Okay so it's been a while since I've written anything for fanfiction but I've been getting a lot of followers even though I haven't even checked in for a few years now. Maybe I am good at this writing thing, so I'll try again also on Inkitt.

Have you ever thought about how life is great and everything is going as planned, like nothing matters and you are just living your life as a seven year old and you don't care about anything but having fun.

Well yeah that was me, Maxine or Max as my parents called me and as my baby brother Ari still mispronounced, he was still just a two year old so I couldn't blame him for that.

It was finally that time of the year where dad was coming home from fighting the war overseas, we only had a few days with him but it made everyone happy. Mom had planned everything for that night before she left with Dad to go out to dinner. The baby sitter was coming to stay with us while they were gone.

"We'll be home late Max, take care of your brother okay?" Mom smiled, kissed my forehead and I nodded, I always liked to be the older sister, the one in charge. Ari was playing with Dad, I loved to see them smile.

But everything changed that day after they said goodbye. The baby sitter stayed with us and everything was great, everything was great up until there was a knock on the door, Ari was asleep but I went up front to look out the window and see what was going on.

Police car lights flashing red and blue, right outside the house and the officer was talking to the babysitter about something and then I didn't understand she woke up Ari and started packing our clothes, the officer seemed like he was sad and there was nothing he could do.

"Max whas goin on" Ari came in rubbing his eyes "Where mommy?" I went over to him and took him in my arms. "Daddy?" he whispered and fell asleep in my arms again.

"What's going on?" I asked the officer and he shook his head, "What happened? Where are our parents?" the baby sitter gave two backpacks full of our clothes to the officer and then I was being pushed to the car. "I don't understand!" I shouted and everyone stopped.

"Maxine" The officer said crouching down to my eye level "There was an accident, a crash, I'm afraid you guys are going into a foster home."

"What's that?" I asked as I got in the back of the cop car.

"We're going to find you a new mommy and daddy"

"Wait! What are you doing!" I shouted as they took Ari away from me, "Hey leave him alone! He's my brother!" The lady smiled at me shyly and kept walking away. "You can't take him!"

"Maxine" someone called out but I didn't turn I ran to the doors after the woman holding my brother, Ari was struggling to get loose and come to me but they were already putting him in a car seat. "Maxine get back here!" The old woman that looked after us grabbed my arm and pulled me back, it had only been a few weeks since that night and now they were taking Ari away from me.

"Let me go!" I clawed at her to get loose, "Ari! I'm right here nothing's wrong!" I pulled and pulled but she wouldn't let me loose "Ari!"

"Max!" he squealed crying "Max!" he said my name again and again until it was muffled by the car door.

"You can't do this!" I shouted and the tears were coming to my eyes rolling down my cheeks "You can't take him! he's my brother!"

"Everything will be okay" the old lady whispered and I just stared as they took Ari away from me, the car sped down the road and all I could see was a sticker on the car that read Chicago.

"You promised we would stay together!" I was a wreck in tears now sitting there staring at the empty road. "You promised! I hate you!" I pushed her with all my strength and ran into the battered house into the old room and slammed the door shut. I was alone, it was just me now.

"Maxine!" The old hag shouted for me to come down, no one adopted older kids, they all wanted the new born babies, and they wouldn't go higher than four years old. "Your new family is here"

"Be right down" I muttered and grabbed my bag, it'd been three years since I last saw Ari and it had been at least eight homes I had been in that placed me right back in the system.

I walked around my shared room and took the last of my belongings. None of the kids liked me since I was always the one getting in trouble for wandering out into the town.

"Maxine this is your new family, they decided to adopt you from the start" the old hag seemed relieved to see me leave again. "They are going to be your permanent home okay?"

"Yeah yeah I know the drill" I sighed and smiled at the family, they were the parents and they had two kids already. "Nice to meet you"

"Nice to meet you too" The man said and shook my hand, "My name is Jeb and this is my wife Anne and our kids Sam he's twelve and Lissa she's seven" they all looked alike blond and blue eyed but the little girl was red headed and the older boy smiled a bit wickedly as he glanced me over.

"Hi I'm Maxine" I shrugged "You can call me Max"

"Max is a boys name" the little red head snorted. "And you dress like a boy too"

"Now Lissa" the mother said shaking her head "She's a poor girl, and she'll be living with us so we'll buy her better clothes" she smiled at her and then frowned at me, why did they even want me in their family.

"Everyone in the car then" Jeb seemed out of it, his eyes were on his phone and he looked at his watch "I have an important meeting" they all started to walk away to the door and the old lady stopped me in my tracks.

"This is a great family Max, stick to it" she hugged me and stood there frozen "You should be glad your adopted at your age"

"Yeah right" I rolled my eyes, the last few families had either beat me, used me as a slave, barely feed me, why would this one be so different? "See you never" I muttered and walked out of the battered house.

"She looked prettier in her picture" the boy said as he got in the car and I was mushed in the middle of the two.

"Be nice Sam" Jeb called out as he started the car.

Somehow I knew my life wouldn't get easier at any point...

So there you go, first story I'm posting after a few years, I hope you like it and sorry for any mistakes, be free to review if you like, thanks for reading and see you next time...