Chance✔️

Chapter 1: Ashyln

•1629 words•

"Ashlyn, come here now!"

Mum shouted me from downstairs. I mean, I say mum, but really her name is Sue and she's an extremely strange person. She's not even my mum, she's my foster mum, and I'm not letting her get away with shouting at me again. I'll show her who's the new boss in this house. I've only been here for 3 weeks and I already want to leave. I hate this place with a passion. Ugh- why can't I just tell my social workers that I hate it here? This family's so weird!

You may be thinking: 'It's your family though?'
No.
No. No. NO. This isn't my family and I will never have any rights to call it 'my' family. My real family is something that's not even worth getting into, so we won't go down that path.

I've been in and out of foster homes since I was 7 and I swear every family gets stranger and stranger. I've already spoken with my social workers and things but they're still saying I have to be 18 to move out and legally live on my own; but at this point, I'd honestly do anything to get away from 30-year-old men on drugs, 50-year-old women going through menopause and 2-year-old babies puking everywhere. Even the 9-year-old girls playing barbies makes me cringe.

If you're wondering, I've seen it all by now, but nothing- nothing beats this. The dad is a man who looks maybe in his mid-40s, dark beard and dark hair, smokes 30 cigarettes a day (at least) and has an earring in one ear.

The mum is a woman also maybe in her mid-40s with bright blonde hair, glasses, doesn't clean up properly after her children and has a mental breakdown every 20 minutes.  Not to mention the fact that she never stops screaming at her family. She screams at me, too.

The 13-year-old son Jamie is a right weirdo too. He has brownish-blonde hair, also an earring in one ear like his dad (ew no), plays heavy metal rock music in his room all the time and likes to play darts like- what? What 13-year-old boy likes to play darts in the 21st century? Come on.

6-year-old Addi gets all the attention but is also screamed at the majority of the time. She's probably the most normal out of the lot of 'em but she isn't exactly a typical little girl either. She has bright blonde hair (just like her mum) and not to be mean, has an extremely weird-looking nose. She doesn't stop crying and her tantrums are the absolute worst. Oh my God, I hate those. She loves dolls. An absolute no. I don't necessarily think that they're creepy, to be honest, I think I quite liked them myself when I was younger, but especially the realistic ones nowadays, they're just weird and something no 6-year-old should be playing with in my opinion.

I shout back, "Coming Sue!"

Sue and Mark (the dad) both made ground rules upon my arrival. I had to call them mum and dad. HAD TO. I love my real mum and dad so uh-uh no. I still call the mum Sue whether she likes it or not. Why would I care? By my descriptions, you're probably thinking they seem like a somewhat normal family in a way, but no, trust me. It's just something about them. About the 4 of them as one little family. I don't feel like I even belong here; which I know I don't but there's nothing I can do for the next 3 years of my life. I just hope I don't spend them with this lot. I can't.

I go downstairs and Sue asks me if I've cleaned the windows. Who does she think I am? A slave? I mean, she is getting paid to look after me so I guess that's what she's using me for. A slave. Great.
"No, Sue."
"I can see that you haven't done them."
"Why did you ask then?"
"Don't get cocky with me young lady. Windows. Now!"
"God's sake! I did them last week. Why can't you do them?"
"I'll put you back in the foster system if you carry on!"
"I'd rather go back than stay here," I whisper under my breath. Somehow she managed to hear me, although when I shout 'WHAT??' at the top of my lungs from upstairs when she shouts my name, she can never manage to hear me. Coincidence that, isn't it?

Shoot.

I'm in big trouble now. At least I wasn't lying though. I'd rather go back in the system and find a better family than stay here. I just want a proper family. A family that will actually love me, rather than stupid families with 40-year-old men with weird beards and 13-year-old boys playing rock music on full blast 24/7. Because they definitely don't love me.

Ugh. I wish I still had my real parents. My real family. They say family isn't necessarily blood, but it looks like my blood family were the only people who loved and cared about me. I was 7 the last time I saw them so I don't remember much about them, but still, I miss them.

Sue's always making me do chores as well. I hope she knows I'm not a slave. I'm a 15-year-old girl who was looking to go to a loving family, not to come to this. I was looking for a life. I mean, I'm still looking for a loving family. I just want to live though, you know? I haven't done anything special or important or anything at all in my life. Nothing fun nor teenage-y. The most I've done in my life is having gone to a million different schools and made no lifelong friends in any of them because I end up moving families after around 2 weeks- that means moving schools, too. At this point, I'd stay in an orphanage. Anything's better than this place, I reckon. Anyone's better than these 4 humans. Humans. If you think about it, humans are really strange creatures. I'm sort of ashamed to be called one of them. It's stupid. We're stupid. Ew. "We." I don't want to be included in the human race. Right that's a bit too much blabbering now. Shut up.

After a good shouting at and finally finishing the windows, I rush upstairs, shut my door and lock it, and pull my hoodie's hood over my soft, black, curly hair. I sit up on my bed and rest my hand on my cheek. I slump over the window cill and stare at the moon. We have a bit of a one-on-one connection for a minute. I watch people drive by in cars every few seconds and watch people randomly taking their dog on a walk at 9:32 pm. As I said, I've only been here for 3 weeks but it's not just the family that's weird here, I don't think. I think it's this whole neighbourhood...there's just something about it that seems a little off.

I'll be honest, I'm grateful that I have my own room here. It's something I've wanted in every house but I've only ever had it twice before now. The best thing about this one is the soundproof walls so no rock music and no tantrums; no smell of smoke and no asking to do chores when I'm in here. I absolutely love this place. It's an escape from all of those things and just an escape from everything. Surprisingly, its actually not that rough. I wish I could say the same about the rest of the house but tags not possible. I don't mind. I have a nice room so that's really the only place I need to spend my time. I'm not allowed any social media or anything like that. To be honest, I don't think I need it. I've been lonely all my life anyway so what's some stupid Instagram going to do. It's not going to make me make friends or something. I just want to live in here permanently. As I said, it's my only escape. That's why I'm probably in here 22 hours a day.

Uh-oh.

That reminds me: tomorrow is a big day. I start a new school. I've started a new school maybe like 9 or 10 times before but yet I still always get nervous. I don't have any friends and never really have, well, before my parents died I had a couple, but I was 7; they couldn't have been proper friends. I hope I make some at this new school. I'm in year 10. I do my GCSEs next year and I've not even had the chance to choose any options yet. When I do them, I bet you I won't pass because I've never really had a proper education. Sometimes people have tried to homeschool me with absolutely no teaching experience. Stupid. I guess we'll see how this goes then, shall we?

I rest my head on my soft pillow and can't stop thinking about tomorrow. What if it's the start of something? My first real best friend? My first EVER boyfriend? Mind you, boys can be quite disgusting. I have no experience with love though so I don't exactly know what I'm saying. I could meet my future husband! Nah, Ash, that's too far. Ah, well. I guess we can only wait for tomorrow. My eyes draw shut and my head finally starts to shut off. Goodnight.

Ash x