Finally Home

74. Samantha

It's hard for me to believe everything that happened after I got home from California was only a total of about five days. We were all home by the weekend before school went back.

Mom and Dad had gotten me some awesome gifts for Christmas, and I sort of regretted not opening them immediately. But the whole thing with the doctor sending Rosie and I into foster care sort of ruined the holiday for me.

On the first day back at school Jill came running up to me as I got out of Dad's new truck (he'd gotten it in November, but I still call it new).

"I missed you over the holidays!" She exclaimed, throwing her arms around me. "You didn't call when you got home, and then I saw the news."

I frowned.

"Yeah. It was a bit of a shit show," I said.

"How come you're back on two crutches?" She asked.

"My leg has been bugging me. I kinda, well, I had a seizure or something last week in the kitchen and sliced open my arm. I had to get stitches and when we were at the hospital, I thought the doctor was going to call DCS again, so I ran away. I tried to walk home but got lost and hypothermic. So I kinda messed up some of the gains I made in physio. My leg tires out too easily right now, so I'm supposed to be a bit more careful," I explained. Jill looked at me with sympathy.

"Pretty shitty week back after seeing Brendon and Sarah," she lamented. I nodded.

"Okay, but, how was California?" Jill asked as we got to our lockers.

"It was awesome. Uncle B surprised me on Christmas with Uncle Josh. He and Aunt Debby came to California for some work for Aunt Debby, but came early so they could crash our trip to Disney. And when all the shit went down after, flew home to help. Which is not part of California, but still."

"How are Brendon and Sarah?" Jill asked.

"They're good. Christmas was a bit bittersweet, because they were sad about Jess, obviously. But they made the whole day awesome. I think they took a little time to themselves like they always do at Christmas."

"You're so lucky you got to go to California. It was so cold here!"

I grimaced.

"Yeah," I said. "I know."

"Oh. Sorry. Yeah. I guess you do," she said.

We made it to our class. We had biology together first thing this term. Not the way I wanted to spend my mornings.

Jill and I made our way into the classroom and found seats together. We caught up with Patricia, who was in our class. Blaine and Morgan had PE first thing. Suckers.

Mr. Turnberry, the biology teacher, came into the room and greeted us all. He handed out the textbooks and explained what he had planned for the term.

The rest of the day was pretty similar. Getting our "new" texts (Jill whispered to me in Math that her book looked like someone had puked in it) and getting the syllabi.

At the end of the day, I made my way out to Dad's car.

"Hey kiddo," he smiled at me as I climbed into the car. "How was the first day?"

I shrugged. I was so tired. And my leg was really sore. I rubbed it.

"It was okay. Typical first day. New teachers, new books, same old story," I said.

"Your leg bugging you?" He asked, frowning as I rubbed it.

"Yeah. I swear, I stayed off it as much as possible. But it's just sore and tired feeling."

Dad frowned. He hates when he can't control something, like me or Rosie being sick or hurt.

When we got home, Mom had a snack ready for me and Rosie was colouring at the table.

"Hi SaSa!" She smiled when I came in with my backpack.

"Hi, honey," Mom said, bringing me my snack, giving me a kiss on the head and a side hug. "How was school? Homework?"

"School was okay. Jill and I have math and biology together. Blaine and I have AP English together and Jill, Blaine, Morgan and I have music together. So it wasn't too bad. And yeah," I changed my tone to a more depressed sounding one. "I have homework."

I made my voice sound a little like Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh.

"You sound like Ee-or!" Rosie laughed.

"Do I?" I said, using the same voice. Rosie laughed. Mom was smiling at us.

"Eat your snack, do you homework and then help with dinner. Okay?"

I nodded as I took a spoonful of yogourt with berries.

"SaSa? What you doin?" Rosie asked.

"Homework," I groaned.

"Me too!" She said showing me her paper. "I do howork too!"

I smiled.

"We can do our homework together then," I smiled.

"I hep you. Okay?"

"Okay, RosieRo. You can help me with my homework. Can you tell me what the mitochondria is?"

Rosie looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language. I laughed. Mom looked over and saw Rosie's confused face.

"Mama?" She asked. "What a miko on de wheea?"

I laughed. Rosie is just too cute. I gave her arm the littlest of pinches. She smiled at me.

"I do my howork," she frowned at me. "You do yours. Yours is hard."

I smiled.

I worked through my homework pretty quickly. I didn't have a lot and my English homework was reading, which I'd do before bed.

Once I was done, I packed my bag, put everything away and went back into the kitchen to help Mom.

"Where's Dad?" I asked, realizing I hadn't seen him since we got home.

"He and Josh are working on something so he's downstairs. Ask him about it at dinner. He's very excited about it," she smiled. I did too. I love when Dad gets excited about things. And I knew he was working on stuff so I was excited to hear what they had planned now.