AN: Thank you everyone for the great response. I appreciate it a lot :)
Turns out many of you thought that Markus would be younger :D I never did tell his age in previous stories, but I always pictured him as a teenager. To clear the air - Markus is 17 in this.
I hope you enjoy :)
Callie POV
November 28th
The Sun didn't feel the same way on my skin like it used to. Neither did the wind. As I open my eyes, the first thing that I see is the stupid fence around the courtyard. The yard was full of teenage girls dressed in blue jumpsuits and guards dressed in green uniforms. The inmates had sorted into groups. Everyone, beside me, had someone they stuck together with.
I stood alone in the middle of the courtyard staring up to the blue sky. I have been here for 3 months. Today is the last day I have to spend here. I will be free in few short hours.
Free – I shake my head at the word
I will not be free until I grow out of the stupid foster care. Once I leave Juvie, I will be thrown either to a group home. That's not freedom. That's just another form of confinement.
The more I think about it, the more I realize that Juvie is actually the safest and nicest place I have been in. I have 3 meals a day. I get to have a lukewarm shower every other day. I have my own bed, which is actually better than some of the stupid spring beds I have had to sleep on. The school here is not that bad as well. And the security guards make sure I am not beaten to death. Overall, this place wasn't that bad.
"Jacob!" I hear one of the guard call my name. When I look over my shoulder I see the guard coming towards me. He was some two head heights taller than me.
"Your PO is here!" he tells me and waits for me to follow him
"But I-" I spoke up, but the guards interjects
But I still had time left to spend outside. This is the only time in the day I get to breath in the somewhat fresh air and see the Sun and feel the wind brush up against my skin and move my hair. I don't want to go see a visitor during my time outside.
"I don't care Jacob! Follow me!" he shuts me up. Unless I wanted to get into trouble, I should keep my mouth shut and just follow the guard.
Minute later I am walking down the long hallway, escorted by the guard. I have to stop at a line and wait till the doors are buzzed open. When the doors open, guard gestures me to walk in. It was an isolated room. The probation officer was sitting behind the desk with a folder in front of him. I can only assume that the folder contained all the information about me.
"Take a seat Callie," he gestures to the seat on the other side of the table. I knew I didn't have any other choice, so I did just that. When I sat down, I placed my hands in my lap.
"So, you are getting out of here today. Are you excited?" he asks me, still keeping the folder shut in front of him
"Not really," I shrug my shoulders a little
"You aren't excited to get out of Juvie?" He tilts his head a little, surprised by my answer
"I'm not excited about what waits for me when I get out of here," I reply more honestly than I usually would
He nods back and gives me a sympathetic look "I could understand how that could be nerve wrecking,"
"Highly doubt it..." I mumble under my nose as I avert my look to my hands
"Okay, let's get down to business," he changes subject and opens the folder "You have been here for 3 months now. Didn't get in too much trouble...few altercations with other inmates here and there, but that's nothing too bad. Something like that happens to everyone - we can't get along with everyone.." I run my tongue over my dry lips as I keep listening to him speak
My tormentor here was a 17 year old girl named Paige. Ever since my first day here - she chose me as her next target. Paige tried to pick a fight over the smallest detail. She was one of the most angry and aggressive kid I have ever met.
"You were arrested for damaging property and aggravated assault. Attacked your foster brother with a bat and damaged his car, is that right?" he looks up to me for my conformation
"Yes" I reply quietly. I wasn't proud of what I did, but I didn't necessary regret it either. Liam deserved it. He had it coming after what he did to me. If it hadn't been for the female officer, I might have attacked him again. He should be glad I only smashed his knee.
"Judge was very soft on you. You could have easily gotten a year or more for what you did. You were-"
"I know - lucky!" I hated that word, but almost everyone, who I have spoke to ever since have used that word - the judge, the female officer, who arrested me, my social worker David, one of the guard that processed me, when I arrived here. Somehow I don't really feel – lucky!
"You are going to have 1 year of probation! Do you understand what it means?" He looks up from the folder to me
"Not really," I say shyly as I briefly look down to my hands
"That means you can't get into any trouble. And I mean - any! If you are arrested even for the smallest offense – you are coming back here. No smoking, no drinking, no use of illegal substance, no braking the law, no running away, no hanging out with other criminals..."
"Okay, I got it!" I reply stopping him in mid sentence "No breaking the law!"
"I will come visit you when you will be settled in with your foster parent. We will go over this once again,with your foster parents presence"
"Wait...what?" He raised his eyebrow at me, confused about why I said that "Foster parents? I thought I was going to group home!"
"A family has agreed to foster you!" He repeats without batting an eye
After the meeting with my PO all I could think about was the foster family that has agreed to take me in. For 3 months, David hadn't said anything about a foster family. He never mentioned a foster family wanting to foster me. All he ever talked about was group homes, which one would be suited better for me.
As we were all lined up to head back to our cells after lunch, I noticed that Paige, from the front of the line, kept looking back at me. I glanced over my shoulder to see if maybe she was looking to at someone else. No such luck. When I looked to the front, the girl once again glared at me. She run her thumb over her lower lip and then switched with another inmate with places to be closer to me. Suddenly I got a bad feeling in my stomach.
Paige switched with another inmate and now she was right in front of me. My heart was beating fast in my chest. I pulled my hands in fists.
She leaned back a bit and whispers to me "I heard you are getting out today," I swallow a lump in my throat as I stand tall and stare back at her, trying to show to her that I was not scared of her. Which of course I was.
Suddenly, I felt my hands being grabbed from behind. The next thing I know, I feel a punch right to my stomach that pushed out all of the air that I had in my lungs. After that followed a punch to my face, which made my vision blurry. The person behind me, let go of my hands. I was gasping for air, struggling to breath in.
Another punch to my face did it. My vision went black as I dropped to the ground with all my fours. When I felt a foot collide with my ribs, I collapsed on the cold floor beneath me.
"Belongings – one necklace," the guard says out loud and pushes the small plastic bag my way
I quickly reach for my moms necklace, but my action comes to stop, when my ribs protest the fast movement. Sucking in a breath, I place my right hand over my left side of ribs. I wait few seconds till the pain pass and then slowly I repeat the action I tried to do before – reach for my moms necklace.
"That's all of it," the guard tells me as I open the snap and carefully, not to hurt my ribs again, put the necklace around my neck. The guard waits till I am done and then gestures me to the doors "Follow me,"
I have to limp through a long corridor and another room, before I reach the front hall of the Juvie. The hall was pretty full. There were few people standing in the line to talk to the guard behind the front desk. I also saw few social workers walking with teenagers and their guardians. By the looks, there was also a lawyer there as well, with a fancy looking suit and expensive looking watch on his right wrist.
"You are free to go," the guard gestures to the doors that lead to exit "Try not to get back here!"
Just when I was about to walk out of the building, the doors opened and David walked in "Callie, follow me, please!" David says to me as he keeps the doors open for me
"My PO mentioned that a family was going to foster me," I state as I walk out of the building
"Yeah, a family came through," He says as he walks pass me, heading down to the parking lot "Actually, your foster mom is here to pick you up!" He tells me looking over his shoulder to me
"She came to pick me up?" I say quietly, mostly to myself. I don't think David heard me, because he was already some 5 steps in front of me. That seemed like a lot of trouble for the foster parent.
"Mrs. Scott!" I hear David say a woman's name, when he had already reached the parking lot. The woman greets him back. I believe they shook each other hands. He was standing right in front of the person, so I didn't see the woman. I finished walking up to David with my head down.
"Hi, Callie!" I hear a familiar voice
My head snaps up as I needed to add a face to the voice. I have heard this voice before, but at the moment, I couldn't remember from where. My stomach dropped when I saw the officer that arrested me standing next to David.