The Best Kept Secret!

Chapter One: My First Choice

Today was the day! I was officially leaving the Jone's family, whom I have stayed with for the past two years. I looked outside my room window where I saw my caseworker pulling up in the driveway. Her name was Mrs. Banks, to me this lady was the only family I had. She had been handling my cases since I was eight years old. I have had other caseworkers, but they lacked in everything that Mrs. Banks did not. She seemed to truly care about me and had gotten to know me over the years. Most of all she kept it real with me. She never lies to me, in my book she was a keeper. I was always happy to see her. Heading outside I gave her a big hug. She smelled like vanilla once again. Whenever she smelled like this, I just knew she had been baking and brought me a cake. This always meant she had good news.

"Hey Mrs. Banks, I just know you have a cake for me. Where is it?" Looking behind her back. Removing the cake from her back I saw that it was red velvet my favorite.

"You know I was going to make you one, for your great accomplishments. I am so proud of you." I was smiling from ear to ear. I was so ready to eat the cake, but something about this visit was different. Normally when I was being moved into another foster home, there would be a big old box in the backseat of her car that would be filled with all my things. Things of mines that Mrs. Banks has always kept from the time she had started being my caseworker. There would be a ton of groceries in the car. She never let me go anywhere without food, since an incident a year ago where I was starved due to no food in the house. Finally, there would be a letter in the front seat to read whenever I had been mad about moving onto the next foster home, it would calm me down after reading it. I would get a sense of hope that things would get better. My eyes began to water. Looking through her car I saw everything of mine in the backseat in a big box. I then saw the groceries on the floor and a thick envelope in the front seat. "Mrs. Banks, what is going on?" I asked her as she grabbed my hand.

"Before you get upset, she pushed me towards the steps on the porch to have a seat. Let me just tell you real quick what's going on. Two weeks ago I received a strange call from an elderly woman telling me things about you."

I shed more tears as I felt like my heart was going to burst. This was the day I was waiting for my whole life and now that it was here I got a feeling it's going to be the worst day of my life.

"Long story short Emily, the call was from your biological grandmother. Everything we had talked about all checks out."

My eyes widen! "Wait for what? I do not have any family that I know of. Every time we tried to contact someone when I was younger, you could never get in touch with anyone to come to save me from keep having to go back into the system."

Mrs. Banks made me look into her eyes as she grabbed my face. "Emily listen to what I 'm telling you. This lady is your grandmother. Her name is Nora, and she lives an hour away from here believe it or not."

I snatched away from her. I was angry, how dare I lived with my last foster family and my so-called grandma lived an hour away from me. It did not make sense.

"Why on earth are you going to believe somebody now claiming me after all this time?"

Mrs. Banks touched my soaked face. "Emily this is your grandmother. She has proof of your birth certificate and all the photos of you when you were born. I ran a background check on her and it all checks out. As your caseworker, it's my job to look into the things and I have honey."

"But why now? And what is it supposed to mean?"

"Well, she will be your new guardian. She has a nice home in a decent neighborhood and has the means to provide for you while you are at college, which is also near her as well."