Orphans of the night

Chapter 35

Letters and paperwork

I ran out of the school yard and down the street, stopping at a small playground. I crawled into the climbing tunnel and cried. I'll never fit in. I don't belong with Demi and at a nice school.

My mind raced back to the day I'd ran into Carla on the street. She hadn't even recognised me. I promised her I'd consider coming to visit.. but I honestly didn't know if I could. It would bring back to many painful memories and feelings I wasn't ready to deal with, but maybe that's where I belonged.

I got myself together and slowly walked back to school in time for Demi to pick me up. I felt so deflated and everything seemed grey. I felt like there were rubber bands tied around my feet restricting my legs with every step. I wanted to shrink and hideaway.

I grabbed my bag from my locker and turned to head towards the pick up zone when I met Eddies eyes across the hall. He looked hurt, just like I was. I just slowly shook my head at him.

"Hi Demi" I pretended to yawn "hey how was school" Demi smiled "good. I'm tired" I lied as I leaned my head against the window pretending I was sleepy to avoid conversation and hide my tear stained eyes.

***

Demi's POV

I felt nervous as I waited for Maria, the social worker, as I raced around the apartment making sure everything looked perfect. She was coming over for a 6 month check up while Lizzy was at school. I couldn't believe I'd only had Lizzy in my life for such a short time. I loved and cared for her as if she was my own. Everyday I'm thankful to have found her when I did, we both needed each other.

"Hi. Come on in" I smiled warmly as I held the door open for Maria and we took a seat at the table.

"It makes my job worth it when kids like Lizzy end up with people like you" Maria smiled. That made my heart happy. Being praised and told I was doing a good thing for someone who needed it and deserved it "I just love her and try my best" I smiled "I know.. that's why I was wondering, have you considered permanently adopting?" She spoke dramatically with a wide smile. My jaw dropped and my eyes widened "I've only had a few short interactions with Lizzy privately and she adores you, I can't imagine her being better off with anyone else" she encouraged. Hearing that just made me feel even more emotional. I was speechless "I understand if you need time to think, it's a big decision" "no no, not at all! I do, I want too" I almost cried. Maria smiled at me sweetly.

Maria and I spent some time going over what felt like hundreds of pages worth of paperwork and giving me links and information on parenting classes and letting me know there would be supports in place to help Lizzy seeing as she'd been through a lot and was struggling "This is so great and I can't wait to tell everyone back at the office. We always celebrate when a child gets adopted" Maria cheered.

"Okay well, I better head off now but we'll be in touch to make it official" Maria collected all the paper work putting it into a neat pile "oh let me walk you down. I have to check the mail" I said standing up.

"Thanks for coming" I smiled and waved as I watched Maria walk out. I felt giddy and excited inside. Everything was going so well. I unlocked our letter box and sorted through the mail. Mostly bills and letters from family overseas and one with Lizzys school logo on it. I headed back up to our apartment and opened the letter from Lizzys school right away.

I read through it and my heart sank and panic slowly set in. Lizzys attendance had dropped and they claim they've tried reaching out to me on my phone but haven't been able to get through. I checked my phone but had no missed calls or anything from them. Maybe it was sent to the wrong parent? I dropped Lizzy off at school everyday so how could her attendance be bad? I decided I'd definitely bring it up with her after her tutoring session this afternoon.

***

"So to find the X, you have to work out what Y is" I overheard Antonio teaching Lizzy. I didn't want to disturb them but I needed to run into the kitchen to grab a pen for this paperwork I have to fill out.

"Don't mind me guys, sorry" I whispered as I ran past and stood in the kitchen. I grabbed a pen from the drawer and looked over at Antonio and Lizzy. I smiled, it was cute in a way. I watched for a few seconds and realised Lizzy wasn't really paying attention. She was staring at Antonio in awe as he spoke. I felt protective as I knew exactly what that look meant. Antonio was way to old for her.

"So.. whatcha guys working on?" I asked awkwardly standing at the end of the table "algebra" Antonio answered. Lizzy didn't say anything or even look at me, she seemed smitten by Antonio. I felt a weird sudden rage and tried to take a deep breath "do you mind if we finish up there for today? Lizzy has a lot of chores to do" I fake smiled "oh.. uh. Yeah" Antonio muttered "what? I don't have chores?" Lizzy said annoyed "you do now" I said sternly as Antonio left.

"What the hell, Demi?" Lizzy shouted "I think you had enough tutoring today. Go rest up for the weekend" I mumbled turning to try and avoid the conversation "that was so rude!" Lizzy yelled then stormed off to her room slamming her door. Oh boy.