AN: Writing this chapter I learned (realized) something about myself - I don't know how to write short chapters. Whenever I have ~1k words in - I look at the length, reared and think to myself - well this is f-ing short and nothing happened there, I better add some more. And that is why you will never see a chapter with only 1k words in my stories.
Hope you enjoy :)
Markus POV
When I walked in the kitchen, dad was putting the lasagna on the table. The table was already set. Unlike the last few months, there were 4 plates on the table instead of three.
"Hey, how was your day?" Dad says as he takes off the cooking gloves and places them on the grip handle on the stove
"It was okay," I reply as I drop my backpack and my sport bag on the ground "Is she here?" I open the tap on the sink and wash my hands
"Yeah, she's here. They arrived some 15 minutes ago. Mom is upstairs showing the house and her room," Dad says as he pours lemonade in the glasses
"What's she like?" I ask curiously when I start to dry my hands
"Shy. Quiet. Angry inside. Sort of jumpy," Dads counts off "Definitely scared. She is wary and guarded,"
"Okay...I got it!" I chuckle back stopping him in his ramble. I had a feeling he could go on for another minute.
"She hasn't actually talked to me yet," Dad says when we both hear footsteps from upstairs, he turns to me "Don't try to initiate any contact, she isn't exactly…fond of it. She flinched away when I extended my hand to her. Don't initiate contact, but try make her feel welcomed, okay?"
Now that Callie is living with us, it is that time again, when dad and I sit at one side of the table, mom sits at the end of the table, but the other side is left free for the foster kid. I walk around the table, to the side where there are two plates set. I was a little bit nervous about meeting his girl.
"Understood," I show dad thumbs up and sit down at the table, pressing my hands on the table. A moment later mom and the girl walks in.
The first thing that I notice was the black eye, bruise on her cheek, as well as a small cut on her cheekbone and a split lip. Her hair was a little bit greasy. The clothes she was wearing looked wore down, as did her converse sneakers. It looked like this girl had gotten in a fight. Someone had done a number on her.
I remember what mom told me about her, how she damaged a car and attacked her foster brother with a bat. Looking at her now - I don't see it. I don't see how she could have done that. In my mind I had painted a picture of how the girl could look. That image was nothing like her. Only by taking one look to her eyes, I know, she is scared.
"Take a seat, Callie," Mom gestures to the place at the table, opposite me. When Callie started to walk towards the table, I notice the limp she had.
Mom smiles at me as she sits down at the end of the table "Callie, this is Markus, our son!" she places her hand on my forearm and smiles at me
I glance from mom to Callie, who sat on the other side of the table "Hi!" I say with a warm smile on my lips and raise my right hand up to give her a little wave. Somehow I got the feeling I won't get a greeting back. The eye contact we shared was short lived. Callie's eyes averted down to her lap a moment after mom introduced us.
"Okay, lets eat!" Dad says out loud as he places the salad bowl on the table. He walks around the table and sits down next to me.
"Let me get that for you," Mom says taking Callie's plate to put on some lasagna. I was already holding the salad bowl in my hand, so when mom was done putting the lasagna on, I placed two spoons on salad on her plate. I was pretty sure, she won't eat be able to eat everything we put on the plate. But it's better that she leaves leftovers on her plate, than she is left hungry because she is too scared to ask for more food.
The first dinner is always a little bit awkward. Mom and dad tried to start a conversation with her, but she didn't say a word back. The only response my folks got back was a head nod, head shake a shoulder shrug. Mom looked happy enough about the non-verbal answers she got.
"Thanks for the dinner, dad!" I say as I push my chair back. I knew it was time for me to head upstairs and leave my parents and the girl alone. First day is the day they set the ground rules. Before I leave I offer a warm smile at the girl. She averts her look down to her lap once again. The facial expression or should I say lack of it, told me she already knows what was coming.
Callie POV
Like I excepted, Amy took the lead on reading me the house rules. To my surprise the rules weren't as strict as they were in other foster homes I have lived at. I had less restrictions than in other homes.
I can enter every room in the house, granted, if it isn't mine, I need to knock and ask permission first. There were no strict food rules. Apparently, if I was hungry, I could take anything I find in the cupboards, shelves and fridge. I wasn't even given chore list that I need to do every day after and before school. They will be sending me to the same school Markus goes. The word – respect – was mentioned multiple times.
"Your curfew is at 7," Amy tells me firmly, but her voice didn't held the strict and harsh tone, that foster parents usually have. I had never had a curfew before while in foster care. No one had ever cared about that much to put on a curfew.
"There will of course be consequences if you are late!" Aaron points out making me tense up
"Is everything clear so far?" Amy asks, after they share a look
"...what sort of consequences?" the words slowly and quietly left my mouth. I don't know why I asked it. Usually I wouldn't. I guess I was worried, because I was already in a lot of pain and I had trouble breathing, my chest felt tight and hurt as well. Another kick or hit to my ribs might be too much. I needed few days of not getting hit so my injuries from the Juvie beat-down heal.
"It will depend of the circumstances, if you had informed us that you would be late, if you had a valid reason, how late you are for your curfew..." Amy counted off, but Aaron finished "You are either looking at grounding or chores, or both!"
Getting grounded or chores – that seemed to be a very easy way out. I might even try to look for Jude, while I am here.
"Do you have any more questions, Callie?" Amy asks as she intertwines her fingers. They both looked at me, waiting for an answer. Slowly I shook my head.
"Okay," Aaron glances to Amy "I guess we are done here!"
"If you follow me, I will get you a clean towel, new razor and toothbrush, so you can have a shower and get ready for the bed," Amy tells standing up
She waits till I follow her. Unwillingly, I get up from the chair. My movement once again was too fast, too sharp. I feel pain in my ribs once again. My chest was hurting more every minute. I place my hand over my bruised ribs and follow Amy up the stairs.
"David dropped off your stuff yesterday. We washed everything and put it in the closet already," Amy tells me as we walk up the stairs "If you will leave your current clothes in the hamper, I will wash them tonight and you will have them clean in the next morning,"
While Amy goes to the master bedroom to get the bathroom stuff she mentioned, I head in my room and get myself some clean clothes for the night. The closet had a lot of space, but all of clothes used up maybe 30% of the space. I wore the only pair of shoes I own, I have one spare jeans, few wore down shirts and sweaters, 5 pairs of underwear and socks. All my clothes fit in one duffle bag. Quite pathetic if you think about it. But that's how I live. I was always ready to be pulled out of a house, so I always packed light. Some of the stuff gets lost on the way.
I make a mental note to myself to pack all my stuff clothes back in the duffle bag, because I know – this place won't be forever. 2-3 months tops. No need to get too comfortable here. I am used to living out of my bag anyway.
I grab a pair of underwear, my one and only sweat pants and an old t-shirt that I have had for the last 3 years. I remember I got the shirt and sweats in second hand shop near where my school was. The only reason I bought the clothes was because they were a discount and they were in larger size than I wore at the time, thus the clothes fit me longer. But even with the discount – I used almost all of my saved up money, which of course was not much. You can't really save up money in foster care, because it's not like you have any money to use. I had few dollars for a whole month. Most of the money went to lunch at school. But if I skipped a lunch every other day, I could save up a dollar or two.
"Knock, knock!" Amy says instated of actually knocking. When I looked up to the doorway, I see Amy standing there with a big white towel in her hands. On top of the towel was a new razor and a toothbrush.
"Here is your stuff. You can take any shower gel, soap, shampoo and conditioner you see. Toothpaste is above sink, on the shelf. All the body lotions and creams are in the small cabinet under sink on the left side," Amy tells me, when she hands me the stuff. She puts the pile on my pile of clothes, that I had gathered up.
"Oh! And Callie-" Amy calls after me when I was by the bathroom doors
Here we go! I will probably have hot water for like 3 minutes – I think to myself, before I look back at her
"If you need any female hygiene stuff, you can find it under the sink as well, but at the right side!" Amy tells me without batting an eye at the embarrassing subject. I feel my cheeks turn warm and I avert my look down.
"Okay, I'm going to let you take the shower now. I will be downstairs to the kitchen, doing dishes, if you need me," she tells me as she starts to walk back down
The first thing I do, when I get in the bathroom is lock the door behind me. I don't want anyone to walk in on me. I pull on the doors to make sure they are locked. Only after I make sure the lock works, I set the pile of stuff down.
This bathroom was spotless. The toilet and shower was so clean, it even shined. There was no hair, corrosion and dirt anywhere in the shower. There was this mat in the shower that makes sure you won't slip and fall. The towels were all hanged up neatly on the towel rack. There was a small cup to put toothbrush is, so you wouldn't have to just toss the toothbrush down.
I opened the little cabinets above and below sink to check everything out. There were shampoo and shower gel, soap, lotion reserves. More towels stood at the bottom shelve under the sink. This bathroom is luxury!
Like Amy told me, I put my clothes that I wore, in the hamper. Before I start the shower I walk up to the sink to look at myself in the mirror. My body was covered in contusion and bruises. I saw hand prints around my upper arms, where I was held, while Paige hit me.
The bruises look worse than they did few hours before, when I was in the med wing. My ribs looked the worse. Especially my right side. It was black and blue. Those kicks really hurt me. When I was on the ground and Paige kept on kicking me, I could have swore, I heard my ribs break.
Markus POV
I was chatting with Beth over Skype, when I heard a loud thud sound.
I will be back in 5 -I write to Beth before I head out to investigate the sound
Mom and dad were still downstairs, but I was sure the sound came from upstairs. It was just me and Callie upstairs. I heard mom talk to her in the hallway some 15 minutes ago. Callie was still in shower. I would have heard if she walked out.
I peak my head out of the room and look both ways before I step out to the hallway. It was quiet up here. The more I listened to the silence that came from upstairs, the more worried I got. If Callie was in the shower, I should hear the water running or her moving around the bathroom.
"Callie?" I ask loudly enough so she could hear me as I move towards the bathroom "Is everything okay?" I moved my left ear closer to the doors to listen in "I hear a thud sound? You okay in there?" I listened closely, but heard nothing. There was no response from here. Not even a little sound. "Callie?"
I took a step away from the doors and leaned over the banister to call down "Mom! Dad!"
"Yes?" I hear dad call back
"I think something is wrong! You need to come up quickly!" I don't have to wait long. They both are on the stairs few seconds later.
"I heard a thud sound. Callie is not answering!" I gesture to the bathroom doors
"Callie!" Mom ran to the doors and knocked "Callie, honey! Answer me! Are you okay?!" I took a step back giving mom and dad more room.
"Callie!" Mom called out, her voice full of concern "Can you open the doors?"
When there was no response from Callie, mom looked back to dad "Get the spare key!" Dad sprinted to the master bedroom. The bathroom door had a door nub that could be locked from the the inside, but thankfully, it could also be unlocked from the outside with the key. We had never used the key before. I don't even know where it stood.
Dad was back before I knew it and was unlocking the doors. When dad turned the door nub, mom gave me a look that said - stand back a little. When the doors were unlocked, mom was in the bathroom first.
"Callie!" I hear her exclaim out in panic. Dad ran inside as well. When I walked to the doorway to take a peak, all I saw was that mom was crouched down in front of Callie, who was laying on the tile floor, unconscious.