CLEAN || Taylor Swift Adoption

SEVENTEEN

"I loved in shades of wrong..."

~TAYLOR~

August 5, 2019

Everleigh disappeared shortly after I finished talking to her, barely acknowledging anything that was said to her. I wasn't gonna lie; I couldn't help but be worried about her. Something told me that this wasn't how she normally acted, and I wasn't sure if there was something that I had done, or if there was something more going on in her head that I didn't know.

I couldn't dwell on it for much longer, though, because my phone rang with a call from Tree. I had known that she was going to call at some point, partially to check in and find out how the Session had gone, but also to hear about how it was going with Everleigh.

Before I had made the decision to take her in, I knew that it was pretty much essential to consult with Tree about it. She was originally surprised that I was considering fostering again, especially since my life was in a drastically different place than it had been the last time that I had taken in any kids, but when I explained the full story to her, she'd become so much more understanding to the situation. She'd somehow been won over when she looked through Everleigh's social media, and it had been her idea to get Everleigh at a Secret Session in the first place.

Tree had been amazing with planning out the whole ordeal, just as she had been about so many other things in the past. She'd made sure that it was pretty much non-negotiable for Everleigh to be at a Session, and she'd made sure that it was going to time as well as it could with Everleigh moving in with me. The good news was that Tree had made sure that she wouldn't move in until after the Sessions were taking place, so I had time to get to know her outside of whatever would meet me when Everleigh moved in.

Looking back on it, that had to have been one of the best things that we could've done, especially with the situation that we were in. Everleigh had been so much more carefree at the Session, and not only that, but she'd also told me things that I was almost sure she wouldn't have told me now that she knew I was her foster mother. I mean, she'd barely even said three words to me since she had left the DCFS office. How was I ever supposed to expect her to tell me about her past, or even something more simple, like what she wanted to eat for dinner?

"Hello?" I asked, picking up the call from Tree.

Tree's voice was lighter than normal, which I took to be a good sign. "Taylor! Hey, how has it been going?"

"It's been alright," I replied honestly. It wasn't the best thing to know that Everleigh was uneasy at every given moment with me, and even more than that, the fact that she was trying to avoid me as much as possible. I wasn't sure if she generally liked to keep to herself, or if this was something that she just did when she got to a new placement, or even if this was just something that came from her moving in with me.

"Well, how was the Session?" Tree asked. "Sydney told me that it ran late last night."

"Yeah, it did," I responded. "I had fans here until about five-thirty. Part of it was because of how many people were there, though, so I'm not anticipating the L.A. Sessions to go nearly as long. You said there's gonna be about fifty people there, right?"

"Yep," Tree replied. "Fifty-two fans." She paused. "Did people seem to mind? Did anyone tell you anything?"

"I don't think people minded," I responded. "I was talking with Sydney last night after the last bus left, and she said people were pretty much content hanging out until they came in so I could meet them. I mean, we made sure that there was plenty of food, and the food stayed out for pretty much the whole time. But, you know, I think they also like being with each other, if you know what I mean."