"Come on now, it will be fine." Katherine, the social worker, was smiling reassuringly but there was unmistakable fear in her eyes.
The dark blonde-haired girl just shrugged, staring up at Katherine with her bright green eyes. Katherine led the girl towards the door, and knocked.
"Oh, this must be the new girl, Lianne was it?" a man was standing at the door, tall and somewhat menacing. "I'm Dennis." He said, nodding curtly.
Katherine and Lianne stepped in, looking around them.
"Just step into my office, please." Dennis said, leading Katherine into that office. "You, stay here." He said, before entering himself.
Lianne sat on the edge of a waiting chair, staring around. There wasn't much color here…everything was dull.
Lianne tied her hair into a plait, her fingers threading expertly and quickly, since she had a lot of practice at doing hair. She remembered her mum teaching her and felt her stomach drop a little. A tear leaked from her eye and slid smoothly down her cheek.
Katherine came out of the office and caught Lianne crying quietly. "Oh Lianne." She said, and she hugged the girl. "It will be fine, I promise you. Call me if anything goes wrong, alright?" she said, and slipped a card with her number on into Lianne's bag, just before Dennis came out. "Right, see you in about 2 weeks' time for the check-up, okay Lianne?" she said, before leaving.
"What check-up?" Dennis asked.
"She means she's going to come see how I'm getting on." Lianne said.
"Well, whatever. Your room is upstairs, third on the left." He said, before exiting.
Lianne went upstairs, and went into the third one on the left. It was empty, which meant she obviously wasn't sharing. She unpacked her stuff and hid the most precious stuff, and then she sat on the bed, tears rolling freely down her cheeks now.
When she'd cried most of her hurt out, she prepared herself and headed out of her room.
"Oh, hello." There was a boy with…a sort of afro of curly hair standing there. "You're new right? I'm Tyler."
"I'm Lianne." She introduced. "Nice to meet you, even if…it's not in the best way." She gestured to the place around them.
Tyler laughed. "Come on, come meet the others." He said, leading her into the living room.
Lianne met the ones in the living room; Sam, Maya, Jack, Olivia, Rick, Lizanne, Josh, Kitty, Harley and Zack.
Soon enough, she had made friends with all of them…that was, until another two came in. They were tall, and one was a girl, one was a boy. They were obviously oldest, and they had a smirk on their faces.
"Katie and George." Rick whispered to Lianne. "The bullies of the house."
"Who's the new girl?" George asked. Nobody answered.
"He just asked you a question." Katie said, menacingly.
"She's Lianne." Rick said calmly.
"Lianne? What a pathetic name." George said, rolling his eyes.
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words from pathetic little children will never hurt me." Lianne said calmly.
A sharp breath could be heard, followed by quiet gasps.
"Did you just talk back to me?" George said, grabbing Lianne's arm and pulling her up off of the couch. He wasn't that much taller than her, so Lianne only had to tilt her head a little to stare him straight in the face.
"Yeah, I did. You got a problem with that?" Lianne said.
"Actually, yes." George said and his hands slammed down on Lianne's shoulders, throwing her down. She hit the floor with a thud, and George began to kick her in her side, and he got dangerously near to her face.
"George, leave her, she's new, she'll learn." Katie said, pulling him back.
George softened. "Okay. But next time, you'll get it, Li." He said, and Katie left the room, forcing him to follow.
Lianne got to her feet and went over to a mirror. There were bruises on her neck and when she lifted her top ever so slightly to look, there were far more on her hip. She shuddered and put it down.
Everyone was staring at her, astounded.
"I, um, I think I left something precious in my room, I'll be…back later." Lianne said, running from the others.
She entered her room and saw it was trashed; her things were scattered on the floor, and she discovered the picture of her family and the locket her mother gave her, along with the money Lianne had got from them…they were gone.
"No, NO!" Lianne shouted, desperately going through her things. "Please, no!"
She sat on her bed and began to cry properly this time. Quietly, but she was still making noise.
Someone knocked on her door. Lianne looked up and saw Tyler come in.
"What happened?" he asked, looking around the place. "They stole stuff didn't they?"
"I don't know who…but my only picture of my family, and my mother's locket…and the money I inherited from them…it's all gone." Lianne said, putting her head in her hands.
Tyler put a hand on her shoulder and left the room, going into Katie's. "That's her stuff you've got there." He said angrily.
"Yeah, what're you gonna do?" Katie said.
"It's the only stuff she's got left of her family, Katie." Tyler growled. "Give it back to her, it's only her first day."
"Fine. If you want me to give them back, you have to do something for me." Katie said, and she began to whisper in Tyler's ear.