Fan to Family.

Classes, Chicken Nuggets and New Houses.

After a minute of hugging Tom wipes my tears and fixes my cheeks a bit. He wipes his shirt a bit.

He stands up and walks to the door. I follow him. We turn into the hallway and pass the one door and wall of lockers. Our school is a hallway connected to the gym and cafeteria that we share with the high school hallway. We turn into the other hallway and to the right. Then we walk the few feet to the first doors to the gym. Mr. Donovan, my gym teacher, is standing ,with his IPad, watching kids walk around. "Hey Mr. Damon," He greets. He sees me trailing behind him, "Eli you will be late soon."

"That's actually what I'm here to talk to you about," Tom says.

"What do you mean Mr. Damon?" Mr. Donovan asks.

"Eli had a rough day yesterday, today we are letting her have a chill day in my room. So that being said, she won't be participating in gym today," Tom explains. Mr. Donovan nods.

"I understand. Have a nice day Eli, I hope you feel better soon. I enjoy having you in here," He tells me. I just nod slightly.

Tom turns, put his arm over my shoulders and walks me back to his room.

When I sit down at his desk he looks at the time. "2 more minutes until my 8th grade class starts. Did you get your work done?" He asks.

"Yea, it's all so easy. I mean no math, science that I knew already, no English since I finished that in class, just reading in history," I shrug.

Other kids start to come in. The bell soon rings. "Today to better understand English you guys will go down to Ms. Elaine's room and learn about Latin roots," He tells them. Everyone gathers their things.

A girl with blonde hair raises her hand.

"Before you ask, I'll be escorting you down there," He tells them. Her hand goes down.

I get up and walk with him. He leads us down the hall and into the gym and cafeteria hallway then down the high school hallway. Ms. Elaine is the Algebra 2 teacher but she has her double major in Latin.

"Okay, you guys should be set," He says. They walk in. We turn to walk back.

"Why do you care about me so much?" I ask out of the blue.

"You're like my little sister. You remind me of a sister. The same probably goes for Ms. Stevens," He tells me.

"Call her Lacey. She lets me. You don't have to be all formal. I call you Tom and her Lacey. It's not formal here," I say.

"Speaking of Lacey," He replies as she walks towards us with Mrs. Rogers.

"We need to talk," Mrs. Rogers tells Tom. He nods. We walk to Lacey's office.

I sit on her couch next to Tom. Lacey sits in her chair and Mrs. Rogers pulls over the desk chair. "Tom, we can't just drag her away from her home," Mrs. Rogers tells him.

"I'm not letting her go back," He replies. He wipes my cheeks making me wince. He turns my chin toward her. "Look at Eli's face. Look at it. Her foster parents did that to her. They beat her," He exclaims. Lacey nods.

"They look like something Luke would do to her. Bullying at its finest," She replies.

I stand up and lift my sweatshirt and T-shirt showing a huge black splotch of bruise where she would kick me and where he did yesterday. I suck in a breath at just the thought of it.

Lacey looks closer at it. She gently touches it and I almost scream in pain. "Eli, I'm sorry. I have to see if it's broken." She says. She presses on it and I really do scream. Tom looks pained.