Adopted by Stromae

sept

"Do I really have to go?" Maelle asked, picking at her fingernails while she waited for the bus to arrive.

Coralie shot her a sympathetic glance, "Sorry, but you do," She told Maelle.

"What do I have to do to not go?" She asked, using a tactic that always used to work on her father. He would take her up on that offer every now and then to make me do things she never usually would around the house. That way, she felt like she had gotten a break, but, in reality, she had done more than she ever would have done at school.

Sadly, Paul and Coralie did not share the same mindset as her father.

Paul checked his watch as he walked down the stairs, "The bus should arrive any minute. Are you sure you have everything you need?"

"A will to live would be nice to have," Maelle muttered, low enough for them to be oblivious to her comment.

"There it is!" Coralie exclaimed, seeing the big yellow vehicle from the large window facing the street, "Come on, Maelle, you can't be late on your first day!"

"It's not my first day," She told them, "I just took some time off. I've been going to this school for years,"

"Well, whatever it is, you can't be late!" She opened the front door for Maelle to pass through, to which the teenager rolled her eyes.

"I can open a door by myself," She muttered, huffing under her breath.

Maelle embarked on the bus, prepared for another day at the hell they call 'school'.

+

Maelle stood at her assigned locker, collecting her long-abandoned textbooks with a sense of nostalgia.

Last time she was there, at school, at her locker, her life had been a dream come true. She had a mother awaiting her arrival at home, as well as a father who wad certainly not a drug addict, but a loving, gentle man. Now, she had nothing.

All she wanted was to be able to go back to those days, where she had everything. She would do anything to be able to go back for a day.

Still, she knew that was impossible. Her mother would have to remain in her dreams and memories until they could meet again. Her old life, a distant reality.

This was her new reality. Her foster parents were her new reality. Enduring a gruelling day at school only to go home and find that her mother isn't there, preparing dinner in the small kitchen. Her father wouldn't come home, give her and her mother a kiss on the cheek and sit down at the table. Instead, he was in a drug rehabilitation, with visits from a mystery woman that could possibly become her new mother. Her replacement mother.

She had been awaiting her father's release from his prison, but now she wasn't so sure. She didn't know if she wanted to face all of their problems, along with the woman that knew him well enough to visit him in rehab.

"I feel bad, you know," She heard somebody say from the other side of the hallways, "I mean, first her mother dies, then her father goes off the rails? I couldn't handle it,"

"Well, who knows how she is. Maybe she's handling it the same way her father did," Another responded, making Maelle clench her jaw.

Everyone laughed in response. Maelle knew she should've anticipated this, but she assumed people would respect her enough not to discuss it right in front of her. Apparently, she overestimated teenagers.

Calmly, she walked away. She had enough things on her plate, not needing to start another round of gossip on top of that.

+

"Please tell me this is Physics," A voice beside Maelle pleaded, "I've already gone to the wrong classroom twice,"

Maelle laughed slightly, then looked up at the girl next to her, "This is Physics. Are you new?"

The girl laughed, "Why on earth would you think that?"

"You can sit here. I don't usually like people, but I like you," Maelle told her, smiling.

"I'm Kaydence. Kaydence Blanche," She said, sticking out her hand for Maelle to shake.

"Maelle Vaillancourt," Maelle said with a laugh, "where are you from?"

"A small town in Ontario, about an hour from Ottawa. You probably don't know it," Kaydence told her, smiling.

"Quiet down, please," The teacher asked politely, but still, everybody listened to her, "I'm going to do attendance quickly and then we can get down to business, okay?"

Everyone nodded. She went over the list, seeing Kaydence's name, acknowledging that she was new and greeting her nicely.

"Maelle Vaillancourt?" She asked, to which Maelle raised her hand, "It's great to have you back," She said, smiling.

"Back from where?" Kaydence whispered to Maelle.

"Sometimes you have to take a break," Maelle sighed. She had hoped to have a clean slate with the new girl, but it seemed that even that was too much to ask.

If this new reality meant that she could never have a normal life without people feeling sorry for her all the time, she was going to go down kicking and screaming protesting just that.

+

a/n: heyyyy sorry this is so short, i didn't want to draw the end out. welcome to the seventh chapter we've written in the past day and a half!!

- ur fave writer (danz)