Evvie made her way up to the teacher of her first class, English. "Excuse me, but I'm new. Is there assigned seating?"
The woman turned from the board and smiled. "You must be Evelyn." Evvie nodded.
"Sit wherever you'd like." She went to the bookshelf and found a book, returning to hand it to Evvie. "We're reading The Chrysalids. Have you studied it?"
"Not studied it, but I've read it."
"Well then, you're ahead of half of my students." Evvie smiled and went to take a seat.
The day passed without trouble, and she found one or two people in each of her classes who seemed friendly enough. By the end of classes, she was ready to head to the hospital and curl up with a good book.
"Lisa?" she knocked on the door of Cuddy's office.
"Come in!"
"Do you mind if I study in here?" Evvie questioned. Cuddy shook her head and motioned her in. Evvie pulled out her cell to text Cameron and let her know where she was before starting in on her homework. It didn't take long before she could start on her fun reading: the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman.
Cameron came to find her a few hours later. "Hey Evvie, how was school?"
"It was fine." Evvie smiled.
"Ready for dinner?" Evvie nodded. Cameron turned to Cuddy. "Thanks for letting her stay." She smiled.
"Not a problem."
Cameron woke briefly as Evvie climbed in with her part way through the night. Bad dreams again…she thought briefly before falling back to sleep.
That weekend, Cameron had a Saturday off, and so decided to make the most of it by taking Evvie to the park. Until her ribs healed, they couldn't do anything overly enthusiastic, but there was no reason they couldn't enjoy the sunshine. They spent the whole day there, reading, making daisy chains, being generally ridiculous and immature. They went out for dinner, to a nice Italian restaurant with an outdoor patio. Cameron waited until their food arrived before breaching the subject she'd been wanting to bring up for a few days.
"Evvie, do you want to talk to someone?" she questioned gently, earning a confused gaze from the girl.
"What do you mean?"
"You've been through a lot. You keep having bad dreams. I was just wondering if you wanted to talk to someone about it." Cameron shrugged.
"Like, a therapist?" Cameron nodded. Evvie shook her head. "No, thanks. I'm good."
"Okay." Cameron smiled. "Just thought I'd ask."
Evvie smiled back. "Well, thanks."
"No problem." They proceeded through dinner in companiable silence.
Weeks turned into months, and soon Evvie was finishing school.
"Is there anything you want to do in the summer?" Cameron questioned her one evening over dinner. "I don't want you spending the whole time moping around here or the hospital."
"I don't mope!" Evvie insisted, giggling.
"I know. It's a figure of speech." Cameron smiled. "But I don't want you to get bored. There must be something you want to do."
"My friend Carrie invited me to go up to her cabin at some point." Evvie offered.
"I've picked you up from her house before." Cameron remembered.
"Yeah."
"Well that sounds fun. When is that happening?"
"Not sure yet." Evvie smiled. "She said she'd give me a call."
"Okay."
"I also offered to babysit Rachel." Evvie informed her.
"You really like her, don't you?" Cameron smiled.
"She's cute and really easy to take care of, and Lisa's nanny is going on holiday soon." Evvie explained. "So I said I could do it."
"Well, it will be nice for you to make a bit of money. You know, for stuff your allowance doesn't cover or whatever."
"Yeah." Evvie agreed.
It was that evening that Allison Cameron acted on a decision she'd been pondering for a while. After Evvie had gone to bed, she pulled out Maria's card.
"Maria?" she questioned as she heard the other end of the line picked up.
"Yes?" the voice on the other end inquired.
"It's Allison Cameron."
"Allison." She could hear the pleasure in the other woman's voice. "How are things going?"
"Great." Cameron smiled. "They're great. That's why I'm calling."
"What do you mean?"
"I'd like to apply to be Evvie's permanent guardian. I'd like her to stay with me."
She could practically hear the smile in the other woman's voice. "I'm glad to hear that."
"How do I go about doing it?" Cameron asked eagerly.
"You just did." Maria replied. "You're already her legal guardian and have been approved as a care home. We'll just close the file trying to find her a new family."
"So I can tell her she's staying for sure?" Cameron asked.
"Yes."
Cameron beamed. "Thanks Maria."
"No. Thank you, Allison. You know how much it means to me to see Evvie in a good home." Maria hung up.
Cameron snuck into Evvie's room and woke her. "Evvie." She whispered.
"Allie?" Evvie asked sleepily. "What's up?"
"I just talked to Maria." Cameron told her.
"And?" Evvie sounded nervous.
"You're staying here permanently." Ally told her, smiling.
"Really?!" Evvie threw her arms around her.
Cameron chuckled. "Well, until you want to go to university and move out and all, yeah."
Evvie was beaming. "Oh my God!" She couldn't stop smiling.
Cameron discovered she couldn't stop either.