Cynophobia

When I was a little girl, my family was attacked by a pack of wolves. My mother, my father, and my brother were murdered. Animal control finally came before the wolves could finish me off, but I was brutally scarred: physically and mentally. I was taken to the local hospital and made a full recovery. Alone. I had no family for thousands of miles; no one wanted to see a mentally scarred little girl anyways.

Weeks after I had made a full recovery, I began living at Seattle's Home for Orphaned Children. I didn't make many friends there. One day, one of the ladies who worked there came up to me. I had never bothered to learn her name, "Bay, you're going to be adopted by a nice lady named Tiffany Call, she has one son named Embry, and he's going to be you're big brother. Doesn't that sound exciting?"

I wasn't sure what to think. I was what society knows as a genius. As a five year old, I was already in 3rd grade, yet even that was becoming too easy for me. I later learned that Embry, too, was in 3rd grade. I wondered if he would dislike me just because we would be in the same grade. I spent the last couple day in the orphanage in nervous anticipation. What if they don't like me? What if I grow attached again and then another pack of wolves comes and find me? What if I'm abused? I heard about that kind of thing from the older kids in the orphanage. They said some parents hit their kids and don't really love them. My biggest fear was probably to end up in a place like that. With wolves. I shuddered and went to bed. It was going to be a big day tomorrow.

When I woke up the next morning, all my things were gone. One of the worker ladies popped her head into my room and said, "Hey! You're new family is here to pick you up!" That lady needed to get off the caffeine. She was way too peppy.

I slowly got out of bed and put on the clothes the worker set out for me. After I did all that other daily routine stuff, I began pacing in the hallway in anticipation. Then, I started to overhear a conversation behind the wall. "So what does she look like?" asked the first voice.

"She has straight dark brown hair that goes down to her mid-back, large brown eyes, her skin is a light chestnut color, and she's about 3 feet tall," described the second voice. I looked down at myself; she was describing me!

Then the first lady, that I now assumed was Tiffany, exclaimed, "Oh this is so exciting! When can we meet her?"

I thought that was the perfect time to make my entrance. I tried not to appear too intelligent, just in case she was like the bullies at school that couldn't accept a 5-year-old in their 3rd grade class. I quietly walked in and scurried to go hide behind the worker lady that was talking to my future mother. They both smiled at me, apparently they found this cute. Good.

"Hello Veronica," Tiffany said bending down to my size. Veronica was my real name, Bay was a nickname, "My name is Tiffany, Embry and I are going to be your new family."

Suddenly, I felt patronized and I hated every minute of it. I didn't need to be talked down to; I understood more than the average 3rd grader to begin with, "I know what an adoption is. People call me Bay," I told her, demonstrating my intelligence.

"Bay? Okay. Well it almost slipped my mind just how intelligent you are. The school on the reserve is willing to accept you in whatever grade provides you with a challenge."

I had no idea that she would know already that I was in an advanced class, but I was excited, knowing that she already know I was super smart and still accepted me.

"Um... Where are my bags?" I inquired. I just noticed that they weren't in this room.

"Oh Embry took them to the car. When he gets back, we'll go," Tiffany replied. At the very moment, a young boy, probably a foot and a half taller than me walked in and stood my Tiffany, "Oh well, I guess we can go now. Thanks for everything Trisha." Tiffany waved at the worker lady, grabbed Embry and my hand, and we walked to her car.