Fate Brought Them

Mya

I had never seen a cross country race before, much less even heard of cross country. Well, I knew it was a sport that my foster brother, Connor, played.
As of right now, I was traveling in my foster parents' rental car, on my way to Connor's meet.
      My brother looked like your typical movie jock. This meaning he's blonde, blue-eyed, pretty strong, and very athletic. That's where the similarities end. Connor is one of the smartest kid in his grade. Some colleges were even checking him out already and he was only a 15-year-old sophomore.
I'm pretty sure that's a good thing.
      I also have two foster sisters, Daniel and Carmen. The two are twins, 13 years old, look just like Connor, and are almost always fighting. "You stole my brush!" "But you took my sweater!" "I gave it back!" And those two would just go on and on. It usually ended with one grumpy and the other triumphant from retrieving the "stolen" item.
      And then there's me. I was abandoned when I was 1 year old and I really only remember being in the foster system. I belonged to two different families before this one. Although I like my now-family and my now-school, I don't feel like I belong. I'm African American, or at least I look like one. I also don't know when my birthday is, although a doctor concluded I was born around 2007, meaning I'm 9 years old.
I have questions, but no one has answers. Most of the time I feel alone, like no one understands exactly what this was like. Well, they don't but some people pretend. Some kids at the school I go to make fun of me for belonging to a "white family." Others don't want to be my friend. I have a small group of friends that I like to hang out with, but I feel separate from them, detached. Different.
        Connor helps me a lot, with my homework and with my friend problems. Mostly because Lynn, my foster mom, and Mark, my foster dad, work a ton. Connor helped me pick out my clothes for the trip.
My never-tame curly hair was in a ponytail today, only being held back by a thick green headband. This headband happened to match my tie-dyed shirt I made in summer camp last year. Connor said it was his favorite and I decided it would be nice to wear it today, the day of his big meet. 
      I brought with me my the iPod Nano Lynn had given me as a welcoming gift three years ago. It has almost 500 songs on it and is one of my favorite possessions. I also brought a small backpack full of some of my favorite toys, a Barbie doll and stuffed dog.
      Because this meet was so far away, my family had to leave Iowa almost immediately after school on Friday and travel the 6 hours to our hotel in Indiana. We spent the night at the hotel and now, at 7 in the morning, we were traveling 30 minutes to the golf course. Mark couldn't go due to his work.
      30 groggy minutes later, and we finally arrived. Lynn found a parking space and asked all of us to carry something in.
      I was the first one to the back of the car, being so tired of sitting in a seat, and wanted to stretch. Carmen and Daniel started arguing over which person would take what, until Lynn jumped in saying they would help each other with the cooler. Lynn grabbed a bag of food and started to guide the twins to Connor's team's camp.
      "Hey Mya," Connor said as he pulled his bag out of the trunk, "how're you doing? I know you don't really like traveling that much." Connor sets the bag down and crouches down to my height.
      "I'm doing okay, it wasn't that far." This news made Connor smile. Last night, I had almost thrown up from car sickness.
      "That's great to hear. I was worried about you. Here," Connor reached into the trunk and brought out a blue drawstring bag with a Nike sign on it, "you can carry my spikes." The blue was for Connor's school, the Wellsburg Knights, whose colors are blue and gold.
      I grab the bag and sling it over my shoulders. Connor holds out his hand, indicating for me to hold it, so I do, and together we walk to his campsite.