Snow and the Delinquent Eleven

Chapter 4

Bare with me, under edits guys.

Chapter 4

"I can't."

Tom crossed her path just after she tried racing towards the awaiting car.

Adrian was mad. Out of his enormous mind. Until now, it didn't occurred to her that he was this wildly bonkers-mad. She was a twenty year old college student (notice the keyword as twenty). Not haven't even fully graduated or experienced any of those queasy yet spiritual wise life long lessons, she was expected to receive the keys to the kingdom, along with all it's accessories. How was her inability to not even remember where she put her damn keys going to help raise a child? Eleven of them at that.

Her worse nightmare was about to be fulfilled. She could just see it. News producing headlines like: phD college student arrested for losing a child in a supermarket, or house burnt to the ground along with eleven orphaned kids.

In the old, way older days, Snow used to be the one to scoff and scorn at the girls who got knocked up at around her age. Now? Now she just thought this was all karma's doing. If Karma was a girl, surely she would've slapped her silly by now.

"Hey hey hey." Tom grabbed both her shoulders to halt, stopping her in her tracks. He took her to a red bricked house with a nice porch a little under an hour away from where Carressa lived. The house they drove to wasn't as big, nevertheless, it was still huge enough to fit several vehicles or more.

"You'll do fine." He massaged her shoulders as he soothed her with kind words -which Snow found both weird and almost calming. "If it makes you feel better, my boss lives next door. He'll be happy to help."

Snow sniffed her nose; she felt like a child that fell off her first bike, minus the training wheels.

"He has a kid?"

Tom nodded, his eyes searching for any sign of acceptance. "Sure, he has a beautiful little girl."

Sighing and feeling discomfited, she looked away. Maybe it helped a little that an old man was her neighbour. It also helped that he had a kid. She thought of visiting him later for tips about raising a child; then she'll multiply and try his methods with eleven.

She awkwardly shoved out of his embrace. "I...I..don't get it. Why me? Why not Carressa? Isn't it her kids too?"

Toms arms dangled to his side, he shook his head as they walked back to his car. "Unfortunately no, when your father was adopting these kids, your stepmother apparently refused to sign the adoption papers. I guess, at the time of his death he wanted to lock and secure their future."

"Meaning he thought I was up for the task?" She said outraged. If she was plausibly knocked unconscious, Snow didn't remember signing or remotely agreeing to this atrocious idea. If her father were alive, she would've given him an earful.

Tom sympathetically nodded. "I'm sorry Snow- truly, if there was anything I could do to make this all go away, I would." He walked to the back of the trunk and heaved out her luggage. "For now, you're just going to have to bare with it."

Snow licked her cracked lips. She didn't realise how thirsty she's gotten until she clamped her mouth shut and tasted her sticky tongue. "Thanks Tom. For everything."

Tom gave his million dollar smile. "Call me if you need me. And I'll call you if I find a solution."

Snows heartbeat slowed down when she heard the assurance of a way out. The possibility might've been one in a million, but it felt good to know that Tom was going to figure this whole mess out. She waved him off as he drove his car away.