Chapter 1
Forgetting the Past
I was 15, the new kid on my street, I was a foster child, and my previous life was painful. Literally. My name is Damen; I am 6'3 I was recently adopted by a really cool family. Before I go back to my horrible past I want to tell you of the present; I was a straight A student, and I am a sophomore at my new school I live in North Carolina, Charlotte actually. I am not a normal kid, not anymore at least.
I am a unique individual as my new family says, they are really nice to me, they have 1 other kid besides me her name is Colette, and she is the same age as me. She enjoys hanging out with me and I enjoy playing video games with her, she isn't your average teenager, she is spunky, pretty cute too, she isn't Goth, or Emo but she likes stuff like that, except the cutting of wrists part she finds that weird. She likes to watch scary movies, and hang out at the mall.
My new parents are awesome they adopted me officially last week. I moved in yesterday they showed me my room and where everything is and then they introduced me to Colette. She said that she was glad that I was going to live here and then helped me unpack my measly duffel bag of clothing, then she and I began to talk to her and I found out a lot of stuff about her; she likes black, red, and purple. Her favorite types of shoes are Converse, Vans, Airwalks, and Nikes. She plays Flute, Piccolo, Piano, and Clarinet. She plays Soccer, Volleyball, and is on the Track team.
Then she asked me about my life, that was the worst, and was I always a foster child, and if I wasn't what was I doing in foster care, then my new mom called us down for dinner. Saved by food. Dinner was good; we had Spaghetti and French bread, then Colette told us of her day at school, by the way I start tomorrow, and how she got an A- on her Math test, and that she a party to go to on Friday night. Then they asked me how my day was before they came and picked me up from the foster care place. I said that it was chaotic and pretty stressful but I am feeling so much better now that I am here
Then after dinner I helped Colette do the dishes and put away the leftovers. That was when she swamped me with all of those questions, the painful heart aching ones, like what my previous life was like, and why was I in the foster care then I told her the story of my life from the beginning, the very beginning and waited for the sad and horrid look come across, and I began my story from the very first day I could run away, that was when the horrible past began. The first day of my pain filled, torturous, and chaotic life. The first day a psychotic person called my mom cracked.
I thought my mom was a really cool person, but looks can be deceiving, trust me. Then just before I was about to start my story, when my new mom asked us to come and have dessert. We walked down stairs together, and we sat at the table once again and I sat and ate in silence. That was when my new mom that I call Irina, asked me if I was excited about tomorrow, my first day at my new school, I said yes, but in my mind I said Hell No!!!! Then she asked me if I was ok, and realized I had shown something less than a yes. I told her it was just nerves, and that I was really excited about tomorrow. Not.
Then she wanted to know what it was like at my other school. It is same old, same old, you come home and do hard homework, and then hopefully you have time to squeeze in something you call a life. It was then Colette asked me what kind of classes I had. I told her I was in Calculus learning the chaos theory, and I was in 3 language classes, German, Russian, and Polish. They all stared in awe, and I said what??? My new dad, Logan, was first to speak up, well son that is just great, and If you ever need help with something feel free to ask for help with calculus, and ask Colette about the 3 language courses.
Colette then asked if we could be excused, and they said sure, and we walked back up to my new room, and we continued talking, and unpacking, then she wanted to know what other things am I good at. I said that I was good at sports but don't like belonging to teams, and that I was again fluent in 3 languages and of course she was fluent in 5 languages, so then I asked her
what she was fluent in. She said that she was fluent in German, Russian, Polish, French, and Romanian. I was amazed; she really was this perfect little student. Oh, by the way she is 4'3 which is really small for being 17, and I am just freakishly tall, as she calls me.
She then wondered aloud why I was always keeping to myself, and why I was always skittish, and I always realized these things but really couldn't tell myself why. I told her it was raw nerves, and that I wasn't always this way. Then she told me to tell her the story I was about to begin when I was told to come have dessert. I sighed and said sure.
Chapter 2
The Beginning
I was 6, the first day my mom cracked; now listen as I tell my story. I woke up like every normal day; I got out of bed, and went down stairs to watch some television. I waited for my mom and dad to wake up, so I was flipping through some channels when my mom slowly walked down the stairs, I ran up to her and said good morning, and she never gave me a hug back, she released my embrace from her and walked over to the kitchen, slower than normal. I then saw dad walk down the steps, and I tried my same routine but this time with my dad, still it didn't work he only stared at me and walked into the kitchen as well, so I just gave up, and went back to my cartoons.
Eventually I fell asleep, and when I awoke, the environment felt different, really mean and hateful, that is when I started getting scared let alone I could not find my dad and I wanted to see him so bad and he was in his room and wouldn't come out, so I started throwing a tantrum, that didn't go over well. It was when she cracked, it was like all hell broke loose, she started screaming at me, and throwing my toys at me. I was so scared, I ran up the stairs as fast as I could, obviously not fast enough though she can running after me, and yanked me back down the stairs, well actually she pushed me back down but, the worse was next to come.
My dad knew what was going on but didn't have the heart to stick up for me; she started beating me, and remained throwing things at me. Then, I ran to the door as fast as my little legs would let me, I was terrified. She chased me for about 1 block then gave up, and yelled "I hate you!! I wish you were never born you little brat. Go. Run!" By nightfall I was completely alone, well at least that was how it felt. When I looked at Colette she was crying, now I felt worse, I made my new sister cry; she wiped the tears from her eyes, and told me to keep going if I wanted. I didn't want to tell her but it felt as if I owed it to her not to keep this long kept secret from her, sort of like she deserved to hear it. So I kept going.
Well I found a resting place, a place I could hide, and sleep. In the morning I had to think of what I would do, I ended up staying out there for a week and a half. Man that was a REALLY hard week. Then ended up going home, I missed my mom, even after what she did to me. When I got home I knocked on the door and she answered, and she acted, and looked A LOT better today than last week. She said that she loved me and that she was sorry, and that It would never happen again, and me being 6 years old, I believed her. Just like she said it didn't happen again, so we would have our normal routine, but somehow it was a lot better. She would take me shopping and get me new shoes and clothes, and buy me new toys that she had destroyed when she had been enraged with me.
I thought I was in heaven; I would get whatever I wanted, practically. On my 7th birthday I got a new scooter, a GameCube, and bunch of really cool shirts, and a $25 gift card to toys r us. I played with my toys and wore my new shirts, and everything felt right, but then again it didn't my mom would still get angry when she found my toys on the floor, but not as mad as she was that one time. I was able to have my friends over and my mom would make us cookies, if we were good. Everything was perfect, or so I thought.
Chapter 3
School
Ok, remember when my mom said that "It will never happen again" that was a sore lie. I looked at Colette, and she said that she feels so bad that I had to go through that at such a young age, she also gave me a reassuring hug that it will be different here. Then Irina came upstairs, and knocked on the open door, well she said time to go to bed Damen has a big day ahead of him. I then looked at the clock, Oh, wow it was 10 minutes to 11p.m, man Irina rocked, she let us stay up late, my foster care place had a strict curfew of 9:30 p.m. Boring!!!
Colette spoke first, Ok mom love you good night!!!! Then she got up and off my new bed, and said to me, well I will see you in the morning Damen, the bathroom is down the hall, do you have your pajamas with you? Yup. Oops, forgot. Whatabout your toothbrush? Uh…oops forgot that. Oh it is ok we have more said Irina. I love how this family is so nice they care, more than the foster care place did. Then, Logan walked upstairs, and said goodnight! See you in the morning. Night Logan I said. Oh, call me dad, um... ok? He said. So they eventually left and I got on my "pajamas" then went to the bathroom, to brush my teeth, when I walked in Colette started laughing, and said nice PJ's. I looked at myself in the mirror and laughed at myself too, thanks I said then Colette left to go get me some of her old plaid bottoms, and I used my old tee-shirt.
Irina came then and gave me my toothbrush, and said goodnight and turned to leave then looked back and said, aren't those Colette's and Colette and I laughed and said yup. Irina shook her head, and chuckled.
When I was done I went to go to bed and I found Irina waiting for me, she wanted to talk to me. She wanted to know what Colette and I were talking to her about, so I said that we were talking about my previous life. She said that I didn't have to tell her. I said that it didn't matter anyway. Then I told her how I felt when she asked me, the way I felt that I owed it to her. She said that it was normal when you feel you have someone to talk to. I told her exactly what I felt when I told her the story.
She then said that she would see me in the morning, and to have a good night sleep she then walked quietly out of my room. When I fell asleep it was about 11:47 p.m. That night my dreams weren't so nice and peaceful. They were horrid and breathtaking, they caused pain, I woke up feeling clammy and hurt as pain and agony coursed through every part of my body. I had nothing left to do I felt alone once again, so I curled up into a ball, I practically held myself I felt as if I would fall apart. When I finally fell asleep, it was a total dead sleep no more dreams, no more pain.
Then, Irina came upstairs and woke Colette and I up at about 6:30 a.m. I had to admit I wasn't that tired, Logan came downstairs and said well ready for school champ? Who gets called champ anymore? Yea, I'm totally excited. I wasn't only lying to him but I was lying to myself as well, probably to make myself feel better, we left the house at around 7 a.m. and Colette helped me get my schedule, and show me my first class, we had all the same classes together, which made things easier. Almost every class asked me a million questions, like why did I come here, why I was so skittish, why this and why that, I just wanted everything to go normal, but I knew that wouldn't happen. When the day was finally over, I was so relieved to be back in the car, but I had SO much homework much more than my other school.