She

The Beginning

This is when Cameron meets the LeBlancs and gets adopted. A few years before the other events.

Thursday morning arrived with the sound of birds and warm rays of sunlight. The prospect of Visiting Day seemed to wake the kids that occupied the building quickly as they all came down for breakfast moments after they woke up. Most of them weren't dressed and ate fast to make sure they had enough time before the doors opened at 10:00. The minutes ticked by until 10:00 arrived and they all found something to do while people came and went throughout the day. A family came in with two girls and walked around the room where everyone was located. One of the workers named Sara walked up the the parents and started talking. "That over there is Ashley." She said pointing to one of the girls talking to her younger daughter. Ashley looked a year or two olde than the girl and had bright blond hair. The parents nodded and continued to look around. "That over there is Sammy.....that's Oliver..." she named a number of people that were around the room where they were standing. "Ah, I see your eldest found Spira." They looked over to where their daughter was talking with a girl that had black hair that was back in a pony tail. A boy that was a few years older than Spira, and shared her hair, came and wrapped his arm around her. "That's Asher, her older brother." Their daughter turned away from them and walked towards her parents with a pained look in her eyes. "I'm going to go outside for a minute." She said. The parents nodded and she left. As they continued talking a girl in the corner caught their eye. She was focused on the laptop she was working on and payed little attention to the people running around her. "Who's that?" The woman asked. Sara looked over. "That Cameron." Cameron pushed her brown hair away from her face and looked up at a young girl who approached her. The young girl started moving her hands and Cameron made motions back. "Is she deaf?" "Cameron? No. The other girl is. Cameron just knows ASL." The little girl walked away and Cameron watched her go. She closed her laptop and stood up. She headed towards the door and Sara caught her eye. "It's too loud." She said simply before leaving. "To loud?" The man asked. "Oh, she's doing online school. Everyone here does but she's one of the few with a laptop." "Why's that?" "Well we have a computer lab that everyone usually shared but she spends more time doing it than the others. She's going to finish this year before anyone else." "What grade?" "7th." "Hmm." "She's different." "How so?" "She's up the earliest and stays up the latest. She's up at 5 and rarely climbs the stairs before 10. 17 hours. 7 spend doing school and 10 doing everything else." "Wow." "Yeah, anyway....."
            Cameron left the room laptop under her arm. The noise was muffled at the door closed behind her. She walked through a door to the backyard and heard a quiet sob. Cameron stopped and put her laptop on a nearby table. Slowly she crept through the yard toward the bunch of trees where the sound was coming from. Sitting under one of the oak trees was the older girl that had walked in with the family that caught her eye. Her head was in her hands and her body shook with her sobs. Slowly Cameron walked around the tree. "Are you okay?" She asked softly. The girl jumped and looked up. Tears left trails on her cheeks as they fell. She seemed about to nod when she shook her head no. Cameron sat down and touched her knee. "What's wrong?" The girl took a shuttering breath and closed her eyes for a moment. "Two years ago I lost my older brother. His name was Caleb. He died in his sleep." She said as a sob escaped her mouth. "I saw a girl and her brother and it reminded me of him." She stuttered our. "I... I'm so sorry." Cameron whispered. She reached out and the girl let Cameron hug her. She let her body wrap around the girl in a protective hug. The girl let her tears fall freely and soaked Cameron's shirt. Finally, the girl let out a final sob and sighed. Still clinging to Cameron she relaxed. Cameron smiled and rested her cheek against the girl's head. A few minutes passed before the girl pulled away and wiped away the stray tears that clung to her cheeks. "Sorry." She murmured. "It's fine." Cameron assured. "Last year my parents died in a car accident, two years before that my older brother died in Iraq." Cameron pulled the dog tags out of her shirt and showed them to the girl. "I'm Cameron by the way." "Annie." She replied giving her a small smile that Cameron returned. "I'll be right back." Cameron stood and went back to get her laptop. She sat on the ground next to Annie and started doing school again. While she worked her and Annie talked about everything from their favorite color to what they would do if they could do anything they wanted. Soon they were both laughing and smiling forgetting what Cameron first walked out to. Cameron finished school for the day and Annie and her started doing gymnastics. "You say you've never spent a day in a gym." Annie was saying. "Never." Cameron replied after doing a back handspring. "I still don't believe you." Cameron laughed. "I have never been in a gym, but I've learned to try until I can." "You taught yourself?" "Yep. I did it on my own time when I lived with my parents." "You're a natural." "Thanks." They looked around as the sun started to sink below the trees. "We should get inside." Cameron said. "Yeah." Cameron and Annie grabbed their things and went inside. Once back in the main room they found Annie's parents and they told Annie it was time to go. Cameron watched Annie walk out the door and waved her goodbye. Sara came and joined Cameron at the door and followed her gaze to the black car that was leaving the lot. "Don't loose hope yet." She said before walking away. Cameron turned and watched Sara walk away. She headed back up the stairs and turned on her laptop again. She turned on some music and began to let her fingers write a story. She wrote and wrote with her mind only on what had happened earlier that day. Her bright eyes shone as the sunset cast a golden glow around the room. The dinner bell rang through the building and Cameron stood to leave. She went down and ate while her mind wandered. She thought back to what Annie had said about her brother and the look of love she had when she talked about him. She thought of the pain that shone in her eyes as she cried and how the light returned to them after she was done crying and they were laughing together. She headed to bed with a smile on her face. Something that was rare since she arrived. The sun had just reached a finger through her blinds as Cameron opened her eyes. She got up and started to get ready. She looked into the mirror and examined her face. She lingered on her green eyes and smiled while she finished getting ready she put her hair in a braid and went down for a secluded breakfast before she started school early. She grabbed her knapsack with her computer, phone, speaker and camera in it. She went into the backyard where nestled in the oak trees there was a treehouse that she constantly took refuge in. She climbed to the top and pulled out her things. As the sun bathed everything in fire she took pictures of the fields surrounding her current home. She captured the cotton candy clouds and fiery field. She had caught a fragment of time that she knew would never repeat in the same way. She gazed at the picture for a few moments before a tear fell. She had learned to capture these moments with her dad who saw the world like she did. She remembered all those days they got up before the sun so they could capture the perfect sunrise. Or the countless night they had stayed awake to capture the twinkling stars as they blinked in the dark. As the fire started to leave her surroundings she turned on her laptop to start her last day of school. The day drifted by and she finished at the same time she always did. The gravel in front of the orphanage crunched as cars came and went with the passing hours. "Cam!!" Cameron looked towards the door where Sara stood beckoning to her. She quickly grabbed her things and met Sara at the door. "Yeah?" She asked. "They're back." Sara started, "and they want to see you." "Me." Cameron asked in disbelief. "You." A smile sprouted on Cameron's lips as she slipped inside toward the meeting rooms. Sara pointed to the first room and she slipped in to see Annie and her family along with Rachel, the woman who ran the orphanage. "Sit down please Cameron." Hesitantly Cameron grabbed a chair and pulled it over so she could sit down. "Cameron, this family thinks they want to adopt you. Are you okay with that?" Cameron stared in disbelief at the family that could soon become hers. She looked at Annie sitting with a hopeful smile on her face. The two parents that had soft eyes and the young girl that looked giddy with excitement. "That would be great." Cameron finally said. Annie's smile grew wider. "Great." Rachel said. "Well, in a few days you'll be going home with them. I'd start packing if I were you." "Of course." Cameron said. She grabbed Annie and her sister's hands. "You'll help right?" They both nodded and they headed out of the room towards Cameron's room. Once inside the room Cameron asked Haley, Annie's sister, to start putting her clothes in her suitcase while Annie helped her grab everything else she owned and put in a duffle bag. It took them a while but when hey were finished the room was bare except for the bed and nightstand. Cameron left her book and computer out and headed back downstairs with the sisters. Her soon-to-be mom, Katy, gave her a warm smile as they entered back into the office. After checking in and talking with them for a while, Annie, Hayley and I went out back so the adults could do the paperwork that needed to be done. The group of three dances around and played as the sun sank lower in the sky. After a few hours the family left, promising to return as soon as the legal paperwork went through.
A few days passed when Sara slid into the seat next to Cam while she was eating her usual early breakfast. "The paperwork when through!" She said happily. Cameron smiled wide and gave her a hug. As the sky brightened Cameron could not sit still as she waited for her new family to arrive to take her home. Around 3 in the afternoon the gravel out front crunched under the wheels of a large vehicle. Cameron had been laying on the floor of the treehouse when she heard it. She sat upright and quickly climbed down the ladder as Sara opened the door to the backyard and smiled at her. Cameron slipped passed her with the largest smile on her face and went to the front entrance where the LeBlancs were waiting. She said a quick hello before disappearing up the stairs towards the dorms. She set her suitcase at the top of the stairs as she slung her duffel bag over her shoulder. She was about to go down the stairs when she paused and turned. She headed down the hall passed her room before softly knocking on a door and opening it. Sitting on the floor playing with a stuffed elephant was a little girl. She was younger than Hayley and smiled when she saw Cameron. There was another girl in the room that looked up when Cameron knocked before walking passed her and heading the way Cameron and come. "You're going." The little girl signed as Cameron stooped in front of her. "Yes." Cameron replied. The girl flung herself into Cameron's arms and gave her a hug. After a moment she pulled back and Cameron wiped a tear from her cheek. "I will miss you." The girl signed. "And I, you." Cameron replied looking towards the door when she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. She looked back at the girl and smiled softly. "You are going to find the best family ever. And they will love you so much!" The girl nodded and gave Cameron another hug before she pointed to the door and signed one last thing. "Go home." The meaning behind it was more than it looked. Cameron smiled again and turned towards the door, glancing back before she headed down the hall and grabbed her suitcase on the way down the stairs. Annie and Hayley helped her put her things in the car before Cameron headed back inside and said goodbye to Sara and Rachel. Then she turned to Katy. "You ready to go home?" Katy asked. Cameron nodded. "I've been ready for a long time."