As we walked towards Elm Tree house I felt the butterflies do a dance in my stomach. Mike was leading us to the door of the care home, while my little sister nervously clutched onto my sleeve. She was biting her fingernails and looking at me for reassurance. I couldn't give it to her though; I couldn't find the heart to tell her anymore that everything would be alright. I'd given up on the lies; after all we'd been left here. Mum's an alcoholic, and dad cleared off ages ago with his new girlfriend. He doesn't want to know about us anymore, he only cares about his new girlfriend and their new daughter. It hurts. It hurts that Chloe has been my replacement. It hurts that my mother doesn't even know me anymore. We had no other family, so when our mother decided she couldn't cope anymore she sent us here. She promised me she'd fix herself though, and she'd get herself sorted… I just hope she can.

When we got to the door, Mike opened the door with his keys and let us inside. As he closed the door behind us, I felt trapped. I reached out for my crying sister and hugged her, and then I picked her up. She was heavy to carry though, she is six after all. Her name is Becky and I love her to bits. We don't look all that alike, except for the eyes. We both have the same deep blue eyes. Dad has the exact same shade as us; he can't deny that we are his flesh and blood. My name is Ella. Ella Knight. I had to say something to my sister… I just love her so much and she was hurting.

"Are we here now Ella? That man said it would be a much nicer place than home." Becky whispered, reaching out to touch my face.

"It will be… and home will be better when we get back. Mummy's sorting herself out." I whispered to my little sister and I followed Mike to his office. He gestured for us to take a seat, so I sat down and placed my little sister on my lap.

"Ella, Becky. I hope you feel very welcome at your new home. You both will have to share a room, as we only have one spare bedroom left. Will that be ok?" Mike asked, smiling warmly at the both of us.

"Of course, we always shared at home. We don't fight often. It will be fine." I told Mike, cuddling my little sister who nodded in agreement.

"So you will be staying here until your mother is able to cope with you both again, she has assured me she will come to get you back some day," Mike told me, "Although if you still wish to attempt to be fostered -."

The horror must have been on my face, I didn't want to be fostered. I just wanted somewhere safe to stay will my mum made herself better.

"Although, you don't have to." Mike quickly cut in, trying to reassure me.

"No. I don't want to be fostered Mike. Can we just… can we meet the other children and find our bedroom?" I asked Mike, changing the subject.

"Of course you can Ella. The other care workers are in with the kids in the living area. The living area is at your disposal. Trust me it's not a horrible place here, and you are free to do what you want to do. The living room has a pool table, a computer – which can you please try not to break as it only got fixed last week and a television. Please be mindful of the television you watch though because there are a lot of young children here. How old are you two?"

"I'm six!" Becky yelled proudly, holding up six fingers. Five on the one hand, and one on the other. I chuckled at my sister, and tickled her underneath her chin.

"Right you are beautiful. I'm fifteen." I told Mike, who grinned at the playfulness between me and Becky.
"So Becky… there are some other care children the same age as you. Frank and Liam are also fifteen years of age. Although Frank is currently in the process of being fostered, he has assured us he will be round here daily. Sapphire has moved out but she is only a year older than you. Becky… Harry is eight years old. You might both get on well. He is only a couple years older than you." Mike told us taking us into the living room, and introducing us.

"Guys, this is Becky," Mike told a bunch of kids while pointing at my sister, "and this is Ella." Mike pointed at me. I looked around at all the kids who were shamelessly gawping at us. A little boy was sitting on the carpet and playing with his giraffe Jeff. He came up to me and said, "Hello, I'm Harry, this is Jeff." He then looked at Becky my sister and grinned at her happily.

"Finally! Another little kid to play with! Want to go find cookies? Gina's made some chocolate chip ones?" Harry asked, and my sister nodded eagerly and ran off with him. I looked around at the rest of them. My sister had left me with them on my own. I looked around, a girl with brown hair told me her name was Jody and then wondered off in search of cookies also. Three girls ran up to me, only one of them seemed rather shy, but just gave me a toothy smile.

"I'm Tee." She whispered, and then pointed at her two friends. "That's Lily, she doesn't live here anymore… but that's Carmen and she does."

Carmen had lots of pink clothing on, and lots of jewellery on. She must be like me, I'm a girly girl. I shuffled nervously; I had a pair of tights on and a light pink skirt on. I had matched the skirt with a black patterned top decorated with flowers. I had curled my hair to the side and put a cute pink flower in my hair. I'd finished off my outfit with a matching cameo necklace and cameo earrings. I like old style jewellery, but I still like to keep my outfits fresh. I nodded as the girls eyed me up, and seemingly approved of my outfits. As they settled back onto the couch they had stood up from I was greeted by a couple more people. A group of lads approached me, one with a notebook. He told me his name was Gus.

"Why are you here?" Gus asked, and I gazed at him, shocked by his prying.

"That's a bit of a personal question isn't it?" I asked him, trying to keep away the tears in my eyes, another guy noticed though.

"Gus. Leave it yeah? Not all of us want to talk about the things that happen to us in life." A guy said, he had a cheeky grin that immediately put me at ease.

"Thanks. So who are you then?" I asked, wiping away the tears.

"Liam. I'm hard to forget. These introductions are taking way to long, let's make this easier. So you've met me, you've met Tee, Lily, Carmen, Harry and Jody. The girl with the blue hair over there is Elektra. She's horrible to everyone though so I wouldn't bother talking to her –"Liam grinned mischievously.

"Excuse me! I'm not that bad!" Elektra grumbled before walking off, and hitting Liam on the arm.

"Ok, so he's Johnny in the blue t-shirt, he's Tee's sister. These guys here are Rick, that's Tyler and this is my man Frank. He's been fostered soon though. That's Tracy. She's an alright care worker, and that's Gina. She's always on your case -." Liam grinned, ignoring the care workers annoyances.

"Oi!" Tracy and Gina protested at his remarks.

"Oh, and Sapphire might pop around sometimes… she used to live here." Liam told me, smiling kindly at me.

"Cheers… well I better go unpack, thanks for everything." I told him.

"No problem Ella." Liam told me… Did he just wink at me? ;) No, must of saw wrong. As I walked into my new room I grinned, it's not that bad here.