Mute

Chapter 1 : New home

A/N : Book idea by @AradhanaVanAssche   

Chapter 1

Riker POV

"You stupid brat!"

My foster father shoved my chair really hard and I fell backwards really hard on the wood floor in the kitchen, hitting my head.

I covered my head with my hands and curled up on my side.

"Get up!"

He grabbed my wrist and yanked me up off the floor, hurting my wrist. 

"You can wait outside!"

He pulled me outside onto the porch. I sat down and wrapped my arms around myself. It's snowing out and I'm only wearing a T-shirt and jeans.

"And here's your stupid journal!"

He threw the book at me. It hit my finger really hard, instantly sending shooting pain through it.

He slammed the door shut. I put my journal on my lap and then held my finger in my other hand, trying to ease the pain. 

My tears started dripping onto the cover of my journal. 

This isn't fair. I got pulled out of my own house a few weeks ago because one of my teachers at school saw bruises on my arms and found out my parents were hitting me. I thought going to a foster home would finally be somewhere safe. But no. Maybe everyone is just like this. Maybe nowhere is safe. How do people live like this?

I looked at my finger. It was swollen already. I tried to move it, but I couldn't. And now I'm scared it's broken.

My wrist is starting to bruise too. And my head is pounding from hitting the floor.

I'm so cold. When is the foster center picking me up!?

The light on the porch went out, leaving me in darkness.

That's probably the thing I hate most in my entire life. I can't stand the dark. It's because at home, my parents would punish me by locking me in the dark basement. It was the worst punishment ever. 

I started shaking from the cold. The wind kept blowing snow directly at me, and I was starting to lose feeling in my fingers.

Suddenly I saw a car pull onto our road. Please let it be the foster center.

It pulled up and stopped in front of the house, so I jumped up and ran towards it.

"Riker, are you alright? I'm so sorry. You should've never gotten hurt here."

The foster center lady hugged me.

"That's right. You don't talk. I forgot."

She opened the back door of the car for me. I climbed in, holding my journal to my chest.

"Ok, Riker. Our foster center is currently full, but we did find someone to take you last minute."

She started driving and I felt more tears filling my eyes. I'm so scared. What if this family hurts me too? What if they hurt me even worse!?

Rocky POV

"Kids, pause your game for a second," mom said, coming into the living room.

Ross paused our video game. Mom sat down on the couch beside me.

"You know how we said we might foster a kid?" Mom asked.

We all nodded.

"Well we just got a call that there's a boy that needs a place to go. He'll be arriving tonight. We don't know that much about him yet, but one of the things we do know is that he was abused at his home. So if he's quiet or nervous, just be sensitive to him, ok?"

We all nodded again.

"When does he get here?" Ross asked.

"In about an hour probably. I don't want to overwhelm him, so I'm going to introduce you guys to him tomorrow once he's had a chance to get settled."

"Is he sleeping in the guest bedroom?" I asked.

"Yes. But when we get a chance, we're going to move him into your room and then you guys will room together. He's a few years older than you," mom said.

Mom got up and left. We were all kind of excited but also kind of nervous to have a foster kid here. What if he's mean? And he's older than all of us, so what if he thinks he can just boss us all around or something?

Ross unpaused our video game and we continued playing. But I couldn't stop thinking about the new foster kid. I have to room with him, so I hope he's nice.