15 years later
Alice p.o.v
I was sitting on the pavement waiting for... I didn't know what for, I was just waiting. Hoping to see a glimpse of them. The weather was nice. I had put some music in my ears to ease my impatience.
The reason why I was here was because of what my dads told me.
It all started with a couple of innocent dreams. I saw myself but with different parents and a brother. I was often yelled at for doing nothing. I didn't understand the dreams as I couldn't decipher them.
I thought they were just dreams or rather bad dreams.
But the dreams felt so real and I knew it didn't happen to me. I had two dads, no siblings, and was raised with love. I absolutely loved my fathers. They would move mountains for me if I asked them.
They made sure I had everything I needed and in return, I was always on my best behavior and got good grades, with help of course. Turned out I had dyslexi
I was in my room studying for my next exam when I heard multiple car doors being opened and closed. I didn't pay any mind to it as I thought it was the neighbors. I flipped to the next page of my history textbook. I already went over this two times, but I had to make sure I knew everything. I had to get an A on this, I had to.As I was reading the text intensely I heard people entering our house. Voices were heard from the hallway. Had father and mother invited people over? That couldn't be. They never liked having people over to our house. They were quite introverted and there weren't many people who could meet up their standards to be considered by them as their friends.If you weren't educated the way they were, you failed. If you could only focus on your own field of expertise, you failed. If you were too poor, you failed. If
"Yes indeed, but not only children from troubled homes are selected. Most of them are but parents can sign their children up as well. If they think their child will be better off with... someone else."His words came out with hesitance and I knew now why. It finally clicked in my head. My parents had signed me up. I turned to my parents and pleaded, "Please father, mother I can do better, I promise. Don't let them take me!" I desperately yelled.My mother looked away and my father's face hardened more if that was even possible. "You had many chances Alice, but you disappoint your mother and me again and again. You are a disgrace to our family! You will be way better of with some other family." He spitted out. My own father and mother had just disowned me. I couldn't help but cry softly. I was indeed not good enough
The ride was long. After thirty minutes I had my eyes cast down to my lap. Mr. Carter sat next to me and said a couple of times it would be okay. Only I didn't respond to that. Nothing would be fine without my brother.All of a sudden the car stopped. I looked up and saw a big, grey gate being opened. The car moved again and I saw a huge building appearing through the car windows. It had many floors and it looked very dull with big walls made of concrete. Not to mention the big fence made out of stone around the institution. I saw multiple guards outside but no signs of teenagers. It felt more like a prison than an organization that helped children. It also didn't help that the weather was rather gloomy.The car stopped, only I stayed seated. The car was my no-man's-land. It could take me home or it could leave me here. Leaving th
When every question was answered we were picked up by our guardians. Mr. Carter was one of the first ones to pick me up. He smiled at me and asked me to follow him. I did what I was told. We had to walk quite the distance. Not once had I opened my mouth.We had to take a couple of turns and walked in several corridors. You could not see clearly what was behind all those doors you would see from time to time. Nowhere were any plates with directions on them. For a short moment, I wondered how people could work in such a place. This place felt like a maze. I would get lost within a few seconds.When we had entered an elevator Mr. Carter asked me, "Are you okay, Alice? I know you have to process a lot of information. I'm happy to answer any questions." I didn't really want to talk but now everything had settled a bit I had
I looked around the room, once again. The walls were painted in white and light green, the same as our uniforms. Our bedsheets were a pastel yellow with light pink pillows. It truly felt like a child's bedroom.The stuffed animal I was holding felt soft against my hands. It was a blue elephant. I wondered why we all got stuffed animals if we were, as for now, still teenagers. Wouldn't it be more suitable to give these once we were babies?As I watched the soft animal rotating in my hands a strong feeling of sadness overwhelmed me. I missed my home, I missed my bedroom, my books, my own clothes. I even missed the presence of my parents. Maybe they weren't the greatest in showing their love for me, they were still my parents and I held a deep respect for them.But the thing I misse
"I don't want to talk about it.""Oh come on, don't be such a wuss," she whined again, "We all know that everybody here had a stupid home or did stupid themselves. I was a wild child, as my parents like to put it. I drank, smoked, hang out with the wrong crowd, didn't listen, got a tattoo, you know that kind of stuff. They were so done with me, they sent me here. And that goody-goody lady over there was the oldest of twelve children and when the twins came there wasn't enough money to take care of her so they signed her up. And they had this bullshit story about 'having a better childhood, a new way to get all the love you missed out on'. You know, so what's your story?"I felt bad for them that their parents were also the ones who got them here, but I was too afraid to tell them my story. They had endured so much, while
I felt someone grabbing my arm softly, bringing me back to reality. "Come let's go to your room." I heard Mr. Carter say. He had put his arm around my shoulder and led me back. He opened the door for me and I felt his arms sliding off my shoulders. He petted my head once and said, "Try to relax and have a good night of sleep." He then turned to Nancy and Lexi. "Girls, sleep tight. Don't stay up too long." I heard some murmuring coming from them and then the door behind me was closed.I headed to my bed and laid down. I grabbed my elephant, I couldn't care less right now what the girls would think. It gave me comfort and that was all I wanted. Hearing that your parents don't want you is way worse than them saying they want for you a second chance for a good childhood."Alice are you alright?" Lexi asked.
Before any of them could react any further at what I said a nurse came into the room."Ladies, I need you to come with me," the nurse said with a big friendly smile on her face. It looked like this was their trademark, their friendly faces."Where do we need to go?" Lexi asked."For your test, of course, I assumed they explained it to you yesterday, didn't they?""Yes they did miss, we forgot that's all," Nancy responded politely. You could see she was the responsible one of all of us. It didn't surprise me, if you have eleven younger siblings to take care of, you will need that sense of responsibility.We followed the nurse through the hallway to the elevator. When we entered there