Burning (911/Lone Star)

Chapter One "I Wanted To Find My Family"

A fifteen year old Emily looked both ways before she walked out of her bedroom and shut the door silently, it was early morning and she was tiptoeing down the stairs. As she stood at the bottom of the stairs, her ears strained for any sound of movement from upstairs. Emily didn't want to get caught by the carers, she didn't need another argument, they never ended at her newest home.

In her socks she silently padded down the hallway to the office where all their files and important documents were kept. She had already swiped the key from Tanya, her social worker, she had gone to the toilet in their session the day before and she had took them out of her bag. As quietly as she could, she fiddled with each of the keys on the loop, checking each one and after two minutes the door finally opened.

Cautiously, Emily stepped inside the office, the home looked different in the early hours of the morning than it did in the afternoon, it was calm and peaceful, which it never was in the daytime. With twelve children in the age range of six to seventeen, it was always chaotic with arguments most days and fights atleast once a week. Nobody enjoyed being in the group home but it was better than being truly alone, fending for theirselves.

Before the group home 'Elm Tree House', Emily had lived with a foster family, Martin and Katherine Davis, who had been having issues conceiving so had decided to foster. But after seven years of being in their chaotic care they got pregnant and kicked her out so for the last two years she had watched people leave and come back, with occasional new additions to the family too. Her hands shook as she tried to open the locked cabinet  under Michelle's desk.

There were four carers who lived in the home and then a few day carers and temps who took over occasionally for the main ones. Michelle was the lead carer and the kindest, everyone looked at her as a sort of mother figure and that was how she acted. If they had a bad day she was always there with a hot chocolate, biscuit, pep talk and a big hug. On the rare occasion that Emily wanted to talk about how she was feeling, Michelle would listen and give good advice.

Jonah was deputy lead, he often tried to be too much like the kids. This was fine for certain situations, but not in others, he tried to relate with them on everything when in reality he couldn't understand what they had gone through. Emily and Jonah had a banter relationship, he understood her ways of coping and left her to it until it became a threat to herself or others. Like the time she was throwing darts, which resulted in Zoe almost getting hit by several.

Kylie was a new carer, she had previous experience as a children and adolescent's mental health nurse. If Emily was having a bad day emotionally, Kylie was always there for a chat that didn't have to be about what she was feeling. Their most common topic was pineapple on pizza, Emily was against it and Kylie was all for it. This often led to Emily calling Kylie a monster.  It was all jokes and Kylie knew, Emily told Kylie and Michelle the most, so they had a close friendship.

The last carer was Emily's enemy and all knew it. Often they were at each other's throats. Joleen Jane, and she really took after her middle name, whilst all the others were quiet young and good looking, Jane was a woman in her fifties who didn't act like she was in the twenty-first century at all. She was against the LGBTQ, had some questionable beliefs. Michelle tried to keep Loretta away from Emily as much as possible, but it couldn't always be helped, they hated each other.

Eventually the draw of the cabinet opened and Emily's eyes were met with the sight of a dozen blue folders with each of the placement's names on in big, bold black letters.

'Jessie Anderson' 'Ryan Andrews' 'Emilia Buckley' 'Alexandra Courtney' 'Lucas Courtney' 'Penelope Daniels' 'Mikaela Francis' 'Yasmin Harrow' 'Nadine Ivory' 'Zoe Karl' 'Isabella Lopez' 'Maddison Lopez'