Chapter 1
(Kagami)
Skipping to another song on my portable CD I watched the scenery flash as my social worker talked to me trying to figure out why I was being moved yet again. I believe she was telling how much better this one would be, yeah right.
"Are you listening to me Kagami?" Rolling my eyes I turned to her and plastered a fake smile on my face and nodded, "Take off the headphones, now." Heaving a sigh I pulled off my headphones and put them down around my neck giving her my 'undivided' attention.
"Yes?" I cocked an eyebrow and snapped my gum.
"Now the new school you will be going to is a bit different from your old ones, it isn't an all girl one, there will be boys there and I hope you will interact more with your fellow students." Helen hooked a few strands of blond hair behind her ear and slanted a look at me, "Hopefully you'll get in less fights and enjoy your foster home more." There was a moment of silence before, "Why don't you use my cover up to hide that bruise on your cheek, first impressions are important." Reaching into her purse I yanked out her small thing of cover up she always had with her and flipped down the sun visor. Using the little mirror I surveyed the nasty bruise on my cheek that was what I got from beating up the neighbor's nasty son who had shorn my hair short. Carefully I dabbed some of the stuff on my bruise and carefully blended it in. My blond hair was sticking out at odd angles from my head and I was sure it was all Helen could to do to not take me to get it fixed. My hair didn't even come to my chin now; all the way around it was at different lengths, a pair of dark sunglasses hid my eyes.
"Can I listen to my music now?" I demanded.
"No, we're here." Looking out the window I evaluated the house, it was two levels with a wrap around porch, in the driveway there were three cars, a Subaru Explorer, an F250 diesel truck and a Jeep. "What do you think?"
"I won't last long." I picked up my shoulder bag and shoved my CD played in it before getting out of the car and heading for the trunk where my duffle bag was.
"You could be a little more optimistic." Helen watched me extract my bag from the back of her car.
"Yeah, being optimistic is right up there on my list of thing to do, right underneath doing the can-can buck naked in the middle of Main Street." I hiked all my worldly possessions onto my shoulder and headed for the house.
"It wouldn't kill you." She was right in step with me.
"I think it might." We reached the door and she knocked firmly on the wood of the screen door.
"No! I do not want to buy anything! Do I have to spell it out for you?" Helen took five steps back and dragged me with her just before the door slammed open, "Oh, Helen, how are you?" It was an old woman with an eye patch over her left eye; she walked with the help of a cane.
"Doing just fine Kaede, I'm here with your newest foster child." Helen nudged me and gave me a look.
"What's your name child?" Kaede questioned.
"Kagami," I stated watching her.
"How old are you?" She gave me a once over.
"17" I shifted my duffle waiting for the interrogation to end.
"Do you have a problem with authority?"
"No."
"Well I'll be going," Helen patted me on the head before hotfooting it back to the car.
"Come in, I'll introduce you to the others." Kaede stepped back and shuffled into the next room with me following, "Miwa! Akima! Keelin! Ciarda!"
"Right here." A female voice said, "Hi, my name is Miwa." Turning I saw a girl in blue jeans and a green tank top sitting in a big easy chair, her hair was white and her eyes were a piercing gold.
"What?" Another girl dashed into the room a pair of scissors in hand two more trailing behind her.
"This is your new foster sister Kagami." Kaede informed them.
"Hey," the one with scissors smiled, "I'm Akima, but you can call me Aki." Her hair was the bright orange color that leaves turn in autumn and her eyes were this bright acid green. She wore a hot pink halter top, tight blue hip hugging jeans that were splattered in paint, there were at least two rings on each of her fingers and tons of bangles went up her arms.
"Keelin, everyone usually calls me Lin," this one had dark brown hair and even darker blue eyes. Her top was a light blue short sleeve shirt and khaki kapris.
"Ciarda." Her hair was pitch black with dark scarlet streaks running through it and her black eyes seemed almost sinister with the mascara that had been heavily brushed on. Her outfit was a black shirt that exposed her belly its sleeves were three quarters long, her black khaki pants were too big for her and had to be held up with a black leather belt. On her hands were black cut off gloves; her feet were in black boots and her make up consisted of black eyeliner, mascara, eye shadow and lipstick. Her nails were painted black and her many piercings were silver.
"Why don't you show her to her room and make her feel at home, dinner will be at five." Kaede then left me alone with them.
"Ciarda, you show her the house and then we'll meet in mine and talk!" Aki said before heading upstairs with Keelin following.
"This way." Ciarda meandered back to the room I had first entered, "Dining room," it was moderately large with a nice table and china cabinet. "Kitchen," It was rather small with everything above, under or next a counter that was in the corner. The corner had a window on either side of it over the sink; on both sides of the windows were cabinets. The dishwasher was to the left of the sink and at the far end of the right side of the counter was a fridge and freezer. Parallel to the main counter was an island counter with nothing on it and bar stools all around.
"Living room," back into the room where Miwa was, there was one big easy chair, one rocker, a love seat, a couch and a glass coffee table. A TV was in a wooden cabinet with the VCR, DVD player, stereo and other things on one side and speakers on the floor on each side. A large picture window looked out over the backyard and the two bookshelves were brimming with books. "Hall," there was nothing special, pictures on the wall, another cabinet but with trinkets in it. "Kaede's room." The door was open showing Spartan living conditions. "Stairs." Up we went, "Spare room." There was an ironing board in there, a desk with a computer on it and two wardrobes. "Miwa's room." It was a small room painted yellow, there were bundles of dried herbs and flowers hanging from the ceiling. "Lin and Aki's room," I didn't get to see it. "Our room and the bathroom."
"Thank you." I walked into our room and dropped my bag on the double bed that was obviously not being used seeing as how it was made up.
"Yup, come on, Aki wants to talk, she'll give you the low down." Ciarda showed me back to their room.
"So how do you like it?" Aki asked stepping back allowing us to see Lin's new hairdo.
"Nice," I complimented, there were two braids on each side of her head that came back into a bigger braid that was comprised of lots of little braids.
"I agree with the new girl." Ciarda nodded and plopped down on the bottom bunk.
"Ok, what grade are you going into?" Aki asked, "Would you like me to trim your hair?"
"Sure," I sat down in the chair she indicated, "I'm going into twelfth grade."
"Oh really?" I heard the sound of snipping scissors, "Miwa and Ciarda are too, and Lin and I are juniors."
"Ok," I stared into the mirror in front of me watching her happily cut away.
"In this house the only real rule is to not get on Kaede's bad side, she is an ex-cop you know." Aki told me and nodded at my look of disbelief, "If you need anything all of us will help you at any time. We'll do our introductions now, as I said my name is Akima. I love to do people's hair, mine is dyed, I also do the streaks in Ciarda's, Lin won't let me dye hers, it's such a pity. Do mind if I give you a guy hair cut? I never get to practice them."
"No, I don't mind." I pushed my sunglasses further up to the bridge of my nose.
"Well any ways, I was left at a hospital when I was two days old. I've always been in foster care." She flashed me a grin in the mirror.
"My parents died in a fire and none of my relatives wanted me." Lin spoke from somewhere to my left, "I've been in foster care since I was twelve."
"My parents left me at a train station when I was seven and I entered into this lovely system when I was thirteen, six years on the street." Ciarda put in, "Your turn."
"I was taken from my family when I was thirteen, they were deemed unfit to provide for me so I was put into the system." I stated this flatly because I didn't want to remember.
"Miwa will tell you her past when she's ready, it usually takes her some time." Lin explained.
"How do you like it?" Aki demanded holding a mirror up behind me, my blond hair was short for a girl but rather long for a boy and bangs fell into my eyes.
"I love it." I stood up and gave her a grin.
"Dinner!" Miwa called and we all headed downstairs.
There you go....short I know....all my chapters are short....another one of my short comings....hahaha....awful pun....