Twelve
A/N: Thank you for the reviews. They make me smile and encourage me to write more especially thank you to xrebelliousCinderella for your kind words and BizarrePineapple15, who I meant to mention a couple of chapters ago. Your reviews keep my going. Hopefully this chapter will make sense.
Rick's POV
I watched as my two best friends in the whole care home sat and did some sewing together. Whenever Kitty sewed I was mesmerised by the way her fingers worked, quickly threading the beads and threads through the thin cotton. I watched as Summer did it wrong... again, and needed Kitty's help to untangle the mess she'd made. Since I'd arrived at Burnywood three years ago, I'd never felt more relaxed or at home than just then watching the two girls laugh together. I realised I'd never heard Kitty laugh before. I managed to make her smile and talk to me but never laugh and Summer had managed it in a month.
Before Kitty had arrived half a year ago I'd been all alone. Nobody spoke to me as they were scared I was going to turn out like my parents. To steal their money and jewellery before running off into the night. It's why I'm in care because mum and dad got caught and sent to prison. I never see them but I have family and I realise how lucky I am, especially when watching Summer's behaviour around the younger kids and seeing how much she misses her family she can never have again. But when Kitty arrived I wasn't the only isolated kid here. Everyone avoided Kitty because of her... well her temperament. I mean yeah she'd injured me a few times but it was no reason to not include her in games or things. Kitty hadn't cared about my past. She liked me for who I am and what I was didn't matter to her. She just needed someone to talk too.
I glanced at Summer. I watched as her spray-dyed pink hair ducked under the table. Summer was unique too. She didn't care what people thought of her and she never forgot the values she'd been taught. She played rugby with the boys on her first week here and hadn't cared one bit about the mud or getting injured. She dyed her hair unusual colours, and even got away with them at school somehow, mind you it might help that she was pretty and intelligent so the teachers didn't care too much. Though she was outspoken and that meant the majority of the older kids left her isolated too, unless they needed her help to stop the bullies.
Alex and Luke walked in, saw who was in here and walked back out. I sighed. I doubted they'd ever trust me. Summer must have heard me sigh as she turned to face me. "What's up Rick?" she smiled at me and my whole world lit up.
"Nothing much. I just wish they wouldn't exclude us so much," I sighed impatiently.
She gazed into my eyes judging how'd I'd react before blowing a strand of hair out her face and saying, "I know. I wish I knew what their problem was with you. I know why they don't like me or Kitty. But I don't why they wouldn't like you." I flinched slightly at the sharpness in her voice. I looked back at her.
'I don't want her to judge me badly but if I don't tell her then someone else might and that would be worse,' I thought. I looked straight at the girl I was slowly falling in love with.
Rick's story
I grew up not knowing better. My mum would use me to get money. I mean who could resist a cute boy anything. I realised I was being used when I was about eight and I properly saw what was going on in front of my eyes. Mum, dad and me had walked down the street, me in the middle. Mum had stopped this lady to ask her for directions to the corner shop claiming I wanted some sweets. I realised this was strange as mum knew where the corner shop was and I wasn't hungry. As the lady pointed in the opposite direction and mum kept her talking dad had stood round the side of the lady and was going through her bag. I looked at him confused and he held a finger up to his lips to tell me to be quiet. I saw him pull out some bank notes and place them in his pocket. I tugged at mum's arm to tell her dad was a thief but she didn't respond. When we walked round the corner, mum turned to me, "Never pull on my arm like that again, you could have given us away." That's when I knew. Mum knew what dad was doing, she'd been distracting the lady for a reason. To steal money.
A couple of weeks later me and dad were in a cafe. A customer stood up from the table in front of us and went up to order. She left her purse on the table in clear view. Dad stood up and told me to wait. I sat and watched. He took the purse, walked up to the lady at the counter and said some things to her. I saw her look back at the table and giggle. She said something else and dad must have mentioned me because he gestured towards me and I saw the lady smiled at me kindly. I'd learnt to keep my mouth shut about the fact we were scamming for money. The last time I'd almost told someone I'd been beaten up and locked in a cupboard for a week. She came and joined us at our table. "So Rick," she said to me, "your dad was saying how you saw me drop my purse and told him about it. Thank you. That's a very kind thing to do." I just sat and nodded. I tuned out when dad started going on about how he had no wife and was a single parent. I'd heard it before. Dad had his back to the window when the police car arrived. I looked at the officers getting out. They casually scanned the cafe until their eyes met mine. They opened the door and walked in. All I can remember is them arresting dad for fraud. Turns out the woman had been an undercover police officer and had planned a trick to get my dad caught. He went to prison. Mum was more careful after that. There were less expensive games and gadgets brought for me so as not to draw attention to the money we had. But less than a year later she got caught out by the trick and was also arrested. I was nine at the time and got sent to a foster home. After a year there was a robbery and of course they thought it was me. I got sent here and everyone thinks I'm going to steal their stuff.
I looked up at Summer who was looking at me with glazed eyes. 'Nice one Rick. You've ruined that one' I thought after I'd told my story and she hadn't answered.
"So they just assume you're going to be like your parents because they used you as an excuse to get money," Summer said. I realised her eyes weren't glazed because of boredom but out of regret and sadness for me. "That's ridiculous. Even if I'd known about this before I'd met you I wouldn't ignore you," she continued, slowly getting angrier. "It's not what your parents are like, it's what you're like and you're nothing like them. So prove it to them," she added.
'why not,' I thought as Denis kicked us all out the living room and up to bed.
