know my dad, and mom was always drunk. I was relieved when the funerals and stuff were over. That was when more people were going in and out of our lives. I didn't like the people in and out of our house all the time. With still recovering and all I withdrew into myself hardly talking to anyone and just felt miserable. Thankfully Brady got custody of us and it was with the Drakos help that he was able to do so. We still had social workers that would visit. All it did was cause more discontent though. There was still a fear for me that we could be taken away at a moment's notice.

I was grateful that the air conditioning worked well in the house or I would be even more miserable with two casts on. Bath time was awkward as well, but with Brady and Aiden they made it so it wasn't so bad. It took both of them to get me in and out after wrapping my casts up with stuff so they wouldn't get wet. I couldn't wait to get them off, but it was six weeks with them on. When it came time to get them off I was more than relieved.

A few years later I was starting junior high. Apollo talked me into going out for sports which I wasn't sure about. Come to find out I enjoyed sports. They were a lot of fun. Baseball was my favorite and I was the starting pitcher. Have been a starting pitcher for years now. Even made Varsity baseball my freshman year. I'm going to be a junior this year, and can't wait to play again. I played this summer through the Summer rec program just like the last few summers with Apollo. My siblings usually come to the games. That is if my older brothers can get off from work to come. Toby, Romy and Apollo's sisters are always there cheering us on.

My family's always been close, but the last few years I've gotten closer with Toby. She's always there if she notices something is wrong with me. Though she hasn't been able to get out of me what I've been stewing over for the last few months now. Neither has Apollo. Luckily our older brothers have been too busy to notice how withdrawn I've become. You see it started this last year in school. A senior boy kept brushing up against me in the hallway and grinning. At first I didn't think anything about it. Then things got worse.

He'd corner me in the hallways if he caught me out and about alone. Push himself up against me and whisper things in my ear that I wouldn't repeat to anyone. That grew to him touching me in ways I didn't like. Then one night he caught me at a party and pushed me into a room locking the door. Not going to tell you what happened, but I've been more than confused since that night and the ones that followed wondering if I was going gay. I didn't like the feelings the guy was making me fill either. I didn't feel that way around Apollo or my other guy friends, and I still liked looking at girls so I didn't understand anything. This has been going on all summer even after he graduated. He was on the baseball team with us too. I tried to make sure he never caught me alone.

Then one night Brady dropped a bombshell on us. I was actually relieved at first hearing him knowing it would get me away from the predicament I was in. Maybe things will start to be normal for me again. I sat there though and heard Toby going off on Brady after he told us we might be moving. After she stormed off Brady sighed and told us the Drakos family was going to hire them if we didn't move to help with bounties. When he was done he told Wolfer to go find Toby and make sure that she stayed out of trouble. They all turned on me then, and I really didn't want to rat her out. My brothers have a way of getting things out of me though, and I ratted out where we had been planning on going that night. After that Romy and I were sent over to the Drakos house so that our older brothers could have a talk with Toby.

She was going to kill me for ratting her out, and I felt bad about it. I heard my brother's motorcycle when they came home, but didn't have a chance to look out as we were playing a game with the Drakos family. The next day we were told that Brady wanted us to stay there till this afternoon. That Toby had almost been raped, after being drugged. I was shocked to hear that. More than glad that my brothers had gotten it out of me where she had been going. When Brady texted me and Romy we could go home I just took off not even saying anything to Apollo.

I was shocked with how she looked. I apologized for ratting her out, but she thanked me for doing so that Wolfer had gotten there just in time to stop them from hurting her. I was relieved hearing that, and we sat there as a family. Des was a little slower than me, but soon joined us, and Romy joined us later. Aite was family and Kira had joined us right after I had gotten there. We talked about how things would get better with our financial situation with our older brothers working with the Drakos now bounty hunting.