Chapter 2

The following morning Ex went early for his run and spent time continuing to unpack, looking for his free weights set. Having worked out hard that morning and having started to read ahead on his course books for next year he finished up and had a quick lunch with his parents before they piled in his dad’s hired Audi and headed to his grandfathers lawyers office. Ex followed his parents into the legal offices of Clarke, Anderson and Wright, upon entering the lobby Ex looked around at the heavy leather sofas and chairs, black and white photos on the walls and could almost sense a palpable air of wealth and gravitas that seemed to hang in the air. “Can I help you,” came from a raven haired matronly woman who was manning their reception desk.

“James, Estelle and Exthereon Warriner we have a 2 o’clock appointment.” Said James, Ex’s Dad.

“I’ll let Mr Anderson know said the raven haired receptionist, please take a seat whilst you wait he shouldn’t be long.”

Ex sat down on one of the huge leather arm chairs, sinking into the seat, it made him feel small rather than powerful as he supposed. He lost himself to his daydreams as his parents talked quietly between themselves as they waited.

The intercom buzzed and an authoritative voice could be heard saying, “I’m ready for the Warriner’s Sheila if you can bring them through to my office please.”

Almost before he heard the last word Ex was struggling to extricate himself from the swamp of a chair he had selected. That wasn’t particularly graceful Ex thought to himself wondering how anyone could find those chairs comfortable bearing in mind his own above average height and build. As his parents got to their feet at the invitation of the receptionist who he now had a name for.

The three Warriner’s followed Sheila through a large set of glass double doors down a long corridor with seemingly numerous offices on either side, some with open doors some closed but all seemingly occupied. Those doors that were open he looked into seeing a variety of people typing furiously into desktop or laptop computers or talking at a rapid rate often at a volume that he considered louder than was used for polite conversation till they were brought to a another door that looked much like all the others they had passed.

Sheila knocked on the door and opened it without waiting for a response, and ushered the Warriner’s in. As they entered a greying man, whose age Ex would guess at around 50 stood up to greet them smiling warmly. He welcomed them with a strong handshake including Ex’s mother Estelle in the exchange and invited them to sit in the far more practical chairs opposite his desk.

“Thank you for coming” said the lawyer as he sat back in his chair opposite them, “I’m Maurice Watson and I have been dealing with your late fathers and grandfathers estate and last will and testament.” He said looking at the family. “As you know from our previous conversations Mr. and Mrs. Warriner there were a number of unusual clauses in the late Mr. Warriner’s estate that must be fulfilled for your son to inherit the estate as per Mr. Warriner Seniors instructions. I understand that you have recently moved to Madison County as per the initial stipulations and that young Exthereon here has been enrolled at the local high school.”

“That’s correct” said James confirming the details for Mr. Watson.

“I am pleased to confirm if that’s the case that there is a provision in Mr. Warriner’s last will and testament that upon confirmation of these facts, by way of documentary proof, such as your bill of sale for the house and the letter from the school that I can release the following.” He took a deep breath.

“I have here paperwork to assign the following account to your son for his use as he see’s fit along with the following property and all it contains.”

Ex sat there somewhat dumbfounded. He knew they had moved back to the states due to his grandads passing but looking at the documents in front of him had no idea that this was on the horizon. It looked like he was about to inherit $50,000 along with a large warehouse and whatever was contained within, not to mention what was indicated he would inherit when he completed college, which was also now paid for.

“Please sign here, here and here” said Mr. Watson to Ex and his parents as he indicated a number of spaces in the documents...

Ex woke from his slumber Saturday morning refreshed. He was looking forward to catching up with his future teammates and fledgling friends from football today, as well as meeting the neighbors of course. He was up early as normal not yet having enough of a social life to be doing much on a Friday night, he had gone to bed relatively early wanting to be on form today.

Having got up and dressed for running, Ex closed the door to the house locked up, a habit he had previously fallen into whilst in England, (who knew who was around and his whole family was stillasleep) put the keys in his pocket and slowly stretched out, warming up for his morning run.

Having warmed up sufficiently Ex took off at a slow lope to start with as he fell into a slow run. As he ran he accelerated till he was at a reasonably fast jogging pace and settled into a natural running gait as he approached the park. It was still early and Ex didn’t expect to see anyone else out in the park. (Having generally run around lunch times in the week this was the first time he was out running at this time). He was lost in his running, daydreaming about football, the team and how he would fit in when he realized as he looked up that there was a rather attractive sight getting steadily closer.

Ex examined the specimen in front of him. From what he could see, toned and shapely legs underneath possibly the most fabulous ass he had ever seen. Curvaceous whilst looking supple as it wriggled fantastically as “she” ran, but not too much. “Plenty to hold onto though” he thought to himself as he focused on the female in front of him. His gaze continued upwards to behold a slim waist and strong, supple back (he thought), to sleek and slender shoulders that were about as wide as her hips, with an almost russet, golden colored ponytail holding her hair together, which reached almost down to the bottom of her back.

Ex didn’t vary his pace, he was catching up to this fantastic creature and wanted to enjoy the view whilst he had it. As he caught up to “her”, he casually looked to his left and went to nod nonchalantly as if to introduce himself. “Good god she’s perfect” went through his head as his body literally hesitated from seeing the vision next to him. His right leg buckled as he stepped on the outside of his foot as the hesitation threw his running off. Ex in truly impressive style, went as he would call it, ‘arse over tit,’ ending up with a couple of handfuls of road. Though fortunately managing to not completely destroy his self confidence by managing to avoid face-planting into the unforgiving road surface.

“Oh, are you alright?” said the vision as Ex managed to gather himself up, wounded pride and all and turned to the young lady who if he was honest he had half expected to be bent in half laughing at him.

“Uh yeah,” said Ex pulling himself together. “Sorry, I got dazzled by an angel and before I knew it I was there on the floor looking up at God.”

The vision giggled, then bounced excitedly in front of him, she squealed, “you’re from England!” I love “Harry Potter and I recognise your accent.”

Harry Potter, Ex thought to himself, bloody Harry bloody Potter as he looked at the vision and smiled. “Well yes, most of the actors in Harry Potter are English. So I get that, nice to meet you and by the way I’m Ex.”

“Ex?” She said “what’s that short for.”

Ex sighed somewhat, thanks mum, he thought, “Ex is short for Exthereon, my mum loves Tolkien, as in the Lord of the Rings.” He expounded not sure that she would know the author but guessing she would likely have come across the films at least. “She thought it sounded elvish!”

“Oh, ok, I like it, I think your mum made a good choice.” She said

“Erm, here’s where you normally introduce yourself.” Said Ex with a slightly crooked smile. This girl was ... bemusing to him.

“Oh, oh yes, hi, I’m Alyssa.”

“Well nice to meet Alyssa, do you come here often” said Ex, with a quirky smile on his face as he raised his eyebrows before he broke into a grin.

Alyssa smiled at Ex for making fun of himself whilst asking a somewhat flirtatious question, giving her the option of ignoring it gracefully and moving on to other conversation or taking a chance and seeing where it might lead. She replied, “well, I normally run here every morning at this time on weekend, and an hour earlier during the week to make sure I can still get to school.”

Now he had a chance so Ex took a quick glance up and down the beauty in front of him. The view from behind wasn’t a prelude to disappointment. She must have been no taller than 5’4 almost dwarfed by his 6’3 inch frame. She was drop dead gorgeous, the view from behind being enhanced by what looked like luscious pair of breasts, that were, from what he could see, screaming to be released from their spandex prison and a truly beautiful face, delicate with fine features, and crystal blue eyes that seemed to penetrate his soul when his own eyes met them.

“Do you go to Cazenovia? Ex asked

“Yes I’m a going into my junior year” said Alyssa, but I don’t remember you being there last year, and I would definitely remember if you had been. Have you transferred?”

“I have, but I ‘m not sure you’ll be wanting to associate me when you know I’m a Sophomore, I turn 16 in February.” Said Ex

“Really, but you are so big,” Alyssa exclaimed, suddenly realising what she said she clamped her hands over her mouth and her big blue eyes got even bigger.

Ex’s eyes sparkled with humor the corners of his mouth twitching as he desperately tried not to laugh, he really didn’t want to upset this beautiful young lady. No, what he really wanted was to see her smile.

Having a possible flash of inspiration he suddenly said, “hey we recently moved onto the neighborhood and we’re having a barbecue today for the neighbours. We’ve met! If you run here, you must be somewhere in the ‘neighborhood’” Ex gets his two hands up and gestured with his fingers to show quotation marks. “Why don’t you come? Your parents can come too! We’re over on Stone Quarry Road, head on over any time after 1.”

Alyssa looked at Ex for a second, “Ok I’ll see if I can persuade my folks to come over later. If not I’ll see you on the running track.” She gave Ex a dazzling smile and jogged of down the path as Ex watched her leave, enjoying every second of the view.

...

The barbecue had started with various adult neighbors drifting in from about noon. Ex was helping out ferrying various meats and beverages from the kitchen to the back yard where the “adults” stood around chatting about a variety of inane topics that no one really seemed interested In. He had just returned to the kitchen, putting an empty platter down on the table ready to re-filled with fresh offerings to the God of Meat when he heard the doorbell ring.

“I’ll get it” Ex shouted to no one in particular just letting the ‘adults’ know that the door was being seen to. He opened the door saying, “welcome to the Warriner residence, the food and drink are out back, let me show you the way.”

As he did so Ex took stock of the family in front of him. A fairly middle aged couple not much different from your average family, though to be fair he seemed to batting somewhat above his weight, and what Ex was immediately impelled to describe as a ‘bright little pixie” stood in front of the pair. She was about 5’2 thus the pixie comment at least as far as Ex was concerned, blond, green eyed and cute as a button.

“Hi I’m Brianna, this is my mum Gabby and my dad Greg Milford, and we live next door. Nice to meet you.” Said the pixie.

“Nice to meet you” replied Ex as he showed them in, closed the front door and preceded to walk them through to the back yard.

With Brianna being the first person there Ex’s age they struck up a friendly conversation. Ex found out unsurprisingly that she went to Cazenovia, and was going to be a sophomore like him, having been a freshman last year.

“What’s Cazenovia like?” Asked Ex, interested to get a different opinion of his school than the one presented by those on the football team he had met.

“It’s ok really, there are the typical cliques, but very little bullying. If you get involved with sports or one of the clubs it seems to be a way into a clique. What about you, you look like a football player to me.” Said Brianne

“Guilty as charged” smiled Ex warmly at her, “though I hope maybe not the stereotypical jock, I do have a brain you know.”

“Hmmm, well you seem intelligent enough to hold a civilized conversation which is more than can be said for some of those Neanderthals.” She said giggling, whilst also trying to put on a feigned air of haughtiness, before she broke down and the giggles turned into genuine laughter as Ex smiled at her and chuckled to himself.

At that point the hoards seemed to descend with Ex welcoming residents from the estate and a number of the guys from football team who he had invited over. He introduced, or in some cases re-introduced Brianne to the guys who seemed to strike up an easy conversation amongst themselves when the doorbell went once again.

“Ex, can you get that please?” Asked his mum Estelle

“Yes mum, on my way.” Replied Ex

He got to the door and opened it to be confronted by “his vision” from earlier. Alyssa stood in front of a woman who looked to be in her 30’s and simply looked like an older version of Alyssa. “Welcome to the Warriner house, Alyssa, this must be your older sister, lovely to meet you.” He said really pushing his English accent whilst smiling charmingly.