Broken Homes {Lashton & Malum}

I

OAKLEY RESIDENCE OPENING DAY
In the morning of the 22nd of September, Nathan Smith announced the opening of The Oak Field House, a brand new home for children. Locals surmised the building to be one that can only be described as a world from a children's storybook. Many are highly anticipating the arrival of the new residents of the children's home and can barely contain their own celebrations within their own houses. All across the street of Oak Field people are expressing their gratitude towards Nathan with the greatest honorary celebration techniques.

Luke could tell, judging by the looks on the faces of the rest of the kids, that he wasn't the only kid who didn't want to be there, though he knew that, for most of them, that was because they missed their families, and they didn't want to be away from them. The same couldn't be said for Luke, though. He'd never been close with his family, so he didn't mind not being near them, he just hated being in care. He hated people, he hated that adults controlled his life, he hated the care-workers at the new home even though he hadn't yet met them, and he hated his social worker.

Luke had never been fond of adults. He'd never liked them, not even any teachers at school. He was an independent young boy, he liked to do things his own way instead of being bossed around. But, during the year or so he'd been in care, he'd hardly had any privacy. The care-workers had to take him everywhere, he went to the same school as the kids in the care home, and in his previous home he'd had to share his room with some boy that Luke had hated. The boy had been bitchy, despite having only been eight years old, and Luke was extremely glad he'd been moved to a new home. Maybe, this time, he'd be roomed with someone who was actually nice, or he'd be roomed with no one at all. Either was good for Luke.

Looking around him, Luke had stayed to the far side of the group of kids, as far away from the adults as he could be. Most of the kids were chatting, but they all seemed gloomy, though they also seemed to be getting along. One kid in particular, a small boy that seemed around Luke's age, was being kept over by the adults. The thing that confused Luke was that the boy didn't seem to want to be over there, so then why was he? Why wasn't he mingling with the other kids?

Shrugging to himself, Luke decided to forget about it. That boy was a stranger, which meant that Luke had nothing to do with him so he shouldn't care. Luke never cared about other people, it wasn't who he was. He'd never built strong relationships, not even with anyone in his family, he'd never had friends, he'd never seen the point. He'd never had anyone to care about, and he didn't ever want anyone to care about. He was independent, and that was how he intended to stay.

-

Calum felt lonely. Even among the large group of children he felt alone. Everybody seemed to have someone else to talk to, someone to laugh with, but he didn't. He had no one. Nobody except the little stuffed puppy named Toby tucked under his arm, its soft fur rubbing against his skin as he dodged through the crowd of people and went to sit outside on the cold, concrete steps leading to the front door. His social worker would come looking for him eventually, and he wanted to take advantage of this time for as long as it would last.

This was the first children's home Calum had ever been to, and he already hated it. He hated the noise all of the other kids made, he hated the large amount of people swarmed in the living room, and he hated being watched over by his social worker every waking minute of the day. Calum didn't know how some kids handled staying in the foster system for so long, he had only just been put into the system and he already wanted to run away.

Calum nuzzled his rosy cheeks into the puppy's plush exterior, since no one was around. He had recently felt the need to have Toby with him wherever he went, and he had to admit, he felt a little self conscious about it, but he couldn't help it. It was all he had left of them.