Claire grimaced as a gaggle of shoppers swarmed around her, many of them laden with heavy bags and eyeing the shop displays hungrily – searching for a bargain.
"Enola!" a woman called from the doorway of a Café, "Over here, come quickly! I told you to stay in pairs!" Claire grimaced and sidled through the crowd to the woman who had called her, and the group of adolescents with her.
"Sue! Don't call me Enola, I hate it! Call me Claire!"
"Very well Claire" Her carer replied, "walk next to Jennifer, the bus is due in ten minutes and we don't want to be late for dinner, there's a dear." Sue finished distractedly as Claire fell obediently in line with Jen – a brown-eyed girl with freckly skin and more dark brown hair than she knew what to do with; said hair was currently scraped up into a messy ponytail.
Claire sighed, relieved. The group from the children's home had been traipsing around the mall on an obligatory 'field trip' for the last hour and a half – looking at beautiful clothes, sparkling jewellery and the latest games and DVDs – it would've been great, if she could afford any of it.
As they made their way towards the bus stop in crocodile fashion Claire pulled absent-mindedly at her frayed and worn t-shirt and stared at her oversized jeans, thinking of the gorgeous aqua blue satin top she had seen earlier. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the bus' horn and they all clambered aboard being checked off by another woman – Caitlyn. Claire plopped down on a seat near the back and longed for home – dreaming of the macaroni and cheese she had seen being prepared earlier.
"Tamara – what is that!?" Came Sue's outraged voice from the front of the bus. Claire didn't even bother to look up; Tamara was a compulsive liar and a thief to boot. Sure enough, Claire could hear her pleading her innocence;
"It's mine honest, my dad sent it to me, f-for my birthday… Please Sue… Please!"
"Oh really? And how do you explain the security tag?" Tamara remained silent,
"I have had enough of this behaviour young lady!" Sue stormed, Claire heard Tamara sniffle "No good crying now Tamara, you should've thought about that before you stole this! Come with me! We are going to return this and you are going to apologise!" Claire glanced at the scene and saw Sue seize Tamara by the hand and march her off the bus and back towards the mall; holding a ruby-red dress in the other hand – security tag clearly visible. Claire's stomach rumbled and she sighed loudly. It was another 15 minutes before Sue returned with a red-faced Tamara who sat down meekly and promptly averted her gaze to the floor.
Half an hour later and Claire was seated in the canteen wolfing down her macaroni cheese as fast as she could – second helpings were limited and mac 'n' cheese was her favourite. As she stood in the queue for her next helping, she turned her attention to the adult and carers table after hearing mention of her name…
"Yes well Enola has progressed very well – I think that's a wonderful idea, of course we'll have to run it by Rick-" Rick Claire thought... 'Rick' was Dr.Seilstein the resident psychiatrist. Every now and then Claire was ushered into his whitewashed office and probed about her feelings 'Was she sleeping well?' 'Had she had any problems?' 'How was her tutoring going?' she hated the prospect of another consultation with Dr.Seilstein who insisted on revisiting all the occasions she had been unhappy over the past 15 years, but was intrigued as to what they were referring to. She wouldn't have to wait long to find out, and it was going to change everything.
Okay so I have written fanfic before, but never on Hannah Montana and never for this site – reviews would be extremely helpful (:
Disclaimer: I do not own Hannah Montana© but oh, how I wish I did…