Changed For The Better

Oh

"Luke this isn't fair! I don't want to get him in trouble or throw him under the bus or whatever, but Ryan did start it" I complained as Luke lead me into the office.

"Thank you for your honesty, but that's not why you're here"

"It's not?"

"No. I called you here because I have some news on the fostering front"

"Okay...?"

"It's been approved by Gemma, so we put you forward just a few days ago"

"I already knew that"

"And we've already had some responses"

"Some?!"

"This is excellent Marie. We have three couples who are interested in fostering you"

Suddenly it hit me and became a whole lot more real. People actually want to foster me? No that can't be right.

"Have they seen my file?" I asked.

"Yes"

"So they know..everything?"

"Yes"

"And they're still interested?"

"Yes! Amazing isn't it?"

"Well, what now?"

"Well, I'll give you some information packs about the couples and the process of fostering" he said picking up three A4 white envelopes. "You can choose which couples you want to see and which you don't, and then we make contact and set the ball rolling"

He handed me the envelopes and I just sort of looked at them. This suddenly became more real. It's actually happening. When I agreed to fostering, I didn't think it would actually be happening. I just thought it would be nice to have the option.

And now, there are three couples wanting to meet me? I thought they said it was really unlikely that I got one? How come I suddenly have three wanting me? And how can I choose between them? What if I don't like any of them? What if I like all of the,? What if I like them but Ryan hates them? What if they hate Ryan?

"Are you ok?" Luke asked.

"I'm fine" I said, through no better words to describe it.

"Alright then. I'll leave that with you, take all the time you need. But hey, don't tell the others yeah? You know what will happen if they all know there are parents on the market"

I nodded and began to leave. This is all so overwhelming. I have three couples hanging in there and waiting to hear wether I want to meet them or not, based on these information packs? What information have they even given me?

It's like they have their own files. Except these are in envelopes. How do we know this is safe? For all we know these people could be axe murderers or something and be using a false name. And as soon as I go to meet them they kidnap me and take me far away where they brutally murder me, but they never find my body so nobody knows what happened and Luke has to live with the guilt and unknowing wether I'm alive or not.

"What are they?" I snapped out of my thoughts and realised I was standing outside our bedroom door. Ryan was just in the door of the room, dressed in his pyjamas with wet hair and a towel round his neck.

"Information packs"

"What?"

"They've already found me three sets of potential foster parents" I said.

"What?!"

"I know, what do I do?"

"That's not up to me..."

"Yes it is. I need you so help me"

"Okay okay calm down. Look, first things first, go get yourself in the shower. After, we can have a look through here and figure it all out. Alright?"

"Alright. Okay. I'm calm"

"Glad to hear it"

I put the information packs on my bed then took my towel through to the bathroom. I was in so much shock that I forgot about all the egg and flour that was all over me. In fact I forgot about our date day and all of the fun that we were having before. I bet the twins are down there now, enjoying a nice day and doing some baking with the ingredients that I walked through the rain to get. Ugh.

I stepped into the shower and washed everything off me. It's surprising how sticky egg is. I didn't expect it to be so difficult to get out of my hair. I was shampooing for probably the third time, when the fire alarm went off.

Are you actually kidding me? I waited a few seconds, but when I heard loads of footsteps and the alarm didn't stop, I knew we were evacuating which meant I had to leave.

I turned the shower off and quickly wrapped a towel round me. My hair still had foamy shampoo in it but I had no choice but to leave. I didn't even have any shoes or anything.

I was the last to leave the house and awkwardly went and stood with Ryan who was standing with everyone else on the driveway, looking at the building.

"Marie, you know you're naked right?"

"Yes I know and I'm freezing but I was still in the shower"

"I can tell"

"At least I'm covered" I said, holding tighter onto the towel I had round me. I swear if it suddenly gets windy then everyone is going to be in for a nasty surprise.

"Even so, let me stand in front of you. I don't want the others looking at you wearing only a towel"

"Thanks" I said as I stepped behind him so that none of the others could see me. It wasn't long before the fire alarm stopped and Luke explained that the twins had put the muffins on under the grill by mistake, and some of the muffin cases set on fire.

We grumpily walked back inside, Ryan still doing his best to cover me up. I made my way back to the shower and rinsed my hair again. I gave up. The egg was out but it was still a mess. But I just want to be dressed again.

The problem I have now is my towel is already quite wet from when I got out the first time so it took me ages to get myself dry. But when I finally had myself sorted, I got dressed into my night clothes and went back to our room.

Ryan was in there waiting for me, and when I came in he picked up the envelopes and handed them to me. I sat beside him and he wrapped his arm round me as I opened it. It took an awkwardly long time. You know when it doesn't all come off in one go and you rip the seal of the envelope like ten times while trying to get into it? Yeah that happened.

Inside was a few sheets of paper, the first of which had a photo paper clipped onto the front, of a woman with blonde hair and a guy with brown hair, standing together in front of a hedge. There was also a photo of a house with a small garden. Looked pretty average.

The paper went on to describe them. The woman apparently was a maths teacher and the man was self employed. They sound kind of boring. They think children should take on several extra curricular activities and have strict rules on tv time.

Yeah I don't think these guys are the ones. But I read the rest of the information about them any way. I had to give them a chance, even if I don't want to live with them, or even meet them.

_________________________________________________________________________________

A/N

So, I'm aware not everyone has seen the last few updates because I did those from my laptop, I'm going to do them on my iPad again from now on since it isn't working.

Also sorry this is short, I had a party yesterday and woke up ridiculously late today.

Anyway, hope you all had a great weekend x