cinnamon girl, instant family x oc

5

// foster parenting class //

"okay, have a seat." karen said to the soon to be mothers in the group.
they had been told to draw their dream kids using a whiteboard.
"times up." everyone went and sat back down in their seats.
"these, are your fantasy kids."
"they are not your real children." sharon went on as karen wiped the whiteboard.

// renovating the house //

ellie rolled on the paint with the wall as pete jammed in the nails in the new furniture for the house.

// foster parenting class //

"come on jessie, you're losing her."
"pete, pete, pete! ticktock muscle man."
karen encouraged as everyone performed CPR on the fake dummies.
"thats not gonna bring him back from that peanut butter sandwich you fed him."

karen wiped off the rest of the drawings off the whiteboard,
"your real kids will be very different."

"cant erase 'em." sharon added.

(i'm skipping a tiny section).

| THE WAGNER HOUSE |

pete and ellie covered up all of the areas that could be dangerous to their new child.

they stored their liquor in a cupboard and locked it up with a padlock so that they were the only ones with access.

they put covers on the open plug sockets and on the corners of each table.

// foster parenting class //

"time to erase these ideas right now" karen spoke as she wiped the drawings off the whiteboard.
she stood still as october frantically coloured in her drawing.

"almost done."

"okay, okay."
"thank you, thank you."

october finally left and took her seat before karen quickly wiped off her drawing and shook her head as she walked away.

// some time later //

the whiteboard read "congratulations, certified foster parents!!" as they all stood in a circle with labels on their chests.

"all right, everybody, i want you to imagine, you got this plush new job."
"they give you a nice big office, there's a gym, and a frozen yogurt machine, right there in the break room."
"but deep down, you know you're not qualified."
"in your heart of hearts, you know you're not good enough, and you are going to get fired."
"the same way you got fired from your last three jobs."
"and you might quit just to get some control back."
karen continued as she handed every adult a piece of string that stuck on to ellie who was sitting on a chair, labelled 'displaced child'.

"hell, you might even tip over that damn yogurt machine, and walk your ass right on out there."

"just to clarify, karen is not advocating vandalism in the workplace." sharon added.
"the point is, that it's the same... for a displaced child... who knows... that you don't want her."
sharon carried on, cutting the pieces of string with her scissors.

"except instead of grieving... the loss of a job... she's losing her connection... with everything and everyone." sharon began to use her scissors to cut the strings connected to ellie who sat quietly on the chair.