Adopted by WhyDon'tWe - Grace

Chapter 7

The bell finally rung to end the school day. It had been a pretty good day, I got a chance to talk more with Cassie at lunch, and Laila and her friends didn't bother either of us at all today. Unfortunately, my luck was running out. I sat down on the wall and took out my book to wait for whoever was picking me up. Only to have it slapped out of my hands by none other than the devil herself, "Hi Laila." I mumbled picking my book up. "Whatcha reading Weirdo?" She asked, "The fifth Harry Potter book..." I muttered, "Oh, the one where he's an orphan?!" She mocked, "Just like you!" I shook my head, "No-" I tried to say, "Why'd your parents give you up freak? Didn't they love you? I forgot! No one does!" She teased, kicking me, I tried to hold back my tears as I fell. "Get off her!" I heard Zach yell, but Laila kept kicking me, "I SAID GET OFF HER, NOW!" He yelled again, Laila finally stopped and turned around, "It's none of your-" She said, but Zach's fuming face cut her off. He grabbed her arm, "Come on Grace, we are reporting this girl." He said walking into the schoolyard, "No, Zach, stop. She's right I am a freak!" I said getting up and trying to pull him back, I fell and curled into a ball, crying, "Cry-" Laila started, "Not. Another. Word." He growled, cutting her off. Zach helped me up, "Get out of here, and you'd better stop whatever you're doing to Grace. Because she now has five older brothers, and each will be angrier than me when they find out about this." Zach warned letting go of Laila's arm, she looked at him, terrified and ran off. I just fell into Zach who hugged me, "Shh, baby don't listen to her." He said rubbing my back, "She's right, no one loves me! Everyone just fakes it! Even Ma'am back at the orphanage faked it!" I sobbed, Zach picked me up and started walking. "You're wrong about that though. Jonah, Corbyn, Daniel and Jack love you." He said, "And I love you, so much." He whispered to me, "Me too." I said taking my face out of his shoulder. He smiled, "There you are!" He said wiping a stray tear off my cheek. "What is that girl's name?" Zach asked, "Laila. Laila Ineza." I said resting my head on his shoulder. "Does she bully anyone else?" He asked, "Mainly me and Cassie. Though I've seen her picking on other orphans like Emma and Emily, 5 year old twins, they're from a different orphanage so I don't know them well." I said, "Damn, this girl really hates orphans." Zach said, "That's the funny thing, Cassie got adopted by Logan Paul a week ago, Emma and Emily have been living with the Dobre brothers for about a month now. She still calls all of us orphans, weirdos, she called Cassie a 'Parent-less Freak' once." I explained, Zach gasped a little and we walked in silence the rest of the way home. He put me down at the door, "Do you have any homework? He asked, I nodded, "Go start it, if you need help come down and ask."

Zach's POV

I watched Grace walk upstairs and went into the living room. "Hey so I need to talk to you guys about something." I said as Jonah came in, "Hey, so the orphanage just c- oh sorry, you go first." He said sitting down, I shook my head gesturing for him to keep going. "So turns out that boy that was with Grace at the orphanage is really worried about her, like he isn't eating or sleeping properly. So the director asked me if he could stay with us for a day or two, just to prove Grace is ok so he'll start eating and sleeping again." Jonah explained, "I wanted to run it by you guys first." He said looking around, we all nodded, "Can't be too hard, he's probably a year or two younger than Zach." Daniel said, Jack and Corbyn nodded. "What did you want to say Zach?" Corbyn asked, "Oh, nothing I'll explain later..." I said getting up, "Hey Zach?" Jonah said as the others got up, I turned around, "Can you tell Grace?" He asked, I nodded heading upstairs. "Hi Zach." Grace said from her desk as I climbed up, "Hey, so I was just talking with the others and the orphanage called to say that your friend Noah isn't doing too well without you, so they asked for permission to send him here for a few days." I explained, she jumped up from her chair, "Really?!" She said practically radiating excitement, I nodded bracing for impact as she jumped and hugged me. "Relax-" I started saying but Grace cut me off, "Relax?! Noah's coming!" She beamed, I smiled and nodded. I watched her bounce around the room for a little and climbed down.