Delicate Hearts

One: A New World

I woke up with a start as the car's brakes were suddenly pulled, releasing a horrible screeching noise. As my eyelids fluttered, my eyes in need of recognition and adaptation to the sunlight gushing out of the transparent window of the car, my gaze finally focused and the surroundings became clear in view. Shifting my head to my left, the view out of the little window was so fresh and elegant it almost felt the window was a frame for an artist's exquisite painting.

To begin with, the sky was merrily blue, in layers and layers of the oxygenated atmosphere, darkening in colour as it toppled higher till eternity. As I rolled down the window till it reached halfway, a swoosh of wind washed over my face, tip-toing across my facial features and brushing away a few hair strands away from my forehead, the swift air almost visible with the tiny remaining rain droplets of the light Autumn showers riding along to explore the city. The car has halted across our new alley's cobbled street, not very differenced of that in London, but those buildings lined across the street sizes and colours which radiated a strong fragrance of joie de vivre drew a totally different sketch of this new environment my unaccustomed presence was exposed to. Midst the stick figures of people strolling down the narrow alley, and the mostly in a tea-dripped colour buildings, was the hazy but clearly recognizable Eiffel tower.

"Well girls! Let's head off to our new apartment and enjoy some afternoon warmth, won't we?" Charlotte Evans, my new foster mother, exclaimed, grabbed her keychain after an effort of fumbling from a little pink cardboard box situated on the tableau of her car. Melting further away the frizzy sensation of sleep, my body ached in pain from moving across the map from London to Paris. Sleeping on the car's couch next to me were the other two foster girls who are destined to be as close as sisters to me in the future-Ellen, who is my best friend via school since high school started(believe me, I had no idea. Amnesia trouble) and had been under Charlotte's foster care ever since her Aunt died, along with Jane, nakedly as new as me to Charlotte's world, more like new to this idea of foster care, but rather than that, we know nothing else of her history.

After a clear notion released from Charlotte to wake them up, Ellen noisily and effortlessly woke up with a careless yawn and a stretch of arms, while Jane was pushed by Ellen's shifting in full confusion then recognition. Two minutes of drifting into reality took the two of them, and we hurriedly followed Charlotte who had exited the car and started emptying her own bags. As I firstly laid my feet on the wet land, the boots I wore sent a zillion water gatherings splattering low, however, with much of a dirty effect on their edges. Charlotte stood by the building's metallic gate side, waiting impatiently with the bags' handles placed on both of her palms.

I stood briefly there, waiting for Jane and Ellen to pick up the couple of bags they got. But what was really eye-catching was the minimal of three to four obese bags Ellen carried. As I threw back my head and started giggling slowly, a pair of annoyed blue eyes narrowing at her. Taking her reaction as hysterical as possible, my giggles changed shape to a wide, cheeky grin. Following my reaction, Ellen rolled her eyes and smiled, then, as though defensively, said, "Charlotte told me we have individual rooms, for each one of us. So I think you should worry less."

"I didn't say I was worried. Am just nervous about her way of treatment, now that we are all on our own...and me being, uh, amnesiac." I replied, shrugging slightly at the end.

"Oh come on! I have lots of evidence which proofs she's a totally cool mom. She hardly leaves you devouring something...you instantly get it!!"

"Uh, thanks, I can clearly see that," I mutter sarcastically, waving my hands at the bags Ellen had now all around her, "but I think I'd prefer having comfy stuff like books and chic outfits than a freaking Beauty Queen's merchandise."