Hi, my name's Liberty Mae Cooper but everyone just calls me Libby and I'm going to tell you all about my life in a care home. It's my first day going into care today so I'm extremely nervous, wish me luck!

I yawned sleepily and sat up, rubbing my eyes. I stared at my surrounding for a few moments before I realized where I was. I was in the car on the way to my new home. A care home. A home for kids who's parents can't or don't want to look after them anymore. I stared out the window of the car, watching all the houses blur past me. The drive from London to Newcastle had been a long one, and quite frankly I was exhausted. As the car sped along the road, I imagined what it must feel like to be one of those fortunate children, one of the ones who actually have a family that care about them.

I looked to the right of me and saw my social worker, Sarah, chatting absentmindedly to herself and occasionally looking at me and muttering something, no doubt trying to make me feel better about everything. To be honest though, I couldn't hear her. I was too busy trying to drown out everything around me by listening to Demi Lovato 'Skyscraper' full blast.

It wasn't long until I felt Sarah tapping my knee, turning to her I noticed that she was indicating for me to turn my music off so she could talk to me. I turned it down and pulled one of my headphones out looking at her wearily, half expecting a lecture from her telling me that everything was alright and that I just needed to get used to being in care. I wanted to avoid this conversation as much as possible, knowing fully well that everything wasn't alright because here I am in care on the other side of the country to all of my friends.

"Now Libby," Sarah said with a glance in my direction. "I want you to at least try and fit in with the children here and make some new friends. I don't want you to block everyone out and not talk like you did when I collected you the other day."

I just hummed in response, knowing that blocking everyone out was exactly what I was going to do, whether it's intentional or not.

"Elm Tree House is a really lovely place. The kids there are just lovely, I know you'll get on with them." Sarah continued, still trying to make me feel better.

There. She had said it. My second biggest fear of going into care. (My first of course was that everyone would find out why I'm here.) What if I don't get on with the children? What if they treat me differently because I'm the 'new girl'? What if they try and beat me up, or steal my things? One of my friends back in London was put in care, and she said that she was beaten up by some of the children when the care workers weren't around, and they stole the only memory she had of her little sister.

"But what if I don't?" I asked, my gaze finally meeting Sarah's for the first time since getting in the car this morning. "What if the other kids hate me?"

Sarah smiled at me sympathetically, "Like I just said, the kids here are lovely. I'm sure you'll settle down in no time." She noticed my unimpressed expression and continued, "And if you find that things really are that bad here, I'll move you to a different home. But you have to stay here for at least 1 month."

I smiled gratefully at her. Pleased that I'm finally being given a say in my own life. I noticed that Sarah had began to concentrate on the road again, so I put my headphones back in and listened to Honeymoon Avenue by Ariana Grande.

Just as the song was getting to the chorus, my headphones were gently tugged out of my ears, but it was still enough to startle me.

"We're here" said Sarah, glancing at me out of the corner of her eye to see my reaction.

I gazed up at the house from the passenger seat, it certainly was bigger than I imagined. I caught glimpses of some faces pressed up against the glass, desperate to have a look at the 'new girl'. They were quickly gone and as I climbed out the car, I could've sworn that I could hear the thundering footsteps of the children rushing down the stairs.

Sarah opened the boot and placed my suitcase on the floor. I've never had many clothes really. She then locked her car, took the handle of my suitcase and began to wheel it towards the front door, leaving me to follow behind her. My new life was just beginning.

I watched as Sarah knocked on the door with her fist, automatically backing away a couple of steps. The door swung open to reveal a young lady who seemed to be in her early 20's with black hair. She stared blankly at us for a moment but quickly recovered and asked "Can I help you?"

"My name's Sarah Calden" Sarah explained to the lady. "I'm bringing your new resident, Liberty Cooper." I flinched at the use of my full name, but thankfully no one seemed to notice.

Recognition dawned on the young lady's face as she looked past Sarah and smiled warmly at me. I returned the smile, glad that there seemed to be at least one nice person here.

"I'm Tracy by the way." the lady told us, still smiling. "If you would like to come inside for a moment and I'll take you into the office to meet Mike and Gina.

Tracy opened the door fully and allowed us inside, then closed it behind us. Almost immediately, there was a swarm of children around us. I could barely distinguish anyone in the crowd of people. I felt my heart rate increase and my palms get sweaty. 'It's okay Lib' I whispered in my head. 'These people won't hurt you. You're safe here.' It felt like the air supply was being cut off from my lungs. I knew that if I stayed surrounded by everyone, I would black out. It just brought back too many memories of my past. Being in a confined space, not being able to breathe properly.

Thankfully Tracy seemed to notice that I was uncomfortable with the amount of attention I was getting so she called for all the children to be quiet and then turned to them and said "Can everyone please go into the lounge for a minute, we'll come and see you once we're done in the office."

I smiled gratefully at Tracy, and she seemed to understand what I meant. "Don't worry about them" she whispered as I passed her to walk into the office after Sarah, "They won't hurt you. They just get a bit overexcited when there's new people here."

I gave her a small smile and whispered a 'thank you' as I entered the office.

There was a man and a woman both sitting at desks in the office. I presumed that they were Mike and Gina. They both looked up from their work and smiled at me when I walked in.

"Hello, you must be Liberty Cooper, our newest resident. My name's Mike Milligan and I'm the head care worker here at Elm Tree House" said the man, smiling and standing up quickly which caused me flinch and step back suddenly almost crashing into the filing cabinet.

What did you expect though? I mean, with a past like mine anyone would have been scared. Incase you didn't notice, I have major trust issues. Especially around men.

Unfortunately for me, none of this went unnoticed and everyone's smiles faltered for a moment. Mike was the first to recover and held out his hand for me which I hesitantly shook but then hastily pulled away after a second or two.
Mike looked like he was nice enough. He was in his 40's and had a big smile on his face, so I guess that over time I would feel more comfortable around him and wouldn't flinch every time he moved.

The plump jamaican lady with braids in her short, black hair then decided to stand up. I flinched again, but I think this time I managed to get away with it as I don't think anyone noticed. She too held out her hand and said "Hiya babes, I'm Gina and I'm a care worker here too, yeah?"

I smiled at her and nodded my understanding. I heard Sarah clear her throat behind me, indicating that she wanted to get on with the paperwork so she could leave. Then I would be left here on my own. Great.

Tracy offered to take me upstairs and show me to my room so I could unpack my suitcase before I met the other children. I smiled gratefully at her and she took the handle of my suitcase and led me up a flight of stairs. She pushed open one of the doors on the landing to reveal a beige painted room with a singular bed in the middle, a bedside cabinet and a wardrobe on the opposite side of the room.
Kind of like this: Bedroom1

"Sorry there's not much in here." Tracy said, placing my suitcase at the foot of my bed. "We didn't have much of a warning that you were coming so we didn't have much time to redecorate, but once you've decided if you want to stay here, you can decorate this room however you want"

"Really?" I asked, looking astonished and smiling at Tracy as I sat down on the edge of my new bed. This room was at least double the size of the room I had when I was back 'home' if you could even call it that.

Tracy smiled back at me. Pleased that I was already felling better about being here. "This room is all yours, you don't have to share with anyone" Tracy told me. "You were lucky, you got the last spare room. If anyone else comes to stay here, they're going to have to share a room with one of the other children."

I felt relieved. I don't think I could bare to share a room with anyone. I don't know what I'd do if anyone found out about the nightmares. I was deep in thought, thinking about how I can't remember a time when I didn't have nightmares and how fortunate I am to actually be taken in by Elm Tree House.

My trail of thought was soon broken however, when Tracy asked "Do you want to go outside and collect the rest of your things?"

I looked stunned for a second. Not fully understanding what she meant. Then it hit me, "Oh, I don't have anything else. I never really had much at home so I just bought most of my things with me in this bag."

Tracy looked slightly shocked for a moment, but she covered it up well. "We can go and buy you some more clothes and things if you want. All of us are going into town on Saturday anyway. I'm sure Mike would allow you to have some extra money to buy some more clothes."

I smiled excitedly at Tracy. "Really? That would be great, thanks!"

Tracy just smiled back at me. "We could buy some things to decorate your room with as well." I smiled back appreciatively, happy that I finally had people around me that actually cared about me or seemed to anyway. Tracy came and sat down on the bed next to me. I could tell she was going to start asking questions. I just prayed that she'd forgotten what happened down in the office. But apparently I was out of luck. "Would you be able to tell me what happened in the office earlier when Mike came towards you?"

I stared at the floor and shook my head. Determined not to meet her gaze because I knew that if I did, I wouldn't be able to keep my emotions in check. I stayed silent for a couple more minutes and eventually she seemed to understand that I wasn't going to talk about it. It's not that I didn't want to. I just felt like I couldn't tell anyone.

"You know you can talk to me about anything, right? Mike and Gina too. We're all here to help you." I looked up and saw the sincerity in her eyes. It made me feel so much better knowing that someone actually cared for me. But I was still determined not to let her in. It's always the same. I let people in, I tell them about my life, they leave me or turn against me. every single time I've gotten close to anyone

"I understand if you don't want to talk about it. We all have things we want to forget. But if there's anything ever bothering you, you can always come to me." I gave her a small smile and stood up off the bed and began to finish unpacking my clothes. Tracy stood up off the bed as well and walked towards the door. She paused on her way out, turned to me and said "Just come downstairs and into the office when you've finished unpacking. I'll take you to meet the other children then." And with that, she left me alone in my new room.

I sank onto my bed again. I'd completely forgotten all about the other kids. I instantly began to unpack slower, hoping to delay the moment in which I would have to go downstairs and meet the people that I would have to spend at least the next month of my life with.

Thank you to everyone who's read or reviewed this story so far. I'll update again tomorrow or sometime in the week xxxx