"Caoilainn I've been on the phone to your social worker," Mike says as soon as we walk through the door, "You didn't tell me you ran away from your foster home,"
"You didn't ask," I shrug,
"Come on, Caoilainn. You're a bright girl. Beth and Chris have been worried about you,"
"Let them worry, I don't need them,"
"Dana says Jamie's been worried about you too," Dana is my social worker. She's nice and newly qualified so it's easy to wrap around my little finger. Jamie. Jamie was my foster sister, before I left. She's Beth and Chris' actual daughter and they said I led her astray. Jamie's a nice girl and was desperate to make friends with me, so desperate that she cut her hair short and died it light blue. Beth cried and said she'd ruined her beautiful long blonde hair. It always looked more strawberry blonde than blonde to me, but say that and Beth would bite your head off, "Why did you leave, babes?" Gina asks. I forgot to tell you about her. Gina is the other care worker here. She's really nice from what I can tell, if a little strict. She wears different coloured braided extensions in her hair and long colourful dresses. She sort of reminds me of some of the women back home. No this is home now. Back at whatever camp I stayed at before, we were always moving, "They didn't know me, at all," I tell Gina, who listens, "Why did they foster me if they were only interested in the daughter they already had?"
"Maybe it was a mistake yeah babes?" Gina puts one arm round my shoulder, "Doesn't mean you need to run away. You only had to talk to Dana,"
"And go back to Burneywood?" I sigh, rolling my eyes slightly,
"Why don't you go get cleaned up and get some food inside you. We'll talk some more when Dana gets here," Mike says kindly, giving me a little push towards the stairs and I start up them, "Squint wait up,"
"Go away,"
"What. Why you mad at me now?" I stop,
"I just don't wanna be back here Rick! Answering questions about my life like I always have to. It's easier on the streets,"
"So it's easier being cold? Wondering where the next meals coming from, whether the police are going to pick you up or not?" Rick practically shouts then goes quiet, "We all have to answer questions, Kee,"
"Yeah we do and maybe I wouldn't mind so much if the kids here hadn't already read my file. I'll be gone soon. Once Mike and Gina have talked to my social worker, I'm gone and you won't find me this time,"
"Don't you dare go!" Rick grabs me by my wrist as I turn away from him,
"Who's gonna stop me, you?" I snatch my wrist back and start back up the stairs then stop and turn back around quickly, "My mum'll come back for me anyway," I stomp up the stairs and slam Rick's bedroom door. I forgot he let me have his room, doubt he will anymore. Who am I kidding anyway? My mums not coming back for me, no chance. She doesn't give a flying one about me, Kian, Niall or even little Danny. Danny... He got adopted way back when we were first put into care. Of course he did, he was so cute with his big blinking blue eyes and tufts of blonde hair. The other little kids didn't stand a chance against Danny. There's a knock at the door so I open it and, as I expected it's Rick with his stuff, "I want my room back,"
"Fine," I pick up my rucksack with one hand and, without breaking eye contact, leave the room. Now I have to share with Carmen which is not as bad as it seemed yesterday. After all I'm not planning on staying long, "Caoilainn! Dana's here, babes," I smile slightly then go downstairs to be greeted with my social workers scowling face. She's normally extremely pretty but not right now. Right now she looks kinda...angry, "What?!" I ask grumpily,
"Where the hell have you been?"
"Around," I say vaguely,
"Caoilainn that's not good enough. You've had the police after you, the social and not to mention how worried your foster parents have been!"
"They were the ones who made me wanna leave!" I try to reason,
"Look let's take this into the office, yes?" Mike says, looking to the stairs where Johnny, Tee and Tyler are watching and listening, "Yes, Caoilainn?" He says again when I don't respond or even move. I'm too busy looking at Tyler, trying to read his eyes. I've always been quite good at reading peoples expressions and I can tell that he hasn't forgiven me yet, "Yeah," I say hoarsely. My throat is starting to hurt from all the shouting I've done today, "Look, Caoilainn, I'm sorry I shouted ok?" Dana says as soon as we get in the office and sit down, "It's just I've been worried about you, we all have," I almost laugh,
"Don't pretend to care about me. Social workers come and go and you're no exception,"
"Don't say that. Of course I care about you, I'm not just a social worker you know. I do have feelings," Like it or not, she's right. I remember the time I was upset because my mum promised she'd send a visit request in, but didn't and Dana bought me a giant bar of chocolate. Then she proceeded to help me eat it, "It's gonna take a bit of working out, but I'm going to try and fix it so you can stay here, okay kiddo?" I nod slowly then start to stand up, "See ya later kid," Dana smiles as I leave the office,
"What was that about?" I turn around quickly and there's Tyler, not exactly smiling but not exactly frowning either, "I'm staying it looks like,"
"So you're not planning on running away again?" He asks, eyes lighting up suddenly. I raise one eyebrow, "Rick told me," he explains with a shrug,
"Oh," I don't have much else to say. It's been so long since I've seen him, a year at least, "Heard anything from your mum?" I try as an icebreaker. He shakes his head, staring at his feet, "Hey," I put my hand on his shoulder and he looks up, "Chin up. She'll come back for you. You just gotta hang around for a bit longer,"
"Did your mum come back?"
"You know she didn't,"
"Then how do you know mine will?" He asks. He sounds upset now. Great I made him upset, again. I take his hand and sit him down on the nearby sofa, "I don't, but listen. My mum dumped me, out of choice. It was a totally conscience decision she made. But yours...she couldn't help it could she?" I say tactfully, not mentioning her mental illness, "Maybe you're right. Thanks,"
"I'm always right," I reassure him with a smile. Maybe it won't be sooo bad at this place. I mean it's exactly the same as Burneywood. Isn't it?
I've been here for a week now and it's not so bad. It's different to living at Burneywood. It's very different to living on the streets. As I sit on my bed in Carmen's room, reading, I think that I might just be starting to settle in here. Rick hasn't spoke to me, not that I blame him, but no one has said anything else about my background or my family. I suppose I should thank him for that, if he had anything to do with it, "No! I'm not staying you can't make me sta- ow! Get off me!" I blink in surprise because a) it's not me shouting or screaming for once and b) I don't recognise that voice. Carmen looks up at me from straightening her hair and frowns, "Who's that?"
"Only one say to find out," I grin and rush out of our room then down the stairs where a few people are already standing, including Rick, "Who's that?"
"New kid," he mutters. I look in the direction the screaming is coming from and see a girl, younger than me but probably older than Jody, struggling to get out of Gina's grip. She's thin, not anorexic thin, but thin enough that you can see the faint outline of her rib age against her t-shirt. Her t-shirt is dirty and actually so is her face. She's got chestnut brown hair tied up in a loose ponytail and her fringe falls to her jaw, "You can't make me stay here!"
"You have to, babes, you've got no one else to look after you,"
"My dad will come and get me out of this dump," she says confidently, so confidently that I almost believe her but then one look into her eyes tells me it's a bluff. Something to give herself hope, like I used to do. I feel sorry for her because there's nothing anyone can do. Everyone has a first day in care and it's always bad, no matter how popular you are or what your story is. Out of the corner of my eye a see a man I've never met before walk towards the new girl and Gina, "Come on, Ellie, let's get this over with," I'm guessing he's her social worker. She seems to know him quite well, considering she's only just been put in care. Maybe she had a social worker before whatever happened. Some people do. You don't need to be in care to have a social worker, I know that. I can't bear it anymore. That little girl, no more than 11, crying her eyes out and shouting for her dad. I push past Rick and start down the rest of the stairs, "Hey, Ellie?" She nods slowly. She's got to the stage of crying when you can't stop sniffing because you're trying to stop but failing, "It's not so bad here you know," I put my arm around her shoulder gently,
"I'm not staying here for long, my dad will get me," she sighs,
"I know. I believe you,"
"You do?"
"Yeah, but while you are here you might as well make friends? It will make it go a lot quicker, trust me," I can see in her eyes that she does trust me. It's unreal how much she reminds me of myself just over four years ago. I can remember my first day at Burneywood all too vividly...
"What's going on? Why am I here?"
"You need to stay here from now on. Where we can keep an eye on you properly," I won't forget that voice. Dennis' voice, harsh and gruff sounding. Almost scary to a ten year old, "My brothers can look after me fine," I tried to protest,
"No they can't,"
"Yes they can! Ask them! They'll look after me you can't stop them!" I shouted, getting more desperate by the second, kicking at Dennis' knees, "Oi! Do you want a smack?"
"You can't smack me you're not allowed!" I screamed, even kicking at my social worker. I had a different social worker then, not Dana. A young man called Gareth. He was nice enough, I suppose but he didn't stay long, "Hey, shh," I looked up and blinked away the tears. I didn't see Dennis' mean face or even my social worker's slightly kinder face. I saw a young boy, about my age with light brown hair and bluey green eyes. Rick, "Okay? I'm Rick," he smiled,
"Caoilainn,"
"How old are you, Caoilainn?"
"10, nearly 11," I said quite proudly. I don't know why but being nearly an age was an achievement,
"Really? Well I'm 11,"
"What is this place,"
"Burneywood," he rolled his eyes making me laugh slightly, "Don't worry though. I'll protect you," He said as if this place was filled with dragons and demons, not a bunch of kids, "You?" I scoffed, gaining a bit of confidence,
"Well we can look after each other,"
"Alright," I nodded. He spat on his hand and stuck it out to me, "Ew," I laughed then did the same, smacking our hands together,
"There,"
A/N So I just wanted to say that Caoilainn's name is not pronounced how it sounds. It's sort of like KEE-LIN. Thanks for reading, please leave reviews with helpful criticism please? Or some new story lines to add?