I went back and picked up some prompts from the bitesized_bones livejournal community, just to give me some inspiration. I'll gather them all here, (unless they get out of hand, lengthwise) and I want to update pretty reguarly.

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an alarmingly steep learning curve / she learns how to carve out her own personal space

Prompt: Brennan, the first time in foster care someone hit Brennan in her home

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After her first placement ends, her case worker drives her to a Children's Home at the other end of town.

"Just until we find you somewhere else," the woman says, cheerfully. "I'm sure you'll like being around other kids your age."

Temperance doesn't answer, leaning her head against the car window. In three weeks she will turn sixteen. The family she was staying with - a sweet, young couple, first time foster parents, looking to adopt - were taking in a younger child and couldn't look after them both.

"Nick and Kate really are sorry to see you go," her case worker adds, glancing over at her. "They want to keep seeing you sometimes."

"No, thank you," Temperance murmurs politely. Her case worker just nods.

They pull up to the Home, a largish building set back from the road. The yard is filled with abandoned toys. Inside, the owners sit with her case worker and go over paperwork. Temperance watches as her file is passed over. She sits on her hands and declines when someone offers her a drink. The chair is old, the orange fabric torn at the edge beneath her thighs. There's a spongy stuffing that she presses her nails into it while the meeting drags on.

"We're pretty full at the moment," the woman, Jane, tells her. "But we can squeeze you in." She smiles broadly, guiding Temperance up the stairs. "Do you have a nickname? Temperance is kind of a mouthful!"

"Just Temperance."

"Okay. Here we go." The room is not large but can comfortably fit two single beds, two chests of drawers, two desks and a wardrobe. Along side that, a third bed has been squeezed in, with a bedside table. "You'll have to share the drawers and desks," Jane says regretfully. "It's just temporary, until things ... move around."

The two other girls in the room are called Gloria and Lucy. Jane introduces them, asks Gloria to show Temperance around, then disappears.

Gloria is seventeen, all harsh edges and cigarette smoke. "Don't touch my shit," she snaps and leaves. Lucy is small and pale and looks about eight. She is curled up under the duvet on her bed, the covers tucked up above her nose. Temperance looks around and hesitates, then simply slides her bags under the bed rather than unpack.

The sheets are clean, but feel a little rough - overwashed, over bleached. The pillow is thin and hard. Temperance lies down and tries to ignore the gaze of the other girl.

It's not all that bad, once she gets into the routine of it. Timetables for the bathrooms, shared chores, curfews: Temperance lets herself slide mindlessly into it. With so many children in one home, the noise goes on and on, even through the night. She turns sixteen with little fuss: there's cake at dinner time, but one of the other kids blows out her candles and then a fight breaks out before she cuts the cake. Nick and Kate send a card with a twenty dollar bill and a photo of themselves and the little boy they are looking forward to adopting. Lucy draws her a picture and leaves it on her pillow.

Though she tries to do all her school work at school, given the noise and lack of privacy at the Home, one night she sits at Gloria's desk to try and finish the homework she didn't get done at lunchtime. Gloria doesn't use the desk to work, just as a surface to pile shoplifted CDs and makeup. Still, when she comes in the room she snaps, pulling Temperance from the chair by her hair and hitting her over and over again. Temperance lies still, in shock, not sure how she should respond.

They get pulled apart by the staff members working that night. Temperance sits in the office with her back ramrod straight while they are both lectured at for fighting. She considers pleading her case, that she didn't fight, she just lay back and took it, but she doesn't know these people and they snap at Gloria for interrupting, so she stays quiet.

Next time Gloria hits her, she hits back, hard. There's a moment pause, and a glint of almost respect in the other girl's eyes. The time after that, Gloria gathers a few friends and catches her on the way home for school. Temperance throws all of Gloria's things off the desk and into the bin and when Gloria comes in she shoves her backwards so hard, the other girl's head bounces off the doorframe.

She's there for six months, and she's always covered in bruises, but she's learnt how to fight back, how to glare sullenly at social workers while they lecture her, how to carve out her own personal space with violence and anger.