Adopted by Elizabeth Olsen

Chapter 2

LIZZIE'S POV:

~ Time skip to a week later~

It's been a week since I met Roxie on the park bench and she's not answered any of my messages since she sent me the text about a child being adopted. I decide to tell Scar and she showed me photos of the foster homes and I recognized it as soon as I saw the picture. "That one! That's where I dropped the girl off. She's a foster kid? I feel so bad for taking her back there." I say looking at the online pictures of who you can adopt. "Click on Roxie's file," I tell Scarlett, and when she does she sees nobody has looked at her file in.... five years!! How can nobody want to see this beautiful girl? I look at her information and it says she's thirteen and that her parents died in a car accident when she was a baby and she has been in the system ever since. My heart breaks for this young girl. I look at a little boy whose file says adopted. He's called Marcus and it says he has an older sister so that's who Roxie must have been talking about. I can't believe I took her back there! She doesn't even look like she gets fed proper meals! It must be horrible there.
"Earth to Lizzie? Hello?" Scarlett's voice brings me back out of my thoughts. "I thought I lost you there. Chris says they want you on set." I snap out of my thoughts and stand up following Chris to set making a mental note to meet up with Roxie"

~11 pm ~
We've finally been dismissed from set and Scar and Chris E are staying at my apartment not far from set. Just as we get in the car it starts to rain heavily and I groan knowing I left my washing basket in my backyard. I start to drive down the road when I notice a young girl walking slowly, her hands in her pockets and her hair going crazy because of the rain. I love her hair I think to myself and then I recognize her! It's Roxie from the other week! I pull over and unclip the seatbelt. "I'll be back in a second guys," I say before opening the door and rushing over to the figure now sitting under a tree for shelter. I see she has a bag and I hope she hasn't been kicked out of anywhere. I kneel in front of her not caring how wet the floor is. "Hey, Roxie. You remember me?" She nods slowly and looks up. I see a dark purple bruise starting to form under her eye and I gasp a little too loudly. She whips her head back down and mumbles "Is it that bad?" "What happened?" I ask her not wanting to hear the answer knowing something bad must have happened with her carer as she has a bag. "Mr. Richards kicked me out because I..." Her voice cracks and I see her eyes fill with tears. "Come here. Let's get you some warm dry clothes and maybe a meal or something and we can talk about it then okay?" She nods and lets me help her up wincing as I put my arm around her waist touching her ribs. I move my arm quickly and help her to the car.

ROXIE'S POV:

It's half eight and I walk downstairs and see Bella watching TV sitting sadly. "Oh, cheer up you little shit!" Mr. Richard barks at her and she looks over at me with tears in her eyes. We aren't allowed to cry in front of Mr. Richards if we are older than the age of four. It's one of his main 'rules'. I thankfully can control and choke back my emotions after years of practice but the younger ones struggle more so I decide now would be a good time to see if Bella wants her nails painted. She nods and runs up the stairs with me before she bursts into tears. I soothe her and she ends up falling asleep on me. I must have fallen asleep too because the next thing I hear is Mr. Richard slamming my bedroom door open against my wall loudly making us jump awake. "Bella you better go pack your things. You're moving out of my care. I don't want your sad life anymore" He barks before smiling "You leave in half an hour. Better say goodbye to Roxie" He shuts the door and Bella cries again but harder this time. I said I'd always be there for her and now she's being moved away from me and as I'm only thirteen there's nothing, I can do about it. I just have to wait till I'm seventeen then I can finally get out of here.

I helped Bella pack her bag with the few things she owns and then kiss her head before waving bye as a kind-looking woman takes her to the next foster home where hopefully she will be treated better than here. "You!" He barks as I go to walk up the stairs back to my room. I freeze and start to shake knowing something bad is about to happen. "Yes, Mr. Richard?" I say as calmly as I can. "You just lost me money!" He shouts before punching me in the face. I gasp and grab the left side of my face that is now throbbing crazily. "I need that money for my Friday nights!" He shouts before punching me again but in the ribs this time. I double over and gasp slightly winded. I don't know what to do but then I think about Lizzie as he punches me again in the ribs. I could phone her! I think quickly and kick him in the balls before running upstairs grabbing a few necessities and then climbing out the window as fast as I can shaking in shock and fear and a slight sense of excitement over what I just did.

I walk for hours I don't know where I am going but the breathing is killing my ribs and it's painful as I take steps. A nice white car drives past me and the headlights shine on a tree that looks pretty covered from this rain that's pouring down on me. I sit down slowly gasping in pain and trying my best not to cry when I hear a familiar voice. Its Lizzie! Thank goodness for that. I don't hear what she says I just nod and then follow her as she takes me back to the car. "Scarlett, Chris this is Roxie," Lizzie says before helping me in the car. I gasp in pain as I sit down and try to make nothing of it but I know Lizzie heard it. She drives back to a massive-looking apartment and she leads me inside. As soon as she opens the door, I can't believe my eyes. Her house is beautiful! There are sparkling lights and ornaments and cute little photos of her and her friends. I follow her into a bedroom and sit on the bed.
"Roxie, I need you to tell me what happened at your house so I can contact the police if...."
"No! Please don't! Don't do that I don't want to see the police! Please!" I beg and my eyes fill with tears. It's always the police that makes me move from foster home to foster home and I don't want to leave here because I like the park and the smells. It's almost like home to me. "Woah calm down. We don't have to do that if you don't want to. I just need to know what happened so I can help you clean your cuts" Lizzie says in her calming voice. Cuts? What cuts? I must have looked confused because the next thing I know I'm in the bathroom sitting on the toilet lid in my bra with Lizzie cleaning all my little cuts that are scattered all over my body and rubbing this gel stuff on my bruises. I must have been staring at her because she looks at me and smiles. "You, okay? This isn't hurting?" She asks. "Oh no, this is hurting it's just I'd rather this pain than that pain," I say pointing to my black and blue ribs.

LIZZIE'S POV:
I sit Roxie down on the toilet lid and carefully lift her top up. I gasp slightly as I see the dark, dark black and blue bruise that is plastered against her ribs. I see cuts on her all over her body and I'm not too sure how she got those. I see scars all over her stomach and at the top of her waist and I just think how can anybody be this cruel to a child!? Roxie just sits there hardly showing any emotion or reaction when I put the wipe on. It always stings even for Chris H and he's like a tree! I know she's trying to hide her emotions from me. I decide to stay silent as it isn't an awkward silence and I just work, cleaning all her wounds one by one carefully. I could have finished ten minutes ago but I want to make sure she doesn't get any infections. I can feel her staring at me and I look up and check up on her. "I'd rather this pain than that pain," Roxie says and my heart breaks again for the millionth time this week. She's thirteen and sounds so grown up. When I looked at the foster home list, she was the oldest there so she must have looked after everyone. I look at her frail little body with all her bones sticking out and I wonder how anybody could let such a gorgeous girl like this end up like she is now. I can feel her staring at me again but it doesn't bother me much. I just work away cleaning all the little cuts.

After I finish, I pass her a pair of my pj's. "You can use these. It's late so I'm guessing you want to go to bed" I say calmly trying to not let my worry about her condition be heard in my voice. "Erm... sure yeah I'll go to bed," she says sadly before walking out and into the spare room, I showed her to. I follow her into the bedroom. "You want the light on or off, sweetheart?" I ask and she says off so I shut the light out and shut her door carefully before going to get myself ready. I climb into bed so happy of its warmth and comfort and fall asleep pretty fast.

I get woken by the feeling of a small body getting into my bed. I glance over and see it's Roxie. I check the time, 3am before rolling over to look at her. "Are you okay?" I ask her sleepily. "Sorry I didn't mean to wake you I just couldn't sleep and I thought you wouldn't mind and I'm sorry I can go back...." She rambles on and it's clear she's nervous possibly even a little embarrassed. I can't see her face but I do wrap my arms around her carefully and pull her close. She tenses up at first probably never having had a hug before but after about ten seconds in my arms she relaxes and I feel her breathing evens out signalling she's fallen asleep. I smile to myself before falling asleep myself.