The Counselor [OLD VERSION]

A new home

‘My new dads lived in Los Angeles, what they did in New York? Nobody knows. When we arrived at the LA Airport, there were 3 boys and a woman, who looked much like Sam, waiting for us.

‘Boys, this is your new sister Ruby, Ruby these boys are your new brothers. And this is your aunt Lissa,’ Sam said. The boys looked a little confused. I guess because their dads left to pick up the boy they were talking to when they saw me. They all introduced themselves to me. The oldest, he was 14, was Andy, he was tall but really slender, he had beautiful green eyes and almost black hair. One of the boys introduced himself as Cameron, he had the same hair color as I did and he was almost as tall as Andy, even though he was a year younger. The youngest boy introduced himself as Liam, he was almost 9, just a bit older than me. He was almost as small as me and he had brown hair and brown eyes. They were all very nice and welcoming.

Yes, it was perfect for a little while. I got a little bit less scared to attach to other people and I got really close to my new brothers (which were all adopted too, if you didn’t guess that already.) We lived in a big house, but my dads weren’t around a lot. But I could always call them and when they were home, they were the most amazing parents anyone could wish for. But they had very busy jobs, Stephen was a very popular movie director and Sam was a designer. That’s why we could afford a big house somewhere just outside LA.

One day we were sitting on the couch, just the 4 of us. We were talking about the lives we had before we came here. We were laughing at the names we used to have, before we became Ruby, Andy, Cameron and Liam Mayland.

‘My whole name was actually Andreas Mcdoughall,’ Andy laughed, ‘and yours Ruby?’

‘Ruby Skylette Ramirez, I guess my parents liked fancy names,’ I said.

‘Fancy it is indeed,’ Andy said, ‘but why didn’t you change your name to just Skylette? It’s really pretty.’ 

‘I actually don’t know,’ I answered, it made me think. After that everyone started calling me Sky, because everyone kind of agreed with Andy. With letting go off my name, I let go off my past. Just a little, but it worked. I felt a little reborn. Even though I was 8 years old.

By the time I was 10, the amount of brothers I had was doubled. Three new brothers came into our family and my dads said our family was finally ‘completed’. First came Jake, just a few months after they adopted me. Jake was 2 years older than me and he had a slight tan and brown eyes and hair. After Jake my dads waited for another half a year, before they adopted Blake, he was 4 years older than me and had light blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes. When I just turned 10, they adopted my last brother, Ryan, he looked very much like Liam, only Ryan was bigger and 3 years older than me. We were a very happy family, yes we all had our own problems, we all had had a pretty tough life before we were adopted by our dads. But Andy was the worst, he had all these problems and he was seeing a therapist. We didn’t exactly know what was happening to him, but he started eating less and less food, he began wearing long sleeves, even when it was very hot outside. I didn’t realize, at that moment, what was happening. I think my oldest brothers did. But I was clueless, the only thing I did understand was that Andy was really sad. So some nights I would sit next to him on the couch and just cuddle with him, trying to make him feel better. I let him talk about all the stuff that was happening, which most of the times I didn’t understand. But I still listened and tried to comfort him.’