A Father's Love

Ch.1- One of Those Days

Poppy's POV

My heart quarrelled with my head, the fear of him. The fear of it. It seemed impossible. To leave, to change to dare to move from the rat infested swallow. The cries of the new born baby brother with the same swipe of dark brown hair as him the same gentle hush of red tinge on his sunken cheeks. He promised me the world; all the ponies, all the dresses, and prince charming's and castles in the world. Yet I had nothing, at all in fact rather quite the opposite I'd had the punches, the kicks, the bruises and the scars emblazed in both my heart and mind for an eternity.

He promised it all. And he destroyed it.

I rolled over lazily, my ribs still giving the same crunch and turned off my alarm. I stared up at the white ceiling, letting my permanently exhausted body just rest for a moment, to let everything settle before bracing the day. Sunday. I hated Sundays not only because they are a day when no one washes and sits in their dressing gowns but its actually a day where everyone at Oak Tree House must dress up and politely smile and converse with "potential parents". Fun, right? It's basically where people, who want to adopt get matched with kids and are then introduced. Some ending up in successful adoptions and others ending in disaster. For me and my little five-year-old brother these nearly always ended in disaster, the others; a mutual agreement not to see each other again. I got ready for the day early, to avoid the mornings round of screaming and arguing from the younger kids. I was the second oldest here, apart from Stephanie who is essentially count Drac in lipstick. My brother, on the other hand, with his chubby cheeks and an absolutely "adorable" laugh he could be adopted in a heartbeat. Then, there's me good old Poppy, standard brown hair, standard brown eyes and acne covered skin that quite frankly I can never be bothered to cover with makeup. I troop down the stairs in the marching routine as I have every morning; down the stairs, breakfast, back up the stairs.

"Morning," our lead care worker Jenny chirped, she was one of those glass always half full types, from one corner of the kitchen. I mumbled a reply before getting some cereal. I hardly eat any of it, I don't know why but I can't stomach anything in this place, its like a constant pressure on my stomach. I'm just not hungry, like ever. Two small feet were now bounding down the stairs, I turned myself round. It was Louis, my little brother. He was positively beaming and running towards me. I smiled a little and scooped him up, tickling him a little for good measure. I made him some breakfast before being reminded about the potential parent meeting today.

"Just give it a chance," Jenny persisted, she was exasperated by me but I think she felt a little sorry for me too. It was hardly like I was any trouble. I kept my head down, did what needed to be done. A good kid. I rolled my eyes before heading upstairs. I felt my right shoulder bump into something.

"Watch it, Clarkson," I looked up only to be greeted by Stephanie who was covered in her usual dark makeup. I kept my gaze to the floor, but smirked a little.

"Excuse me, your majesty," I smirked under my breath, with a slight edge to it. Sarcasm, humour, it was my only release well, that and well, music.

"I heard that Clarkson," she shouted back, I jogged the rest of the way to my room with a sly smile on my face. Oh, yeah, its going to be one of those days then.