"Best friends forever" - It's been a long road for the two teens but their friendship has only grown stronger through the years. However, when other hidden feelings come to surface will they be able to save their friendship or will they have to face...
I remembered when I first came to the DG, all I ever wanted to do was leave and run away. Not back home - like everyone had thought, but somewhere where I could make a name for myself. Somewhere where I'd be loved and I'd become a part of a real family.
I hadn't realised it then.
Joining the DG had been one of the best things that had ever happened to me. The kids; although we all stepped on each other's nerves, we understood each other without having to explain. Without having to recount the past and justify who we were.
The sad reality was not all care homes were like this one. Mike, for all his many grievances, only ever tried to bring out the best in us. May-Li, she would laugh away the tears from our eyes and offer a shoulder to lean on when we felt alone.
Sure, it wasn't as if we were all leaving - I'd still see the girls every day, but it wouldn't be the same without the boys. I had a feeling they felt the same.
There were no arguments that morning, no squabbling for the bathroom or the cereal - just a silence filled with a certain dread of what was to come. May-Li had made our arrangements to go to Greybridge; she and Mike still insisted that they'd take the case to court and figure something out, but even if that happened... I had a feeling it would be a long and torturous process.
One hour away by car.
We would be forced to move in and get along with the other girls. Find ourselves reacquainted, looks being shot our way as the newbies. We'd even have a new head care worker; I doubted they'd be as friendly as Mike.
Yet, with everything that was going on I couldn't help but recall a certain nostalgia - something akin to how I'd felt when Dumbleby had tried to steal Ashdene Ridge from us. At the time, I'd had no hope that the DG would be saved - not when all our efforts had been spent. Tyler was the only one who'd had hope and hadn't given up.
He saved us all.
Would he do it again? Surely he could do something, speak to the Kids in Care forum and raise awareness about what was going on. But that required time, something which we lacked. He couldn't save the DG overnight.
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He'd been reluctant that day, unwilling to admit defeat and say his goodbyes to me. Perhaps that outcome hadn't even occurred in his mind at the time, but now, as I gazed up from my packing to meet his withering gaze, I could tell that it was killing him to see me leave.
It was killing me too and for once I had no words for what was going on. I was scared... petrified of living in a new house without him! As May-Li informed us of the bus that was arriving shortly to take us away, I felt tears threaten to fall from my eyes. I'd cried enough the night before, what use was it now?
Realising that Tyler wasn't going to say goodbye now, I headed back up to my empty bedroom to reminisce on my time at the DG.
