The Story of Ava

Chapter 5

After dinner, the siblings headed back upstairs and Luke lead Ava to his room. He wanted to get to know the girl, especially if she's gonna be his sister, even if it is short term. Luke honestly didn't know much about the foster care stuff or what it all even meant to him, but he did know that this girl was special, especially with how his mom had talked about her. Ava sat on the boy's bed, both legs dangled over the side; her hands under her knees, her eyes looking around the boy's room. She was nervous.

"So, what are some things you like to do?" Luke asked as he fiddled with a string from his ragged shirt. His tall figure sitting up on his bed, one leg under the other and the other swinging off the side of the bed, facing the girl.

"Well, I like to dance and sing. And sometimes to relieve stress, I shoot some hoops," she responded, her eyes now staring at her lap.

Luke perked up when he heard those words. "You play ball?" Ava now noticed all the little basketball things around the boy's room, other than the main fact she already knew; he played for the team at school and he was good.

"Uh, yeah a little bit," she resisted the urge to smile upon seeing the photo of him in his jersey framed on his desk.

"Well, maybe we can play sometime together, ya know a little bonding, get to know each other a little bit better," he smiled and nudged her slightly. He was careful not to throw her off or scare her.

She half smiled, "Yeah, maybe so. Tell me something about you." She could already tell Luke seemed like a great guy and brother, but she always had to ask a few things of her own before staying quiet and observing. It was the best way to get to know a person.

"Um, well, not much to know. I live, eat, sleep, and breath sports," he chuckled. 'Well, that's disappointing,' Ava thought. As she was trying to come up with another question for him, he had asked her one first. "What is life like in foster care?" You could hear his curiosity.

"It's hell to say the least." She couldn't come up with anything else and she wasn't lying.

"What's the worst thing that's ever happened to you in foster care?" he watched her face to gage a reaction and quickly realized how rude that question could have been, but refused 'take it back'.

Ava seemed taken aback. She knew the worst part of her life had happened only a few short months ago, but she never really told anyone about it. No one ever really asks about her past, other than necessary people, like Sandy. She licked her lips and shook her leg nervously. "The worst?" she hesitated and studdered out. "Well, there was that one time," she paused and let her eyes land on her lap again before biting at her lip.

The boy leaned closer, squinting curiously. "The one time that what?" he was intrigued, mainly because he noticed he hit a nerve, but that had worried him at the same time. He felt the sudden urge to protect her from whatever it was that had happened and he was afraid it was so bad, even he couldn't save her from it.

"Nothing, can we just um, I dunno, play some video games?" she quickly got up and wandered to his xbox and looked over his stack of games.

Luke squinted and watched her. 'Whatever it was, definitely wasn't good if she refuses to even talk about it,' he thought. "You sure you don't wanna talk about it? I'm sure it'd help ease your mind about being here if you talked about it." He was only trying to be supportive.

"Nope, it's fine," she responded quicker than he could finish talking. She pulled out one of his many basketball games and held it up. "Wanna play?"

Luke felt defeated, but wasn't gonna ask again. He was sure at some point it would come up in conversation. He sighed and set up the system for them to play, giving her a controller and sitting by his bed, teaching her how to play, which buttons went with which action.

Soon enough, Jennifer had knocked and popped her head in and smiled at them. "Sandy's headed home." Luke paused the game as Ava had gotten up to go to the hall and hug her goodbye. She ended up walking her to the car. Luke noticed she still seemed a little uneasy about being there. He was worried about her to say the least, but he wasn't about to show that. He was an athlete, athletes don't worry, right? "I like to see you two getting along," Jennifer smiled at her son.

He didn't exactly know what to say so he just nodded, "Yeah, she's cool." Then he proceeded to ask his mother about something to do with his game next week, a completely unrelated, unnecessary question, that he probably already knew the answer to.

Ava finally came back and sat back down, grabbing the remote, ready to continue playing. "Don't stay up too late, I'm headed to bed soon myself."

"Yes, mom," Luke rolled his eyes, unpausing the game. Ava just let out a soft giggle from his eye roll. Jennifer just smiled and shut the door back. The second he knew she was gone, Luke paused the game again and looked at his sister.

She huffed and looked at him, "I was about to shoot!"

"I just wanna know what's making you so uneasy about being here," he had this blank expression. Once again, didn't mean for it to come out rude, but it just kinda did.

"I'm not?" Ava questioned.

"I beg to differ. Did something happen? Someone do something to you?"

"Okay, Mr. 21 Questions. Why do you care? How long do you think I'll even be here for?" At this point, the two were having a squinting match at each other and no words were thrown. None really needed to be. Their facial expressions said it all. She finally ended this match with a soft smirk and reaching over to unpause the game on his controller and making a shot that won the game. "Ha! I win!" Luke just rolled his eyes. He let her win anyway. He was more concerned about her and trying to figure her out. Such mystery.

Ava let out a yawn and gave Luke a soft hug. "Must be bed time," she smiled in the hug. "Goodnight."

"Rematch tomorrow," he smirked, trying to act competitive or act like he even cared.

"You're on!" She left his room, smiling before she shut the door to her own room. The second it was shut, her face fell and she laid her head down on the door and took a deep breath. She collected her breath and changed her clothes and crawled into bed. She couldn't sleep right away. New home, new room, new siblings, still hasn't met her sister, new everything. Her thoughts were spinning, but the only thing that she kept coming back to was how involved in her life Luke had gotten already. She wanted to know what his deal was and why he was prying. He was on to her. She refused to let herself tell anyone anything until she knew this home was more long term, but she did somehow feel draw to tell Luke. Something just kept telling her that she should open up to him. Behind closed doors though, with no parentals around. 'I have to tell him something to shut him up,' was the last thing that ran through her mind before she finally fell asleep in this new home and new bed.