Story post 3

I decided to put some background information on the main character right here.  I know, bad timing.
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     My name is Selwyn  Nights.  The last part of my name came after my first.  Literally.  I was 7 years old when I first met the Nights in the streets of Pittsburgh.  Blade was 8 years old then and he needed a new recruit.  Someone with a little more education than most...
     I had been running away from home, which seemed like a silly thing to do, since my home didn't exist anymore.  My parents had been killed in a drug raid by a rival gang; it had only been a mater of time after the years of divulging in drugs and guns.  I vowed to myself to get out of there and never talk to anyone I knew or didn't know.  I kept that promise for a long time...
     I lived for about a year on the streets, occasionally stealing from local stores for food.  I watched the Nights, (there were only three of them at that time) walk around at night and eat real food.  One night, I broke into their hideout to get some of their food.  Needless to say, I was caught and interrogated.  I confessed to being homeless and they decided to take me in on one condition: I would change my first and last name.  At the time, I didn't know my last name; I had forgotten it in the midst of the run.  Blade decided to call me "Zane" and the name stuck.
     After fixing me up and introducing me to the others, Blade began to set some ground rules.  Rule # 1: Listen to Blade.  Rule # 2:  No skipping school.  You skip school and you will get the tongue lashing of a life time.  Rule # 3:  Wear the clothes.  We were a family; we were going to look like a family.  Rule # 4:  Don't squeal about the hideout.  Rule # 5: Stick out for each other.
     From the time I joined Nights to the present time, I had been provided for.  Rea had helped me study, Tony had made the necessary "parent" calls when the office called in to tell them that I was in trouble again, and Blade had provided me with goth clothes and my first laptop.  Nights had given me everything and more; I felt like I was part of a real family when I was with them.  But I wasn't too sure of that now.