Home is where the heart is

Chapter 2

We all stand in awkward silence. "Well...ummm...My name is Daniel and this is my partner Todd. We're so glad to have you with us, Taylor." I look at them. "So you two are gay? What's that like? I mean, how do you have sex?" I ask, honestly wanting an answer. Todd and Daniel's faces both turn bright red. "Taylor!!!" Karen screams, horrified. I smile in triumph, knowing I've gotten to her yet again. "No, it's fine Karen. We get this from a lot of our foster kids at first," Todd says with a smile. But there's something different about his smile. It's not like Karen's where you can obviously tell she's faking. His stretches up to his eyes, giving them a sort of gleam.

"Here sweetie we'll show you to your room. Karen can come along to if she'd like," says Daniel, showing us the way in. "Oh it's fine. Karen doesn't have to come in. You'll be fine with out me, won't you Karen?" I say with a malicious grin. She turns her head to glare at me then turns back and smiles at Daniel and Todd. "Yes, of course I will. But don't cause any trouble for them, Taylor," she says in a strained voice.

Daniel, Todd, and I carry my bags into the apartment. We go down a narrow hallway with lots of rooms. "You're the only kid of ours with your own room, you know," Daniel says. Oh great. There's other kids in the house. Just what I needed.

We reach the end of the hall and Daniel opens the door. Inside its... perfect. I've always wanted a room like it l, but have avoided it to keep up my image. The room is red with twinkling lights stretching all around it. Bookshelves filled with thousands of books I've been dying to read like Harry Potter and The Hunger Games. "Do you like it?" Todd asks nervously. "Because if you don't we can take some of it down and repaint if you'd like." I look at them trying to find a good enough response. Do I say I love it or tell them to tear it all down? Something like this could really ruin everything I've been working for in my appearance.

"Thanks," I say as I stare at the ground. I don't look back at their faces as I shut the door behind me.

Over on the bed, I open my suitcase and take all my stuff out, trying to decide where to put everything. Growing up I've always been very OCD about my things and where I put them. I organize my drawers by color, size, type, and fanciness.

When I'm done I go back to my suitcase and notice one more thing at the bottom. Mimzy. At each and every house Mimzy has always been there to comfort and protect me. I pick her up and hold her to my chest. "This might be it Mimzy. We might actually have a home."

Just then I hear Karen lugging the last suitcase up the stairs. I quickly stuff Mimzy in a drawer and turn around to face her. "Well this is the last of it, Taylor. I hope you have a nice time and stay out of trouble," she says with relief etched in her tone. She walks over and gives me an awkward half hug half pat like the one in Harry Potter when Draco joins Voldemort's death eaters. "Bye Karen," I mutter as she practically skips out the door with joy. Bitch.

I walk over to the bookshelf and pick one at random. The cover says "The Diary of Anne Frank." I've read this book about a billion times but it's one of my favorites so I decide to re-read it.

After an hour or so Todd comes in and tells me that it's dinner time and that I should wash up. I walk to the bathroom and look around. It's small but has a big bathtub which I will obviously be using tonight. In the mirror I look at myself.

I have pale almost snow like skin with thick black hair. My eyes are green but not the pretty kind. The ugly, mossy kind. I look at my face and see that it's all hollowed out with big black and blue bruises covering it. Ugly. I know without looking that under my shirt are even more. I lift it up and am disgusted by the fact that I can see all of my ribs without even trying to notice them and that most of my bruises have turned yellow. Quickly, I turn the faucet on and notice a scar shaped like a hand on my wrist. I shudder and turn the sink off with a little more force than I expected and head down the hall.

In the kitchen is a big table filled with all my favorite foods like pizza and macaroni. As I walk to the table I notice that there's not a female in sight. I count how many guys are seated except Todd and Daniel and I count 5. There's 5 guys, not including Todd and Daniel, and I'm the only girl. Great.

Once everyone notices that I'm in the room, conversations stop short and all eyes turn to me. "We were told that you were a vegetarian but we didn't really want to eat tofu on your first night here. We hope you don't mind. If you don't like any of this Todd or me could always make you something different." I shake my head. "No this is fine. Thank you," I mutter as I awkwardly slide into a chair. We sit in silence as everyone fills their plates with food and passes trays and plates to one another.

This goes on for five minutes before Todd finally speaks up "Oh my gosh I am so sorry! We almost forgot to introduce everyone!" Oh great. Introductions. "This is James." A scrawny, awkward looking preteen waves his hand from across the table, then quickly puts it down, crunching his nose up as he looks at his plate, probably debating if what he did was cool or not. "And this is Conner." Todd points at the well built guy sitting 2 seats away from me. He gives me a stiff nod then goes back to eating his food. "These two are Kelvin and Malcolm." Two identical twins who look about 7 years old wave enthusiastically as they stuff their faces with cheese pizza. "And lastly, this is Tim." Tim surprises me by standing up and walking around the table. He puts out his hand and gives me an overachiever sort of smile. "Hi I'm Tim. Class President, top of my class, and voted most likely to succeed. If you ever need any assistance, I'm your guy," he says while strangling my hand in his grasp. "I'm sure you are," I say in a sarcastic tone.

When dinner is finished I go back into my room and get changed into my pajamas which consist of a black lace tank top and sweatpants. I walk over to the drawer where I stuffed Mimzy and take her out. While I hold her, I close my eyes and whisper, "today is a better day. Today is a better day."