Chapter 52

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I never intended to reach the reveal of Jack's plot arc, I just meant to write a little hint, but then I got carried away and revealed it all so... hope you enjoy it.

The last days in Elmtree House sped by, and before anyone had had a chance to comprehend what was going on, they were packing.

"How many pairs of shoes does a girl need?" Robbie asked incredulously, staring at Ari's collection spread out across the floor; most of which he had never once seen her wear.

"You never know when they'll come in handy," Ari replied, a little stiffly.

"But have you ever actually gone scuba diving?" he questioned, picking up a pair of flippers.

"Robbie, that is beside the point," she snapped, snatching them off him.

"But do you need over forty pairs of shoes?"

"Yes," she snapped, beginning to wrap up a pair of neon green six inch stilettos.

"When will you ever wear them?"

Arietta ignored him, and Robbie took her silence as a no.

"Why did you even buy them in the first place?"
"I didn't, alright," she told him, starting to wrap another pair, "they were Symphony's; all of them."

She didn't look at him, just kept wrapping the shoes, and Robbie said nothing, just grabbed a pair of shoes and started wrapping them too.

They didn't speak as they continued working, the only sound was the soft blast of demo tracks that Ari had gone through a phase of creating.

It was three tracks later, when a ballad with a lilting melody was playing, that Jemima knocked on the door.

She didn't even wait to be welcomed into the room, she just walked in, did a double take, looked at her clipboard and promptly sat on the floor; grabbing a pair of shoes and beginning to wrap them up.

"You were meant to have moved onto clothes 43 minutes, and 22 seconds ago," Jem declared, finishing wrapping the pair of shoes she was working on, and taking the next pair.

"I'm so sorry," Ari replied, sarcasm dripping from her voice. Jemima ignored her, and continued working.

They worked in silence and only 5 minutes later had they succeeded in wrapping up the last of the shoes, and Jem didn't say anything just got up a walked to her next job: Jack.

When she knocked on Jack's door she waited for his approval to open the door, "who is it?" he yelled through the door,

"Jemima," she replied,

"come in," he shouted.

Jemima entered his room, Jack was looking a little panicked though he was trying to play it off with nonchalance by lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling.

"Alright Welshie," he said, and Jem could hear the slight worry in his calm tone.

"What's the matter?" she questioned, crossing her arms.

"I'm fine," he stated, and Jem raised an eyebrow, he stayed silent but refused to meet her eyes.

"It ain't nothin to do with the move," he told her, as if believing that would put Jemima off his case. Instead she checked her clipboard,

"well I am scheduled a break, which means I have to take a break from topics relevant to the move, so..." she gestured towards Jack, "the stage is yours."

He huffed, "I am just in a thinking mood," he explained, and Jem nodded understandingly, and took a seat on his floor, giving him the time to talk on his own terms.

"I'm only gonna be here for another month and a half," he started, "but..." he paused, "I am worried."

He stopped for a moment, looking round his room at his football posters, medals, school books, his hoodie tossed across his chair – everywhere but at Jemima.

"I'm not sure," he continued, staring out of the window, "if I am worried about them finding out, or about them reacting badly, or both..."

"Going by previous data," Jem told him, "I reckon the majority of people would be ok; Arietta would be, Tee and Erin too, I imagine Robbie and Rick would be ok. I think the younger ones would be ok, and of course Jody already knows."

Jack nodded, "yeah, at, like, Christmas, Max went to talk to her about it, to explain," he wrung his hands together, and tried to keep his voice light, "oh hi Jodes, nice to see you for the first time in like 3 years. Yeah, Kelly is coming to join your shit hole of kids home, oh, and by the way, Kelly's a trannie."

Jack fell silent, not meeting Jem's gaze.

"Guessing that's what your Dad called you..." Jem started, but was cut of by Jack shaking his head.

"Mum," he told her, "that's what Mum called me." He sighed, "I guess it wasn't her fault, she always wanted a little girl, and I wasn't that. I wasn't a girl. So I wasn't good enough for her, she wanted a daughter and she kept trying to force me to..." he trailed off.

"When I told her, she chucked out all my jeans, my hoodies, my trainers... she bought me an entire new wardrobe, full of pink and full of fucking dresses. She forced me to quit football, then one day I had enough; I cut off my hair, all of it, and well... I cut some other stuff too."

Jack's fingers ghosted to the almost invisible scars, just white lines on his skin, and he stroked them slightly, grimacing.

"I nicked some of Max's clothes and headed downstairs, and Mum saw me and she flipped. She kept shouting at me, saying..." he swallowed slightly, rubbing his eyes furiously, "then she said that she didn't want to be in the house with such a sick and twisted trannie, and she walked out. Never came back, and Dad blamed me. Then when Max went to university and Dad started saying stuff, he blamed me, said it was my fucking fault that his fucking marriage had fucking fallen through, because Mum had walked the fuck out because I am a sick fucker who isn't right in the fucking head."

Jack fell silent, "then one time when Max was home, he heard, he told me to go and wait in his car and he had a fight with Dad. Then I went to live with Max, well tried to, Max is a student so consequently has next to no money and I'm under sixteen, so legally..."

"Legally, he had to adopt you and that would be time consuming and expensive," Jemima finished for him,

"so we decided, well he decided, that I had to go into care, just till I am sixteen then I can live with him," Jack paused.

He brightened a little, "then I will be able to start hormone therapy, and maybe even have surgery. Then I'll be a real guy,"

"you are a real guy," Jem stated, "what you do or do not have between your legs, does not determine your gender."

"I'm just afraid if they find out, that they'll start calling me Kelly, and I can't..." Jem nodded understandingly,

"there are only two people who I think that could have a problem with it," she responded, "but I am pretty sure I could slap some sense into Johnny Taylor if need be and Bailey... well... I don't know what I could do about him, but give me enough time and I'm sure I could formulate a suitable plan."

"Thanks Welshie," Jack replied, "but no thanks... I think."

"Do you want some help with packing?" Jem questioned, switching topic.

"If you don't mind..."

"absolutely not," she told him, smiling.

Xxx

"My back hurts, my neck hurts, my brain hurts, my little toe hurts," Erin complained, lying on her bed while Rick sat on the floor doing her packing, after she had claimed that it was his responsibility since he was the one that got her pregnant, which was consequently causing her all of this pain.

"I can't believe I have three more months of this shit," she complained, massaging her stomach, which was bigger than ever, "you better not get any bigger," she commanded, pointing at her stomach.

"I think they will inevitably get bigger," Rick told her honestly,

"don't give it any ideas," Erin stated, "otherwise it will get bigger, and I'll write you off as a bad influence."

"But it's science," Rick pointed out,

"don't care," Erin told him, glaring at him, "bad influence." She kept her expression serious for a couple of moments, before it slipped from her face. "Well at least I'm having a C-Section, I would hate to think how painful a natural birth would be," she commented.

"The pain would have been worth it," Rick told her, and his girlfriend simply glared at him.

"You," she started, "would not be the one pushing out this large thing out of an inappropriately sized hole. Or the one lugging them around for nine months."

Erin paused before smirking, "I hope you realise, that when they are older, you are going to be the one on taxi duty."

"Why me?" Rick questioned,

"because I think I will have done enough of carrying it places to last me a lifetime," she replied.

"Well it isn't like we had the option where I could carry it," he pointed out,

"yeah... well... you are still the one who got me pregnant, so you are on taxi duty."

Xxx

Text from Josh:

I am going to DIY place, would you like me to look at paint for your room or do you want to pick it out yourself?

J x

Reply:

Can I choose it myself?

Kitty xxx

Text from Josh:

Yh sure, can't wait to see you tomorrow

Reply:

Me too :D

In twenty four hours Kitty Barilo would be leaving the care system for the first time since she had entered it four years previously, finally she would be moving in with her brother, like he had promised all those years ago.

In twenty four hours she would be leaving all her friends: Rick – the only one who had been there for her at Burnywood. Erin – her best friend who had been more like a sister, even though they had only been friends for six months. Tyler – who despite not understanding her at Burnywood, was now always able to make her laugh. Tee – who was sweet and a good friend.

Johnny.

Johnny Taylor, her first love, though as the weeks and months passed she began to doubt the validity of that title. To doubt whether that teenage rush of heightened of emotions was love...

But that didn't matter, he would always be special to her and there would always be a small part of her that would regret how everything had fallen apart: how she had hurt him. How she had turned her back on him, only to be surprised when he didn't come running back to her and instead started chasing the Welsh girl.

She had messed everything up between them, and with most of the others as well, as while she had managed to put most of the stuff right. There was still things that she couldn't set straight, and would never be able to set straight.

Perhaps things that if she stayed they would never be able to move past; like how she had nearly pushed Johnny to the point of suicide.

Meaning that maybe it would be best, for all of them, that she left. So that she, and the rest of them, could put that section of their life behind them as they moved to the new house, to the new part of their life.

Xxx

They didn't hold a party to celebrate Kitty leaving, instead they sat in an uncharacteristic silence as they ate their last evening meal together.

Jack and Jemima kept exchanging looks, when ever Jemima took her eyes off her notebook for more than two seconds, and Johnny was watching with a questioning look.

Erin and Rick were sat together, fingers entwined as they ate, not saying anything, but both reliving the last 8 months since they had met.

Mike and Gina were watching the kids, feeling more than a little upset; they had worked together, in Elmtree House for a number of years, and they couldn't help but feel that it was an end of an era and Gina didn't feel that she was able to comprehend how much she would miss the kids.

Ari and Sam (who had come over for the last meal) were sitting so close that they were practically sharing a chair, neither of them spoke and Ari was clutching her girlfriend's hand so hard, as if afraid that the (relatively small) distance being put between them could cause her girlfriend to disappear out of her life, into the darkness. Like so many before had done.

The rest: Robbie, Mo, Harry, Bailey, Tee, Kitty, Tyler, Faith all sat in silence, them too thinking about the future.

They were all afraid of the next part of their life; or the unknown. Not knowing where the future would take them and the people they would become.

But the Dumping Ground was a family, and no matter how far away you were and how much you had changed, they would always be there for you.

Because for them it didn't matter: they all knew (perhaps better than most) that change was inevitable and sometimes it was for the better.

They certainly hoped it would be.

The doors of Elmtree House were closing, but new adventures would be in store. Along with new friends, old friends and family at Ashdene Ridge.

End of Part One

Please note Part Two, will be continued in the next chapter, it will not be an entirely new story.

Anyway, while the chapter was slightly short, I hope it was good :)

Please review xxx