Foster Kids

Chapter Three

"You're clothes can go in here" Liam said, opening the empty bottom draw of the wooden drawer and placing one of Harry's pre-folded shirts in.

"Alright" Harry nodded, kneeling down beside the boy and too loading the single draw with his clothes.

Since his degrading interaction with Louis, Liam had suggested that he begin to unpack, to which Harry was quick to agree with in hopes of it distracting his mind from those wounding words.

Zayn and Niall had also seemed to overlook the encounter as they were now playing Uno, Niall writhing in joy as he was, so far, beating his opponent.

None the less, all four boys, purposely or not, were ignoring Louis, who was laying on the bottom of his bunk, facing the wall and moping stubbornly. Harry wasn't sure as to why though, considering he was the one to commence the supposed conflict.

"Hey, don't stress about Louis" Liam whispered, sensing the other kid's perturbation.

"But - but, I just don't know what I did wrong" Harry sighed, keeping his voice low.

"You didn't do anything wrong, Louis just isn't great with new people" Liam explained, and Harry tried to conceal the red shading that formed on his cheeks as Liam began stuffing his boxers into the small space left in the drawer.

"Yeah, I - I guess, 's just confusing" Harry murmured as Liam closed the draw.

"Don't worry about it" The other sixteen year old replied, standing up. "Now, what else is there to unpack?"

"Well, besides my toiletries, just a duvet. My social worker packed it because she wasn't sure if you had a spare one" Harry responded, closing the drawer.

"Alright, so me and Louis share one bunk bed and Niall sleeps on the pull out bed, but there's another mattress on top of Zayn's bunk bed" The brunette explained, leading Harry over to Zayn's bunk bed and throwing his duvet onto the top mattress.

"Thanks" Harry said.

Before the two could proceed to situate Harry's toothbrush, deodorant and other typical necessities, a blasting screech was produced from the youngest.

"Uno!" Niall cheered, turning the heads of Liam and Harry as he threw down his second-to-last card onto the pile that had formed between him and Zayn on the floor.

The elder of the two only smirked, seeming pleased with himself as he laid down a pick up four card onto the stack.

"No!" Niall whined, throwing his final card down and collapsing on his back in defeat. "I don't wanna pick up more, Zaynie!" He cried, hiding his face with his hands and kicking his legs out.

Zayn only snickered, throwing his head back slightly as he witnessed the other boy's tantrum.

"Hey" Harry whispered to Liam, his curiosity getting the better of him. "Isn't Niall, you know, like, fifteen?" He asked hesitantly, unease heavy in his tone in fear of offending the other lad.

"Yeah, he's just a bit immature, I'm not really sure why though. It confuses me sometimes" Liam responded. 

Harry nodded mutely, only watching on as Niall proceeded to whinge and Zayn began packing up the cards with a somewhat fond grin embedded on his face.

Despite the lack of time in which Harry had been at his new foster house, he had led himself onto a theory that Zayn and Niall were closer than most 'foster siblings', and not in a romantic way. It just seemed as though Zayn specifically looked out for Niall - his whereabouts, unexpressed emotions and actions.

It was sweet, Harry supposed.

Snapping him out of his daze, shutting Niall up quickly and startling all five boys - including Louis who flinched on the mattress and quickly turned his attention to the source of such noise, was the door being roughly pushed open, hitting the wall, and revealing Greg - his eyebrows furrowed so they reached his eyelids and a deep frown curving at his chapped lips in a way that made him look quite vexed.