Bobby is – 14

You - 13

Jerry is –12

Angel is – 10

Jack is – 6

Chapter 1

Staring blankly at my hands, my mind reeled over the foster home I was now leaving in the back of a police car. In all of my thirteen years of life in the system that had to be the 'best' home I have been to so far, only gaining the prizes of minor mental and physical abuse. Subconsciously I tenderly rubbed the black and blue bruise forming on my arm, shifting my eyes from my hands to the window I sighed agitated. I wanted out and now! I didn't want to be stuck in another abusive home only to be bumped over to another one a few months after. Narrowing my eyes at the house we had stopped at, my gaze hardened and turned cold.

"Come on now girl, this is your new home" the woman I hated the most said in a cheery, overly sweet voice. Shifting my eyes to her I ignored her flinch when my cold emotionless gaze met with hers. She was part of the reason why my life was hell; she didn't care where I went as long as 'my parents' kept me, either until I moved out or die whichever came first.

Ignoring her I got out of the car and waited for whoever was going to take me in to greet us. Stuffing my hands into my pockets my eyes fell from the wooden door to the snow covered ground. Wondering how long it would be until I got shipped off again. My head snapped up at hearing the front door open and close after a short length of time; my eyes turned colder seeing a woman and three boys walking over to us.

"Ah Mrs Mercer this is the girl" Martha said pushing me forward harshly, snapping my head towards the woman I gave her my famous glare.

"Don't treat her like that, she's just a child" I slowly turned my head to the new woman in curiosity no one had ever stuck up for me or even cared before. Slowly shifting my eyes from the older woman my eyes landed on three boys, one maybe a year older than me and the other two looked slightly younger. Looking between them my lips fell into a tight frown, I wasn't going to let them do want they wanted with me, I could take them.

"Come on let's get out of the cold" the woman said in a motherly voice looking at me with soft eyes, shifting my eyes away from the boys I looked at the woman awkwardly and followed after her. Once inside we all walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table, not really knowing what to do I just stared at the wall when the white boy started to talk.

"Am Bobby, this is Jeremiah and this is Angel" he said watching me closely. Not saying anything I looked towards Martha.

"Am sorry let me introduce myself, I'm Evelyn Mercer and these are my boys" the woman said smiling at me.

"This is Abby and she has been in the system ever since she was born" Martha said smiling at Evelyn.

"If you don't mind me asking but why did she come in the back of a police car?" Evelyn asked with slight worry in her voice.

"I stabbed my last 'farther' with a fork, closest thing I could get my hands on" I said emotionlessly and mumbled the last part moving my cold eyes over the guarded boys, silently sending them a message that I wasn't scared to do it again.

"Oh dear" Evelyn gasped moving her hand over her mouth. Standing up, scraping the chair along the floor I shrugged when everyone turned their eyes to me.

"Are you ok, do you need some air?" Evelyn asked worried that she had offended me somehow. Getting annoyed with her 'concern' and 'worry' for me, I gritted my teeth as my anger started to rise.

"What's the point in even being here, it's obvious that your 'boys' don't want me here. You want to know about me fine" I said angrily slamming my hands down on the table.

"I have been bounced around from abusive home to abusive home; you can't even imagine half of the shit I have been through. So yeah I have stabbed three of my 'parents' before, hell I almost killed one of them and more" I said and walked out of the house. Sitting on the porch I watched the kids play hockey, I swore to myself years ago that I would never let anyone in and this… just seemed too good to be true, was she just going to take me in, show me how a real parent should love their child then just dump me back into the system like last time? Or was she just really good at acting to gain a slave or a punch bag for her 'sons'.

MARTHA'S POV

"What was all that about?" the child I think was called Bobby asked angrily.

"Bobby" Evelyn scolded.

"I'm sorry about her behaviour, as I said before she has been in the system ever since she was born" I said inspecting my nails.

"Oh and to add something's to Abby's little get to know me speech. She is like this… she got worse when a few years ago she was taken in by a family, they treated her like their own daughter but about a two years later they moved away when she was at school and left her behind with nothing" I said watching the four in front of me carefully.

"How old was she?"

"Six when they left her" I answered back.

"But other than that she has been to abusive homes" I said in an insensitive voice shrugging my shoulders.

"Well whose fault is that?" the second oldest boy said glaring at me, narrowing my eyes at the brat I turned to face the mother.

"Well do you want her or not?" I asked in a bored voice, I could be doing something better than sitting here in this house talking to the 'family' in front of me.