“It’s not fair, I didn’t do anything,” I said.
“Teddy, you ran away from your foster parents,” Mrs. Applebottom told me.
She then sent me down to my new room in my new home, Applebottom’s Home for Boys.  I just got kicked out of my latest foster home, no surprise there.  I meant for that to happen.  My foster parents were mean, they never let me have dessert. 
I had never been to this home for boys before.  It was small, with one long hallway with three doors on each side; four bedrooms and two bathrooms total.  Mrs. Applebottom seemed like a nice old lady.  She had short, white, curly hair, and was stuck in a wheelchair.
I sat in my bedroom for hours until I was called down to Mrs. Applebottom’s office again.  If it was to talk about running away, I already had constructed the perfect lie to tell her.  I reached her office in less than a minute.  The door was open and she sat at her desk with a wide grin spread across her wrinkly face.  I took a seat in one of the two chairs facing her desk and waited for her to begin her lecture.  She didn’t begin a lecture though. 
She smiled at me and said, “Teddy, I’ve found you a new home,”
I felt excited and scared all at the same time.
“Where?” I questioned.
“Well, after a few hours of research and hard-work, I’ve found a member of your extended family.  Specifically your uncle,” She said, still smiling.
“I don’t have any family,”
“Oh, but it seems that you do,” she turned her computer screen toward me, “meet your uncle, Ned Dunkle.”
I sat there, staring at the picture.  This man looked nothing like me.  He’s bald and has green eyes.  I have a thick mop of dark brown hair with even darker brown eyes.
“I don’t think we’re related,” I stated.
“You are though.  Mr. Dunkle was your mother’s sister’s husband, or for short your mother’s brother-in-law.  He’s not related by blood, but he’s still family.  I believe you should give him a chance considering you just got kicked out of your previous foster home,” she explained to me.
I sat there thinking for a while, wondering if it really was true, if it could really be possible that not only did someone want me, but that I still had family.
“I guess I’ll give it a shot,” I told her.
“Good.  He’ll be here to pick you up in three days.  He lives in Minnesota, which is quite far away from where we are in California,” she said.
Ned
I walked down the street and decided to stop at that BBQ place, the smell so tempting it was impossible to walk by.  Just as I sat down, my cell phone rang, the intro to Star Wars filling the air at volume four.  I answered it, even though I didn’t know the number.  At the age I am, I’ll talk to just about anybody, especially since my family is entirely gone.  The waitress came to get my drink order, but I decided to just leave and have this conversation down by the canal; it’s rude to be on your phone at a restaurant.  I talked as I walked down the street.  The lady on the other end of the line was older and said her name was Dorris Applebottom.  She mentioned that she ran a home for young boys.
As I was just about to respond, I stepped in a puddle and yelled “YUCK!”
Rather offended by my comment, she hung up the phone.  I re-dialed her number, and when she picked up I explained my puddle situation.  She then proceeded to tell me that I had a nephew who was only nine years old; I then began to cry.  It’s hard to wrap my mind around the idea that for nine years this boy has existed without my knowledge.  I told Dorris that I would be to California in three days; it’s not a far flight, but it’ll take me time to get everything arranged.  As I excited as I was to see the boy, I couldn’t help but feel a little nervous.
Teddy
It had been a day since I found out that I had an uncle.  I’d decided that I’ll try my best to be good for him, I would hate to push away the only family I have left.  I had only met one other boy at the foster home, his name was Rufus and he smelled like eggs.  He didn’t seem very kind, but I tried to be his friend. 
“Hi Rufus,” I said.
“‘Sup turd” he responded.
“It’s sunny outside, want to play catch?”
“With a bookworm like you? H-E-double hockey sticks no”
“Are you sure?”
“I just said no.  Is that so hard to understand?”
“I was just hoping that we could be friends,” I said quietly, almost whispering.
“Um no.  I would never be friends with a dork like you Teddy-bear.”
I ran to my room, tears streaming down my face.  I hoped that Rufus didn’t see that he made me cry, boys aren’t supposed to cry I guess.  All I wanted was a friend, being a foster kid gets lonely.  I sat in my room, looking at all the books I had.  I loved my books, but Rufus had lit a fire inside my heart.  I tore pages out of all of them, and then threw them out the window.  I heard Mrs. Applebottom wheeling her way down the hall and quickly shut the window before she saw. 
“What’s all the racket for?” she asked.
“What racket?” I responded.
“Don’t play dumb with me young man”
“I threw my books out the window”
“Well, now why would you go and do something like that?”
“Rufus called me a bookworm and a dork,” I said while staring at the cracks between the hardwood floors.
“That wasn’t very nice.  Would you like me to go have a talk with him?”  I looked at the floor for a while, she then continued “I’ll go remind him of the VERY strict policy we have here.”
Mrs. Applebottom didn’t let Rufus have dessert that night.  I liked to think that Rufus actually wanted to be friends, but maybe he was just scared.  Little did I know what would happen between Rufus and I just a few hours after I woke up the next morning. 

I awoke to Mrs. Applebottom tapping on my bedroom door.  I told her I’d be out in a minute.  I quickly threw on a plain red t-shirt with khaki shorts and opened up the door, my hair still a mess, not to mention I forgot to brush my teeth.  She looked at me and straightened my hair, then told me I had to brush my teeth; apparently I had what she called “dragon’s breath”.  After I was all done brushing my now pearly whites, she looked at me with great excitement.
With a big smile on her face she said, “He’s here,”
Confused for a moment, I asked, “Who?”
Her smile dampened a little, clearly disappointed I didn’t remember, “Your uncle Ned. Teddy he’s here to take you home,”
Joy, fear, and excitement coursed through me, “REALLY? I’ll go pack my things right away.  I won’t be long Mrs. Applebottom, I promise.”
I rushed to my room and threw everything I owned into my small blue duffle bag.  I couldn’t believe that the day had come.  I could finally go to a place that I could genuinely call home.  I bolted down the hallway to Mrs. Applebottom’s office, running faster than a racehorse, moving at the speed of lightning.
Ned
I met with Mrs. Applebottom in her office.  She told me that Teddy was still sleeping, but that she would go wake him up.  She returned after about five minutes and told me Teddy would be right down.  I couldn’t wait to meet him, the excitement making my stomach have butterflies.  I heard heavy, fast footsteps coming down the hallway.  He burst through the door carrying a small duffle bag.  He stopped quickly, panting and out of breath.  His eyes met mine and I could see that he too was excited for this moment.  I stood from the chair I was sitting in and walked toward him, extending my hand.  He moved straight past my hand and gave me a big hug.  In all seventy years of my life, I had never felt something that felt as good as that hug. 
After releasing me from his bear hug, he shook my hand and introduced himself, “I’m Teddy,”
“Uncle Ned,” I responded, flashing a wide smile.  He didn’t respond, so I continued, “I have a surprise for you,”
“A puppy?”
“No, no puppy for you.  My surprise for you is that you don’t have to be an only child.  We’re taking Rufus home with us too.”
Teddy
I stood there, shocked at the news.  How could Mrs. Applebottom let him adopt both of us?  She knows that we don’t get along.  I knew that I couldn’t ruin his surprise, so I just went along with it.
“Are you serious?” I asked with fake excitement, hoping he wouldn’t notice.
“Yes, of course.  I figured it would be hard to leave your friend behind, so I thought that I would adopt you both,” He replied.
“Thank you,” a fake smile accompanied that statement.
“I’m glad you’re so excited for it”
“I’m glad you thought of it”
Rufus walked in the room, still in his pajamas, his hair clearly not brushed, and his breath made me understand what Mrs. Applebottom meant when she told me I had dragon’s breath.  Uncle Ned turned toward the door, shook Rufus’ hand, and then sat down to sign the papers.  After about twenty minutes, we were out the door.
The airport wasn’t very far away, only about an hour; Rufus and I didn’t exchange one word with each other.  When we arrived at the airport, Uncle Ned unloaded our bags.  Thanks to our light packing, we didn’t have to check in any luggage and got to go straight through security.  We sat around for a little while, and after about an hour, we got to board our flight.  Uncle Ned made Rufus and I sit next to each other, while he was on the outside seat. 
Uncle Ned told us that the flight was about three and a half hours long.  It went pretty well for the most part.  Rufus slept almost the whole time, only waking up when the food cart went by.  When there was about an hour left, Rufus woke up and stayed up.  He thought it would be funny to punch me in the gut and then tell Uncle Ned that I felt sick.  This continued for the rest of the flight, and I could feel myself beginning to bruise.
Once we landed and got out of the airport, Uncle Ned treated us to lunch.  He took us to his favorite BBQ place, which turned out to be the best food I had ever eaten in my life.  I had these things called Sliders, which were little sandwiches filled with either BBQ pork, BBQ brisket, or BBQ chicken.  It came with a side of fries, which were seasoned and made my mouth water.  I scarfed all of it down and it made my belly bulge.  Rufus called me a pig, but I didn’t care.  It was all so good, and I wasn’t one to let anything go to waste.
His house wasn’t far from the restaurant.  It had a big beautiful yard with plenty of trees to climb in, within five minutes of being there I had already picked out one for a treehouse.  Inside, the house had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large modern kitchen, a family room, an office, and a basement used mainly for storage.  Throughout the entire house were dark hardwood floors.  The walls were all a sandy neutral color.  He had minimal decorations set out.  He showed Rufus and I to our rooms.  Mine was bigger than Rufus’ and that made me ecstatic.  It’s funny how even the small things can matter in our rivalry. 
We didn’t do much that day except get settled in.  Uncle Ned ordered a pizza for dinner, I guess he didn’t feel like cooking.  The pizza was delicious.  Uncle Ned and I sat at the dining room table while Rufus ate in his room and unpacked, or so we thought.  After I finished, I threw my plate away and went back to my room.  I opened the door to find that all of my things were strewn across the floor, not where I had left them.  I knew it had to be Rufus.  I grabbed my duffle bag and repacked my things.  I waited until Uncle Ned went to bed at 9:00, and then I snuck out my bedroom window.  I couldn’t stand that Rufus was ruining what was supposed to be my happy ending.  I ran until I reached town.  Out of breath, I sat down in an alley near a dumpster.  It was dark out, but the neon lights from the bars lit the town pretty well.  I sat there and thought about the few perfect hours I had spent at Uncle Ned’s house.  I wanted to be there, but I didn’t want to be there with Rufus.  It made me feel sad that I left and I thought about returning, but decided that Uncle Ned probably didn’t care that I was gone anyway, nobody ever did. 
I ended up falling asleep right there on the corner.  I woke up to the sound of cars honking and busy people passing me by.  I wandered around for a bit, then decided to dig through a restaurant dumpster for food.  I heard footsteps coming up to me, instinctively I spun around.  It was Rufus and Uncle Ned.  Ashamed, I stared at the ground.
Ned
I woke up around 8:00.  It was early, but I was eager for my first full day with the boys.  I woke up Rufus and then went to Teddy’s room.  I knocked on the door but heard no answer.  I slowly opened the door, and found that Teddy wasn’t there.  In a panic, I searched the whole house and yard, but there was no sign of Teddy anywhere.  I grabbed Rufus and told him to get in the car.  I figured the first place Teddy would go was to town.  We slowly rolled down the streets, scanning every nook.  Rufus spotted Teddy’s blue duffle bag and saw his feet hanging out of the dumpster.  In a hurry, I parked the car and ran as quick as my old legs would take me to the alley. 
Teddy jumped out of the dumpster with pizza in his hand.  He looked at us and then stared at the ground.
“Teddy, what are you doing here?” I questioned with a concerned tone, careful not to make him think I was angry.
“I don’t know,” He said.
Rufus then turned to me and said, “Ned,” he paused, “Uncle Ned, if you could, would you just give Teddy and I a moment?”
I walked just around the corner, just out of earshot and waited for the boys.
Teddy
Rufus got Uncle Ned to leave, and then just looked at me, almost disappointed.
“Well, what are you going to do to me now that he’s gone?” I questioned.
“Nothin’. I decided that I’ve been mean to you.  I never thought it would cause you to run away, but here we are.  I would like to apologize and I would really like to get along.  I think Uncle Ned could provide us a pretty good life.  To screw that up would be one of the biggest mistakes we could ever make,” Rufus said.
Stunned, I stared at him and eventually managed to say, “I would like that a lot.”
We walked out of the alley together and found Uncle Ned sitting on a bench.  I apologized to him and assured him it wouldn’t happen again. 
Ned
After a few short minutes, the boys came around the corner and found me sitting on the bench watching cars pass by.  I didn’t question Teddy further on the topic.  I figured the boys had worked it out, and judging by the smiles on their faces and the genuineness in Teddy’s voice, all was well.  We returned to my home, where I made grilled cheese and we all watched Star Wars. 
Throughout the years, I watched the boys grow up.  We shared many more afternoons just like that one, except Teddy never ran away again.  The boys grew close and by the way they acted around each other you would think they were brothers.  They gave me the greatest joy in my life and I’ll never be able to repay them for it.
Teddy
When I reached the age of eighteen, Uncle Ned passed away.  He was in a car accident.  He was rushed to the hospital, but they were too late.  He internally bled to death.  I’ll never forget the first time I saw him sitting in Mrs. Applebottom’s office.  He had a kind smile and gave great bear hugs.  Uncle Ned not only gave me my best shot at life, but he gave me a loving home and family, plus my best friend Rufus.  I never did thank him for it, but I think he always knew how grateful I was.  Ever since that first day with Uncle Ned, I knew we would get along well; he always let me have dessert.