Alone With Ross

•2•

August 15th 2011

The bell rung for our passing period. Students were getting up and shuffling towards the door. I got up and yanked my bag off the floor. I was making my way towards my locker but got stopped by my friend Rider.

"You wanna come with me and the guys to the hangout?" I rolled my eyes monetarily and turned to face him.

"Look I'm already a week behind in history because I ditched with you guys last time." He put his hand on my shoulder and trailed down to my hand.

"come on Cass, you seem stressed. Wanna blow off steam?" I looked at him for awhile. I sighed giving in, letting him lead me out the doors. The Hangout is just an area by the stadiums. We approached the rest of the guys. I plop down on the ground as we sit in a tight circle. Rider reaches in his pants and pulls out a baggie of green. He hands it to a guy named Thomas to prepare it. He rolled the blunt with skilled hands and handed it back to Rider. Rider didn't waste anytime with lighting it and taking a drag. He exhaled with a smug smile.

So we sat there for awhile passing the joint, making stupid conversations off of our high. As I passed the blunt back to Rider one of the guys speaks up.

"Have you ever tried this shit?" I look over to see he has a needle in his hand.

"Woah, dude is that heroin?" I start to feel uneasy about how Rider grabs the needle with ease and holds it to his forearm, I start to panic.

"D-don't, that shit can ruin your life." I attempt to grab the needle but he yanks it away.

"Back off, maybe I want to ruin my life." He injects it into his arm as I flinch when he takes a sharp in take of breath.

"What are you people doing out here!" The vice principle and a security guard come running towards us. Me and the guys get up and start running, but I tripped causing my leg to get stabbed by the needle Rider dropped on the ground. I yelp as I feel the burning sensation in my leg.

"I blacked out and woke up in the hospital with the lovely news that I got expelled and charges for drugs, and my aunt kicking me out and shipping me over here to bumpy roads." Ross looks at me for awhile with his head cocked to the side.

"Did you like the heroin?" I stared at him with my jaw dropped. It was silent for 2 minutes before he started laughing.

"Douche, you can't just ask somebody if they enjoyed taking a drug by accident.." Ross stopped laughing and asked me another question.

"Well, what did it feel like?" I looked down at my hands as I was trying to remember what I felt in those two minutes.

" It was burning at first, then I got chills and adrenaline, but I also felt tired because of the large amount that was injected in me." Ross nodded his head a bit. There was a knock on the door making my head snap up. The little girl is there.

"Mama Vi said we have introduction ceremony." Ross smiled widely as I raised my brow.

"Oh you're gonna love this." Ross grabs my hand... AGAIN. Making me flinch... AGAIN. He runs down the stairs with me in tow. He leads me into a sitting room with lots of random chairs or bean bags. One of the chairs is a throne. Ross leads me over to it and pushes me on it lightly. Then he takes the tall stool right next to it. He pulls something out behind him, to reveal a rams horn. He blows in it making an awful noise.

I freeze when I hear rumbling throughout the house. People start filing into the room plopping into random seats. I guess I was making a funny expression because Ross started laughing. Mama Vi takes the other seat by me and holds up her hand signaling everyone to be quiet.

"Ross do the honors would ya?" Ross nods his head standing up and going into the center of the room.

"Now Bumpy Roads residents, what is one reason why all of us are here?" A couple people raised their hands, but Ross ignored them and gestured to me to answer. "Caspian, could you please enlighten everyone else about our conversation we had earlier?" I blush a little and look back at Ross.

"I said that I was here because I'm a fuck up?" It came out like a question. Ross nodded his head then turned to the rest of the teens.

" Now that is what you think when you cross that threshold. But the main reason why we are all here, is for opportunity. This place is our chance to make something of yourselves, its your chance to show the people or person who dumped you here that you can make it, all we needed was the help from somebody who actually cares enough to help us get on the right path, to get us to a future we would have never dreamed of." Ross turns back to look at me gesturing me to come next to him, so I stood and walked over to the middle of the room by Ross.

"This is Caspian. She may be a fuck up now, but who knows. when she leaves this house she might be a doctor, or something successful, because we will all help her through her long stay. Right!" Its quiet. "I said Right!" everybody woke up and responded.

"Right!" Ross nodded his head and grabbed my hand leading me back to my seat.

"Floors all yours Vi." Mama Vi stood shaking her head slightly.

"We could use no profanity next time." Ross shrugs his shoulders and looks down at our still joined hands. I thought he was going to take it away, but he just sat in his seat taking my hand with him. So I'm sitting with my hand kinda raised because his chair is like a bar stool.

"So as you guys know that is Caspian, now time for introduction. Remember name, age, hobby and favorite color." She gestures to a girl to start off.

Soon almost everyone went and it was now Ross' turn.

"My name is Ross Lynch and I have been here ever since I was 12 I'm 15 and my hobby is to annoy the heck out of my new roommates." He turns to wink at me. "My absolute favorite color is yellow." He plops down in his seat. I stood and glanced at everyone.

"My name is Caspian Graber, but I like to be called Cass. I turned 15 last month. My hobby is to write poetry and my favorite color is white." I sit down lamely. Ross looks at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Okay then... Dinner is at six so you may do as you please till then." Everybody starts getting up and heading towards their areas. I sit there watching them leave.

So there is Alex who likes the color blue. Danny who likes photography. Shelby who is 17. Martin who likes boxing. Rhonda who likes to put spikes on everything. Gabe who loves to play video games. Janet dances. Zac cooks. Piper likes to garden. Naomi who paints and Ross wants to annoy me.

Its an outstanding total of 6 girls including me and 5 boys. The girls rooms are downstairs while the boys is upstairs. Its a lot to take in.

When I go back upstairs to mine and Ross' room, Ross is nowhere to be seen. I sigh and jump onto my new bed and let out a groan. Reaching under my bed to pull out my journal. Its black with these words I've written on it a thousand times. It says:

You have to.

It just something a put in every little entry in here, like You have to keep trying or You have to make it out. It may be cheesy to other people, but this journal helped me keep my sanity.

Within the white walls and the wood floors, I know this house will never be home to me. Its already hard to keep up with the adolescent and the new way of things. This isn't like my aunts house. I just can't go down stairs and raid the cabinets for food, there are times for eating, times for cleaning and times for learning. I'm just going to endure whatever comes my way. ~C.L.G~