I Solemnly Swear ☆ CAPTAIN SWAN

Chapter 1 ☆ The new kid

Emma's POV

The day the new kid arrived was the day it happened for the first time.

I was heading down to get breakfast when I was shoved aside by some of the older boys from the second floor, who came barging down the stairs. I lost my balance and stumbled against the wall, but I decided to stay there until their screams and footsteps faded away in the distance.

Five months ago, that would've made me furious. But I'd gotten to the point where I just let it happen.

After six different foster homes and six consecutive rejections, the group foster home seemed to be my last option. The home was located in a former boarding school, and I guess you could say the system was pretty much the same. The classrooms were located on the ground floor of the main building, from where we could see the great lawn in the middle of the school. There was another, smaller building where we had gym classes two times a week, but apart from the basketball hoop on the courtyard and the dilapidated stands at the edge of the lawn, there wasn't much to keep us busy.

All of the girls' bedrooms were located on the first floor, as was the common bathroom— which I hated, because it took hours for everyone to get ready in the morning. That was the reason why I usually got up before anyone else, so I had the entire bathroom for myself.

Those twenty minutes in the morning were the only minutes I could be on my own, since I shared a room with three other girls... which I hated as well. The boys' bedrooms were on the second floor; only the kids who were older than fourteen had their own bedroom on the third floor, but most of us were younger than that.

After five months of being at the school, I'd gotten used to the strict schedule and buzzers that announced the end of the lessons. Since we didn't have our own desks, we did our homework in the library, which almost made it feel like a real boarding school.

The only difference?

None of us went home in the summer. Because this was the closest thing we had to a home.

We'd been on summer break for a few weeks now, so breakfast was served at eight o'clock instead of seven o'clock every morning. Still, I was forcing my eyes to stay open as I continued my way down the stairs, feeling more tired than ever— and it wasn't just because it was too darn early.

Summers in Tallahassee were blazing hot, almost from the moment we got up in the morning until we went to bed. The light hallways weren't really much of a relief; a warm breeze came in through the big, open windows and warmed up the entire building in less than an hour.

I was rounding the corner of the last set of stairs when I could hear the clattering of spoons and forks in the dining hall. I took a deep breath, preparing myself for the mass of people that I didn't want to be part of, and walked in through the double doors.

Little groups of people were gathered around the long tables, but I ignored most of them as I went to get some toast and marmalade. I sat down at the table in the corner across Lily, one of the girls from my class. I nodded at her as a greeting before I started eating my toast.

We didn't say much to each other, but I liked her for that. She was the closest thing I had to a friend, since I didn't like most of the kids at the foster home.

Well, some of them were alright. But the supervisors did a really crap job at picking out the kids who were bullying others, which gave them the freedom to make everyone miserable. I looked at the table of the eldest boys, who felt superior just because they got away with everything. Then my gaze lifted to the spot where Miss Ingrid was standing.

She was one of the supervisors during breakfast, lunch and dinner— and she was quite possibly the friendliest supervisor we had. I watched her help one of the little boys who'd been at the school for only two weeks, but then something else caught my attention.