"Cressida, dinner!" Rita shouts up the stairs to me. It's my first night in this group home and I already hate it, but it was this or Juvie again.
"Why didn't she have to help with dinner?" One of the girls gives me an evil look as she sets a plate down in front of me.
"Cressida's been unpacking, she'll be helping clean up, don't worry,"
"Sorry," I say quietly, I don't want to get on anyone's bad side.
"Anyway, now that we're all here, introductions." Rita shoots a look to the girl sat opposite me.
"I'm Becca," She smiles at me.
"I'm Gabi," Gabi gives me more of a smirk than a smile.
"I'm Kiara, I think we're sharing," She shakes my hand.
"Cool," I smile.
"I'm Carmen."
"I'm Daphne, I don't live here anymore but I visit a lot, so does Callie," She gestures to the girl serving me some mashed potato."
"Hi, you're gonna like it here," Hard to believe, "There's usually a few more girls but most of them have left yet, but they're should be a few new arrivals over the next few weeks,"
"I won't be here that long," They all snicker at me.
"So why you here?" Kiara asks me.
"Kiara, you can't just come out with that, you remember how hard it is being the new girl," Carmen says.
"No, it's okay, uh, drugs mostly, and I accidentally um, hurt someone."
"They dead?"
"Okay, that's enough now Kiara," Rita says. I decide to not say anything else.
We spend the rest of dinner in silence, and then I follow the girls into the kitchen when we're done. Carmen shows me what to do, Gabi yells at me when I don't clean properly, and Gabi just stares at me. Kiara sings along quietly to the radio. We all have to stay in the kitchen while the knives are counted, I've never stayed in a home this strict. At least everyone seems a little but nice. Then Rita and Michelle let us go to bed.
"I'll stay in the spare room," Callie says, removing her backpack from my new bed.
"Nah, just sleep on the floor, we got a lot to talk about," Kiara throws down a bunch of pillows for Callie to sleep on.
"Sorry for taking your bed," I sit down.
"That's okay, I don't even live here,"
"So where do you live? And why would you wanna visit this place?"
"I'm adopted, I come here to see my friends but I also get school credit for helping out with Family Day and stuff,"
"Family Day?"
"Yeah, we get to have our family all come round and we make food for them and we dress nice, you got a family?" Kiara says, smiling.
"Not really, I ain't got any nice clothes either,"
"Not really?" Callie asks, I was trying to avoid that topic.
"Well I've got two brothers, but I haven't met them. My mom died and I never knew my dad. And I had a baby, but I lost her."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Kiara says, she comes and sits next to me and puts her arm around my shoulders. It's nice to have someone touch me that isn't going to hurt me.
"It's cool. It's in the past, I try not to dwell on it, anyway Callie, how did you get out of here?"
"Well I was in the foster home before I got here, then, well I guess my moms got me out."
"Cool so all I need some people who love me to fight for me, that'll be easy," I say sarcastically and I flop back on my bed, "Night." I switch my lamp off. Kiara goes back to her bed and her Callie talk for what feels like hours, but eventually, they shut up and turn the other light off.
I wake up to the sound of Kiara's alarm blaring in my ears.
"Can you turn that off?"
"Uh, no, we gotta get breakfast and then we got group," Callie says, I groan, "Come on, get up," Callie practically yanks me out of my bed.
"Okay, I'm getting up!" I laugh. It's actually not too horrible here.
We don't have to actually cook for breakfast, we all just eat cereal, I try to make small talk with some of the girls, but Callie, Kiara, and Carmen are the only ones interested. We've still gotta wash our dishes though, but that's okay, it's one chore I actually don't mind.
"Okay girls, group time!" Rita calls us in and we all sit in a circle in the living room, it's like we're in the first grade.
"So what do we do here? Tell stories?" I joke.
"Sometimes," Rita says, "We just talk about anything that's on our minds or any concerns you might have about something going on in the house, but usually when someone is new, we let her talk about herself a little, so go ahead."
"Talk about myself? Okay, um, my name's Cressida, I don't really know why. My mom died before I could ask. I'm 16 I have two older brothers I've never met, I was in Juvie for a month, but I got out on good behavior. I like to swim, but I've never been in a pool before, I've been in the ocean a few times, but then the police would catch me and take me back to my foster home,"
"Who do you like?" Kiara asks with inquisitive eyes.
"Who do I like? What do you mean?"
"Boys, girls, both? We don't judge,"
"That's funny because I seem to remember you all judging me," Carmen folds her arms.
"Um, I don't know why it matters but, I like both I guess?"
"So what exactly did you do?" Gabi asks me.
"The story's pretty long, I've done a lot of dumb shit, but to get here, I was caught with coke in my old foster home, I never used it I was just dealing, then Juvie and then straight here," I don't have any interest in telling these girls what I did, or anyone for that matter.
As Kiara and I clean our room, we make more small talk.
"Can I ask you something?" I sit down on my newly made bed.
"Shoot,"
"Is there a way I can get out of here? I'll come back, there's just someone I need to see,"
"Who?"
"It doesn't matter who,"
"Well then I guess there's no way out of here," she turns her back."
"Fine, I want to find my brothers, or at least one of them, when I got out of Juvie I finally got the stuff that my mom left me, it wasn't much at all but there was a letter telling me about one of my brother's who's been fostered, his address is on it. I need to find him," She looks at me for a few moments, "Well?"
"There's a dodgy window in the downstairs bathroom, the second step from the bottom is creaky and the bathroom door always slams, I'll distract Rita,"
"Thank you!" I hug her and grab the letter from my pillow case.
Kiara goes downstairs before me and I hear her talking to Rita and Michelle in the kitchen. I try to casually walk down the stairs while still being quiet, I avoid the creaky step and dash to the bathroom, I leave the door ajar so it looks like no one is in there and I quickly remove the window pane, climb out and place it back in, then I finally make a break for it. It's getting dark so I can be unseen pretty easily. I dash through the yard and find myself headed in the right direction. I told Rita when I got here that I didn't have a cell phone so I could keep it hidden. I use the map to keep on the right track.
I finally get to the apartment building. My hand's quiver as I finally get to the right address, but I have to do this. I knock the door, and before I can think about walking away, the door opens.
"Hi!" A cheery man says. He's a cop, just what I need right now.
"Uh, hi, is AJ here?"
"No he's out at the moment, you a friend from school?"
"Yeah, I am, I was going to borrow his notes, I guess he forgot, um do you know where he is? I have a test tomorrow,"
"Uh, yeah here," He grabs a little piece of paper from a table near him and writes down another address.
"Thank you, officer, this is really helpful,"
"Anytime, see ya," I quickly walk away as he shuts the door. That went so well, I'm guessing that's his foster dad. He must be nothing like me if a cop was willing to take him in, especially a white cop.
I trek through the streets again, finding the house quicker than I expected. I check my phone, it's getting late, but I can still make it back for dinner if this goes well. Without hesitation I ring the doorbell, I start to shake again, another cop opens the door.
"Uh, hi, is AJ here?" I say.
"Yeah, he is, come in,"
"No no, that's okay I'll just wait out here," I take a few steps back, their nice fancy house intimidates me.
"Alright, I'll go get him," I sit down on a bench and a million different scenarios start running through my head, what if he doesn't want anything to do with me? What if he knows what I did? What if he doesn't know anything about me or even who I am?
"Hi," I jump and turn to the door, there he is, "Do I know you?"
"Uh, kind of, not really," My words come out shakily, "Are you AJ Hensdale?"
"Yeah, who are you?"
"My name's Cressida, Cressida Hensdale. I'm your half sister."