I sat facing the women with the suit again; she looked very annoyed and frustrated still. Still. I had probably been talking to her for over an hour and I was bored out of my mind. If she wanted a better answer than the ones I was giving her, she going to have to get her shit together and ask better questions.
Fang had woken twice now, and thankfully he had regained his bearings by the second time. In case you forgot, Fang had no idea who he was or who I was the first time he woke up. Fortunately, he was perfect (well not exactly) when I saw him again. The doctors wanted him to spend the night in the ICU at least one more night to keep him on the IV drips and possibly oxygen. He would be in a lot of pain the next few days, the doctors informed me.
"So Maximum, can I call you Max now?" she asked, her voice tired and strained. It was around 10 o'clock now and I had only left the waiting room once to go and scout out a vending machine. Thankfully, Mr. Roberts had picked up Ella and Angel from school and they were at his house with his wife. Fang and the doctors had both agreed it would be a bad idea for Angel to see Fang in such poor health. It would take a severe toll on her, according to them, and they don't know how she would react and recover from it. If I were Angel and my brother was possibly on his death bed, I would be pissed if they didn't let me come. But I had to remind myself I wasn't seven year old little girl, and in the end I agreed they were right.
"No." I pushed my hair out of my face again.
"Well then Miss Ride, is there anything else you want to tell me?" I shook my head, I had not wanted to tell her anything in the first place, but Mr. Roberts and eventually guilted me into it and I told her the basic details of my life.
"No." I told you, I was not exactly a picnic to be around.
"Well can we at least discuss your options for the future right now?" she asked. I could tell it was taking all of her self-control to not strangle me on the spot. It would probably be a much better deal for her: she wouldn't have to listen to me anymore and if I was dead than she wouldn't have to worry about my future. I shrugged, and she suppressed an eye roll. "Look Max, I'm sorry that these options aren't ideal but they're all you've got right now. Well we have one new possibility, but I'm afraid it won't work. As of now, we have two real options and two slight possibilities." She paused and I gestured for her to go on. "So, like we discussed earlier, you have the option of living in an orphanage and wait for someone to adopt you and your sister. However, because of your age it would unlikely that you would be adopted. No offense or anything, but there is data showing that once children reach the age of four their chances of adoption decline dramatically." I processed that idea, and it didn't take me very long to decide that I wasn't going to like an orphanage. I sighed; this whole thing wasn't looking too good. "The next option is a foster home. You and your sister would join the same foster home, but it would be highly unlikely that the two of you and Fang and Angel would all be taken in the same foster home. It's hard to find someone who has the space for four more kids. You would be living with potentially 10 other kids of all ages, and two foster parents in the house. The only issue with this is that we have no foster houses in the area that you could join if you wanted to stay with Ella. However, there are some vacancies in various states that we could send you. Either way, there is a slim to none chance that you would ever see your father again." Good, I thought, I don't want to.
"Are there any good options?" I asked, frustrated with these two horrible sounding ideas. I could hardly deal with one sister to take care of; I couldn't deal with 10 other siblings or an entire orphanage.
"Well, Mr. Roberts actually offered to adopt you." My jaw dropped and I almost started crying right then and there. This was literally everything I ever wanted in life. "Unfortunately for financial reasons, he is unable to adopt all four of you. He said he would hate to take just two of you, but if it is what you wanted then he would do it." Stunned, I tried to think through all the information. So two of us would have everything we'd ever dreamed of but two of us would live our worst nightmare every single day. I couldn't bring myself to be that selfish.
"Can't we just live on the streets or something?" I muttered, not thrilled with her options.
"You're underage if you wanted to bring your sisters with you," she didn't seem to care one way or another. I groaned. I hated social services. To be honest, they would be doing me more of a favor if they just left me alone and I could live in the streets or run away or something brilliant like that.
I bit my tongue trying to hold off any rude remarks. "Well as incredibly wonderful and perfect as those options sound, is there anything else? Even remotely different?"
She sighed and I wanted to punch her. Why doesn't she go and live with Jeb and get verbally and physically abused every day, and then I can groan and roll my eyes at all of her stupid ideas. Now that, sounds like a good plan.
"Well I guess you kinda qualify for this one project thing we're working on…" she trailed off, looking down at her notebook.
"Look, my sister and I have been abused for eight years now by my flesh and blood father. I take beatings once to twice a day to protect my little sister and we barely have time to grab some food from downstairs. I'm not asking you to feel sorry for me, because I don't care what you think one way or another, but I would really appreciate it if you would just do you job without all the moaning and groaning. Much to your dismay, I am able to see the eye rolling and sighing so if you could save that until after you ruin my life, that would be great," I leaned back in my chair and waited for her to explain this "project".
Her nostrils flared, but she picked up her clipboard and notebook. "We are trying to develop a program to put unstable kids in a home out in the country. We want to have around 6 kids in the house that would basically live there, and potentially go to school near there. An adult would live close by to help with any emergencies and provide you with food, clothes and things of that nature. The house is fully stocked with the essentials to living and has three or four bedrooms, a family room, three bathrooms, a basement and mudroom. It's actually a really nice house, and it's on a huge piece of land out in the countryside. There's a pond somewhere on the property as well as a wooded section."
"What's in it for you?" Because this is my life we're talking about, nothing is ever done solely for my well-being. She looked slightly embarrassed and that made me feel more confident but also a little nervous. How bad could this be?
"Well frankly, we'd like to treat it kind of as an experiment. We want to monitor how 6 different kids who hardly know each other would react and deal with each other when all put in a house with no adult," she paused. Was I the only one who saw a flaw in this plan? Besides the fact that this was illegal. Minors couldn't just live together alone and not get in trouble and sent to foster homes. But for once, I decided to stay quiet. "We would have someone coming weekly to check up on you and see how it's going, but we would have someone nearby if anything happened or you needed more food or clothes. I want to emphasize that we would provide everything for you so you needn't worry about money, school, bills…all of that will be covered by us."
"And who are you exactly?" I asked, having a hard time remembering who she even represented.
"I am an agent for state social services but I also work closely with the hospital and psychologists. Don't worry, this isn't like a scientific experiment where we would hurt you, we just want to look and see how teenagers would work things out and live together. If you get off to a bad start, we can pull you out and try to find a different solution for you and your sister. Are you familiar with the story The Lord of the Flies?"
I nodded, vaguely remembering the storyline. A bunch of kids are on an airplane and I think it crashed on a deserted island and the pilots and all adults were killed. They had no way to get into contact with anyone to be saved, so they had to create their own sort of civilization to live for a while. Some kid takes over, and becomes a dictator. He makes everyone else do the work, and makes fun of the kids he doesn't like. I sort of remember them doing some weird things to a pig they killed before they eat it. Then the kid Piggy, who has big glasses and asthma, is "accidently" killed by a rock Jack strategically placed. So basically, the kids become messed up and angry and try to kill each other. Awesome. A great thing to compare my future to.
"So who's gonna be the Piggy?" I asked, sort of making a joke but I was actually curious.
"That's an irrelevant question. Your situation is similar on the basic plotline, but the outcome is not a matter we need to worry about," she smiled, but her eyes stayed cold.
"Sucks to your asthmar," I muttered under my breath. That was about the only quote I remembered from that book. Surprisingly, I noticed the lady stifle a smirk at my ingenious comment.
"Anything else, Miss Ride?"
"Yes your honor," I couldn't help it. She sat with her back so straight and her nose was pointed straight into the air it seemed she thought she was royalty. "Um isn't this illegal? I already asked, and you wouldn't let my sister and I live alone so how is having 6 underage kids in a house alone a good idea?"
"It's fine, I'll sort out the legal issues myself. You really don't need to worry," she muttered sounding frustrated again.
"Sounds very assuring. Thank you," I tried my very hardest to keep a straight face and I had to look down at my hands to avoid laughing. She didn't know whether to take my remark as a compliment or as more of an insult but in the end she just ignored it.
"Well we are going to leave as soon as Fang is mobile and ready for travel. Probably a few more days, and we shall pick up the younger girls from Mr. Roberts' place soon so you can see Ella, and Angel may visit Fang now. I'm sure this has been tremendously difficult for her to process but you can help me explain and suggest the plan we have discussed to Fang. Make sure he understands this is by far your best option at the moment and you would all be able to stay together and make some friends." Her smile was a thin line, but she actually looked rather constipated as opposed to supportive. What a great lady.
I was woken up in the morning by a rapid tapping on my shoulder and a familiar voice whispering "Max!" "Max!"
"Five more minutes," I whispered back, still have asleep. They smacked me lightly, and I snapped my eyes open to see my little sister Ella staring back at me. "Ella!" I jumped up and hugged her tightly. "Are you okay? Oh my gosh, I am so sorry I couldn't call or come and get you or see you…It's been a really long day and night," I babbled.
"Max, its eleven o'clock the next morning." I blushed and she just laughed. "He's okay right? Fang, I mean. Guess what; I spent the day and night with your teacher friend Mr. Roberts and his wife. They both seem super nice. They insisted we use their bed because we've had it so rough all the time. They were so cute; his wife kept hugging me and asking me what I needed. She adored Angel too; she's just the cutest thing ever. They made us SOOOO much food. We literally had like six meals in a day and a half. I swear I ate more calories there then we normally do in a week at home. It was super fun. Their house was really homey and neat and smelled really good. They were even baking chocolate chip cookies in the oven; they smelled so good I almost just died on the spot. You don't even understand. Do you know how long it's been since we've had chocolate chip cookies?" She finally paused to take a breath. I burst out laughing. She had never talked this much since mom died and it made me so unbelievably happy to see her being her old self again. She sounded happy, well-rested and by the sound of it, very well-fed. I could use some of that.
"Yeah, Fang's okay. I've visited him three or four times I think. He's getting better and better every time which is good. Glad to see you had fun last night and made a new friend. You're gonna see a lot more of her," I briefly explained the plan I had been suggested. I also told her about our other two options which pretty much sucked. She agreed it made the most sense and sounded the best for us. Plus, she could spend more time with Angel and show her some weird braid thing she learned at school.
An hour or two later I went and visited Fang for a little while and told him all about the plan I had been offered. It took him a minute or two, but eventually he agreed to try out this new house. He had seen Angel for a long time this morning and calmed her down because she had been traumatized seeing him in the hospital with such a big, scary scar. Eventually he told her what we were planning on doing in a few days and she happily agreed. She claimed she didn't care what she did as long as she stayed with Fang and she liked Ella pretty well too.
A week later, we piled up in a white hospital van to head out to the country house. We had each brought a little bag of whatever belongings we'd had at home with us. Honestly, I left most of mine because I wanted to forget about that life completely. I grabbed a broken picture frame with a picture of our old family when I was little and all was right with the world. I tossed in a pair of sweats, two pairs of jeans, two t-shirts for bands I liked and my favorite sweatshirt. I was really hoping there would be a laundry machine in this place, and preferably someone who knew how to do laundry well. I'd ruined my fair share of clothes in the wash.
A few hours later we pulled onto a gravel road that led up to a small stone house on a gorgeous piece of land. The grass was green in all directions, trees were scattered across the acres with a highly wooded section in the distance. There was even a pond with lily pads, surrounded with rocks. Fang promised the girls he would clear it out so they could go swimming in it.
We walked up to the front porch, carrying our few possessions. Another agent from the social services place had driven us here. He was a young guy just out of college with sandy hair, teal eyes and a cute smile. He unlocked the door, and three other people were standing awkwardly near the main staircase. There was a girl with mocha colored skin who seemed itching to say something. She had dark brown eyes, and flawless skin. She was gorgeous and I wondered why she had been sent here. Then I realized that this was going to be a house full of somehow unstable kids and teenagers. Super. Next to her were two guys who were both blond with a light complexion. Despite their similarities at first glance, the longer you looked it was obvious they weren't related. The first boy looked about my age and had spiky strawberry blond hair. He was extremely pale with light blue eyes that were focused somewhere between Fang and Angel. The boy next to him was much younger, probably nine or ten, with shaggy blond hair that covered his eyes, which were a really pretty piercing blue color. Despite his cuteness, his smile was somehow mischievous and I had a feeling he wasn't up to any good.
The guy who drove us here, his name tag said "Brad" stepped forward and began introductions. "Hi guys, so this is your new home. I live down the street and I'll be here if you have anything that you need help with or for any emergencies." He gestured towards the people standing inside the house, "These guys just got here a few hours ago. Why don't you introduce yourselves?" He suggested, backing up.
The girl stepped forward first, "Hi, I'm Monique but I actually go by Nudge cause I personally think it sounds way cooler, so yeah call me Nudge. I'm ADHD and sort of schizophrenic but I'm on a lot of heavy medication. I also have some health conditions so that's why I'm here. My parents couldn't afford all the hospital bills and medications so I stayed at the hospital for a while, but then I was offered to come live here with you guys!" She said this all in one breath and she reminded me a lot of Ella. They would get along great; well if either of them would stop talking.
"Hey. I'm Jeff, but call me Iggy. I'm blind and I've been that way since I was like five. I got into a really bad accident and yeah, well the rest's history." Wow. That would be so hard to be blind, and have to come to a new place to live. I couldn't imagine walking around a place I knew very well with my eyes closed, let alone every day, everywhere I went. I realized that explained the vacant expression in his eyes I had noticed earlier.
"I'm Gazzy. It's short for the Gasman, but that's a long story. I've been travelling from foster home to foster home with some severe medical problems. I also suffered from a severe streak of amnesia where I had no idea who I was for a few months," he paused and the stepped backward indicating he was done. Geez, these kids had hard lives. There was no way I would be able to have amnesia, and still be fully functioning by now.
"Hi, I'm Max. Um well I've been abused my dad for years and I've gone through a few phases of depression but nothing very serious." I paused, "It was a while ago too, nothing very recent."
"Fang," Fang said as he stepped forward like everyone else had done. "Both my parents were drinkers and incredibly abusive. I was just released from the hospital this morning from a severe beating and knife injuries I've received from my father a week ago. I haven't seen him since and I sure as hell hope I never have to see him again."
"It's more serious than he's letting on," I found myself saying before I could stop myself. He looked over at me and gave me a half lopsided smile.
Ella stepped up. "Hey, I'm Ella. I'm Max's sister and I've also been abused for a long time, but not as much as her but yeah I really like reading, and dancing, and singing, and drawing, and I don't know, lots of stuff!" I honestly had no idea how Ella was so friendly all the time. It sure wasn't something that came easily to me. Especially with people she didn't know like this. I guess she got it from my mom; she was the nicest and most outgoing person I knew before the…well you know.
"Hi I'm Angel. I'm seven and I live with Fang and my really mean parents who try to hurt Fang a lot. But I'm really happy that we got to come live out here because now I won't be scared anymore." She was just the cutest thing on the face of the Earth. Her blond pigtails circled her rosy cheeks and emphasized her dark blue eyes.
As I looked around at my new housemates, my heart lifted and I realized this may not be so bad after all.
Hey guys hope you liked all the recent updates! Let me know how you think the story is and if it's interesting and all that jazz. Thanks for reading and don't forget to review Peace my friends.
PS RnR