Waking up to the smell of eggs and bacon on a Sunday morning is about as good as it gets. Even better when it's June and school just got out on Friday.
After eating my share of breakfast, I started up the stairs to my room. Turning the corner, Matt pulled me aside by the arm a little too hard.
"OW! Be a little careful Matt!"
"What is your problem Autumn?" Matt hates to fight but he really doesn't know how to end an argument.
"What is my problem? What is your problem? Why does everything always have to be my fault?"
"Maybe that's because everything usually is your fault."
I glared at him. "Oh, so it's my fault there are starving people in the world. Is that what you mean?"
"No. You know exactly what I mean. Why do you have to make everything into an argument? And you always have to keep it going!"
"Well, it certainly sounds to me like you're the one keeping this argument going."
"No, I'm trying to solve this." Matt gave up. "Is it about the car, because if you really want you can have the car and I can get a ride with Kyle."
"Well maybe I don't want the car."
"Then what was the argument about last night?"
I smirked. "The car."
"But you just said…oh never mind." Matt sighed. "Can we please--"
Before Matt could finish his sentence Miss Summers shouted up the stairs, "Matt! Autumn! Come down here! I need to talk to you!"
Once we were all sitting around the table, Miss Summers said, "We are going to have two new residents coming to live here. They are sisters and I want you to do your best to make them feel welcome."
"When are they coming?" Rebecca asked, excited new people were coming.
"Tomorrow actually. I barely found out this morning so we have a lot of work to do." Looking at Taylor and Rebecca Miss Summers explains "We're going to have to set them up in the guest room so can you two strip the beds and remake them?" Miss Summers turned her gaze to me. "And Autumn, I'm going to move you to their room. I don't want them to feel left out. Is that all right?"
"Yea, sure. How old are they?
She smiled at me. "The oldest is Courtney. She is fourteen and her little sister is Kari and she is twelve. Now we have a lot of work to do so let's get started."
I was clearing the table after lunch when the doorbell rang. The foster home is on the outskirts of town, so not many people come, not even parents who might want to come to adopt us.
Looking up from the table I saw Miss Summers open the door and the two girls step in. The older one, Courtney had light brown hair, reaching to about her shoulders. Her eyes slightly resembled Matt's, only they were hazel and not chocolate brown. Kari had long, red-orange hair that was pulled back in a ponytail, swinging every time she moved. She had a confident but mischievous look, but nice all in all. I paused when the older one looked up at me. Smiling at her, I went back to removing the dishes off the table.
Kari was very talkative and energetic. I was leading them to their, our new room. At their previous school, Kari had been on teams ranging from bowling to basketball. She said she would have done wrestling too, if she had her way. But Courtney wasn't really into school sports. She loved to dance, but wasn't apart of the team. She was really good with computers and, don't tell Miss Summers, loved to hack into them.
"So how many foster homes have you guys been to? Miss Summers didn't really say."
"This is our first one." Kari said while pinning up a poster of her favorite band, Eve 6.
"Where were you guys before? I mean, what town?"
"We don't live in Virginia. When our parents were alive we lived in Pennsylvania. They died recently in a car crash and we don't have any relatives. They said Virginia would be the best place for us." I could see Courtney's eyes misting with tears so I decided it was a good time to change the subject.
"Do you guys want to play soccer with me after dinner? I've been meaning to go out more, but no one else really wants to come."
Kari's eyes widened. "I would love to! When is dinner?"
"In about half an hour, but we should probably head down to help them cook."
Hearing we were going to play soccer everyone but Matt wanted to play. Once outside and out of ear shot Courtney whispered, "Oh my gosh! He is so cute!"
"Wow Courtney, you think every guy is cute." Kari said,
"I do not!" Courtney slugged Kari in the shoulder.
"Oww that hurt so much." Kari said with heavy sarcasm. I guess Courtney can't punch hard.
"Um, okay so I guess we're going to have uneven teams so who wants to be on whose team?" Rebecca said, ready to get on with the game.
"Well, unless Kari and Courtney want to be on the same team, I guess Taylor, Courtney, and I could be on one team, and Rebecca and Kari could be on the other. We could switch one player at half time."
"How are they doing?"
"Fine. They don't suspect a thing."
"Good." The old man stopped to take some pills. "And what about the two missing subjects?"
"It's only been two weeks. If we don't find them in the next three days we'll expand the radius and search the surrounding states."
