The Highland Kids: Closet Space

Chapter 2

Meredith practically sprinted up the stairs, ran through the house, stopped to fix her hair, and opened the doors to see.... A social worker. I thought he was a door-to-door salesman but then I saw a badge around his neck that said "Social worker" along with his name and the name of the company he worked for.
"Hello, I am looking for a Mrs. Meredith Eden."
"That would be me! What can I do for you?"

"Hi, I'm Mr. Wright, and I'm Aidan and Alyza's social worker. I just thought I should introduce myself and make sure I have the correct address before I leave these kids with you. And you used to work with us right? Your name sounded familiar to some co-workers."

"I did, I worked the system for almost a decade. And you have the right address. One Fifteen Castle Street, Inverness, Scotland. This is Jordan, I legally adopted her earlier this year."
"Nice to meet you Jordan, do you like living here?"
"Yes, I do. There's plenty of space and it doesn't feel crowded. Then again, it's only me, Meredith and Aria who's our housekeeper and nanny."

Mr. Wright turned to Meredith and pulled out some legal forms off of the clipboard he was holding.
"So we won't need to do a complete home inspection, as you would have already gotten one when you adopted Jordan, and another when you agreed to foster again. All we need to see is where Aidan and Alyza will be sleeping and see if you are indeed an exception to the four-child-limit the United Kingdom has in place for its foster system."
"Jordan can show you the bedrooms. Aria and I will be here signing the paperwork."
"Brace yourself, there's three flights of stairs in total."

Mr. Wright followed me up two flights of stairs and we got to the first level of bedrooms.

"Here is one level of rooms. We don't have any specific rooms picked out for them because we wanted them to have a choice in where they sleep for once. Each room has a bed, a wardrobe or a chest of drawers, and a desk of some kind. Some desks fold out so they can work on their beds and two rooms have loft beds with desks underneath. The duvets are pretty plain but we plan to go décor shopping once everyone arrives."

He walked into one room, stared at it for five seconds, and left without saying anything. I took him upstairs to where the rest of the bedrooms were and, like before, he walked into one, said nothing, and left. Once he got downstairs, Meredith and Aria handed over all of the papers and he took them without breaking eye contact or his poker-face expression.

"Their bedrooms are acceptable for them, the children can move in. I'll go get them from the car." He handed Meredith a sheet of paper that had his signature on it. "And here is your certification that you passed the home inspection. Show this to the other social workers when they arrive so you won't need to be inspected again and again." With that, he left.

Two minutes later, a boy taller than me, and a girl shorter than me were standing at the door holding bin bags.
"Aidan, Alyza come on in! Welcome to your new home. My name is Meredith, this is your nanny Aria, and this is Jordan and she will show you to your bedrooms.
"Actually, I'll be showing you what floors the bedrooms are located on. There're eleven rooms for you to choose from. In fact, two whole levels are dedicated to bedrooms."

"How many levels are there?" Alyza looked around with huge eyes.
"Seven in total. The bedrooms are on levels four and five, and right now, we're on level two, so, get ready to climb."

Aidan slung his bag over his shoulder and Alyza went for the "dragging it behind her" method.
Once we were on the fourth level, Alyza settled on a room and started to unpack. Aidan decided to look at the rooms on the fifth level so he could see all of his options. He walked into the room across the top of the stairs before he turned to me.

"How good is the internet service here?" Aidan pulled his phone out
"It's pretty good, I guess. We have a router on every other level. And I have a question for you, what part of Europe are you from? I can't put my finger on your accent."
"I'm from Dublin, Ireland. And what about you?"
"What about me?" I laughed
"Your accent, or the fact that it isn't European, I should say."
"I was born and raised in Canada. I only moved to Scotland just a little over two years ago. And I'm actually the granddaughter of Irish immigrants. So, I'm technically Irish too. But enough about me. What do you think of the room?"
"It's nice, great views, great service. I like it here."
"Glad you think so. Oh, and if you don't like the duvets, we have plans to go shopping this weekend for more personalized decorations."
"That's good I guess and what's with the chalkboard on the door?" Aidan picked it up and examined it.
"Those are our door plates; it helps Meredith remember our names as she gets older. It'll also help new residents in picking their rooms and for Aria to deliver laundry. Now, I'll leave you to unpack and I'll see how Alyza is doing."
After nearly falling down the stairs, I somehow managed to get outside of Alyza's room. Her door was shut and I didn't want to be a dick and invade her privacy.
"Alyza? How's the unpacking coming?"
"It's coming along okay, I guess. It's pretty easy when there isn't a lot to unpack."
"You'll get more stuff soon. This weekend, Meredith was planning on taking us shopping for new bed covers and other shit. Also, word of advice: Don't curse in front of Meredith. That's the type of thing that would give her a heart attack."

It was at that point that Aria came up the stairs looking for me.
"Jordan, the newest resident just pulled into the driveway and Meredith wants you to be at the door. I believe this resident is Athena. Come down stairs to welcome her!"

I took the stairs slower this time. By the time I reached the bottom of the stairs, Athena was standing there with a binbag at her feet.
"Jordan, this is Athen-"
"It's Arty. My name is Arty and I use they and them pronouns."
"My apologies, thank you for telling me. Jordan, this is Arty and they're our newest resident."

"Nice to meet you Arty, I'll show you your room and introduce you to Alyza and Aidan, they're both moving into their rooms. We still have one more resident moving in today and once he gets here, we'll do an official tour."

Arty followed me upstairs and began to bombard me with questions.
"This place is huge! Was it a castle at one point?"
"Not a castle, but it was an orphanage built shortly after World War II ended."
"How long have you lived here?"
"Almost two years now."
"What's your favourite part of the house?
"The basement, it's my sanctuary."
"Why is it your sanctuary?"
"You'll see on the tour. Once Jackson shows up."
"Jackson, he sounds like a bad boy."

I didn't have the heart to tell them that Jackson had spent a year in juvie. So, all I told them was...
"You have no idea. anyways, you can pick from any of these rooms to be yours. There's more upstairs."
"Can I see the ones upstairs?"
"Sure, it's just me and Aidan up there, go take a look."

They grabbed their bag, hoisted it up the stairs, and somehow ran up them two at a time. By the time I got up the stairs, "ARTY" was scribbled on their door plate, and their door was wide open. Both Aidan's room and my room were at one end of the hallway by the stairs going down. Their room was at the end of the hallway by the stairs going up to the bathrooms.

"Do you need any help unpacking?"
"Not really, but it's nice to have someone to talk to who won't hurt me because I'm non-binary."
"Nobody in this house wants to hurt you. Come with me, I want to show you something."

They followed me into my room where they saw the pride flag hanging above my bed.
"You're pan-ace?"
"Sure am! I know what it feels like to be hated because of your sexuality. You aren't alone. Now I need to go get ready to greet the final resident. I'll leave you to your binbag."

Spoiler alert: I was not doing that. I headed back down to the basement as my social battery had started to die. I pulled my mannequin head out and got a hair piece for it. I didn't have anything in particular in mind of what haircut I wanted to give it, so I decided to do a pixie cut. The hairpiece I grabbed was sort of long so I cut off most of the length before adding layers and fading it. I was almost done when I heard my name get called again.

I groaned and repeated that it was the last one for now. But once I made eye contact with Jackson I was shocked to say the least. I don't know what happened to him in the time between the photo in his records and now; but to say he changed is an understatement. His blonde hair was buzzed off and dyed jet black, he had a double lip piercing, a ring in his septum, and a safety pin through his right eyebrow.

"Jordan, this is Jackson, why don't you go and show him to his room, Okay?"
"Follow me, and you can pick which room is yours."
He didn't say anything, he just grunted and picked up his ripped binbag.

The walk up the stairs was so quiet, I started to feel awkward a little bit, so I tried to break the ice by asking a question.
"So, did it hurt when you got your eyebrow pierced?"
"Not really, shit's hurt worse and I won't elaborate."
"Alright, here's one level of bedrooms, there's more upsta-"
"Stop talking," he spat. "I can take it from here."

I shut my mouth and headed up the stairs a few steps behind him.

"Why the fuck are you following me?"
"I'm not, my room is up here too."

Just my luck, his room is right across the hall from mine. Now that everyone was there, I could finally unwind and let my social battery charge. I spent the rest of the afternoon in my room until Meredith decided to call everyone down for the first Meet N' Greet so all of the residents could sit and talk for a bit and get to know one another.