"Pizza's on the counter. You like pizza, Ellie?" Joel shifted.
"Of course she likes pizza, Dad. Who doesn't?" Sarah rolled her eyes. "Unless of course you don't. That's fine too." She back pedaled seeing the lack of enthusiasm on Ellie's face.
"Pizza's fine." Ellie said. "Really, I like it." Sarah's grin returned full force and turned to make a dash for the kitchen, Joel chuckling behind her. Ellie made her way to the kitchen, took the dish Joel silently held out for her, and grabbed three slices.
"Uh-uh, kid. Table." Joel made a point of sitting at the dining room table and gestured for Sarah, who had plopped herself onto the couch, to take a seat.
"What? But we never sit at the table." Sarah cocked her head to the side in confusion.
"It's Ellie's first night here, we are going to sit at the table." Joel said.
"But it's pizza…" Sarah groaned and dragged herself over to her chair. Ellie took a seat across from her and took a bite. The pizza wasn't half bad.
'At least the food doesn't suck.' Ellie thought, mentally giving Texas a point on a mental scoreboard. She liked to try to rank the places she'd lived from best to worst. Her favourite had been Miami. Beaches, near constant sunshine, and her foster parents had mostly let her do her own thing. On the opposite end of the scale was Georgia. She tried to block that place out of her mind as much as possible.
"So Ellie," Joel made a stab at conversation, "how was the drive here?"
"How long was it?" Sarah chimed in.
Ellie shrugged. "It was fine. Took about three hours to get here. Lots of trees."
"Three hours?" Sarah's eyes looked like they were about to pop out of her head. "How are you alive? I can barely go twenty minutes in car."
"That's true. I swear, anytime I take you anywhere that requires you being in a car you spend the whole time complaining and asking how long until we get there." Joel said. "Nice to have someone in the house with some patience." Ellie's lips twitched up at that.
'If only he knew.' She fought off the urge to laugh. "It's not that big a deal. I guess I'm just used to traveling." Immediately she wished she hadn't said it, because for a brief second Ellie saw the pity that flashed across Joel and Sarah's faces.
"Right. You would be by now." Joel awkwardly scratched at his beard.
"What school am I going to?" Ellie burst out, desperate to change the subject.
"Lincoln High. It's about a ten-minute drive from here." Joel seemed grateful for the switch. "Sarah goes to the middle school down the road."
"I wish we were going to the same one." Sarah said, disappointed.
"What grade are you in?" Ellie asked.
"Seven." Sarah answered, taking another bite of pizza. "You're a sophomore, right?"
"Yeah."
"While we're on the topic, Ellie, I've got some bad news. We wanted you to have time to settle in first, but Marlene insisted on you starting next Monday." Joel looked down at his plate, trying not to meet Ellie's eyes. "I was hoping you could have time to adjust, given it's the middle of the semester, but- "
"Don't worry about it." Ellie interrupted. "I'll be fine." She shrugged, unconcerned. This was hardly the first time she'd started at a new school in the middle of the semester. She wouldn't even have to worry about the fact she was the new kid. A school in Austen was bound to be huge. Ellie would barely be a blip on the radar.
Dinner carried out with Sarah making jokes, Joel grunting but smiling just the same, and Ellie only contributing the bare minimum. There was only so much time she could spend 'bonding' with her foster family.
'Rule number one,' Ellie thought. 'never get attached.' There were a lot of rules that Ellie tried her best keep, but they all boiled down to the same thing. Make sure that leaving caused the least amount of pain as possible. Her first couple foster homes she didn't have the rules, and Ellie had quickly figured out that being in the system didn't work well without them. Luckily, a lot of foster homes didn't require much effort to keep them. After all, she was getting older. The older the kid got, the less likely some kind-hearted couple was going to take them in and raise them as their own. Older foster kid's tended to have a reputation. It was unfair, but it was the world. Most people who took on teenagers, Ellie found, saw them as a meal ticket. As far as she could see, the Millers didn't fall into that category, but she could never be sure. Her fourth foster dad had been nice at first too.
Ellie quickly stood up. "Can I go up to my room now? Long day." Ellie barely heard the rounds of 'of course's' and tried not to run up the stairs. Stupid, stupid stupid. David was a rule too. He fell under the 'things not to think about or dwell on ever' category.
She made her way into her bedroom and shut the door. It was simple, but functional. A double bed with blue sheets was made up and there was desk against the far wall. An empty corkboard hung to the right of the bedside table. Ellie walked over to the window. There was a tree within climbing distance, which was comforting. At least she had an escape route if needed. The bookshelf was stacked with books that Ellie assumed Sarah must have read at some point. The entire Harry Potter collection was there, along with a few teen fiction authors. It was sorted alphabetically, Ellie noted. She ran her fingers along the spines of the books, occasionally pulling out one's that looked interesting. Ellie pulled out a copy of the first Twilight book that looked like it had seen better days. Picturing Sarah dragging Joel to see the movies had Ellie laughing as she plopped onto her bed.
"This is pretty comfy." Ellie murmured. She took off her shirt and pulled on a battered tank top and flannel pajama pants. She crawled under the cover's and flicked off the light. Sleep overtook her as she stared at the ceiling trying to think about anything other than the fact that there's two people who are more of a family than she's ever had a floor below her.