The teenage orphan [Being edited]

4. The Dinner

It was about 7:30 and I was getting dressed for the dinner.

I put on one of the sun dresses that I bought, I brushed out my hair. I put on mascara and then , my glasses. I put on my ratty, dirty converse and then walked downstairs.

"There she is!" Mitch yelled. "Dang." Jack said with a half smile. "Ready to go Avalon?" Michelle asked. "Yup." Michelle's son looked at me. "Avalon, this is Derek, my son." I waved to him and he he did a little head nod, and walked outside.

"Sorry, he doesn't really like it when new people come." She said to me. "It's alright." I said.

I shoved my phone and a sweatshirt into my black backpack and slung it on my back. "Let's go!" Michelle said. We all got into the 11 seat van, 3 in the back, 3 in the middle, 3 in front, and the driver and driver's passenger seat. 

We drove to the boardwalk which wasn't actually that far. We walked to a restaurant. "Good evening Michelle!" The host said to her. "Table for all 9 today?" He asked her.

"Actually 10, we have a new addition. This is Avalon." She said gesturing to me. "Hi Avalon, welcome to Terry's Italian Place." He said waving to me. "Hi." I said smiling. "Well let's go then he said." We followed him to the table, I sat next to Logan and Morgan.

"Order anything you like." She said to me. "I'd just like a Cesar salad with Iced tea, please." The host wrote it down.

After everyone ordered we just sat talking. "So Avalon, when's your birthday?" Thomas asked me. "May 25th, it was two days ago." I said.

"Well happy belated birthday, Avalon." Morgan said smiling at me. "Thank you." I said smiling back at her.

A few minutes later both our food and drinks came. "ELI STOP PLAYING WITH YOUR FOOD." Michelle yelled at him.

It kind of bothered me how Michelle's son Derek just, sits there.

"So Avalon, what sports do you play?" Mitch asked.

"Volleyball and softball, but my things got burnt in the fire to I gotta get new equipment." I said.

"Oh, Avalon, why don't I go buy you new equipment!" Michelle said to me. "Oh no, I have my own money." I said. "No sweetie, let it be a birthday gift from us." She said smiling.

"Oh, well thank you." I said then putting some salad in my mouth.

"How about you all? What sports do you play?" I asked.

"I play soccer." Mitch said out loud.

"I play baseball and ice hockey." Jack said to me.

"I play lacrosse." Thomas said smirking.

"Lax and baseball" Logan said.

"Just soccer." Eli said.

"I play volleyball too, but that's it." Morgan said to me.

"Lily doesn't play anything... Yet." Michelle said laughing.

"How about you?" I asked Derek.

"Baseball and Football." He said without even looking up. "Derek Carter, look at the person who you are talking to." Michelle said.

He looked up with a blank face and said "Baseball, and football." He looked back down and continued to eat.

"I'm sorry." Michelle mouthed to me.

"It's okay!" I said smiling.

When we finished dinner we all went to a near by smoothie place called Tangy Mango.

I ordered a berry smoothie and then went outside. Michelle then went up to me. "Avalon, I'm sorry about Derek." She said. "Oh no it's fine, I get it." I said.

"It usually takes him less than an hour to be okay with a new addition, but it has been two years since a new addition." She said. "Well it's fine, Michelle. You don't need to worry about it." I said smiling. She nodded.

We went into the van and drove to their house. I went back to the room where I was staying. I set down my back pack. I put on pajama pants and my sweatshirt because it was chilly from the air conditioning. I washed my face to take off my mascara and lipstick. I put my hair in a bun.

I sat on the windowsill again. I took the picture of my family and just looked at it. The view of the moon over the ocean was amazing.

I looked at the picture. It was my parents, the twins, and I sitting on our front porch. We looked so happy.

"Is that them?" Someone said looking over my shoulder. I looked up to see Morgan and Lily. "Yeah." I said with tears building up. A tear fell down my cheek. Lily and Morgan sat next to me. Morgan wiped the tear from my face.

"It's okay, Avalon. We know how you feel." She said grabbing a hold of my hand. "Thanks guys." I said. "How about I walked you guys back to your rooms." I said smiling. I placed the photo of my family on my desk, picked up Lily and brought her back to her room. I tucked her in.

I then walked with Morgan to her room. She sat on her bed and I sat next to her. "Avalon, can I ask you something? You don't have to answer if you don't want to." She said. "Yeah go ahead Morgan." I said.

"How'd you become..." She hesitated. "An orphan?" I asked her. She nodded. "Well on my 18th birthday, 2 days ago, it was like 1 in the morning. I woke up to the smell of smoke and stuff like that. I stepped on the ground and it was burning hot. I opened the door and it was like flaming downstairs. I climbed out the window, called 911 and then a police woman, the one you met earlier brought me to the police station. A few minutes later, an other officer came in and he told me that they saved some of my things but they weren't able to save my family. So yesterday Officer Nicole she brought me to the mall and, like all the things in my closet, we bought yesterday. I live in New York and they said no orphanages there would take me in because I'm 18. Michelle was the orphanage care taker that would actually take an 18-year-old in so we had to take the offer. So we flew five hours and 30 minutes. Sure I was like really upset moving here, but since I did I'm really happy. You are all so sweet to me." By the end I felt tears running down my cheek.

Morgan wiped then away again. "Avalon, we all know how it is to lose a parent or like be forgotten by your parents. It's better to be in a place where you fit in and be with other people know what you've been through. And I'm really glad that I actually have someone that I can talk to who is like an older sister to me and who's not a guy." She said smiling.

"But it's only been a day, how could you know that I'm like a sister?" I asked her.

"Well look at us right now, my moms always working. She's only here because you finally got here. She's usually like out all the time, sometimes she travels and it's usually just Derek here to watch over all of us, so I never really had anyone to talk to you except for Lily but it's not like she actually paid attention to me, because she's only you know, 6... So I'm happy that you came here."

Morgan told me into a hug and I hugged her back. "Well I should get back to my room now." I said wiping away a tear, she nodded.

I walked to my room and then laid down on my bed and played some music from my phone. A few minutes later I got a knock on the door. "Come in." I said. Derek in his sweatpants an no shirt walked in with another blank face on. "My mom's making me come in and apologize, so sorry." He said.

"Apologize for what?" I asked him. "That's what I asked her." He said and walked out.

Okay, now I see why she made him apologize, he was an ass. Even though he was an ass, I;m going to admit he was nice to look at.