Journey's Merge

Chapter 7

Chester
The car ride to the Queens house was crazy. Liam and Lindsey were fighting over something about...Justin Beiber..I think. Mrs. Queen was screaming at Liam and Lindsey trying to get them to be quiet, and Mr.Queen kept looking back at me. I was relived when we finally got to their house. The second we walked in, Mr.Queen put all the bags (and their were a lot) on the kitchen floor by the counter while Liam and Lindsey walked up the stairs and to their rooms, still arguing. I looked at them. They hadn't asked to go to their rooms, didn't they have chores. I had realized I hadn't done any. "Mrs.Queen," I said, walking up to the counter where Mr. and Mrs.Queen were starting dinner. She looked up. "Please, call us Rick and Kate," I nodded. "Yes ma'am," "What did you need honey?" she asked. "What are my chores?" I asked. She smiled. "You don't have any," I tilted my head. "Why not?" "Because, we barely haver to do anything in the house, we just clean the dishes and occasionally sweep and wipe the counters," "The kids keep their room fairly clean, and even if they didn't it's their room, it's their resposibility,"  I nodded again. "What about punishments?" both Mr. and Mrs - Rick and Kate, whipped their head up to me. "What do you mean punishments?" Mrs.Queen asked me, I straightened up. "Mrs.Murphy said I had to ask you about punishments, we had punishments in the orphanage, but she aslo said that they will vary from house to house," Kate sighed and pointed to the stool next to me. I sat down and she did the smae while Rick leaned on the counter. "Chester, what were the punishments at the orhpanage?" she asked. I gave her a strange look. Why would she want to know that? Maybe she forgot to prepare punishment and she wants inspiration or something. "Well, if we forgot to do a chore or did it incorrectly, then we would get sent to the basement, but we only got in trouble for that a few times becasue the basement is scary," Rick and Kate shared a look. "What does the basement look like?" she asked. I thought about it for a moment, trying to retain every detail. "Well, it's really small, like the size of a larder, it's dark, so you can't see much, but they painted monsters on the walls to scare the little kids since their the ones who mostly got put in there," Rick and Kate were both looking at me horrified. Kate clearned her throat, "Okay, what else?" she asked. "Not waking up on time meant you got no food that day, unless somebody else woke you up, breaking another rule," "But nobody ever did that because a lot of people in the orphanage are tattle tails." "One of the most common punishments are beatings, we get them when we cuss, scream, disrespect any elder or adult and etc." I finished and looked up at Kate. she grabbed my hand and squeezed it lightly before touching her nose with her knuckle. "Chester, have you ever gotten a.....beating?" she asked. I looked at the counter, rememvering the countless hours of whips and boards and knives in the attic I had to endure. A shiver ran up my spine as I nodded. "I've gotten many, though I never meant to disresepct any of my adults," Rick and Kate shared a look filled with pity. I hated pity. "I hope you know that none of that is going to happen here," Rick said, grabbing my other hand. "Why not?" I asked. "Because Chester that's not - that isn't how adults are supposed to act, their supposed to love you and care for you, not beat you," Kate said. "Sure, if you do something wrong, you might get grounded, or a stern talking to or your phone getting taken away but that's all, okay?" I sighed. I tried to hide my relief. Even though I had gotten more than used to the way of the orphanage, I was glad I might not have to endure it anymore. But, there was still a possibility. Throughout my fifteen years living at the orphanage, despite them trying to hide it, I had learned one thing. Adults lie.

*

Kate had started working on my room after our little talk. Before then, Rick was introducing me to television, Lindsey was up in her room talking to her friends, and Liam was doing god knows what. Now, everybody in the house other than Kate was stuffed onto the couch. Liam probably would've satyed in his room, but he was driven out by the sound of drills and hammers. What was she doing in there? "She seemed really determined to make your room look awesome," Lindsey said. "She's probably gonna be up there all night." I looked over at her. "But she won't get any sleep," I said. Rick smiled. "Kate doesn't run off of sleep, Chester, she runs off of adrenaline, stress, and tears," he said. Lindey laughed. "That doesn't sound very healthy," I stated. I saw Liam roll his eyes from beside Rick. "It's called a joke, Chester, don't you know anything?" he spat. Lindsey sighed. "Don't you know how to not be an ass?" Rick laughed a little, but quickly covered it with a cough once he saw Liam glaring at him. "Well, at least i'm not annoying him with sunshine and rainbows and butterflies," he switched his voice an octave higher for the last part, making me smile a bit. Lindsey gasped dramatically, offended. "I do not annoy him," she whipped her head to me. "Do I annoy you, Chester?" she asked. I shook my head. Neither of them really annoyed me, Liam was just a nit sad and Lindsey was really, really, overdramatically hyper and welcoming. "See," Lindsye said, smiling at Liam befoer sticking her tongue out at him. Liam rolled his eyes. "Why can't I go out?" he groaned at his dad. "Becasue, you're still in trouble for bringing a rat into the house," Rick told him. "But you have to admit, it was kinda funny," Liam said, smiling at him. Rick tried to hide his smile as he said, "It wasn't funny at all," Rick cleared his throat. "I'm gonna g help your mom," he said, walking towards the stairs. Right before he reached the top, he stopped and turned to us. "Pray for me." he said, running up the stairs.

(1090 Words)