About two hours away, nestled in a valley, there was a children's home called, The Board of Childcare. The campus covered about 20 acres of grassy land and housed five well built brick cottages as well as a school building, gymnasium, dining hall, chapel and clinic. Three of the cottages housed boys and two, girls. And in each cottage resided ten residents who each had their own room. This was like a giant group home, and none of the doors locked to the bedrooms. For it wasn't a jail but a therapeutic treatment facility. Some of the kids had been truant from school, had a drug problem or even had behavioral issues, but all of the kids had families, as well as some were foster kids.
In cottage 4, one of the girls' cottages, lived a little Latina girl by the name of Isabella Lilliana Gutierrez, and she was only 7 years old. But she was a fiery child, full of energy and spunk as well as rambunctious, and the only reason she was there was because no foster family could handle her. She would often start off in a home as sweet as can be, but by the time week two and three arrived, she was in rare form, and before her social worker knew it, she was brought back just as swiftly as she was picked out in a line up of kids. Brianna, her social worker, adored the girl, and she was about the only one who could handle her. The little girl also adored Brianna and would do whatever she asked of her...except for behave in the homes in which she was placed.
"I still don't understand why I'm here," the young dark haired girl pouted as she folded her arms and furrowed her brows, but Brianna wasn't deceived by her charm or pouting as she was used to it all.
"You know why you're here, Isabella. Now, Miss June is telling me that you are refusing to make your bed in the mornings before school. Is this true?"
Isabella lowered her eyes before looking back up at her social worker. She knew why she wasn't doing it, but should she tell the woman? Picking up a crayon, she began drawing, something she loved to do these days as she was half bored out of her mind most of the time, always stuck in her room with no electronics as she had consequences on the board. "I'm still on red level anyway! I don't get to go off campus on the weekends, and I don't have a family!" The young girl spouted off without missing a beat.
She was as smart as a whip as well, excelling ahead of most kids her age, and she was already doing third grade classes as she had sped through second grade just as fast as she had started. Her teacher was trying to keep up with the child and gave her harder and harder work, especially math. The only problem was her behavior as whenever she would become bored, she'd start to talk to the person next to her or even get out of her seat and begin to visit around the classroom.
"Red level or not, you should be complying to the rules of your cottage, Isabella. We talked about this!" Brianna reaches over and softly took the green crayon out of her hand and tilted her chin so she could look into her giant brown eyes.
"I don't have a family! We talked about THAT!" Isabella retorted, and it was all that Brianna could do to not laugh at her. She was much older for her years, and phrases like this had a way of making her want to laugh. Yet she didn't want to make her think it was okay, her behavior and all.
The little girls sighed as she jumped up. "Did you bring me Reeses' pieces this time?" She spied the older woman's striped black and white bag, yet the woman could only shake her head at the little girl.
"I'm sorry, Bella. But your actions don't warrant a treat. You were sent to the principal's office three times last week, and today, you pulled the fire alarm resulting in the fire department showing up unnecessarily. You do know that's why I'm here, right?"
But the young child didn't care as she tried to jump over the table to grab the bag. Brianna was much too fast for her as she pulled it from her reach while scooping her up in her arms. Bella was furious, and she started to kick and swing her arms like a wild animal. After a bit of scuffling, she gave up and began to cry quietly. The older woman was used to her by now, and waited until she was calm before she pulled her into her lap and stroked her long jet black pony tail.
"Bella, baby..." she soothed. Her heart broke each and every single time she came to the campus to visit with her. She knew that this girl had so much potential, but her mother was in jail, and nobody knew who her father was. For Ana didn't even know as she didn't know she was pregnant until she was already locked up and sober. From day one, Isabella was placed in a foster home, but when she turned three years old, her foster family was killed in a tragic accident. And so, her journey in and out of foster homes began.
She had learned from a very early age to manipulate, and some times that worked to her advantage. Other times it did not. But to the young Latina girl, it was survival of the fittest, and she was determined to get her way no matter the cost. Sometimes it was to her advantage that she was the way she was, for some of the foster families abused her. In her very last home, the foster mom had six foster kids, and she used the money given to her by the state for the kids to remodel her house as well as buy lavish gifts for herself all the while she gave the kids bread and water. If they complained, they were placed in the "time-out" house which in fact was a fancy name for a dog house, and they would have to wear a collar on a chain.
Isabella often spent a great deal of her time in the "time-out" house, and she came up with an idea to take care of her foster mom once and for all especially after her one foster sister, Sierra, was in the house for three days with no food or water. Little Bella decided to take the Nair which was same color as her foster mom's shampoo and switch out the liquid, and when the woman washed her hair one morning, big clumps began to fall out of her head and into the tub making her scream at the top of her lungs while the little girl was in the hallway recording the whole thing for her siblings amusement. But she wasn't fast enough, and the woman caught her, and placed her in the doghouse until her social worker came to pick her up. Of course, she had unchained her right before Brianna showed up, and when Isabella told her all about it, she had no proof. The only proof to be seen were the giant bald spots on the foster mom's head.
"Take me home with you, Bri..." the little girl whispered as she reached up and played with her long curls, and this broke her heart even more. The same song and dance. The same situation every single time. From indifference to defiance, to fighting, to resignation and here she was, just a little girl with no family and with no one to call her own. All she had really was Brianna, and that made the woman even more determined to track down her family or someone who would be able to handle her tantrums, manipulative ways and settle her down with all of the love and support she needed to thrive. The older she became, the harder it would be to place her. Yet it really didn't matter. This group home was her last resort as no matter where she was placed, she ended back with social services. The judge had said that this was the very last straw for the little girl as this was not just a group home but a therapeutic treatment facility where she had her very own therapist who was trying very hard to work with her and teach her healthy boundaries and coping skills.
"Baby girl, you know the answer to that," the older woman stroked her wet cheeks as she looked up into her eyes. "Promise me you'll work really hard to make your bed this week? And don't pull anymore fire alarms...you can do this Bella baby...I know you can..." She believed in her, and as always, the small child made a promise to do better...to be better, and she gave the woman a great big hug before she left, leaving Bella once again to herself wishing she had a mama.
