Prologue: Good morning.
You know, if you had told me one year ago that today I would be on a luxury yacht with five of the most amazing women in the world who had now adopted me, I would have called you insane.
One year ago, my life was complete shit.
Well, it had always been complete shit, but one year ago, it felt way worse. I lived in an orphanage my whole life, and I had been an orphan my whole life. Loneliness and I have walked together since I was born. I even lacked friends, I have been bullied my whole life. I was short, ugly, weak, and sick. There was no one in the whole world who I could trust, no one who I could love, no one who could love me, and to make things worse, recently, I had figured something out about myself, and for some reason, I decided it would be a good idea to confess it all to a monitor at the orphanage about that. Needless to say, it was not a good idea. The monitor disclosed my secret to everyone around us, and thanks to that, the bullying and the loneliness just got worse, and now I was being abused in more ways than I thought were possible.
At that point, I was honestly thinking of ending things; every positive in life I could think about was not available to me; my chances of being adopted were low; and I was not exactly a good student, so my opportunities out of school were dry. Still, I figured I would keep trying, at least for a while; I did not have an easy way of getting rid of myself after all.
Then, nothing short of a miracle happened: I remember it well; it was a day like any other; I did not even leave my bed to eat breakfast; I hated the food there anyway. I was thinking this was going to be just another day of staring at the sealing for hours, being lost in my prayers for a better life, and that was what I did for a few minutes, not knowing my prayers would soon be attended.
Then I heard footsteps.
Many, many footsteps, five pairs of feet, I would say.
I heard a knock in the door, and thinking it would be the orphanage staff, I let out a scared and soft "Come in."
The door opened. And out of nowhere, five ladies walked in.
They were beautiful; they looked like they had come straight out of a fashion magazine. Hell, I probably had even seen some of them there; after all, some of the faces were a little bit recognizable, I wouldn't know though, I couldn't accompany celebrities.
They slowly walked in closer to me—not in a menacing way, but I was still scared either way. I hugged myself in the corner of my bed, trying my best to hide from the humiliation that surely was bound to happen soon
"Are you okay, my darling?" A blonde woman wearing a dark furcoat who stood in front of the group said: She had a soothing, almost heavenly voice. Hearing her speak was enough to calm me for a second.
I just slightly titled my head up and down in response.
The girls kept approaching.
"The lady at the counter told us your name—I mean, your birth name, but she did mention you where trying to change that. Can you tell us your real, chosen name?"
"I-It´s Hope…" I barely managed to get it out of my system. It was the first time someone acknowledged my gender with that level of care.
"What a beautiful name! It fits a cute girl like you. Hope, let me ask you something: Do you like your life here? Do people here treat you well? Are you taken care of?" A black-haired tall girl standing behind the blonde questioned me.
I did not manage to answer that; I just started crying. Curled up in a ball, I cried.
"Hey, don´t cry! You have something to be happy about now, then! We are adopting you!" The shortest of the girls said.
"Iono!" The blonde interrupted.
"It is true, though. Sorry for having to say this out of nowhere, but it is true: You are coming with us, girl!"
I was very shocked. I think that should come as a given. I could not even muster words to speak for a few seconds, and when I did, it was just a faint "What?"
I started crying. I don´t know if those were tears of happiness, fear, or sadness, but I cried, just like I always do.
It did not last long, though; my worries were interrupted by a sudden, soft hug.
"Hope, Can you trust me? I know you have gone through a lot in your short life. Its clear for any of us to see, but if you trust me with all of your heart, I guarantee you will be happy." The blonde whispered into my ear as she embraced me, and I could only nod.
I hugged her back. It was definitely the best moment of my life at that point.
The blonde got up. She shortly let go of me, but wasting no time, she picked me up again like I was her baby and started walking. The other girls followed along, almost as if the whole thing was planned.
I held on to her in a tight grip. I recognized the place where we were heading; it was the warden´s office. I would really get adopted. The truth of the matter had not hit me yet, but for some reason, I was blindly trusting those girls. I felt like... a connection to then. I knew adopting procedures didn't work like that, but I did not care. I would not complain. I could end up dead by trusting those strangers, but that was probably what was going to happen to me if I stayed back at the orphanage.
My train of thought came to an end when we came to the warden´s office. The woman holding me sat down in one of the chairs in front of the warden, and by definition, I had to sit in her lap. It was amazing. She wore a black fur coat that was the hottest thing I had ever touched; it was almost like a blanket. I knew my days of sleeping on cold nights in the orphanage would end. Her body's warmth fully consumed me. I felt right at home. In the chair beside us, another blonde lady sat down; this one was taller and wore a white and yellow silk dress. She looked beautiful, just like the one I was resting on.
"Ms. Warden, I assume our deal referring to Hope is finished then, correct? We have her consent, and we have signed the papers." She said.
"Ms. Lusamine, I beg of you to stop calling Mr. Jo-" The warden started. I felt the grip in my body get tighter when she started to dead-name me; thankfully, the warden was interrupted.
"Can you please, please, shut the fuck up, Ms. Warden?" The shorter girl said this as she quickly threw in a Pokemon in an effort to threaten the warden, if I had to guess. The Pokemon was green, round, and smiley. He had a black and yellow dot on his belly. He was not very threatening, to be honest. It was my first time seeing a Pokemon in real life.
Lusamine, The blonde sitting next to me re-started what she was saying: "As my wife, bluntly Put, I would rather if you did not replicate transphobic behavior towards Hope. Anyway, do we have an agreement? Can we adopt her?"
The warden just rolled her eyes.
"Yes, you can adopt him. You cannot bring him home today, though."
My body shrieked. I had just a glimpse of hope for one second, and it would all be gone for nothing again. I would have started crying, but the lady holding me slowly caressed and calmed me. She was really good at this.
"Ms. Warden, I don´t think I should have to use more desperate measures to let you take Hope with us, right?" Lusamine said while she held a poke ball in her hand.
"Oh, Please. The Aether Foundation president? Don´t make me laugh. You must have a Zigzagoon at best in this ball. CEO's like you don´t know shit about battling." She laughed. "You and your short lover are failing to threaten me." The warden said it in a goofy manner. It seemed as though she wasn't scared by Iono and Lusamine one bit.
Lusamine only seemed to be... I was mildly annoyed by those statements.
"Well, I did not want to do this, but I will if I have to. I don´t need to remind you about who I am, correct, Warden? My Garchomp has not eaten in a few days, if you know what I mean." The lady whom I was resting in said: I did not think it was a true threat at first, but the warden was paled by that statement.
"...You're right. Sorry for bothering you, Miss Cynthia. You can take Hope today with you."
And that was it. I was officially adopted. All thanks to the girls, especially Ms. Cynthia.
That was her name, then. I was resting in Cynthia´s lap all of this time. It was good to know, so I could properly thank her.
Cynthia and Lusamine immediately got up and started leaving the office, with Cynthia still carrying me like I was a baby. I loved that feeling.
"Right then. I hope you should get your stuff and say goodbye to your friends! We are leaving as soon as you say so."Cynthia said to me:.
"I don't have any "stuff." Those are all of the clothes I have. And I am really not lucky in the friends department either. Sorry, Ms. Cynthia."
"Yeesh. Those rags are your only clothes? Let´s go shopping today, then. I don´t want any daughter of mine to wear this." The tallest of the girls said.
Daughter. Hearing that was a blessing. I had finally been adopted. Finally, I was free.
"Elesa is right. We have lots of things to do today. Shopping is one of them! Now, Hope, you don´t need to use honorifics to refer to me. I am. No. We are your mothers now. And I want you to be comfortable with that, okay? You can call me Mommy or by my name if you feel like it." Cynthia remarked.
"Okay, Ms. Cynthia—I mean, Cynthia."
I still remember that exchange well after all this time. That was the start of my good life. Some hours ago, getting adopted by gorgeous women like those was only a dark fantasy, but now I was coming home. No more of that heartless warden. No more violent crimes were committed against me; I was going away for good. And it was all thanks to five women, two of whom I did not even know the names of by that point.