Hello! So this is the first chapter of a high school fic thing I'm working on. This won't follow exactly with the info we know from everyone's past. Apparently Toby had his doctorate at age 17 (as we all know) but he'll be at high school in this fic. So there are some discrepancies, but it's my story and its a whole new universe so whatever! Also I don't have a title yet! Sorry! Enjoy!

"She needs to go,"

"What?"

"She needs to go Jack, I'm serious,"

"You mean Happy? Why, Susan?" Jack asked, dumbfounded

"She's gone and wrecked the damn car now. First the toaster, then the lawn mower, and now this. I can't deal with it anymore! I'm calling the social worker and she'll be gone as soon as possible, I will not tolerate this," Susan practically screamed at her husband

"Now, calm down love, she actually made the toaster… toast more evenly and faster, and she improved the lawn mower. I'm sure she's probably helped the car out, not mucked it up. Happy's surprisingly good at all that machinery stuff, better than me anyway."

"No Jack! You don't understand! She's made it impossible for me to make my toast just how I like it anymore! Not to mention she keeps getting notes home from the principal!" she screeched, completely ignoring Jack's valid comment about the lawn mower and car. "I won't tolerate this! What will the other mothers think? I don't want this so-called girl in my house. She messes with cars, she wears dark clothes and boots and is always fighting! She should be wearing pink and playing nicely with the other girls! And what kind of a name is Happy anyways?! Oh, I just won't stand for this!"

"Well I think-" Jack started

"Oh shut up Jack! You only like her because she helps you out in the garage! She hates me! She always gives me these filthy looks. We opened our home to her, we fed her, clothed her and sent her to the best school in the district, and all we get in return is broken appliances and a moody child. I'm calling the social worker right now, and you will not stop me, you hear me Jack?"

Susan snatched the phone from the cradle and violently punched in the number for Happy's social worker. All the while the girl being spoken about was sitting on the stairs, out of sight, but listening to every word being said. Despite the gut-wrenching hurt tearing through her, Happy never let one tear escape her stinging eyes. She knew better than to let anyone know how hurt she was, how lonely she was, how tired she was. She knew to slowly stack, brick by brick, until an impenetrable wall was securely built around her, hiding her from the entire world.

"Happy?"

"Happy Quinn!" the woman called from the front seat of the car. She wore a grey blazer over a grey skirt. She had greying hair. Even the sky was grey. Everything in Happy's life, as per usual, was grey. Happy eventually turned her head away from looking out the window at the dreary scenery and addressed the woman, who was the social worker assigned to her for today.

"What?" Happy snapped. She just wanted to get this over with, to be let down by yet another family. To avoid getting attached to any of the children, to the parents, or even any pets. Happy lived her life constantly distancing herself from everyone out of sheer necessity. She learned that lesson the hard way a long time ago. Becoming attached to something and then being ripped away from it every single time was not a pleasant experience, so she kept her distance.

"We're almost at the Miller residence, where you'll be staying for now. Your foster mum and dad are very excited to meet you, so make sure you give them a warm greeting and a big smile! They have one daughter, who is your age, so you should be able to make a new friend! Isn't that great?" the woman smiled at Happy, trying to engage the girl. Happy just shrugged in response. She'd read their file, she knew everything she could possibly know about them, just from a few sheets of paper. Of course she scrutinised every detail about them, she learned years ago to always be prepared and to stay one step ahead of everyone else.

When they finally arrived at Happy's new house, the social worker quickly jumped out of the car and retrieved Happy's two small bags caring all her possessions, much less than you'd expect from a fifteen year old girl. Happy slowly ambled out the the car, not especially looking forward to this event she'd experienced more times than she could count. She gazed up at the house, whilst making her way up the front porch. The house was quaint, but modern. It had plenty of windows, meaning anyone could see into the house from an uncomfortable distance, if one forgot to pull the curtains closed. But the interior, form what she could see was lovely. Very homey. The whole building gave off a warm, inviting feel. However, Happy knew not to get her hopes up, from previous experiences she'd seen many lovely houses, filled with unfortunate people, driving all positivity from the vicinity.

Before they even reached the large, white, front door, it swung open, revealing a middle-aged couple, smiling excitedly at Happy. She drew her shoulders into her body, trying to take up as little space as possible. Considering how short she was, that task was easily achieved.

"Hi there! Hello, you must be Happy? What a lovely name! I'm Anna and this is my husband, Steve. We are so excited to meet you! Come on in, you must be getting cold, it's freezing out!" the previously unknown woman, Anna, grinned at Happy. She was wearing a bright red shirt and tan pants. The man on her left, Steve, was dressed in jeans and a navy blue shirt. Very plain, very approachable. Despite her namesake, Happy had never experienced this much smiling and niceties. She started to feel overwhelmed from all the pleasantries.

After handing over Happy's bags to Steve, the social worker smiled politely at the couple.

"I really am sorry, but I can't stay. I imagine you will be more than capable of settling Happy in, she's honestly a lovely girl, just a bit quiet. But I'm sure she'll warm up to you, won't you Happy?" the woman smiled, somewhat strained, looking down at Happy. She placed a warm, but firm hand on her shoulder. Happy nodded, looking resolutely at the ground.

"Oh! Well of course, that's quite alright. We completely understand," Anna beamed. Happy wondered if she had any other facial expressions besides glaringly happy. "Thank you for bring Happy here, she'll be just fine! Have a safe trip back!"

The couple waved the social worker off before Anna gently ushered Happy inside.

"Now, your room is upstairs to the left, I'll show you it right now. Steve will bring your bags up too, won't you darling?" Anna called over her shoulder to her husband.

"Of course love, right behind you. You don't seem to have an awful lot in here Happy? I suppose we can take you shopping soon enough. You can have whatever you want, we just want you to be happy. Oh, Happy!" Steve chucked at his own joke, Happy nearly rolled her eyes. As if she'd never heard that one before, people often made painful jokes about her name, and more often than not, with malicious intent.

Upon reaching Happy's new bedroom, Anna turned to Happy, "This is your room here! We'll let you unpack and settle in for a bit. Come downstairs when you're ready. We can give you a tour of the house, if you'd like?" Happy nodded, giving her new foster parents a tight smile. Anna grinned back, then backed out of the room, seemingly to give Happy some space and time alone. Steve dropped her bags on the floor and followed his wife.

Happy sat down on the bedspread, and surveyed the room. It was quite bare, only a bed, desk and a large cupboard spanning across one of the walls. There was a lamp and new laptop on the desk, and a full-length mirror standing against the wall. Although plain, the room was rather inviting. The walls were painted a simple white, bar one which was a lovely, warm red. Overall, Happy was pleased with her new living arrangements, but kept herself in check, not wanting to become overly excited by anything, who knew how long it would last. She quickly threw her clothes into the cupboard and placed her few belongings onto the desk, including a small tool kit, pair of earphones, wallet and a small picture of her mother, who had apparently died in childbirth.

Happy sighed, giving the room a quick one-over, before closing the door and walking down the stairs to the kitchen. She spotted her new foster parents, Steve was sitting at the island bench while Anna appeared to be making tea. The kitchen was quite modern, very new. It was shiny and clean and somewhat intimidating, just waiting for Happy to spill something and then be loudly chastised for it. An island bench resided in the middle of the area, with four bar stools stood against one side. As Happy entered the room, the two adults turned their heads towards her.

"Happy! How is your room? Is it ok? I hope it's alright. There's not much in there for the moment, because we were't too sure what you might like." Anna explained, continuing to make the tea,"We did put a new laptop in there for you, and we have a new phone for you too. If you want it. Apparently you don't have one, we asked the social worker. Anything you don't have, that you need or want, just let us know and we'll do our best. All we want is for you to be comfortable and happy."

Happy was taken aback. She had never been on the receiving end of such undiluted kindness. She almost smiled, but schooled her features into neutrality, it wasn't a good idea to get to swept up in this sort of thing. She knew she had to keep her head on straight.

"Thank you, everything is really great." Happy politely replied, too overwhelmed to say much else. Anna smiled warmly, then picked up the small box on the bench, containing Happy's new phone.

"Here you are, if you need any help setting it up, Steve can give you a hand. He's pretty good at this tech stuff. I'm rather hopeless, I must admit. Oh but actually, on your file it mentioned something about how you enjoyed tinkering with machines and such? So maybe we'll end up needing your help! What is it exactly you like to do? Your file was a bit vague on a lot of things. Do you want to tell us a bit about yourself? Or what you like to do? If you want that is, we don't want to make you uncomfortable or anything, dear."

"Oh, um," Happy mumbled, quite surprised at their interest. She was so used to brazen mothers, trying to 'fix' her, being overly nice, yet controlling. Or just downright abusive people. She's had just about every negative parenting experience under the sun, but never anything so lovely. Anne was a lot more gentle, clearly a very compassionate woman. Happy was very taken aback.

"It's ok Happy, you can talk to us whenever you're ready." Steve softly smiled at her. Anne nodded encouragingly, placing three cups of tea on the bench, along with sugar and milk. Happy pulled the steaming cup towards her, after Anne and Steve had taken theirs, and stirred some sugar in it before speaking,

"No, I'm alright. Just a little surprised I guess. You guys seem really nice, I just really don't want to disappoint you." Happy spoke quietly into her drink.

"Disappoint us?" Anne asked incredulously, "The only way you could disappoint us is if you got addicted to crack, or killed someone. I mean, that would probably upset us a bit, but as long as you be you, we have nothing to worry about. We read your file, we know that you've had a bit of trouble in the past, so we just want to be there for you. We're not interested in changing you, or 'fixing' you. We didn't pick you because we wanted a challenge or anything like that. We choose you, because we just wanted to support you, and give you the best few years we could, if you'll have us that long."

"I- I mean, I just, thank you," Happy stammered out, exhaling deeply. Without realising it, she had been holding her breath the whole time Anne was speaking. Happy was still extremely cautious of this new family, keeping her cards to herself, remaining as calm as possible, but maybe, just maybe, for the first time in her life, Happy might just get a break.

Thanks so much for reading! So this is an idea I've had in my noggin' for a while now. I've never really written a fic before, so I dunno. I've got so many ideas for this, and I'm really excited about it! But I reckon I'm a bit of a shoddy writer, no where near as good as some of the others in the Cyclone. So I've decided to post this first chapter just to get a feel, see if you guys think I'm any good, or total crap, and if you're actually interested in this?! Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated! Also if anyone is interesed in maybe editing for me? Or even helping write it? If you wanna join in on this let me know! I love help and friends! I'm bluespeckledegg on tumblr :) Much love, Katie xx