A/N: I tried something a little different but hope you still like it.

Chapter Sixteen

Foster Homes

Mildred was sat at the table in the kitchen playing with her cereal as she leaned her chin on her hand. She had not said much since she returned home a few days ago and Julie was really worried about her. The woman in question took a seat next to her daughter.

"Darling has something happened? You are acting strange" Julie told her knowing something was wrong with her daughter and worried about it. She was being far to quiet. Mildred sighed and looked up.

"I am just upset, The Hallow sisters were taken into foster care separately and I saw them being dragged away from one another, I know Ethel has given me a hard time but no-one deserves to be raped and then become pregnant from it and have no mother figure to help them, her mother and father have cut her out of the family" Mildred explained. Julie gasped at the last part, she had not known that.

"That is awful" Julie replied with a sigh, honestly feeling bad for all three girls. "But they will be fine Mildred, they will be at school most of the time and I am sure a long term placement will be found for them all together before long" Julie told her daughter.

Mildred looked at her mother wearing a look showing she was not convinced. Somehow she knew that would not happen, she only hoped all three girls were okay.

Esmerelda

The girl walked down the stairs with a frown on her face. It was too quiet in this house without her sisters making noise. Reaching the sitting room she walked up to her foster mother and looked at her.

"I need a bandage" Esmerelda told the dark haired woman who was sitting reading the newspaper but lifted her head to smile at her foster daughter.

"Why?" She asked Esmerelda thinking it was a weird request.

"I hurt my arm" Esmerelda told the lady, giving her short answers and being off with her. The woman was nice enough but she wasn't her family and she had not agreed to take her sisters in which meant they had been separated.

"Show me" her foster mother, Katie, told her.

"That is okay, just give me the bandage and I can sort it myself" Esmerelda told her foster mother now wanting her help but the woman was in charge of her. If she was injured she had to know.

"Is it your left or your right?" She asked Esmerelda wanting to try pry more information out of the girl.

"Left" Esmerelda replied with a shrug before she sighed. "Do you have a bandage or not?" Esmerelda asked her once again growing impatient with the questions.

Katie did not respond but she took the girl's left arm and looked at it inspecting her injury. She saw a fairly large red blistering burn on the girl's arm. As she was a foster carer she had trained in first aid so she knew it was a burn when other people might not. The way there burn was though told her it had not being an accident. If Esmie had spilled something on herself it would being a lot more messy but this burn was perfectly round as if the girl had caused it with some type of hair curler.

"Why did you do that?" she asked Esmerelda raising her voice a little as she tutted and walked to the cupboard getting out a bandage.

"I do it when I am depressed at times" Esmerelda admitted taking the bandage from the woman and wrapping around her blistered skin.

She was not coping in the foster home. She cooped herself up, barely talking to her foster mother. She ate very little and now had a burn she had caused herself. The foster mother would have to talk to the social worker as she could not get through to Esmerelda. She only hoped this behaviour would stop when she was back with her sisters.

Ethel

The middle sister rubbed her stomach gently as she forced down the food in front of her slowly. Her baby seemed fine right now but she was so scared of being by herself.

As Ethel had been raped of course her foster parent was a woman. Her name was Marlene and she was very nice and sweet but she only gave Ethel the basics of what she needed, food, water, shelter etc. She did not feel any love towards her and Ethel felt like her and her child were outsiders.

"Would you like anything else?" Marlene asked Ethel as she walked over to check on the girl. Ethel instinctively covered her stomach, not wanting this strange woman anywhere near her baby and not trusting her. Ethel shook her head not knowing what was wrong with her, she was not the type to normally be so quiet.

"You can mirror your sisters tonight" Marlene told her with a smile as she sat down to eat her own dinner. Ethel though shrugged not really looking forward to it. She wanted to see them not talk to them through a mirror.

She knew it would be an hour of her and her sisters trying not to cry in front of one another, Ethel smiled slightly as she ate, hoping she would not be bringing the food back up later. She was eating slowly and took twice as long as her foster mother but when she had finished she looked at her and sighed.

"Can I be excused, I have homework" Ethel told the woman who nodded and let her get down from the table. Ethel jumped up and walked to her bedroom. Entering she picked up the photograph on her bedside table of her child and then sat on her bed, stroking the photograph with her thumb and smiling as she also rubbed her stomach with the other hand.

"Just a few more days baby" she told them with a smile as she lay down on the bed, tired and hoping her sisters were not suffering but she had a feeling they were.

Sybil

Sybil had her head under her blanket crying softly to herself as she cuddled her cat, Sparkle. She was so scared and her anxiety about everything was playing up. Normally if she was scared she would go cuddle up to one of her sisters but neither of them were here so she didn't have that option.

The youngest blonde knew that she was annoying to her foster mother, June. The woman had not said it but Sybil knew she found the fact she was scared of everything annoying.

Normally despite being scared of everything Sybil did not cry much. She normally showed her fears in other ways that did not involve tears but when she had no one familiar around her she was just scared all the time and had spent most of the last few days crying and had barely said two words to anyone.

"Why can we not just go home Sparkle?" Sybil asked her cat as she stroked her head as she cried. Her foster mother came into the room at that moment.

"Sybil your social worker is here, she wants to talk to you" the woman told Sybil who started to shake from fear. She pulled the blanket of her head to reply.

"Why what did I do?" Sybil asked the woman clearly terrified.

"It is just to see how you are progressing" June told Sybil and tears fell down the girls face as she was so scared of what was going to happen.

"Don't be so silly Sybil there is no need to get upset, now come on, hurry up" the woman told her losing patience with the young girl. Sybil jumped up and followed her out of the room to talk to her social worker.

The meeting with the social worker went about as well as was expected. Sybil cried the whole time from fear wishing she had at least one of her sisters with her. She did not know how to function when she was in a strange place by herself. All she hoped was that her sisters were flaring better than she was.

Sadly no girl was coping and neither of them could wait to return to school so they could see each other once again. The week was dragging by and in the back of their minds each girl knew this was only the beginning, at Christmas it would be two weeks apart and during the summer six weeks and no girl knew how they would cope with it when they could barely cope with one week!.