The Descendants Series Vol. 1

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Here I was again, sitting on the balcony of our hotel room, looking over the Arno River.  We came to the same hotel in Florence three or four times a year, depending on when my dad could get off of work.  We usually stayed for about two weeks at a time.  But even though I loved it here, it could still get boring at times.

My parents and I went to the same places ever time we came.  The Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral, Palazzo Vecchio, and all of the museums were always on our lists of places to visit, even though I could practically tell them anything about everything.  They always used to joke about how they didn’t seem like tourists because I knew Italian so well.  The wonders of being adopted.

That’s right, I’m adopted.  I don’t know who my real parents were, where I came from, or pretty much anything that had happened before I was eight.  No one does.  I’m just the mystery child that stumbled out of the woods in broad daylight behind a couple’s house.  It’s a good thing they wanted to keep me though, because I don’t think I could have handled being in an orphanage and not knowing anything about myself or even where I was. 

I didn’t even speak perfect English when they found me, but I could speak Italian, Russian, and French perfectly, even some Greek.  Everyone in social services was amazed, including my parents.  And when social services asked if they would be my guardians, of course they said yes.  I mean, who would refuse to take in a blond haired, blue eyed, eight year old girl who didn’t know anything about herself but her own name and age? 

And there were my new parents:  Kyle and Carol Johnson.

I’d been with them for ten years and I loved them to death.  I didn’t know what I would do without them.  They’d been so kind to me and they’d given me everything that I’ve ever wanted, including going to Italy every year. 

It was our last day in Florence and my mom and dad were in their room, getting everything packed and ready for the fourteen hour flight we had ahead of us.  I already had all of my things packed. 

I heard the sliding glass door open behind me open and I turned to see my mom stepping out onto the balcony. 

She looked me over.  “Sabina, honey, do you always have to wear black?  What about all of those cute clothes we got?  Why don’t you wear those?” she asked.

I looked down at my black jeans, black t-shirt and black ballet flats.  I didn’t really see anything wrong with them.  “I’m more comfortable in these.  Especially since I’m going to be sitting in an uncomfortable plane seat for fourteen hours.”

“Well, okay,” she said, sighing.  “We’re leaving in five minutes, so come in and get your things.”

“Okay,” I said.  I looked back out over the river and then headed inside. 

When I came out of my room with my suitcase in hand, my dad was sitting on one of the chairs in the sitting room.  He looked up when I came in.  “Hey, kiddo, are you ready to go?”

“Yep,” I said, rolling my suitcase to the door.

“Just think.  We’ll be back in Atlanta in no time at all.  And then you get to go back to school the next day,” he said, smiling at me.

“Yeah, I can’t wait to get back to school,” I said sarcastically.

He laughed.  “I bet you can’t.”

We were on our way down to the lobby to check out five minutes later.  I, of course, was the translator.

“He says you just have to pay for the room service and then we’ll be able to leave,” I said.