Viper House

Making an Effort

No one was home when I got off the bus. I grabbed the mail and unlocked the door. I dropped the mail into the basket next to the door and walked to the kitchen to find something to eat. It was nice that I had an hour or so to myself after school. When Lauren got home at five, she'd be asking how the first day went. When Elijah got home at about six, he'd repeat the questions that Lauren had asked. Then when I wasn't around, they would analyze everything I had said to each of them to make sure that it matched up.

They really were good people. When I had first met them, I realized how long it had been since I'd been around people like them. Then, the more I thought about it, I realized that I had never really known good people like them. My friends at Lakewood hadn't been outstanding citizens and my parents sure as hell hadn't been.

The therapists who had talked about adjustments hadn't been wrong. I still found myself on edge. There were people out there who wanted things from me. Money, services, whatever. They'd find out that I had been released and there was no doubt that they would find me. It was required that all debts be paid. It was hard to adjust when that was still looming over me.

Maybe that was why they had placed me with Elijah and his wife. Maybe they thought no one would mess with him or maybe they, whoever they were, would think he knew what to look for if or when I started to get into trouble again.

I'd promised that I would try, and I wasn't one who broke promises. Granted, it was mostly because I didn't want to go to jail that I wasn't planning to break this one. I'd been there long enough to know that it wasn't a place I really wanted to spend much time at.

I climbed the stairs to what was called my room. Lauren and Elijah had picked out and bought everything in it, promising that we could get some things of my own soon. I didn't see how buying things made them my own. All the items I'd owned were in the house that had been raided. They were probably in some evidence box now.

The room was sparse. There was a bed with a bedside table. A desk sat near the window with an unused laptop still in the box sitting on top of it. There was a closet across from the bed with enough clothes to last me a week or so. An empty dresser sat against the wall beside the door, decorated with some fake plants on it.

I walked over to the window and opened it up, pushing the curtains to the side in the process. There were a couple of kids in the backyard behind Elijah and Lauren's. I watched as their father came out of the house with a soccer ball. He took his time showing them how to put the ball on the ground and kick it into the net.

I turned away and went over to start setting up the laptop. My classes hadn't assigned homework yet, but they probably would in the next day or so.

As I took the laptop out of the box, I heard the front door open and Lauren call out. I pulled the laptop out of the box before I walked to the stairs and slowly walked down them. Lauren stood at the table in the hallway, flipping through the stack of mail.

"Hey!" she said as she glanced up and tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. "How did it go?"

I shrugged and leaned against the railing. "It was fine."

"Just fine?"

I nodded. "I mean, it was a lot."

"Mrs. Rosas called me at work," she said as she set the mail down. "She said something about skipping an assembly?"

I cast my eyes to the ceiling and looked down, picking at an invisible bump on the railing. "There were a lot of people, and I couldn't deal with it. I went and hung out in the library for a little bit. Some kid came and wanted to chat, but after I figured out he wasn't someone I should be around, I went back to the assembly. She gave me my first strike." I looked up at her, waiting to see the anger and the judgment on her face. Instead, she had a look of sympathy.