Chapter 3-

Natalie's Point of View

Almost a month had passed since Natalie's 15th birthday and, as expected, she was moving on to a different foster home. She didn't resent moving again, she had actually gotten quite used to it and had the schedule memorized. At noon a social security worker would come take her to the new place and the parents would be super nice to her for the first few days and try to find out random facts about her, not to mention, any emotional problems. It wasn't a written schedule, but it didn't matter. That's how it went every single time.

Right on cue, the worker came to pick up Natalie and her belongings. She had two suitcases, one with clothes and the other with journals and books, only no one knew that. As she slid into the passenger seat of the car, the stranger tried to make friendly conversation with her.

Being somewhat of a social butterfly, the conversation carried easily. She found out his name was Tom and that he had a wife and two daughters, also that he had a slight obsession with old cars and the Beatles. Tom was quick to point out how she was a good at making conversation and Natalie smiled as she remembered a comment one of her few close friends had made one time about being Miss Congeniality. A lot of people thought that about her, and her last set of foster parents had considered it a talent of hers. She could make anyone automatically feel comfortable with her and make a room full of cynical people break down some of their very thick walls and begin to talk with one another.

Natalie zoned out thinking about her close friends and foster parents. She really did miss some of them, but she was confident that she could make more at her next home.

"Natalie?" Tom asked, bringing her back to reality. Oh, he had been talking to her.

"I'm sorry, Tom. I didn't catch what you just said. Come again?" She replied politely.

"I just thought you would want to know where you were going. It's a small town near the coast in Washington, not sure the exact location, but it's called Forks."

Huh. A small town, that was unusual. Usually foster parents lived in bigger cities. Wait, Washington? Her last home was in southern Oregon, there had to be more foster homes in between Southern Oregon and the coast of Washington. She didn't have a problem with it, of course; it was just strange for them to send her so far.

"Just out of curiosity, Tom, why so far away?" Natalie yet again thought about how strange it was. Then again, she had gone to sleep in Tennessee before and woken up in Northern California.

"Well, there aren't a ton of foster homes in Oregon and the few that were there already had a lot of children there. Forks seemed like the best option."

"Okay, I was just wondering. It seems so far."

They still had a few hours left in the car so they began listening to the radio and talking every once in a while about random things. Tom seemed very intent on getting to know Natalie, or maybe he was just trying to make the ride seem shorter. He asked her about her hobbies, about her favorite color, if she liked to read, all sorts of things. Natalie really enjoyed Tom's company. He was very nice and easy to get along with.

Whenever they didn't talk, she would look at her wrist and trace the word she had written in pen this morning, love. She did this quite often and no one was ever really sure why. The truth was, even though Natalie was a very nice, pretty, social young girl, she still had a lot of problems. It took her so many years to come to terms with the fact that her mother had given up her life for the sole purpose of Natalie having the opportunity to see her father, which of course no one knew. She had hated herself for a long time after that, and did some awful things to herself. But she was fine now. After years of self-therapy more or less by writing in her journals, she realized that she had been wrong. That her mother dying was not her fault and that she shouldn't waste the opportunity that it had presented. The word was now just a reminder. A reminder that her mother had loved her, a reminder that she loved others, a reminder that she should encourage love between other people, and a reminder that one day she and her father would mutually love each other.