Riley grew up in a slew of foster homes, most of them only tolerated her until she had been kicked out of two schools per home at the most. From the second grade, when her mother had abandoned her with a social worker, she had closed in. Smiling was a rare occurrence, and she didn't speak that much. Weird things happened to her a lot, like the time a group of guys had cornered her in an alley, and she had closed her eyes. Only when nothing happened, and she opened them did she see that the boys were gone; the only trace that they had been real was the rip in her shirt where they had almost caught her and seven pairs of shoes.
She had gone back to her current foster home that day to learn that the family that had taken her in-an alcoholic dad and a workaholic mom-didn't remember ever hearing about her, and all of her things were in her backpack, in the social services office.
She tried to stay away from people, which worked for a long time. Not a lot of people wanted to be friends with the creepy foster girl whose gaze sent chills down your spine. It was only when she got lost in the city and noticed a black car tailing her that she realized that she had made what could be a fatal mistake. Riley didn't have any friends, nobody would notice if she disappeared until it was too late. She had walked faster, staying under the streetlights, and cursed the state for not giving her a cell phone.
Before she knew what was happening, a guy jumped out of the car that had gotten right next to her and dragged her in, holding a cloth over her mouth. When she woke up, she was sitting in the same car, behind a man who claimed to be her lawyer. He apologized for his means of getting to her, and started talking about camps, and how she was lucky to be alive, and something about strawberries. The man dropped her off somewhere near the woods, and told her to walk until she found the 'border'. Not wanting to spend another minute with the weirdo, she left.
She stepped into cabin 13, a bit uneasy as she crossed the threshold. It was cool inside, which was actually nice, and smelled faintly like pomegranate and barbecue. Riley glanced around the room; nobody was there. Only a few beds were there, one was devoid of sheets and pillows. This was the one she set her bag on, claiming it as her own. There were beds on either side of her-she had chosen the middle one.
There were small dressers separating her from the others, one next to each bed. Riley slid open one of the drawers on the dresser to the left, then shut it quickly, her cheeks flaming. Unwittingly, she had opened one of her new sibling a girl. Next she tried the dresser to the right, opening it cautiously until she was sure that it was empty.
After unpacking her few belongings, she took the necklace out the bottom of her backpack, holding it close for a moment then placing it in the front corner of her sock drawer. The clasp had broken years ago, but she still carried it around. It was the only thing she had left of her real mother; Riley had tried to throw it away many times, only to find that it wasn't worth much, a black gem in a silver circle hanging on a matching chain.
She sat down on the bare bed, resolving to ask Nico about where to get sheets and pillows. Out of the two sibling she had met - something made her feel like she had more - he seemed less likely to call her stupid for not knowing where to find them. A wave of exhaustion swept over her, and she curled in on herself, resting her head on her elbow and placing her other hand on her bottom knee. Riley was quickly asleep.
