Gabriella's POV:
I make my way to locker number 87 feeling quite nervous. Part of me feels excited that I could potentially make a friend. I kind of like this girl. But the other part of me is nervous and hesitant because how could I be friends with a girl who hangs out with people who are so nasty? I don't know what to think. My gut feeling tells me she doesn't like them, but I don't know why she would spend time with them. I am also nervous about going to a stranger's house. What if her parents are mean? Dad's make me nervous. What if he is abusive or a drunk? Mariana doesn't look abused though. Maybe her parents are nice? Which may not be better because what if they sense that I am homeless or don't have the proper things I need. That has happened before. I have lost friends because of it. Parents get too suspicious and then I have to run away or avoid them. I eventually just gave up making friends.
I get interrupted from my thoughts when I hear Mariana's voice.
"Hi, are you ready?" She says excitedly.
"Sure" I mutter, still feeling anxious.
"So how was your first day at Anchor Beach?" She seems to actually care so I decide to try and give her the most genuine answer that I could.
"It was good. A little overwhelming. I feel like starting at any school could be that way though. I feel out of place. Especially because everyone started two weeks before me. Most of the kids know each other from middle school too." I decided to try and give her a chance. I haven't had a real friend in a while.
"I get that. I hope that the more days go by, the better you feel. I am sure that you will get used to it and soon it will become your new normal. I noticed we have at least three classes together. Plus lunch. That's fun!"
"Oh, yeah" I was surprised she noticed. Things get quiet for about five minutes. I think she can tell I am a little nervous. We are now on a decent looking street. I think it may be the same one I walked down last night and imagined what my life would be like if I had a family in a home like this. I start to feel that familiar ache of emptiness. I am not sure what my point is anymore honestly. Will I always be alone?
"We are here!" She says, kindly. I look up at her house. How long have I been lost in my thoughts? It looks so nice. I give her a small smile and she opens the front door expecting me to follow behind her. I walk in and instantly feel comforted by the place. It looks so homey and lived in. Like happiness and love live here. It even smells homey, which I don't even know what that means. A mixture of candles, baked goods and family dinners. I try to ignore another pang of jealousy. I have never been one to feel super jealous, but lately I feel like all I notice is everything I don't have. It is hard not to feel envious.
"Mariana, is that you?" I hear a woman yell. That must be her mom.
"Yes mom, we will be right there." she yells back. "Let's go into the kitchen. We have an island we can do our project on."
I follow her into the kitchen. As we enter I look over and see a blonde woman in a police uniform. I start to feel my palms sweat. Police make me nervous. I have never gotten in trouble with them, but I am a runaway foster kid and I have heard the horror stories of police brutality. Especially with kids that have no one. Her back is to us when we first walk in as she is pulling a beer out of the fridge. The site of the beer causes a knot to form in my stomach.
She turns around and we make eye contact and my breath catches. I instantly have this vision of myself as a little girl. I am giggling as a blonde woman is throwing me into the air. When she catches me she smothers my face in kisses and then tosses me up again. I hear another woman say, "be careful honey, she just ate, I don't want her getting sick."
"Gabriella!" I hear Mariana yell. I am immediately pulled from my vision and am back in the kitchen. I realize Mariana and her mom are watching me. Whoops. I hope she isn't mad. I was staring at her and being rude.
"Oh, sorry" I mutter. I see the blonde walk over to me. She is looking at me pretty intensely.
"Hi honey, my name is Stef. I am Mariana's mom. Your name is Gabriella?" She sticks her hand out and I flinch. I have got to stop doing that. I can't help it. I just do it before I even realize what is happening. I try to recover as best I can, even though I know they both saw. This is already going badly and I haven't even been in here for five minutes.
"Yes, hi ma'am. I am sorry. It is nice to meet you." She smiles at me warmly and my heart squeezes a bit as I finally shake her hand. She has just been holding it out, waiting for me to grab it. I feel a little stupid. We make eye contact for a bit and I can't help but feel like I have met her before. She seems so familiar. "Have we met?" I ask. I realize what I have done and start panicking. I shouldn't have said that.
"I am not sure sweets, you look familiar to me too actually." Stef says.
"Alright, well mom we have stuff to do for this project. So we need to start if we are going to get anything done." Mariana pulls me over to the side of the kitchen to an island and starts taking things out of her backpack. She tells me to sit on a stool so I do. I see Stef watching us for a few minutes as Mariana gives me a rundown of the project description. I am trying to pay attention but I can't help but look up at Stef. We immediately make eye contact and her face puzzles. I blush and look down, feeling embarrassed she caught me staring. After a moment she walks out of the kitchen rather abruptly. I try to keep listening to Mariana but all I can think about is the vision of myself with the blonde woman. I couldn't quite make out what her face looked like, but I wonder if she was my mom?
Stef's POV:
I quickly walk out of the kitchen starting to feel a little panicked. That's not her is it? Her eyes, she has Ella's eyes. I start to feel my breathing increase and I know if I don't take some deep breaths and calm myself down, I am going to have a panic attack. I walk up to my room and shut the door. I lay down on the bed staring up at the ceiling and start box-breathing.
After I get myself calmed down I realize that I must be crazy. I probably think it is her because of telling the kids yesterday. It brought up so many emotions and memories and my judgment is clouded. I need to relax. I glance over at the clock and it is 4:30pm. Lena is going to be home at 5:00pm. She had an after school meeting and asked me to start cutting some veggies for dinner. I need to pull myself together so I can go back down there.
I start thinking of Gabriella again. Oh my gosh. Gabriella! That is Lena's student. I was so clouded by my emotions I hadn't even put two and two together. That explains a lot. Maybe I was just sensing that she needed help. I can't think that any child that could potentially look like Ella, is her. I will destroy myself. I decide to go downstairs so I can cut some veggies and maybe try to ask her some questions. Get a feel for her situation.
Gabriella's POV:
I finally was able to pay attention to Mariana. I felt a little bad and could tell she was getting slightly frustrated. I apologized for being distracted, telling her I was just feeling a little tired after my first day of school. She was actually pretty understanding. She explained it to me again and we have been working well on the project for about twenty minutes now.
I hear someone on the stairs and look up to see Stef walking back in the room. She is much more relaxed looking in a plaid shirt and jeans. She gives me a genuine smile and starts pulling veggies out of the fridge. Oh great, that means we have to work in the same room together.
I try to pay attention again but keep getting distracted by Stef chopping. Do we know each other?
"Gabriella, are you listening?" Mariana says, sighing. I was watching Stef intently as she was cutting. Mariana's voice snapped me out of my day dreaming and caused Stef to look over at me. I feel heat rise in my cheeks and she makes eye contact with me. Great, now she knows I was staring. She gives me another kind smile. This is so embarrassing.
"Yes, I was listening, sorry." Mariana rolls her eyes but I take my attention back to the project. I decide to stop thinking about Stef or the vision and focus on the project. I soon block everything out and get another solid twenty minutes of work done.
We are pulled out of our project when we hear the front door open. I see Stef smile and look towards the entrance of the kitchen. I wonder if her husband is home? I hear heels clicking and a woman walks in.
My heart stops. It's Mrs. AdamsFoster. Oh my gosh. What is she doing here? She hasn't noticed me as she makes her way over to Stef.
"Hi honey," she says, giving Stef a peck on the lips. What? My eyes widen. They are together. This is her house. I am literally in Mrs. AdamsFoster's house. Shit. I freeze with panic. I don't know what to do. Do I stay still? Try to sneak out? Run? Oh my gosh.
"Hi my love, how was your day?" Stef says warmly, giving her hand a squeeze.
"It was good, long, but glad to be home to you." She says lovingly. If I wasn't so stressed I would think it was sweet.
"We have some company," she says looking towards Mariana and I. I look down instantly trying to avoid any potential eye contact.
"Oh my goodness, hi sweetheart. I didn't see you guys over there. What are you up to?"
Mariana must notice my discomfort because she looks over to me. I still won't look up. My eyes are burning a hole into our poster board. I am so anxious I feel like I am going to start throwing up. I move my eyes to look at my hands that are in my lap. They are shaking.
"We are working on a project, Mama. Timothy paired us together since we started this two weeks ago. He figured it would be easier for Gabriella to have some help and time to catch up. It is 40 percent of our grade this quarter." Thank you Mariana!
"Wow, that's great. I am glad you guys are working on it together. How was your first day Gabriella?" Mrs. AdamsFoster is over at the island now, standing right in front of it. I can't find words. I am frozen. I can't look up. Nothing.
"Sweetheart?" She tries again. Nothing.
"Gabriella, are you okay?" It is Mariana this time. I need to do something. I sit up a little taller and look around. My backpack is by my feet. The backpack from Mrs. AdamsFoster is right next to it. All I have in there are school supplies. I start planning my escape. I look up for a brief second and make eye contact with Stef who has now moved towards us. Her eyes squint. She knows I am about to take off. She goes to start to say something but as fast as I can I grab my bag, leaving Mrs. AdamsFoster's bag behind and sprint out the front door. I don't need the bag anyways, I am done at Anchor Beach.
Lena's POV:
It takes me a second to register what is happening but I realize Gabriella is headed for the door. I quickly spring into action and chase after her. I feel Stef close behind. Always the protector. I have this gut feeling that if I let her get away, I may never see her again.
"Gabriella!" I shout. She is running down the front path now and starts turning on the sidewalk. "Wait!" She keeps running, completely ignoring me. I surprise myself as I ditch my heels and start sprinting after her barefoot. "Honey, please just stop running for a moment." She keeps going though she seems to have slowed down a bit. We are just at the end of our street but it seems that she can't go very far. I start feeling a little concerned as she seems a little wobbly. I quickly catch up to her and without thinking grab her arm.
"Let go of me!" She turns around glaring at me so angrily. I instantly let go, surprised by the venom in her voice.
"Honey I am so sorry, I didn't mean to startle you, I just really would like to talk to you. Please talk to me."
"There is nothing to talk about!" She shouts and throws her hands up in the air. I turn around for a second and see Stef lingering by. She takes a step forward trying to debate if I need help. I shake my head no, asking her to move back. She takes a few steps back giving us the space I am asking for.
"Honey, please. I just want to help you."
"You can't help me." At least she stopped yelling. I scan my eyes over her slowly and realize just how thin she truly is. It makes my stomach twist in knots. She is very malnourished.
"Can you please just come back inside? We can chat, you can eat some dinner with us and we will figure this out." I am basically pleading with her at this point.
"There is nothing to figure out Mrs. AdamsFoster. I am not sure what you are implying." She has some venom in her voice again.
"Well you just ran away from me. Why is that?" I ask her softly. She looks up at me and I can see her walls come down for a split second as a pained expression crosses her face.
"I just have to go, that's all." She says, crossing her arms and her lip moving into a little pout. She sounds very young and stubborn. If this wasn't so serious and I wasn't so concerned I would almost laugh. Almost.
"Go where?"
"Uh, home obviously."
"Sweetheart, please. I am begging you. Come inside. I just want to talk. I know you are scared and nervous. I know you are trying to prevent me from finding things out." Her head snaps up at this. She realizes her mistake and then shrugs looking away. "I just want to help. You aren't okay. I can see it. I know some things are happening that you are scared to share about, but I can help you!" I look at her lovingly. Pleading with my eyes to just let her guard down for one moment. She just looks away. I sigh audibly on accident. I don't know who this girl is, but she has my heart.
"Listen. We don't even have to talk about anything. Just come inside and eat with me. Let's just spend time together." She looks up at me suspiciously. I smile at this. "I promise we don't have to talk about anything you don't want to."
"You promise?" I am surprised she is agreeing. I try to hide my excitement.
"Yes!"
"Actually I don't know. I am not really comfortable being around a bunch of people. Sitting at a table with essentially six strangers feels a bit overwhelming." I can understand this.
"Well, you and I can sit outside. Just the two of us." She looks at me weirdly almost like not believing I just suggested that.
"Why would you want to do that?" My heart hurts for this child that I am realizing has no one and truly doesn't see her own value.
"Because I care about you. I want to spend time with you. Please?" I hold my hand out silently pleading that she grabs it.
She looks at my hand for what feels like ages. When in reality it may have been only two minutes. I can see the internal battle going on inside her. Her face keeps changing into hopeful and pained expressions. She finally looks into my eyes and with a soft voice says "okay." She grabs my hand and I squeeze it. I am trying to hold back my tears. I am just so grateful she is trying to trust me at this moment. I take her by the hand and lead her back to the house. I see Stef has walked all the way back to the house and on the porch. I think she knew Gabriella wouldn't have accepted help if both of us were there. I am so thankful for my ever insightful wife. I see Stef go inside as we get closer. We reach the front door and I turn to look at her.
"Everything is going to be okay." She gives me a tiny hint of a smile as I lead her inside.