chapter two
Skye was sitting in the Coulsons kitchen. She was watching one of the swings in their backyard blow back and forth in the wind while talking to Melinda and Phil a bit.
"Do you want something to eat or drink Skye?" Melinda asked. Skye shook her head,
"Well just let us know if you get hungry," Phil told her. Skye nodded although she didn't think she would. She was nervous about meeting Bobbi and Mack. Their school photos were hanging over the sink and they both looked tall. Taller than Melinda or Phil for sure.
If they were tall and mean than they might hurt her and that was worse than just not liking her.
Bobbi and Mack were going to hate her. Then Melinda and Phil would hate her too. Skye flinched as the backdoor opened and two kids who might have been taller than she thought they would be walked in. They were pretty loud too,
"Is Mary here yet?" asked a girl with blonde hair. Skye didn't know if she was Bobbi or Mack. The girl smiled as she saw Skye sitting at the table. A moment of silence passed until Skye decided to break the awkwardness
"I'm Skye," Skye said.
"Oh," said the boy who was still undoing a pair of sneakers at the door, "I'm Mack," Skye made a mental note of that, Mack was the boy, Bobbi was the girl.
"I'm Bobbi," the girl added in after, "Hey, we should show you the treehouse!" Bobbi exclaimed. Skye nodded nervously.
"Hey!" Phil interrupted, "Change out of your uniforms please,"
"You've already gotten you're other two dirty," Melinda reminded them, "and the washing machine won't be fixed until Saturday so you've got two more days with those ones," both teenagers sighed but listened and walked towards the stairs. As they disappeared up the stairs Skye turned back to Melinda and Phil,
"Do I have to go to the treehouse?" she whispered. Melinda and Phil both looked concerned but shook their heads,
"You don't have to go to the treehouse, but do you think you could tell us why you don't want to?" Phil asked. Skye shook her head. If she told them they might laugh. She didn't want that.
Luckily they both nodded,
"Tell us if you want to talk," Melinda told her, "maybe we can find a solution together," Skye nodded. She was sure that if she told them her problem they would decide the best solution was to send her back to the orphanage, and one day at a foster home, well that would be a new record.
Skye tapped her feet under the table and watched as her shoes hit the ground. She wondered if she was supposed to take her shoes off. They hadn't told her to yet so she decided to keep them on. Bobbi rushed into the kitchen.
"Māmā," she exclaimed. She glanced at Skye and smiled before turning back to Melinda, "While we take Skye to the treehouse are you going to," she paused from a minute, " Zhǔnbèi hǎole,"
"shì," she paused, "but I don't think you're going to the treehouse, I think Skye would rather do something else," Bobbi nodded,
"Well, we could go to the park or the swings or…"
"Maybe something inside," Phil suggested. Bobbi nodded again,
"I'll go tell Mack," she turned away again and ran up the stairs.
"Do you think she's mad?" Skye asked. Melinda and Phil both shook their heads,
"Bobbi and Mack don't get upset easily," Phil said, "and there's nothing to be upset about anyways,"
Skye nodded. Both Bobbi and Mack walked back down the stairs.
"Can we show Skye the photo albums?" Mack asked. Both of the adults nodded.
"We'll be upstairs," Phil told them as Bobbi and Mack headed towards the living room. Skye followed after them.
Bobbi and Mack had both taken a place on the floor and had a large book sitting in front of them. Skye sat next to them and Bobbi opened the book.
"These first pictures are all pretty old, like from before mom and dad were born," she told her, "They're cool to look at though,"
Mack pointed at the first one,
"Like that one is mom's parents," he paused and scanned the page, "and those are dad's parents,"
Skye nodded,
"The next couple of pictures are from the eighties," Bobbi told her,
"Brace yourself," Mack added. Skye was grateful for the warning as the first picture was a girl with brown hair filling up most of the frame. Skye knew that style was called a perm. The girl had bright purple lipstick and blue eyeshadow to match.
"That's aunt Maria, the only reason this picture is in there is because dad wants to remind everyone that it exists," Bobbi told her, she pointed to the next one, "that's Dad," the picture was a boy sitting in the grass and smiling with a Captain America figure in front of him.
The next picture was a girl with skates on,
"That's mom," Mack told her, "she used to figure skate," they turned the page. Among others, there was a picture of both kids much older standing by a mat,
"That when mom and dad would have been sixteen I think," Mack said, "It's the first time they met, it was a martial arts tournament,"
"That was the nineties though, not the eighties," Bobbi added, the next few photos were of Melinda and Phil as teens and young adults, then there was a group of photos Skye guessed were wedding photos since everyone in them was dressed all fancy and Melinda and Phil were dressed like one of the cake toppers she had seen in a store window once. They turned another page revealing pictures of a girl about Skye's age with blonde hair to her shoulders,
"Hey, It's me!" Bobbi exclaimed, she turned to Skye, "mom and dad started Fostering me about a year after they got married," They turned another page revealing similar pictures of a boy who Skye assumed was Mack,
"That's me," Mack said, "These are from about a year later," The next page had a header at the top 'Bobbi and Mack's seventh Birthday' was written in block letters. Pictures of different kids covered the pages. The next pages went through Bobbi and Mack's birthdays up until thirteen.
"We have more photos too but those are in a different book, so we should probably show you lat-" Bobbi was cut off by her phone buzzing. She read the text quickly then showed it to Mack who then nodded,
"I've got to go upstairs," he walked towards the stairs.
"Do you want me to do your hair?" Bobbi asked as Mack walked into the kitchen. Skye shrugged. Her hair hadn't been brushed so it probably wouldn't be much fun to style. "I just mean to brush it out of your face a bit, but I don't have to if you don't want me too," Bobbi told her. Skye nodded,
"Okay," Skye said, Bobbi smiled and reached her hand out for Skye to grab. Skye grabbed it apprehensively and followed Bobbi towards the bathroom.
Bobbi was super happy about having a little sister, and she was also really happy that her parents needed Mack's help setting everything up upstairs because it meant she got to talk to Skye.
"So what's your favourite colour?" Bobbi asked,
"Purple I think," Skye responded. Bobbi nodded,
"Mine too," Skye smiled a bit. Bobbi felt pride rush through her, she loved making people happy and she hadn't seen Skye smile much yet. Skye looked at her feet for a minute, with a look of concentration on her face before smiling and looking up,
"What's your favourite food?" Skye asked excitedly. Bobbi thought about it for a minute,
"Curly fries," she said. Skye's nose curled up and her eyes squinted,
"Like French fries?" she asked. Bobbi nodded,
"Kinda," she paused, "but they're in curls and they taste a bit different," Skye nodded,
"I've had regular french fries and I really liked those," Bobbi smiled and opened the bathroom door, right before her phone buzzed. Bobbi checked it revealing a text from her dad telling her to come upstairs.
"Sorry Skye, we have to go upstairs, I can do your hair for real with clips and stuff later if you want," Skye nodded and they both headed to the kitchen and up the stairs.
Skye didn't know what everyone was planning upstairs. Bobbi and Mack were much nicer than she had expected. She liked the questions Bobbi was asking her, and she wasn't mean when she didn't know about her favourite food. Skye had been asked a lot of questions like her favourite colour but usually, people didn't seem to care what she said, and a lot of the time she didn't like it when she asked them questions back. Bobbi knocked on the door of the room Skye was going to be sitting in,
"Come in!" yelled a voice from the other side. Bobbi opened the door revealing Mack, Phil, and Melinda with a big box in between them. There was a sign above them that Skye could read most of, this one she read 'home Skye' with a long word behind it that she couldn't read. She didn't understand what was happening. A girl at St.Agnes had once told her a scary story about a girl who had been sent to a foster family and come back two days later apparently having been locked in a room the whole time, then that night she had disappeared and no one had ever seen her again. Skye had never really believed in their dumb ghost stories but now she kept thinking about it and wondered if their newest ghost story would be about her.
"Welcome home Skye!" they all exclaimed a bit quieter than a yell.
"What?" she asked,
"It's a welcome home party," Melinda told her,
"Usually you have them when someone comes back home, but we wanted to throw one for you since you're coming home for the first time," Phil explained. They all nodded,
"We got you some things so that you have the basics until we can get you some more things over the weekend," Mack said,
"And we have cake downstairs," Bobbi added.
"How come?" Skye asked,
"Because we want you to know that we're happy you're coming to live with us," Melinda told her. Skye nodded, she noticed the box again,
"Can I open it?" she asked quietly pointing towards it. They all nodded and smiled. Skye sat down in front of the box and peeled off the tape. She opened the box. There were two stacks of fabric along with four smaller boxes. Skye grabbed the first pile of fabric and saw that it was a couple of shirts. About five tied together with a ribbon. They were all plain and had no stains or patches or extra seams,
"I'm sorry," she whispered. They all looked worried,
"You didn't do anything wrong," Melinda told her,
"No but I will, and you spent all this money on nice stuff when you probably won't even want me in a few months," Melinda and Phil didn't look surprised by her statement. They both have Bobbi and Mack a look that caused them to leave the room. They sat down next to her on the floor,
"Skye we're not going to give up on you," Phil told her, Skye shook her head,
"Everyone does, I break things, and I don't follow rules, and they don't ever want me. Not for real," Skye told them. She felt Melinda's hand on her back and felt her move it up and down as she pulled her knees up to her chest.
"Skye do you know what happened the first night Bobbi came to stay with us?" Melinda asked. Skye shook her head, and looked over at them,
"She got angry and she threw a glass at the wall and it went through a window," Melinda told her,
"And Mack got so angry once he pushed away a chair and it went through the wall," Phil added, "people make mistakes Skye, that doesn't mean we're going to send you back or give up on you," Skye nodded.
"Do you think you can believe us?" Melinda asked. Skye shrugged, she wanted to, really bad. She always wanted to believe people who said they were going to be her family, but when none of them ever were her family it got harder. "I don't mean now but do you think you can try?" Melinda added. This time Skye nodded.
"Yeah, I can try,"
