adopted by sandra bullock (and her gf cate blanchett)

chapter 18

sandy made the last couple of turns until the car parked in front of max parker's apartment building.

her shiny luxury car seemed out of place amongst the poverty of his neighborhood, and sandy was reminded for a moment of a scene from the movie that earned her an oscar, The Blind Side.

the kids became increasingly uneasy the closer they got to the apartment.

sandy had made a quick phone call that confirmed that max was in police custody, and an officer was going to meet them at the apartment to unlock the door.

sure enough, a man clad in uniform was waiting for them at the apartment entrance.

"my name is officer johnson, you can all follow me right this way." he said as they all got out of the car.

they entered the apartment building, and since it had no elevator, began taking the stairs to the third floor.

cate was a little ashamed to admit it had been around a decade since she stepped foot in a place like this.

she had grown up lower class, but she lived on a farm in the middle of nowhere australia and was the type of poor that came with worn out hand me downs and not knowing if their crops were going to survive the winter, eating left overs for days and getting a job running papers at eleven years old.

cate had always looked fondly at her childhood, despite its hardships.

but this place, where dylan and dani lived, she couldn't even fathom. at least it had only been for a couple of years, not their whole childhood.

sandy was watching the two kids as they reacted to their surroundings.

dylan was having a little bit of trouble with the stairs due to his ribs, and dani was shaking ever so slightly.

sandy, who was in the rear of the group, put a hand softly on dylan and dani's shoulders.

dani tensed slightly before relaxing to sandy's touch, dylan flinched at the sudden movement, and his cheeks grew red with embarrassment.

sandy knew she had her work cut out for her if these kids were going to feel comfortable around her, let alone comfortable functioning in society.

luckily, sandy had a lot of patience and a lot of love.

what she didn't have was a lot of time, the life of americas sweetheart tended to be a busy one after all, and shooting for Oceans 8 started in just two weeks.

but she didn't want to think about that now.

they had arrived on the third floor and walked down the dingy corridor with yellow peeling wallpaper to door number six, covered with police tape.

the officer opened the door with a set of keys the landlord had given him.

when the door swung open numerous other locks were revealed, all recently broken, and sandy remembered danielle mentioning that he had sometimes locked them in.

the apartment was small, with a couch and a tv in the living room that was adjacent to a small and extremely dirty kitchen.

in the back of the room there were three doors, presumably the kids bedroom, max's room, and a bathroom.

danielle was so nervous that her mind was playing tricks on her.

she swore she could see the blood on the floor from where they had stumbled out that night, and she could definitely see the shattered glass from the bottle she broke on max's head.

the glass and blood on the floor as well as the empty fridge, countertops full of booze, and door of max's room all had police tape around them.

dylan rushed to their room, eager to be as far away from this place as he could as quickly as he could.

dani followed him.

cate and sandy wandered aimlessly around the small space, wanting to understand as much about the kids past as they could.

in dylan and dani's room, dani grabbed the leather drawstring backpack that had been her adoptive dads and started throwing things in it.

her few clothes that weren't basically rags, her journal and pens, and a small plastic bag that held some pictures of her and dylan from their previous home, and her two favorite books that she got when the library was having a book sale (the price of salt and the great gatsby) all went in the bag.

dylan's bag was bigger because he tended to be more sentimental.

it was also a bag that belonged to their adoptive father, his army duffel bag.

dylan packed his own clothes, his journal, a baseball he caught when they went to game one time as children, the blanket he's had since birth, and his karting suit.

they had in the room a cardboard box filled with their combined karting trophies, which they hadn't unpacked since arriving at max's.

dani put her backpack on and picked up the box, and dylan slung his bag over his shoulder.

they stayed just standing in the room for a moment, both of them taking in the fact that they were really finally leaving.

"this is it i guess." dani broke the silence.

"i guess it is."

dylan took one last look around the room, the single twin sized bed they had shared, the pile of blankets in the corner where dani would sit and read next to the one small window, the dresser where their combined clothes still only took up four of the six drawers.

he took a deep breath and exited the room.

cate had been talking to the police officer about what he knew of max's trial.

sandy was fighting the urge to impulsively clean the entire apartment.

when the kids came from the bedroom with their belongings, they walked straight out to the hallway.

the adults took that as a clue that they really didn't want to spend anymore time in this apartment.

"thank you for helping us out officer, please keep me informed of any updates on mr. parker if you can." sandy spoke to officer johnson as they walked down the stairs.

cate had taken the box from danielle and was a little ways ahead of them.

"i'll do my best ms. bullock but i'm not officially assigned to the case. i can tell you that regardless of if he's sentenced or not, there's no way in hell he's getting those kids back."

sandy was relieved to hear that at least.

she exited the building and saw cate getting the kids belongings situated in the trunk of the car.

it was just before 2pm, the sun was high in the sky and the los angels air sizzled with heat.

sandy thanked the officer again and hopped in the drivers seat of her car, cranking her ac all the way.

"now i'm gonna drop cate at her place to get some work done, what do you kids say to some lunch?"

dylan responded.

"that sounds like a great idea sandy."

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chapter 18 - 1163 words !