8/15/XX
Scanning the cities buildings was fun. The towering buildings, hotels, tourist attractions, and everything else. It all gave me a sense of happiness. The only thing that didn't scream happiness, were the people inside the car. My aunt Karen, my cousin Jake, and my little brother Alexander. We sat in the car, driving home. Alexander kept his head down, trying not to attract attention, his black hood covering his face. "So, how has your week been?" Karen asked, in some awkward attempt to talk to us.
"How do you THINK it's been Karen? Some garbage children going into their aunts house after being taken out of yet another foster house!" Alexander yelled, obviously angry that she would have asked.
"It's okay Alex, I think she just wanted to get a conversation in," I calmly stated, trying to get Alex to a more peaceful state.
"Whatever, it's not like I asked to live with you!" he yelled.
We all gave up on trying to calm him down at that point. It would have been useless. So Jake changed the topic, "You guys will be going to school with me. Check in is tomorrow, aka getting your uniform, learning about the school, getting lockers, getting your schedule, and trying to find new friends!" I heard Alex scoff at the last part.
We continued in a silence that chilled my spine, it was extremely awkward from what Alex had said earlier. Nobody wanted to talk, so Karen just turned up the radio. Alex put on his headphones and listened to some music. All this making the atmosphere a little more tense.
Eventually the car pulled to a stop. "Welcome home kids!" Karen shouted, grabbing her purse and practically bursting out the door of the car. The rest of us followed her, going to the front door of the giant building. It was two stories tall, but it seemed to have a basement too. There were plenty of windows, too many for me to count currently. Alex also looked in awe of the house. "Why couldn't we have lived here before?" I asked.
"Because Uncle Jason is a jerk," Alex replied.
"Hey, that's my dad you're talking about!" Jake laughed, holding the door open for us.
We looked around the house, the large stairs by the hall told me that it was larger inside than outside. It was quite obvious from the look of this place, that they were pretty wealthy.
"So you have money for this but didn't for us?" Alex asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Alex you know it's no-" Karen began, before Alex cut her off.
"Just make sure you drive us there tomorrow after check in!" Alex cut in.
"I'll show you guys to your rooms," Jake murmured, trying to keep Alex calm.
We made our way up the stairs, getting to the second floor. "So, we have a normal bedroom and the attic. You two can decide who gets where, all the boxes are in the attic," Jake smiled, stopping by a closet door.
"I'll take the attic," Alex whispered.
"Great," Jake started, opening the closet door, "it's right up here!"
The door showed another staircase, one that Alex was willing to climb. When we got to the top of the stairs, we scanned the room. We saw the boxes in the middle of the floor, which sadly weren't many. The room was dusty, obviously hadn't been used, was covered in cobwebs, some of the wood was wet, it wasn't painted, and you could see the creases in the floor and walls. It was going to need lots of work, but with the schedule of life Alex has, it wouldn't take to long. "I'll get my boxes out of here," I said, looking for the boxes with the words "Austin Kade" on them. I seperated my boxes from Alex's, then started carrying them down to the room that Jake said would be mine. It was almost as big as the attic, it already had a dresser and a bet all set up. It had a walk in closet which would be a great changing space. I started opening up some packages to unpack, which wouldn't take too long.
While folding up my clothes and putting them away, I heard a knock on my wall. I looked up to see none other than Alexander leaning against the doorway. "Yo, Austin..." he said, looking to the floor.
"What's wrong Alex?" I asked him, worried about what was in his mind.
"Today is the day that Shadow stopped talking to me. Tomorrow is the anniversary of what happened. It's still hard to take in," he started, a few tears spilling onto my floor, "but I hope that they're nice to us. Jake has always been nice. I want uncle Jason to make a change!"
It was obvious that he was bothered. Possibly by something more than what he described. "Jake hasn't always liked me. The thing we most have in common is that we both love you," I smiled, walking over to my crying brother. I messed up his hair with my knuckles. "Uncle Jason is a great congressman. I think he will do great," I whispered, walking back up to his room to get my final box.
* * *
It took about an hour but my room was finally set up. I had posters of video games over my dresser. I had a desk for doing homework, I had pictures lined on the dresser, a nice green rug on the hardwood floor of my room, and my bed was a nice white wood with grassy green bed sheets. I sat down in my rolling chair, leaning back and staring at the white ceiling. The paint like ice hanging from a roof. I slowly looked to my right, seeing the photos on my dresser. A photo of my mom, dad, brother, and myself. It was during Alex's fifth birthday. That was a great day. Our neighbors came over. There were three kids in our neighborhood that were Alex's age. Alex and two others. They were very close but honestly I forgot their names.
The picture next to that were the friends I had in the last home. We thought that would be where we would live forever, but it wasn't. Some kids that already lived there were disgusted by Alex's eye and we ended up having to leave.
I got up from my chair and walked to the dresser, picking up the picture of my family. The small wooden frame was slightly cracked in the bottom right corner from the time Alex dropped it while packing. I stood there for a couple minutes before realising there was a puddle of water by my feet. I looked down at it, then wiped my eyes. I had been crying, how long, why?
I put the photo back and sat at my desk, thinking about my friends, the days with my family, and generally what I wish my life was like at the moment.
