Transitions

Ch1

My eyes clenched shut as the bright sunlight filled my room. I could hear my sister's music playing softly and the sound of her feet hitting the ground. Once my eyes adjusted, I rolled over to look at the time, nearly knocking my pillows onto the floor.

"Ugh, Mackenzie... it's barely 7 o'clock. Why are you dancing so early?" I groaned.

My sister stopped her music and came to sit on my bed as I swung my legs over the edge to put my boots on.

"I'm trying to relieve my stress. We have visitors today. We might get adopted!" she chirped.

I looked at the whiteboard that was on the wall of our shared room. I guess we do have visitors today. Every Wednesday at 10AM, the staff at our group home pulls us out of school for the day to meet with visitors and try to get placed in foster homes.

I'm honestly content where we are at the Country School. It's quietly placed in the woods away from the public eye. Although a lot of us are misfits and were either taken away from our parents or something happened to them, everyone here is really sweet. Mackenzie got up and turned her music back on encouraging me to get up and dance with her. We started dancing when one of the workers knocked on our door.

"Riley! Mackenzie! Are you girls decent?" the voice on the other side of the door shouted.

We both shouted that we were decent, and shortly after the door opened with our case manager, Abbi, entering our room. I stopped in my tracks realizing I wasn't dressed yet.

"Oh, Riley, why aren't you dressed yet? We have guests coming in an hour! Come on! Go take a shower. You smell like dirt and sweat," the red haired girl chuckled.

I smiled weakly, getting up to grab my purple towel and some clothes. I threw some clothes and another towel at my sister, signaling her to follow me to get ready. We paraded past Abbi towards the community bathrooms. It does get kind of awkward sharing a bathroom with 4 other girls, but I guess it is what it is. The hallway in our building is painted pink with murals of animals and dancers on the wall. We walked past the arts and crafts room where some of the younger girls from next door were playing with dolls.

I walked into the bathroom at the end of the hall and closed the door once Mackenzie was in too. The bathrooms were separated into three sections, showers, toilets, and private dressing rooms. I opened one of the dressing rooms and stuck my clothes on the bench and placed my name tag on the handle of the door. I made my way back to the showers and let the water warm up. I stepped in and washed away the sweat from my indoor track meet last night. We beat Norwich Free Academy by 10 points. The warm water relaxed my muscles. Once I was finally clean and free of sweat, dirt, and blood I stepped out of the shower and wrapped my towel around my torso. Noticing the floor was slippery, I slowly made my way back towards the dressing rooms. I opened the door with my name on it, stepped in and finished drying off. Once I was dry, I slipped on my black skinny jeans, and threw on a long sleeved shirt with a hockey jersey over it. As I was putting my socks on I heard a scream, and it sounded like Mackenzie's. I finished putting my socks and shoes on and leaped through the bathroom to find Mackenzie standing in front of a girl passed out on the bathroom floor. There was a small puddle of blood coming from behind the girls head.

"Who is it?" I asked her.

She looked at me and shrugged her shoulders. I didn't recognize the girl. She's either new, or I've just never seen her before. I left Mackenzie with the girl and ran out to Abbi's office.

"Abbi! Help!" I shouted down the hall.

Her head poked out of her office with a face of concern, "Someone fell in the bathroom and there's blood. I don't know who it is though. Mackenzie's in there with her."

Abbi instructed me to call 9-1-1 while she went and handled the situation. I followed her into the bathroom and watched Mackenzie try to check for a pulse. Abbi handed me her phone so I could call. My eyes searched for the emergency call button on the lock screen. Tapping the button, I held the phone up to my ear.

"9-1-1, what's your emergency?"

"Um yeah, my name is Riley, and I'm a resident at the Waterford Country School. Some girl fell in the bathroom of the Spirit house. I don't know her name but she looks to be about 13 years old. I have no idea if she has any prior medical conditions."

"Okay Riley, is she breathing?" the dispatcher asked.

"I don't think so. My case worker is here if you need to talk to her." I replied, trying to steady the shaking in my voice.

"Yes, please. While I'm talking to your case worker, can you go wait outside and evacuate the building? We are sending paramedics now and I know a lot of the girls in your building panic when they see us."

I handed the phone to Abbi and ran back through our building to bring everyone to the gymnasium for the guests.

"SPIRIT HOUSE RESIDENTS; PLEASE FINISH GETTING DRESSED AND MEET ME OUTSIDE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. MAKE SURE YOU ARE NEAT AND CLEAN AS WELL AS BUNDLED UP. IT IS COLD OUTSIDE!" I shouted through the halls, making sure everyone heard me.

While waiting outside for the girls, I noticed the black and white truck with lights and sirens pull up to our building and the ambulance was following, along with a police car. For some reason with this place, even with a medical emergency, a police car has to follow. Shortly after my announcement, Mackenzie was leading all of the other girls out of the building. I smiled as I noticed everyone was clean and dressed for the visitors.

"Alright girls, there was an accident in the left bathroom and Abbi instructed us to make our way to the gymnasium to greet our guests. I think some of us are getting placed today! So let's get out there, be ourselves, and hope for the best!"