Suzie walked through the front door of Elm Tree house, her social worker not far behind her. She looked around. From where she was standing she could see a sofa and some stairs, there was also a corridor off to her right that led to the main part of the house. In front of her some grown ups were coming out of a room and walking over to her. One was a middle-aged man and another was a rather large colored lady. Following them was a young adult with dark hair. She recognized her as Tracy Beaker from the TV.

The man came forward and extended his hand. Suzie took it.

"Hello Susannah, I'm Mike." he said smiling. She smiled back and then turned to the colored lady. She smiled at Suzie also extending her hand, again Suzie took it.

"I'm Gina, why don't you come through to the office." the colored lady said gesturing her to move forward. Tracy went first and then she followed into the office. "Take a seat, Susannah."

"It's Suzie." she said, not liking her full name.

"Oh sorry dear." Gina replied smiling. Suzie sat down, and looked around. The office was quite untidy and there were files everywhere. The rest of the adults came in and sat down.

"I hope you have a good time here at Elm Tree, Suzie." Mike said.

"Yeh we all do. The kids are really nice here as well, everyone is friends with everyone." said Tracy.

"You can sort out your room later, but for now while we talk to your social worker, why don't you go through and meet the rest of the group. They will be in the living room which is just along the corridor. Just follow the noise and you will find it." said Mike. Suzie nodded and then got up and walked through the door. She was really nervous, she always got nervous when she met new people. She had never been to a care home in the 12 years of her life. She got to the opening that led to the living room and stopped.

Do I really want to do this? She asked herself. Oh, get a life Suzie, I'm going to have to meet them at some point.

She moved forward and was hit with a wave of noise and screaming kids. She stepped through the opening and the room went deadly silent. Every head turned her way. She smiled hoping that she didn't look to timid. Two girls came up to her.

"Hey I'm Carmen, you must be Susannah." said a girl with dark skin and long dark hair. She smiled back.

"I prefer Suzie." she replied. The other girl smiled then the other girl stepped forward.

"I'm Lily." she said. Again Suzie smiled at her not really knowing what to say.

From the sofa another girl stood up. She was very different from the rest of the group. She was quite tall with brown hair that had blue bits at the ends.

"Susannah! What kind of a name is that!" she smirked and stormed off past her making sure to knock into her on the way.

"That's Elektra, just ignore her, we all do. She'll come round eventually" said Carmen reassuringly, Suzie felt a little better at that. Carmen took her arm then and moved her around the room introducing her to everyone. She pointed to a girl with frizzy, brown hair.

"That's Sapphire." the girl looked up.

"Hey."

Carmen then pointed to a small boy that was sat next to Sapphire, clutching a toy giraffe.

"That's Harry." Harry looked at her with big eyes and gave Suzie a cheeky grin. The Carmen moved to a boy and a girl.

"This is Tee and her brother Johnny." she said and Tee replied.

"Hey, how are you?"

"I'm good thanks." replied Suzie. She was swiftly moved on to two more boys that were looking at some comics.

"This is Toby and Gus. Toby likes reading comics and Gus likes... the piano." she said. Both boys looked up from reading the comic, the boy with the dark hair got up and extended his hand.

"Welcome, I am Gus."

"Hi, I'm Suzie." she replied.

"Moving on..." Said Carmen pulling her away. She moved over to the last two boys who were playing pool. "This is Liam and Frank." One of the boys came over to her and shook her hand, when he spoke it was weird and she couldn't understand much of what he said.

"Hello, I'm Frank." she smiled at him.

"He has cerebral palsy." said Carmen and Suzie nodded and then smiled at the boy, feeling sorry for him. She glanced over at the other boy, he was tall, with brown hair. He was wearing a t-shirt, jeans and a hoodie. He was looking at her and smiling. She smiled back.

WOW! He is fit! She thought to herself. He moved forward to her and also extended his hand.

"I'm Liam." he said with a strong accent. She shook his hand.

"I'm Suzie..." she replied. Just then she heard Gina's voice from behind her and she turned letting go of Liam's hand.

"I see you have met everyone." Suzie nodded. "Well you and Carmen are sharing a room, so you can go and get your stuff and Carmen will show you to your room.

"Yeh sure lets go." said Carmen already dragging Suzie along with her. They got Suzie's stuff and then headed up the stairs and into one of the rooms. The walls were pink and there were two beds in there. There was make up on a dresser to one side of the room and a massive wardrobe on the other. Carmen put down some of Suzie's things next to one of the beds and then went over to the other one and laid down on it. Suzie put her bags down and sat on the other bed. Carmen sat up and looked at her.

"We are going to be best friends!" she said happily. Suzie smiled at her, she was glad that she had finally made a new friend.

A while later Gina called them down for dinner. They got up and headed down stairs and into the kitchen. Everyone was already sat at the table. There were two spare chairs next to Liam. Suzie smiled and sat on the chair next to him. He looked at her for a moment and then back at everyone else. The adults brought over some plates with some pizza on it. They ate the pizza and had some ice cream for pudding and then everyone went into the living room to play before they went to bed. Carmen, Suzie and Lily sat at the table and looked through some girly magazines.

"We are going to have so much fun together, here." said Carmen.

"Yeh, and I will be round here everyday as well." said Lily. Suzie was puzzled at Lily's last sentence.

"Don't you live here too?" Suzie asked.

"No, Tracy and her mum are fostering me for now." replied Lily. "But hey, I'm still going to hang out with you guys, everyday!" Suzie and Carmen both smiled at her.

They sat in silence just reading their magazines for a while longer. Suzie looked up at one point at the pool table, only to find that Liam was looking at her. She smiled at him. She thought it was a little strange that he was looking at her but she didn't mind it. Just then Carmen looked up and looked at Liam and then at Suzie and began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Suzie asked confused. Carmen calmed down a little.

"Tell you later..." she replied and then continued to giggle. Suzie continued to read her magazine. She sensed movement and looked up to find Elektra standing over them. Lily and Carmen had both stopped reading as well. Elektra looked at them and then their magazines.

"Girly magazines, that's really childish!" she said. Carmen stood up then and folded her arms.

"Just go away Elektra! Magazines aren't childish. Just because you don't read doesn't mean that you can pick on us. What have we ever done to you!" Carmen stated. Elektra looked a little embarrassed and Suzie had to stop herself from laughing. Elektra stormed off again and Carmen sat down again.

A little while later Gina and Mike came in.

"Lily it's time for you to go home now. And the rest of you need to go to bed." Gina said and everyone started moving.

"I'll see you two tomorrow then." said Lily and she hugged Carmen and Suzie before going off. Carmen and Suzie then went to their room and got ready for bed.

Laying on her bed Suzie looked over at Carmen who was looking back at her.

"So what do you think of the Dumping Ground so far?" Carmen asked.

"The Dumping Ground?" Suzie asked puzzled.

"That's what we call it here, because it's a dump for us kids." Carmen answered.

"Oh, well, it's good so far. Everyone is nice, well apart from Elektra." Suzie replied.

"And what about Liam?" Carmen asked. Suzie could feel herself blushing.

"Um, well, um he is um well um..." she started not really knowing what to say.

"He likes you." said Carmen.

"What! He doesn't, does he?" Suzie replied.

"Yeh, he keeps looking at you and then when I introduced him to you he went all weird. He always has something to say but he didn't then." Carmen stated. "You like him, don't you!"

"Well, yeh a little I guess..." she replied, now really embarrassed.

"Don't worry, I wont tell anyone!" Carmen said and then the two of them snuggled down in their beds.

This is going to be great! She thought.

Well that's chapter 1 out of the way, did you like it? I will write more if you do :)

xxxCattxxx