The Care System

Chapter Two

"I'm Faith," the girl said as she jumped the last step.

"Hello. I'm Alice." Alice offered her hand out to the girl, who rolled her eyes. After a few seconds Alice let her hand fall back to her side and waited patiently as Faith inspected her.

Faith grabbed Alice's suitcase without her permission and started to drag it up the stairs, it bumped noisily against the wooden floorboards as she went but Faith didn't seem to notice. Alice, breaking free from her nervous paralysis, rushed forward and picked up the bottom of the suitcase to assist the red-headed girl. As they went up the stairs, Faith rattled off the names of the other residents and which rooms they were in. Alice counted nine or ten other children, but Faith moved so quickly that she couldn't say for sure. The walls of the house were painted in a pale beige that had been scuffed by years of constant traffic. Each bedroom door they past had signs of its occupant's personality, some where plastered in posters, others had signs warning people to stay out and others were noticeably bare.

"...Basically, don't go into any rooms on the first and second floor. They're people's bedrooms, except for those two," Faith pointed at two white doors, "They're the bathrooms. There's a schedule in the morning so write your name on it."

Alice longed for her ensuite bathroom at home.

"Up here is my room," Faith said climbing the final set of stairs, "They like to keep me up here because I'm noisy and this door is the best to slam when I'm angry."

To demonstrate Faith let go of Alice's suitcase and reached over to her door handle. With a sharp intake of breath, she yanked the door towards her and let it slam loudly. Although she had expected the bang, Alice flinched.

"Jesus," said Faith, "It's just a door. Chill out."

Faith grinned at Alice; it was a devilish, cheeky grin that echoed that of a hyena. It lit up her green eyes with excitement. Alice forced herself to smile in response. Seemingly satisfied, Faith grabbed Alice's suitcase again and reached for a second door a little further down the hall. She opened it and pulled Alice inside. The ceiling was slanted so Faith, who was taller than Alice, had to stoop a little as she let Alice into the room. It was smaller than the room Alice had glimpsed through Faith's door and contained little in the way of furniture. In the corner opposite the door was a small wooden bed that had plain, but clean linen folded on top of it. Along the side of the room was a flat-pack wardrobe and desk. There was a note on the lamp that sat on the desk which read; 'sorry I broke your lamp'. Unlike Faith's room, this room didn't have a dormer window, instead a large skylight let in the last of the evening's light.

"This is the guest room," Faith said, picking at a bit of loose wallpaper, "If you stay longer, they might put you in one of the big bedrooms." The way Faith emphasised the words big and bedroom showed that they were clearly better than this one.

"I won't be staying long," Alice replied and placed her suitcase on her bed. She opened it and began placing what little clothes she'd brought into the wardrobe.

"That's what they all say," said Faith. She peered into Alice's suitcase and began to riffle through the contents with little regard for Alice's privacy.

"Come on," she said when she didn't find anything interesting, "I'll show you the rest of the house."

Faith grabbed Alice's hand and pulled her towards the door. Alice barely had a chance to toss the blouse she had been holding on to the bed before she found herself back in the narrow hallway at the top of the house. Faith seemed to only have one speed. She whizzed back down the staircases, which were so steep that Alice struggled to keep her balance as her housemate pulled her along. Once they were on the ground floor Faith led her into the TV room, where several teens were playing a video game. They all looked to be around fourteen and Faith told her that their names were Nathan, Joe and Peter.

"This is the TV room," Faith said, "Or the sweaty teen boy room."

One of the boys took one of his hands away from the controller and flipped Faith off. Alice focussed on her shoes as Faith retaliated by swotting the boy over his head. Alice had to admit that the room did have a certain odour that she wasn't used to. The TV room led into the dining-room, which somebody had already prepared for dinner. There was a serving hatch on the wall, which Faith walked over to and opened.

"Jean, is dinner ready yet?" Faith asked, reaching through the hatch to swipe a piece of bread from the basket on the counter.

"Faith!" Mrs Murphy said, "You do that again and you'll lose house points."

Faith shrugged her shoulders and took a large bite from the bread. As she munched on her bread, she pointed out the French doors and told Alice that in the summer they ate dinner on the patio.

"You can't go into the kitchen by the way," said Faith, "You have to earn that privilege here."

They headed through another door that led back into the entrance hallway. Alice noticed that there was a coded lock on the door to the kitchen.

"Why?" asked Alice.

"Some of us aren't good with knives," Faith replied, acting out a see-saw motion over her wrist.

Alice's eyes widened in shock. She hoped that Mrs Murphy would let her use the kitchen to make coffee in the mornings. She had brought her coffee grounds with her.

"And finally, those are the therapy rooms and offices," Faith said gesturing to the remaining doors. She turned on her heel to face Alice, "You good to find your own way around now? I would show you more, but I don't want to."

"You go on," Alice said, she was already exhausted from her short tour, "I'm sure I can handle myself from here."

Faith smiled at Alice, "Great. Just remember one thing and you'll be fine."

"What's that?" asked Alice.

"Don't piss anyone off. Especially me."

Alice wasn't sure if that was a joke, so she smiled nervously. After an uncomfortable long pause Faith grinned back at her, displaying all of her teeth. Then she dashed up the stairs, leaving Alice exactly where she'd started.

Alice headed back to her room. She checked her watch, by now it was 7:00pm. The sky above her head was black; streetlights illuminated a passing cloud. Alice finished putting her things away and then pulled out her phone to check her messages. A notice on the back of her door caught her eye. It read; 'House Points' at the top and then listed all the things that you could do to lose house points. Unauthorised mobile phones carried a hefty fine, Alice hoped that it didn't apply to her.

Through the thin walls Alice heard Faith talking to someone. Although Alice was taught better manners than to eavesdrop, the other girl spoke so loudly that she couldn't help but overhear. When she gathered the topic of conversation, Alice's ears perked up and she forgot her manners completely; she leant in closer to the wall.

"What's she like then?" someone who wasn't Faith asked.

"I think the best word for her would be normal," Faith replied.

"Gross."

"Although she's really pretty," Faith said, "Like one of those girls from an old film."

"She's probably a stuck-up bitch then," the second voice replied. It was definitely a male voice.

"You don't know that," Faith said quickly.

"I do," the second voice said, "Trust me."

The room on the other side of Alice's room fell silent for a moment. It was comforting to know that even though she had felt out-of-sorts in Faith's presence the other girl had taken a liking to her. Alice, who wasn't used to people disliking her, wondered who the mysterious second voice belonged to.