Tempe woke up in her bed. It was a gradual process, first one of her brown eyes blinked open, and then the other. She stretched her arms out, and then she realized. It was Sunday. No school. She swung her long legs out of the bed and went into her bathroom to get dressed; showering, brushing her long brown hair, and then her teeth. She ran lightly downstairs, into the living room, where rays of yellowy white light bounced of the walls. She loved this house, it had been her home for 15 years, and her parents had said nothing about moving. She liked the way the wooden beams in the ceiling looked, and the way she always knew that she was safe here, nothing bad had ever happened to her, while in this house. She felt protected here, it was her safe place. She saw no-one in the dining room, and so she headed into the kitchen her bare feet padding softly on the wooden boards. She peered into the kitchen, but saw no one. That was strange; her mother was always up before her. "The morning is the best part of the day, if you miss it, you miss the most important part of the day," was one of her favourite sayings.
"Mum!" Tempe yelled up the stairs. She received a yell back, but not from the person she'd expected.
"Jesus, Tempe, you trying to wake us all up?! I already have a splitting headache from last night," her brother Russ shouted back.
"I was just wondering where Mum was."
"Yeah, I kinda got that. What with the whole yelling up the stairs so early." Tempe could almost see her brother rolling his eyes. They had there arguments, but she knew that her brother was always there to protect her.
"It not early, it's nearly 11, and if you didn't want to be woken up this early you should have got up earlier." Tempe walked away from the bottom of the stairs. She knew she could always get the last word in. She may have been 4 years younger, but she was just as smart as he was. Her brother was still at home, but going to college part time. The rest of the time he was working as a mechanic, in some small garage somewhere, she wasn't to clear on the details. To be honest, she wasn't really that interested in cars and couldn't tell one kind from another.
"And by the way," shouted Russ, "I haven't seen Mum or Dad in the house. I think they've gone out."
"They went out without telling us?" She stopped walking away.
"Ah come on Tempe, you still need mummy and daddy awound awll the time?"
"Oh just **** off," she shot back at him.
"Now, now, what would mummy and daddy thwink if they heard their little Tempe using wanguage like that?" her replied as he walked away laughing.
Tempe ground her teeth together. Her brother really got on her nerves sometimes. She went in to the kitchen and grabbed some breakfast, a piece of toast and some orange juice. After that she settled down to work on her homework and do some revision, science, mainly chemistry and biology (they were her favorites), English and sociology. There were always exams coming up, and she needed to stay on top of things. The sun moved across the sky quickly, and when she finally stopped working she was surprised to see it was sunset, almost 5 o clock. The door banged with the sound of someone entering the house, and she slowly got up out of her position in the dining room and went to see who it was. Probably Mum and Dad.
But it wasn't them, it was just Russ.
"Where'd you go?" she asked.
"None of your business nosy, just out. I am an adult y'know, I am allowed to do that, unlike you."
"Alright, alright, I just didn't hear you go out that's all."
"Yeah, I saw you so engrossed in your work. I don't know how you manage it," he shook his head and walked away. "Oh by the way, are Mum and Dad back yet?"
"No," she said worriedly. "You don't think something's happened to them do you? Maybe we should call the police?"
"No point now. They'll only say they have to wait 24 hours before doing anything, and they'll probably send social services round."
"Fine, I'll won't then. I was just worried," she said crossly. Russ sighed.
"Alright, I tell you what, if they're not back by tomorrow morning, we'll call the police. Happy?"
"Sure," she said unenthusiastically, and after making herself her sandwich went back upstairs to her room to put on music, and while away the hours.
The next morning she woke to knocks on her door. She got out of bed and padded to the top of the stairs, to see Russ answering the door to 2 cops. He'd heard her coming to the stairs and he looked at her with a slightly panicked look.
"I called the cops like you wanted Tempe; but they say you have to go with them now. They don't know where Mum and Dad are. I told them that I could take care of you, but they said there is a whole load of paperwork that has to be done before that."
"If you'll dress and come with us please, miss," one of the coppers said, as she was still in her pajamas. Tempe felt scared, but tried to keep her voice calm when she asked,
"Should I pack some things?"
"That would probably be a good idea. We don't know how long you'll be staying with us. If you parents show up you'll probably be able go straight away, but if not, we don't know." She nodded and went into the bathroom, dressed and packed some clothes and a few of her possessions. She ran down the stairs and put her shoes on, Russ standing nearby all the while. She had heard arguing when she had been upstairs, presumably Russ fighting for her to stay here, with him. She walked out the door, not knowing if or when she would be coming back. The cops followed her and walked to their car and stood next to it, waiting for her as she said goodbye to her brother. She faced her brother.
"Bye," he said.
"Bye," she said and hugged him. They broke away and she walked towards the policemen's car.
"I'll get you out of this, I promise," he called out to her back as she walked away. And she believed him.
She didn't know that he would get her out of the foster system. She didn't know he would then ditch her. She didn't know that she would then live some of the worst years of her life in the foster system. She didn't know that it would actually be her grandfather who got her out. She didn't know she would go on to be a world famous anthropologist. She didn't know she would have an amazing partner called Booth who would love her with all his heart.