I know it's midnight (at least where I am), but I was just listening to some music when the song Walk Me Home came up and I remembered - I still have some work to do! Sorry the chapter's short, but hopefully the earlier-than-usual update and continuing Rose's story make up for it!
Green Meadow1870: I'm glad you liked the chapter! And I've never been the greatest with emotions, but I'm hoping to make this story at least a bit emotional.
Chapter Thirteen
Rose froze when she heard the words, and they echoed in her brain for what felt like forever.
How would you feel about us adopting you?
"Rose...adopting you?"
"How would you feel about us adopting...
But no matter how much she mixed the words, they were real. They were real. All of the years of being unloved, all of the pain, all of the helplessness, all of the loss were coming back, but not in a bad way.
You useless girl!
No one will ever love you!
Freak!
You are a pathetic and weak child who will never have a family!
You hear me? NEVER! YOU WILL NEVER BE HAPPY!
Orphan! Useless orphan!
But now she felt differently about them. It felt nearly like they were another world, a world before she met Caroline and Helen and Phillip and Anne. A world before she found the circus. They felt unreal, and maybe - just maybe - they were.
"Flower?" Anne's soft voice broke through her shaken thoughts.
Rose looked up to see Anne and Phillip's hopeful yet at the same time worried faces and a huge smile overtook her as her eyes overflowed with tears.
"Yes!"
She threw herself into their arms and now knew, with full certainty, that the words weren't true, that they would never be true again.
When the three of them joined the others, Caroline and Helen ran over to Rose, seeing that she looked as though she were crying.
"Rose?" Helen asked. "Are you okay?"
To their surprise, Rose smiled tearfully and nodded.
"Yeah, I'm better than I've been in a long, long time."
Phillip let go of Anne and Rose's hands, and walked up to Phin. He whispered something in his friend's ear and the ringmaster smiled widely and shouted, "Everyone! Attention please!"
As everyone turned around, Phin continued, "One year ago, a little girl arrived at the circus, wet from standing in the rain. She became an act here, and soon grew into our family. Today we not only celebrate her becoming one year older, we also celebrate her truly getting a family - by being adopted by the very two people who first met her here. So, happy birthday to Rose Carlyle."
Everyone turned to see Rose, who - if possible - was smiling even wider than before and holding tightly to her new parents' hands.
Then, there was an uproar. But not the kinds the protesters made, it was the kind of uproar that was many people showing their joy and celebrating at once, and if anything it made Rose feel more at home. These people cared about her, had cared about her since she arrived at their doorstep. Their joy at her finally getting parents was only adding to the twelve-year-old's peace and happiness.
Once everyone calmed down, Rose started to wonder how Anne and Phillip would do this, especially since they weren't married yet.
"Well," Anne said slyly. "Phillip actually proposed the moment we realized we wanted to adopt you, about a month ago."
She showed a simple ring on her index finger. It was a silver band with a small white gem on it, but looked beautiful to Rose. Anne moved it to her ring finger and said, "We wanted to keep it quiet until we told you the news."
"Yeah, but how will you adopt me?" Rose asked, finally saying the question she'd been wondering for a while. "I have no legal owner."
Anne hesitated, then said, "Technically your legal owner is sort of still your mother and father. So...we may have to find and talk to them. You don't have to come, of course. We can do it-"
"I want to."
Anne blinked, giving Rose a surprised look.
"I want to come," the young girl repeated. "I want to meet the people who left me on a doorstep, who left me to a..."
She trailed off, but her new parents understood.
"Okay, but you need to be careful," Anne said, resting her hand on Rose's. "I don't want you to get hurt."
Rose nodded, smiling a bit. She did that more often now.
"So, on to other things, is there anything else you would like us to change?" Anne asked. "Once we adopt you?"
Rose hesitated, then asked, "Can you change my name?"
"What? Why would you want to change your name from Rose?" Phillip asked.
"It's just...Rose was the name she gave me. It was the first thing that popped into her mind, and when I think of it I think of a random and careless choice. I want a name that I and people I love have control over, so that when I think of my name I think of something special to me," Rose explained. "It's silly but..."
"It's not silly," Anne insisted. "Would you like you change your name completely, or keep Rose as a nickname?"
"The nickname, I think. Rose is still the name I grew up with, and I think it suits me well. But my full name...I think about my name a lot, and yet I never had an idea of what it should be, because I never thought I could change it. But can I also have a middle name?"
"Of course," Phillip said quickly. "What?"
Rose grinned. "Violet. Like my eyes."
Her soon-to-be parents gave her a proud look, and Anne said, "You're finally starting to be proud of who you are."
Rose shrugged, but she was smiling.
"I guess so."
The party ran late, and Rose ended up falling asleep there. Anne carried her home and set her down in the bed, gently so she wouldn't wake up.
"Good night Rose," she whispered.
But then Rose said something that shocked and yet at the same time filled Anne with joy. Two words that she felt were just the start of her whole life changing, but for the better. Words that were the start of a new future, one she never thought she would have.
"Night Mom."
Again, I had to do a sweet family ending. Let me know what you thought of this chapter, and what you think Rose's name should be! And also what you think Anne and Phillip's wedding will be like.
-Creator of Magic