Sugar, Spice and Anything But Nice

Pigs

Alexis

We all waited patiently so Sage could tell her story but she was taking her damn time with it. I usually didn't have that much patience but since we'd just discussed my plans, I was in a freaking good mood.

I did feel for the girl though. It seemed like she was gathering her courage to tell something traumatic. Or she was craving her next fix, you never knew with Sage.

"Are you okay?" Madd asked Sage. Sage nodded quickly but her eyes were tearing up. She closed them so no one would see her this vulnerable and took a deep breath.

"I want revenge on my foster mother." She said before she opened her eyes to see our reactions. I didn't react much. So it meant she didn't have parents or something like that? I had no idea.

"I never knew who my parents were so growing up I went from family to family. Those families would always send me back because as a child I was kinda depressed and I guess people wanted happy children. I spent my early teenage years in an orphanage but when I was fourteen someone reached out to me. I was over the moon because most people want young kids." Sage explained.

Damn, I was starting to understand why this was hard to talk about. I'd never known anything different from my own house. Even though my parents are usually away, I knew they existed and I wasn't dependent on other people choosing me. I didn't have to worry about being cute or nice enough for people to actually want me. No wonder the girl turned out to be a junkie.

"At first it was a lot of fun. I lived with my foster mother, Ellen, her boyfriend and two other foster kids. I finally felt like I was part of a real family and the kids welcomed me with open arms because they were from the system too and now they had an older sister. Then things started to change." Sage told us. I could tell she wasn't with us anymore but in a distant memory. And from the look on her face it didn't seem like a nice memory at all.

"Ellen was controlling and violent. Whenever we did something wrong she'd hit us with branches she'd find outside. One time it was a piece of wood with a rusty nail on it, she didn't care. She'd beat us with it until we'd collapse to the ground. I usually took the blame for the other kids so they wouldn't get hurt. And her boyfriend, he... He..." Sage started to cry and buried her face in her hands.

"Hey, you don't have to tell us, it's fine." Madd soothed her and brought her hand to Sage's shoulder.

"He'd use me and Ellen would just watch it with this sly smile on her face. I was there for two years until I couldn't deal with it anymore. I told the kids I'd find a job and come back for them. But I turned out to be a failure. I just left them there and they're probably still getting tortured by that horrible woman." She said. The sadness Sage had just experienced turned into anger.

She wasn't just angry at Ellen. I think she was angrier with herself.

"There isn't a day I don't feel guilty for getting out of there." Sage added.

"Damn..." I said, not really knowing how to react to a story like that.

"Well, let's send that woman to the same place as Madd's ex then!" Hope said.

"How?" Sage sighed.

"Same plan as Alex. Simple, really." Hope shrugged.

"I don't get it." I told her and I could tell I wasn't the only one feeling a little lost.

"Someone's getting a foster mother." Hope explained.

"What? No! Didn't you hear what I just told you? I'm not going through that again. No one should!" Sage argued. She was visibly panicked by Hope's plan.