"This is going to be good for you, you know. There'll be more a lot more children here than at home."
"Sounds great. It'll be noisy and chaotic."
He sighs. Thomas is his name, and apparently he's her social worker. She's only known him for a few hours though, so his name is practically all she knows about him. She's usually quite a trusting person, but it's kind of hard to trust someone if all you have to go off of is their name, "Look, I know that this will be quite the adjustment for you, but please try to be polite."
She has to stop herself from scoffing at his statement. Of course she'll be polite to the people working at this new place, well, as long as they're polite to her. She was always taught to be polite. Well, she was always forced to be polite. She doesn't mind using her manners, but she still despises the fact that it was practically hard-wired into her brain. They always made her act like the perfect little angel, at least in front of those who mattered. The habit kind of stuck, at least towards adults. Most of the time (but not all) when she says something rude to an adult, she's quick to correct it. It's an unwanted instinct.
"And here we are."
She glances up from her phone and looks out of the darkened back window of the car. A large house stands before her, it's exterior a creamy sort of colour whilst it's door and window frames have been painted a reddish-maroon colour. The colours are very different to that of her house, but it's quite a nice combination all the same.
She opens up the car door before Thomas can get to it himself. She doesn't need anyone else's help. She's always dealt with everything herself, and she doesn't want to stop now. Once she's out of the car she moves to the back of the car, opening up the boot and pulling out her stuff. She hasn't got much with her; the rest of her stuff is getting brought over within the next couple of days, apparently. She filled a backpack with the essentials and grabbed her electric guitar before she hastily rushed away. The guitar was a gift from her grandfather before he died. He was the only person who truly cared about her, but now he's gone, and the guitar is the only she has left that he ever gave her. It's far too important to leave behind.
"Here, I'll take that for you."
He reaches for the guitar and she quickly pulls it back defensively. She notices the confusion on his face and hastily covers it up, "No, thanks. I've got it."
"Okay, well, follow me." There's a hint of awkwardness in his voice, which he tries to cover up by being overly cheery, "This is going to be so exciting."
She doubts that, but she chooses not to mention that and instead follows Thomas up to the front door of the house. He knocks on the red wood twice before stepping back a few paces, standing ready as a tall bald man comes to the door. The man shakes Thomas' hand first before turning to her, greeting her with a warm smile and an outstretched hand.
"And you must be Riley. Is that right?"
She shakes his hand respectfully and nods, "Yes, sir."
"Call me Mike." He smiles and steps to the side, "Come on in."
Thomas walks in first and Riley trails in after him, being careful to ensure that her guitar doesn't hit against anything. There's a lady waiting just inside of the house alongside a girl who appears to be about her age. Mike is the one to introduce them,
"Riley, this is Gina." He points to the lady before pointing to the girl, "And this is Tee. The two of you will be sharing a room. Is that okay?"
Riley nods. She doesn't mind sharing a room. She wasn't expecting to just turn up to this place and get a nice big room all to herself. Life doesn't work like that. Besides, she's never shared a room before, so it's not like she has any past experiences to reference.
"Why don't you go upstairs with Tee whilst Gina and I talk to your social worker."
Riley nods and turns to Tee, who smiles back at her and speaks in a kind voice, "Yeah, follow me, Riley."
Riley listens and follows her new roommate upstairs whilst her social worker and the care worker's walk inside of what Riley only presumes is the office. She doubts that they'd hold conversations with social workers in living rooms, anyways, so that brings her to the logical conclusion that they're heading into the office.
They head up the stairs and to a nearby room. Tee opens the door and walks inside and Riley follows after her, smiling at the sight of the room. It's colourful and homely and albeit smaller than her room back at home, but Riley likes that it's smaller. She hated having all of that empty space; she'd much rather have less space if it actually gets used.
"We moved a mattress in here just this morning." Tee says, motioning to a mattress with a pink quilt on it, "You can put your stuff there, if you want, and then I can help you unpack."
"I don't need your help!" Riley snaps harshly. She instantly feels bad when she sees the hurt look on Tee's face, and is quick to apologise for it, "I'm sorry. I've just always dealt with everything on my own. I'm not a huge fan on relying on others to help me do things."
"That's okay. You can unpack in your own time." Tee replies, although Riley can still sense some uneasiness in her voice, "That's a really cool guitar you've got."
Riley glances over at the instrument in question before looking back to Tee, "Thanks."
"You should talk to Rick if you like guitars. He's a boy who lives here." Tee clarifies when Riley looks at her in confusion, "He loves music more than anyone else in the house."
Riley smiles at that. If there's somebody in this house that she shares a common interest with, then perhaps it won't be so bad after all. Having at least one person to relate to can make a bleak situation much better. Riley knows that from experience.
"I'll leave you to unpack."
Riley nods and watches as Tee walks out of the room and closes the door behind her. Once she's alone Riley looks around her new room and smiles. It is much more friendly than her room back at home. Maybe it won't be so bad here after all.
"Guys, this is Riley. She just arrived this morning."
"Why didn't anybody tell me?" A boy dressed in formal clothes and carrying a notebook walks over to Riley and Tee, a frustrated expression on his face, "I have to give her a tour of the house when she arrives like I do for everyone else."
Riley looks at him with confusion, "But why?"
"Because I always give all of the new people a tour of the house."
Riley looks over at Tee for clarification, to which she nods, "He's right. Everyone gets to go on the 'Gus Tour'."
"And I take it that means you're Gus." Riley says as she looks back over at the smartly dressed boy.
"Yes." The boy writes something down in his notebook before looking back at Riley, "Follow me so we can start the tour."
Riley sees no point in arguing with Gus on the matter. Yes, he may be a bit abrupt and eccentric, but she could do with a tour of the place. She doesn't even know where the bathroom is yet, which is something she's definitely going to need to know. If somebody who seems relatively friendly is offering her a tour of the place, who is she to turn them down?
She follows Gus out of the main living room where some of the kids are stood around the pool table at the end of the room and follows him down the hall and into the kitchen, where a tall, slim black girl is stood at the kitchen counters alongside Gina.
"This is the kitchen. We eat all our meals in here, unless we're having a party, in which case we eat food in the living room as well." Gus explains, pointing towards the tall girl with his pen, "This is Faith. She only moved in a couple of weeks ago. She was the new girl until you arrived. Now you're the new girl."
"Right." Riley conceals the amusement on her face at Gus' response. He sure is...interesting, to say the least. She nods over at Faith and gives her a smile, "Hey. I'm Riley."
"Faith."
"I already said that!" Gus shouts abruptly, the same look of frustration that was on his face earlier returning, "No talking on the tour!"
Riley holds her hands up dismissively, opting for a silent apology as opposed to a verbal one. She doesn't understand why, but this tour seems important to Gus, and despite barely knowing him, she doesn't want to ruin it for him. As Gus makes his way for the next part of his tour Riley silently waves goodbye to Faith and Gina before following after him, the two of them smiling warmly back as she follows after the boy.
Gus shows her the garden next. Riley likes it. It's spacious and different and looks like a lot of fun to run around and play sports in. Riley's always been a big fan of sports (she used to play a ton when she was much younger, although she hasn't had much of a chance in recent years), and she hopes that somebody else in the care home shares the same interest.
Gus leads her inside and past the main living room, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that Gus is going to show her the bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs next. They first stop in a room with pink walls and pink items galore to accompany them. There's two beds in the room, one with a pink quilt (shocker!), and one with a quilt more blue in colour. The blue is an odd contrast against the mostly pink decor of the room.
"This is Carmen's room. Lily stays here when she's on respite care. Lily used to live here with her little sisters, Poppy and Rosie, but they both got fostered and live with a new family now. Lily lives with her Dad and his girlfriend."
"Gus, how do you know all of this?"
"No talking!" Gus shouts, Riley holding her hands up dismissively once again. It's really difficult not to talk, especially when you've been told not to.
She slips into silence once again as Gus leads her to the next room, which has been painted dark blue and, like the previous room, also contains two beds. Although, unlike the previous room, these two beds are as far away from each other as it seems to be possible.
"This is Elektra's room. Her real name is Mandy, but I wouldn't call her that unless you want a target on your back. Faith shares this room with Elektra, but neither of them are really happy about it."
Riley nods mutely. She already has quite a few questions, but judging by Gus' last two outbursts, she thinks that it's best to leave them be until the end of the tour. Gus shows her various other rooms on the tour, and remarkably Riley manages to remember who stays in which room. Rick and Tyler share the room covered in rock and roll posters, Frank resides in the Manchester United themed room (lucky guy, he gets a room all to himself), Harry, the youngest person in the house, has a cool jungle themed room with giraffe wallpaper. Riley bets that the kid has quite the imagination. Gus and Johnny both have tidy rooms with calmly coloured walls and Jody (yet another kid who is lucky enough to have her own room), lives in a room with some cool wall art. Gus said that the room used to belong to a girl called Sapphire, who is apparently quite the artist.
"And that's all of the rooms in the Dumping Ground?"
"Why is it called the Dumping Ground?" Riley asks as they stop outside one of the bathrooms, which is the next stop on the tour. Gus looks aggravated that she's spoken up, but before he can complain she quickly interjects, "I know you said 'no talking', but can you just answer this one question, and then I'll shut up for the rest of your tour. Deal?"
Gus doesn't say anything for a few moments, and for a brief second Riley thinks that she's won him over, but he soon crushes her hope with his next outburst, "No questions until the end of the tour!"
Riley sighs. Whilst living here will definitely be interesting, it's going to be quite the adjustment. An adjustment she's just going to have to get used to.