Operation: High school

Chapter 1:

G Callen lay on his stomach, face down in the musty, old, thin pillow that was a slight grey and yellow colour. He moved shifting slightly but sighed feeling the every spring poking up at him from the thing that was a poor excuse for a mattress. He sat up a bead of sweat rolling from his shoulder down his bare chest and over several scars that he barely noticed anymore. Standing up the teenager headed to the corner of the room and grabbed his bag rolling out his ruck sack and laying down atop of it on the floor. He stared up at the moonlight that swamped in his window that he had opened as wide as he could in the off chance of a slight breeze. A breeze that never came. The air was hot and sticky and the fan that sat in the corner of his tiny cupboard-like room was broken with no hope of fixing.

It wasn't until the first glimpses of the early morning golden sun began to rise over the horizon that Callen finally fell asleep. Unfortunately however it was short lived as only an hour later his door was pushed open and a fist hammered on it,

"Get up boy, school day" the man said and Callen didn't bother opening his eyes until he heard the heavy footsteps disappearing down the hallway. Callen sighed, school.

He'd only been at the school for a term and he'd managed to stick to himself pretty well but that didn't mean he'd rather not go. He'd skipped a few times, school had never been his thing and it had worked for a while until the school had caught up with him and his….. 'parents' had been notified. And they had not been happy. Callen had thought it unlikely that they would care, they hadn't noticed him coming and going at weird times and they hadn't said anything. And yet the bruises that had covered his back was proof that they did, for an unknown reason. Or maybe it was just a good excuse for the gruff man to let out some of his frustration from being in a dead end job to unemployment. Or practice for her to improve her aim through her alcohol clouded vision. Then again they'd never needed an excuse before.

Wrapped up in his thoughts he barely noticed a small figure slip into his room,

"G" a sweet little voice said from beside him and he turned to peer up at the little girl,

"Hey Cassie" he said smiling at her and she leant down to wrap her arms around his shoulders.

"You ready for school" he asked and the girl shook her head making her brown curls fly,

"Don't want to go" she said,

"She won't get dressed I can't make her she keeps kicking me" another voice said from the doorway and he looked up to see the other young girl who lived under the roof. She had a bowl of cereal in her hand and was looking disdainfully at her little sister who was now sitting beside him her sleepy head on his chest.

"Good morning G, Good morning Riley, how did you sleep, I slept well, how about you?" Callen said playfully, making up the conversation between the girl and him that never happened. Riley, in turn, stuck her tongue out towards him,

"You don't sleep anyway" she said smartly and he quickly picked up Cassie before sitting up, placing her in his lap. He gestured Riley forward and she looked at him suspiciously before taking two steps towards him,

"Geeeeeeeeeeeeeee" she whined when he quickly stole her breakfast taking two mouthfuls of her cereal,

Cassie giggled from his lap and he offered her some too which she ate quickly. He laughed at the outraged look on Riley's face and handed it back to her,

"Can you pleeeeasee get her dressed G, I can't do it" Riley said and he nodded at the nine year old,

"Only if I get a kiss" he said laughing and she rolled her eyes dramatically before kissing his head and running out. Callen chuckled and stood up from the ground picking up Cassie who snuggled into his neck,

"You've got to go to school Cass" the little girl shook her head her little pout making him smile,

"You've got to go though and do another painting for me, look I made a spot for another one" he said turning her to see his wall where he'd put up all the paintings the little girl had brought home. The first time she had brought one of her masterpieces home their 'mother' had simply nodded before putting it on the table and walking outside to go who knows where. Callen who had just walked in behind her watched the five year old's face crumble as she raced up the stairs to the room she shared with her sister and brother. He had stolen the painting and the next day at school had swiped some blu-tack from the wall. That night the blotches of red, yellow and blue paint on the paper was stuck on the middle of his wall and he would never forget the smile that grew on Cassie's face the next morning. From that day on she had been bringing him paintings and drawings almost every day along with showing him her work and reading him stories or pleading with him to read them to her.

At the prospect of making her older brother happy with another painting she smiled and let him walk her through to her room. Callen couldn't help but chuckle as a small body crashed into his when he walked into the room. Keeping one arm around Cassie he used the other to tug the small school jumper over the boys head,

"Tyler buddy what you doing?" he said and the little boy,

"I got stuck, this goddamn jumper is too small" the boys said his voice slightly muffled from the material he was wrestling with,

"Tyler said a naughty word!" Cassie exclaimed as Callen finally untangled the boy from his jumper.

"That's not a naughty word stupid a naughty word is –" Callen hand over Tyler's mouth stopped whatever was about to come out from doing so and he sent the boy a look,

"That is a bad word so don't say it no more okay and don't call your sister stupid" he said as he set Cassie down who ran over to her chest of drawers.

"You just go down and get some food into you alright" Callen laughed exasperatedly as Tyler sent a dirty look to Cassie's back.

"Later G" Callen laughed as the small boy left the room pulling baseball cap backwards on his head. He turned to see Cassie struggling to pull out the drawers and he walked towards her. After a term of getting the girl dressed and ready for school he was near pro and had her ready and her bag packed in fifteen minutes. Her hair however was something that just didn't agree with him. The thick, curly strands just didn't ever want to sit nicely in a hair tie or brush off her face. He sighed before she looked up at him a small smile on her face knowing that he was having trouble,

"Go get Riley to do your hair yeah?" he said and she giggled before taking the small hairbrush from him and climbing onto his lap pressing a kiss to his lips before sliding down his body and skipping out of the room. He smiled after her and stood heading back to his own room. He headed for the shower and sighed letting the cool water vanquish the heat. He sighed trying to ready himself for another term or even just another day of school. He smiled thinking of the kids at least he'd seen a smile on each of their faces that day. Ten minutes later he headed downstairs his bag slung over his right shoulder. He watched the kids having breakfast and shook his head seeing that Cassie had already gotten cereal in her hair. Riley was reading something in a book and he knew that she had a test that day. He saw the television flickering to hi right and for a moment wondered why Tyler wasn't watching television as normal. Once he got to the bottom stairs however he caught sight of the bony arm with long fingernails hanging off it and could see the empty vodka bottle on the ground beneath her hand. He sighed under his breath before hurrying the kids up knowing they had to leave before she woke up.

"You haven't had breakfast yet" Riley stated looking up from her book as Tyler and Cassie went to grab their bags,

"Yeah I have I stole yours remember" Riley stared at him an eyebrow raised before her eyes flicked towards the couch and she sighed,

"Come on I'll test you for your science quiz on the way to school" Callen said hoping to draw the perceptive young girls' thoughts away from the hell they lived in. It worked and her eyes brightened at his words and she picked up her bag from beside the table stuffing her things into it,

"You all got your lunch?" he asked and Riley nodded,

"I put it in their bags"

"Thanks champ" he said ruffling her hair,

"Geeeeeeeeeeeeee" she moaned as she walked out the door. As the three kids flew out the door Callen moved quickly towards the lounge. He flicked off the television and picked up the bottle from the floor and then finally he picked up the car keys he knew belonged to her and pocketed them before moving out of the house quickly as he heard movement upstairs. Taking Riley's science book from her he shut the gate behind them and the four headed down the street towards the kids' primary school, facts about planets and plants and gravity filling their morning chatter as Riley answered every question he threw at her.

By the time they made it to school Cassie was on top of Callen's shoulders like she was every morning. Not that he could blame her; it was a long walk from their house to the school and her little legs would just get too tired at around the sixth corner from school. Callen crouched down after waving goodbye to Tyler who ran off at sight of his friends and he smirked as he caught sight of a group of boys with matching hats. He quickly gave Cassie a kiss and a hug and she walked into school after waving hello to one of the teachers. Turning towards Riley who was twisting her hands he passed her science book back to her.

"Go do great Ri" he said and she smiled,

"I don't know"

"Come on you answered every question right you're going to breeze through this" he said and her smile stretched even wider.

"Thanks G" she gave him a quick hug and he pushed her into school,

"See ya. Don't get another detention" she called and he shook his head at her smirk. He nodded to one of the teachers, often on morning duty, who was watching them curiously and she smiled back at him approvingly before saying good morning to Riley.

After watching the last of his three foster siblings disappear into school he sighed already tired. But he turned back the opposite way and headed towards his own school not looking forward to the day and hoping to stay out of trouble like Riley had smartly said. She was right though, even though she was joking, but he didn't like the thought of the kids walking home alone. And so he headed off for the first day of second term hoping it would be as non-eventful as the last.

Hey guys, I couldn't help myself. This is a little different so let me know what you think. Next chapter we'll see everyone else don't worry but I kind of wanted to start here,

Hope you liked it and please review

Nina

xx