My Life with O2L

Chapter 2

I get out of bed and put on a pair of torn jeans, a T-shirt my converse, and a hoodie. I tie my hair back and leave my room. The "older kids" (13+) share a community kitchen/living room. I go into the kitchen and pull out a coke. I hop on the counter, and start drinking. My phone beeps. Facebook. Ugh. I check it. One of the two eighteen year olds here posted on my page:

"Bet you won't get adopted today. How about you go kill yourself? You're no use anyway. Nobody will miss you."

I roll my eyes. I'm used to this stuff. It has thirteen likes in two minutes. All I can do is shake my head. I check the time. 2:10. The others should be back any minute now. Suddenly, I hear Mrs. Johnson, the headmistress, saying, " Right this way. You can wait in their living space. They'll be home any minute now."

Ugh. They're early. I hate the early people. Not enough time to hide. I hop off the counter, and round the corner to the hallway my room is on. When I do, I collide with someone. I keep my head down and mumble a quick "sorry". Then I walk off.

Behind me I hear Mrs. Johnson call to me, "Alexandria, the adoption starts at 2:30!"

I ignore her and go straight to my room. My phone starts beeping. I look at it. All facebook notifications. People liking and commenting on the post. I tell myself it doesn't, shouldn't, bother me. But it does. I set my coke down and pull one of my blades. I walk into the bathroom and hold my arm out over the sink. I pull up the jacket sleeve, and slowly start making cuts. The pain feels so good. There are 32 likes on the post, and when I finish there are a matching number of cuts on my arm. The blade falls out of my hands. There are tears falling down my face. After a few minutes, I've calmed down enough to clean up. I clean the cuts first and wrap them. Then I clean the sink and wash my face. When I'm finished, you can't even tell what I was doing. Walking out of my bathroom, I put the blade back. Picking up my phone, I clear all the notifications.

I play two rounds of candy crush, and I hear a knock on my door. I check the time. It's 2:35. I shake my head. It's probably just Mrs. Johnson coming to remind me about the adoption. I answer the door, and sure enough, there she is. But she's not alone.

"Alexandria, these gentlemen would like to speak to you."

Behind her there are five boys roughly between the ages of sixteen and twenty-two.

I blink, unsure if this is a joke. "Sure?" I say, in a questioning tone.

I grab my phone and coke then follow them out to the living room. It's empty. I sit in the armchair, across from the sofa where the guys sit.

"Let me know when you're done." Mrs.Johnson says. "I'll be right in the hall."

"Okay, thanks." One of the guys says smiling. Then Mrs.Johnson disappears.

Next thing I know, they're all staring at me. One of them clears their throats and speaks up. "Hey, Alexandraia-"

"Alex" I say interrupting him.

"Um, hey Alex. My names JC."

Everyone goes around introducing themselves. JC, Ricky, Kian, Trevor, and Sam.

"We're thinking about adopting you." JC continues.

"Okay," I say, nodding my head."But before you start asking any questions, I have some of my own."

They exchange nervous glances. "Okay, shoot." Ricky says.

"One: Why me?"

"You're older, so it'll be easier to take care of you." Kian responds.

"Two: Who is going to be my 'father'?" I make air quotes around father.

"Me." JC said.

"Three: How old are you guys?"

"Well, I'm 18," Sam says. "Ricky is 22 and so is JC. Trevor is 15 and Kian is 19."

"Four: Are you guys gay?"

They stay quiet. Finally Trevor says,"No we are not gay."

They look kinda irritated about that last question, but oh well. Five guys adopting a child? Seemed almost like it.

I fold my arms across my chest and lean back. "That's it?" JC asks. I nod.

"Okay, let's get started, shall we?" He asks, grinning and looking at the other boys. I nod again and think to myself, "Bring it on".