Santana looked up at the large brownstone building with the illuminated St. Lawrence Children's Home sign in the front yard. The place was definitely...unique. Each window ledge was painted a different color and the sidewalk was lined with fading chalk drawings, probably done a few days ago. She squeezed Rachel's hand as she soaked in the atmosphere. It had taken a bit longer than anticipated to finally get here. Two weeks longer, to be exact. There was no one to blame really, it just so happened that things didn't move as quickly when twenty one people all sent in volunteer forms at once.
After a few added sessions with her therapist besides her regular scheduled ones, Santana felt calmer about doing this. Her work had spaced itself out which led Santana to having all but seven paintings completed, giving her plenty of time to have her name added to the volunteer schedule here at the home. After taking the time to really think about what Rachel had been saying about burning out, Santana understood the importance of learning to pace herself, she didn't have to be an energizer bunny all the time. Today was going to be a relaxing day, get to know some of the kids and just learn in general how a day typically went for the children at the home.
"Are we ready to go in? Chloe is supposed to be waiting for us." Rachel asked as she swung her hand back and forth.
"Why am I nervous? I shouldn't be nervous. What if they don't like me?" Santana was getting herself worked up, Rachel could feel her palm starting to sweat.
"They're going to love you. Come on." Rachel gave Santana her most confident smile and pulled her along the path that led to a set of large white double doors. She rang the buzzer once and waited.
"Names?" Santana looked around startled. What in the world?
Rachel giggled before pressing a red button on the intercom that Santana had obviously missed. "Rachel Berry and Santana Lopez. We're new volunteers."
"One moment." The intercom went quiet once again.
"They're probably making sure we aren't here to try and steal a kid or something." Santana mumbled under her breath.
When the door clicked signally the women to enter, they were greeted with a small foyer that opened up into a large living room looking area. There were two white french doors that set immediately to the right of the foyer and along the wall on the left was a wall with a window cut out.
"Hi guys!" Chloe rushed to them immediately from where she was standing at the corner of the foyer next to an oak wood desk. "I'm so sorry that we had to push your time today. I know you were supposed to come at nine but let's just say we had a few issues this morning. But I am so glad you could make it for lunch and spend the rest of the evening with us." Santana could tell that Chloe was definitely on edge and she looked wore out.
"It's okay, we're just glad we finally got to come today." Rachel smiled when she finished speaking wrapping her arms around Santana's almost healed arm. They had went and had her stitches removed a week ago. Everything had healed nicely with minimal scarring which in a way put a damper on Santana's bad ass scar collection.
"We're glad you're here today too. So first things first, you have to sign in." Chloe pointed a book that was laying on a little ledge underneath the window opening. "Every time you come in and leave you have to sign in and out. It's so we know who is in the building." Chloe waited for the women to sign their names. "Now, if you will follow me around here." Chloe rounded the foyer wall and walked a little ways past the living room area to a door on the left.
"This is a beautiful space." Santana noted as she took in the couches and television mounted on the wall. She could see out the window to a nice sized back yard where a large picnic shelter sat. There was also another set of french doors that led to that area. Hmm, they must have a thing for french doors, Santana thought to herself.
"This area is where we do some supervised visits if it's not busy. Other than that, the older kids watch a bit of television on the weekends when curfew is extended. Basketball season gets pretty loud in here." Chloe paused and laughed thinking of all the times that quiet time had to be instated or the television was going to be turned off. "Now this door is our main office door. Martha, our security guard is going to take your pictures for your badges and her partner will check your bags and jackets into a locker. Mine and Agetha's offices are in here also. If we aren't around and you need someone, just knock on this main door here and someone will let you in." Chloe opened the door to reveal a large area that contained two large desks sitting opposite each other and a long counter on the far left of the room. Straight ahead was two doors that Santana assumed was the offices that Chloe had mentioned.
Santana and Rachel nodded their heads with understanding and went about getting their badges made and attaching them to their clothing. Santana decided to clip hers onto her belt since her t-shirt was tucked in anyway. Rachel opted for her shirt sleeve since she didn't have a collar or a belt. Either way, they were easily visible to everyone they came across which is what was most important. Next both women were made to sign basically gag orders that if they saw a parent or child they knew, they weren't allowed to speak about said child or parent to anyone. Santana and Rachel respected the amount of protection that went into respecting everyone's privacy around here.
"Okay. Now that you have your badges let's move on with the tour. Those doors," Chloe pointed to the white wooden french doors that sat at the end of the hallway just outside of the foyer, "those doors open up into the rooms for the thirteen to eighteen year old children. Girls on the top floor and the boys on the bottom floor. They are all at school or in classes at the moment, but later they can show you around if they want. That stairwell space right inside those doors is also the designated tornado area, just so you know in case of an emergency."
"I noticed that the girls will be on the floor above the boys in the new home too. Is there any specific reason for that?" Santana mused with curiosity.
"Girls tend to not be as loud as the boys around here. The boys used to be on the top floor until it got to the point our girls weren't getting any quiet time because of the boys running around to each others rooms, stomping, trying to play hockey in the hallway." Chloe explained.
"What is quiet time exactly?" Rachel asked as she continued to look around the living room area. They were still standing in front of the office door waiting to go through another door that was to the immediate left when you exited the office.
"Quiet time starts at seven after everyone has had dinner which starts at about five. Any homework that needs to be done is completed during that time. Anyone that prefers to shower in the evening does so during quiet time. It's just a name for the winding down portion of the evening. Bed time is eight-thirty for the babies and toddlers, nine-thirty for everyone else. However the older ones can have a book light on until ten. Then it's lights out. They always insist they can stay up later, but really their day starts at six and they go all day. Very rarely is there ever a book light on until ten. The only time that really happens is if someone is up finishing a bit of homework." Chloe loved that Santana and Rachel were asking questions. It showed they were truly invested in learning about the workings of the children's home.
"Where to next?" Rachel asked as she clasped her hands together under her chin and looked to Chloe for guidance.
"We are going to go through this door right here to see the rest of the building." Chloe turned and pulled open the door that her hand had been resting on. There was a door to the left and a door to the right. The door to the left looked like it led into the cafeteria and the door on the right was just a single solid door. Chloe turned around to face the women. "This door to my right leads into our cafeteria. We aren't going to go in there right now, since no one is in there. We will come back and I will introduce you once the children come down for lunch at noon. So we have..." Chloe looked at her watch, "about thirty minutes. Plenty of time to see the rest of the building. Now this door," Chloe walked over to the solid wooden door. "This door is our clothing closet." She opened it to reveal an actual very large closet. There were two racks on each side lined with clothes with boxes of shoes on the top shelves. In the floor there were storage boxes labeled for jackets, jeans, sweat pants, dress pants, socks, and underwear. They had a little bit of everything seemed like.
"You have a good amount of stuff in here at the moment, but are you short on anything in particular?" Rachel asked as she stepped into the closet and spun while looking around.
"There's a catalog of everything in here on the back of the door. Each item and size is listed with a number of how many we have. Like we have ten pairs of boys size seven boot cut jeans. We just got some huge church donations that had to go into storage until we can clear some more space out of here. It's always a toss up how long it will last though, we could have ten kids in and out of here tomorrow needing shirts, jeans, socks. I think we are good for now though." Rachel nodded her head as she headed back out of the clothing closet to stand next to Santana.
"The rest of this hallway is just a second cafeteria entrance, the kitchen door and a utility closet. All properly marked if you need something or someone. Now if we turn right down this hallway, we have a meeting room to the left. If someone needs to talk something out, they come in here. This is also were the chore charts are and there is a small alcove back there that leads to two therapist offices." The room was set up similar to the main front office with burgundy carpet and white boards except in place of the desks was a large conference room table. "To the right is staff and visitor restrooms, ladies is the first door and gentlemen is the second. The last door in this hallway is the nurse's office. She's probably in there now getting lunch medicine's together. I can properly introduce you later. This last back hallway is the nursery and our four to seven year old dorm room. We can go in and see the babies if you like. They should all be awake and in good moods since they're in the process of eating lunch." Chloe bounced on her toes waiting for an answer. Sure they had the other portion of the upstairs left to tour but that could wait. It was only the eight to twelve year old rooms and the designated classrooms. Babies were special and you didn't walk past the nursery without at least sticking your head in the door.
"What do you say Rach? Want to go meet some babies?" Santana's giddiness was coming back in full force and she didn't mind one bit. Who could ever get burnt out on playing with babies? This was something that Santana's therapist and Rachel was not talking about.
"Yeah, let's go meet the tiniest tiny humans." Rachel grabbed Santana's hand and linked their fingers together. She wasn't prepared for the heart warming coo that came out of Santana's mouth as Chloe opened the door to let the nursery room monitor know she was bringing in two new volunteers.
Yay for Chapter 50! It's been a journey getting here and I am excited for the rest of the ride. Thank you all for sticking with me through this story. When I first started this story I knew it was going to be long, but I questioned if I would be able to stick with it. I'm glad I have, because honestly the best is yet to come. So thank you again for the views, reviews, follows and favorites. You guys are amazing.
Fun fact: The building they are in is actually a real building. However, it's not a children's home. It's a women's rehab center that my mother worked at for six years before she became a full time therapist. Obviously a few things are exaggerated, the actual building has all the same colored window sills and you don't have to have a badge, but you do have to sign a gag order. Santana's thought about the french doors was a real thought I had. Also the volunteering to decorate rooms was something that happened at the center. A bunch of church groups came in and decorated the "apartments" (the older kids rooms in the stories). Lastly, the nursery is a little different than the actual room (next chapter) because I had to make it baby friendly.
I've got some good stories from visiting the rehab center. If you want to hear one then let me know and I will leave it down here in a note.
