Change is slow, until it's not.

Chapter Three: Vander

Vander turned up the heat on the stove, put some oil on the pan and went back to go mix the batter more throughly. When he was done, he turned around, and poured some batter into the hot pan. It sizzled slightly, and it smelt amazing.

"Hey, Vander?" Vi asked, her voice quiet and filled with uncertianty. Vander turned, to found the source of the sound. This was the first time that the girl with red hair had talked to him out of her own free will without being asked a question. When he found her, he looked down and answered,

"Yes?"

Vi paused and asked,

"Can you add blueberries to my pancakes?"

Vander smiled, and nodded, he flipped over the pancake on the stove and took out blueberries from the refrigerator, and grabbed a plate.

"As you wish." 

He takes the first pancake out of the pan and puts it on the plate. He does the same to the next pancake, except this one has tiny blue spots in it. When they are all out of batter, Vander begins to put everything away, except the bowl. He grabs another plate and walks to the kitchen island. He sets down the plates, and scopes the blueberry ones onto one plate and leaves the plain ones on the other.

Suddenly, without Vander having to call for Vi, she's up, on the counter, sitting criss cross putting her plate in her lap. Vander doesn't correct her sitting on the counter and goes to eat his breakfast too.

Vi eats quietly, she savors the blueberries and looks at her last bite of pancake like she was reminsicing good old days with it. Vander knew little to nothing about this girl that sat on his counter. So, he decided to make conversation.

"Why blueberries?"

Vi looked up, her posture straightening and her eyes going wide. She face was surpirsed at first then she concealed it. Her face going blank and staying quiet. She didn't talk and Vander wondered if he'd upset her.

"Sorry, did I upset you?" He asked. He wanted to know what triggered her and what didn't, to make sure that she felt as safe as possible while she stayed with him. Vi didn't respond and ate her last bite of pancake.

Vander finished up as well. He looked at Vi, and the look on Vi's face as she stared down at the plate with purple smudges. A look on her face that Vander had seen before, grief and guilt. Looked up at Vander as he began to turn away.

"Blueberries were my sister's favorite." She stated quietly. She wiped away the purple juice from the cooked blueberries and liked her finger with the tart liquid. When she pulled back, it had stained her finger.

Vander stopped turning around and looked at her. Vi had a sister, and she talked about her in past tense. Steb had never informed him about any siblings Vi had. He was going to call Steb for that. Siblings are important pieces of life from a kids childhood that a foster parent needs to know. Vander noticed Vi talked about her sister in past tense.

"She loved having blueberries with anything. Said they reminded her of me. Well rounded with some spikes at the top, my favorite color being that of one that resembles a blueberry, tart sometimes but sweet most of the times." Vi kept talking quietly. Her shoulders slumped, her eyes filling with tears.

"Where is she now?" Vander asked, he didn't know if he was pushing it. This was the first piece of information that Vi had given him about herself. Foster care usually gave him basic information, age, birth date, gender, family problems. But Vi had been moved so quick that Vander didn't have time to go and look at all of the information.

Vi sighed deeply.

"Safe, out of foster care. Adopted by some family that can give her opportunities I--and foster care couldn't."