Conflicted // SAMPLE

Chapter 1

VANESSA POV

   I wake up and kick the bed above me. Rosy groans. She grumbles out multiple cuss words just like she does every morning. My childish behavior always sets her off when it comes to sleeping.

    "Nessa, why do you dislike sleep," Rosalind asks in a hoarse morning voice that makes me laugh.

  "I don't. I love sleep, but it is time to be awake," I answer rolling out of bed.

I turn and tuck my bedding tight, just the way Ms. Grimes likes. We aren't allowed to leave our beds unmade or our rooms messy.

  Luckily for Rosalind and I, we were moved to our own room three months ago. No more little kids messing up the room we just cleaned or wrinkling the beds we just made.

   Rosy and I were moved due to our approaching birthdays. We both turn 18 in a few weeks and we will no longer be welcome here. This house is for minors only. We are about to officially age out of the foster system.

   Rosy and I hurry downstairs. We pour eight bowls of cereal and sit down. The younger kids file in and begin eating just as we finish up.

   Ms. Grimes has made Rosy and I take care of the younger wards since our early teen years. We clean, we cook, and we bathe them. It's been like this since we were 13. The older three girls that didn't get adopted aged out and we took their place as the maids.

  She must like having live in maids. We make life much easier on her, that's for sure. Don't get me wrong. Ms. Grimes isn't a monster, she is just strict. She never verbally or physically abuses any of us. She likes the house to run smoothly and to run smooth, she says it has to be kept orderly.

We have everything we need. Clean clothes, food, and comfortable living arrangements. The younger kids are doted on because they have a higher chance of being adopted but we are treated okay.

I haven't had an interview for adoption since I was five. Rosy was interviewed by the same couple. We both weren't what they were looking for apparently. I was insanely thankful because even then I couldn't imagine being separated from Rosy.

   *****

  "Ughhhh," Rosy says leaning back against the school's bus seat.

   I chuckle at her. She acts like we are going to prison not the final day of high school.

  "Chill Grumpy Gus, it's the last day remember," I say swatting at her arm.

  "Exactly. Do you realize in two weeks we will literally be kicked out onto the streets," Rosy exclaims shooting me a strong glare.

   "We don't even have jobs because we are required to clean house for the woman making money off of us. I think it's pretty wrong of her to just kick us out as soon as her checks for us stop," Rosy snaps while punching the seat in front of us.

  "Chill Rosa. I told you, I will sell the necklace. We will have some cash until we get jobs. We could even start applying now. We just tell them we can't start right away," I say for the thousandth time.

   I idly rub the only thing left to me in the world. Whoever my parents were....they must have had money. Because the gems around my neck are no joke. Rosy sends me a sad glance. I just shrug in response. We have discussed these things so many times in the past year, there is nothing left to say.

  Rosalind has nothing from her parents. But she does know who they were. She was placed with Ms. Grimes at age 3, after her parents overdosed. I was placed with Ms. Grimes at birth. I had been left at a firestation, with a blanket and a necklace.