"Well, you better come meet the others." Gina said.
"Don't worry, I'll introduce her. I know what it's like being the new girl." Tracy said, smiling at me.
I smiled back, but she really had no idea; 12 carehomes make sure you get used to being the new girl.
She led me towards the living room and as soon as they saw me, all the kids started staring, and their mouths dropped open.
"Everyone, this is Destiny." Tracy said.
I gave a half-hearted wave at everyone. The first one to close her mouth and walk up to me was one wearing lots of pink.
"You look so pretty." She said. "And your name is pretty, too. I'm Carmen." She told me.
I was touched by this. "Thanks, Carmen. Yours is a pretty name, as well. Like you." I said, grinning. After all, she really was pretty…just maybe needed a little bit of a makeover. Well, we'll see.
Everyone else seemed to react, closing their mouths quickly and looking away.
Carmen introduced me to everyone: Sapphire, Harry, Liam, Tee, Lily, Johnny, Gus, Frank, Toby, Poppy and Rosie.
Liam looked somewhat…familiar…and yet I couldn't place my finger on why. Shrugging, I walked over to the pool table and grabbed a cue. "Any of you lot fancy a game?"
"Sure, why not." Liam said, jumping down from the sofa to grab a pool cue.
"Make sure you have some tissues ready, Liam, because you're going to cry when you lose." I teased.
"I won't lose." Liam said.
"Well, we'll see." I said.
Well, I won two games, and Liam won just the one game. But hey, he didn't cry or seem angry. He was impressed.
"You got good tactics." He said. "And skill. Impressive."
"Learned how to play in my first care home." I said.
"Wait, so this isn't your first care home?" Tee asked.
"Nah. This is my 12th." I told them, before exiting the living room. I heard them all start talking excitedly, so I kneeled down next to the door, well hidden, and listened.
"Wow." Carmen said. "She's so cool."
"Are you kidding? She must be a freak to have been to twelve care homes." Lily said.
"You don't even know her so you can't exactly say that." Johnny pointed out.
"Johnny, twelve care homes!" Tee said.
"If we don't know the full story we can't judge." Sapphire said.
"She's a bit weird." Frank said.
"But we've only met her once." Toby pointed out.
"She's scary." Harry said.
"Oh come on Harry, grow up." Rosie said.
"She is scary, Rosie." Poppy said.
I heard them start to argue and I headed away from the door, walking upstairs. I was already topic of the conversation, huh? I took out my hairband and shook out my hair. I stuck the hairband on my wrist, ran a brush through my hair, then headed back downstairs. I entered the living room and raised my eyebrows.
"Hi Destiny!" Carmen said, smiling.
The first thing I noticed was that they were in little groups, two groups, one for each sofa to be exact.
"Heya. So, what's going on?" I asked.
Carmen glared in Lily's direction. "Well, some people here, Destiny…"
"Think I'm a complete freak." I said, causing them to be taken aback. "So I heard." I stood up to look at both sofas.
"So let me get this straight. These kids," I pointed to the sofa where Carmen, Johnny, Sapphire, Rosie, Toby and Liam were sitting. "Are the ones who like me. And these ones," I pointed to the other sofa, where Lily, Tee, Harry, Poppy, Frank and Gus were sitting. "Think I'm fucked up."
Carmen nodded slowly. "Yeah." She said.
I nodded. "Right." I said. "Thanks, for the ones who seem to take a liking to me. As for the ones who don't," I shot the non-liker sofa a look. "Remember I'm not the only freak in this room." With that, I walked out, Carmen on my tail.
We went into my room together and I looked up at her. "Can I ask you something?"
"Yeah, sure." Carmen said.
"Don't you ever get tired of pink?" I asked.
"Yes." She said immediately. "But I can't exactly give myself a makeover because I'm not so smart."
"Want me to give you one?" I asked.
"If you don't mind, I'd love you to." She said with a big smile.
"Right, well lets get started then!" I said, with a grin.