Amongst The Water-Fresh Waters

Chapter 4: Family Ties! Part 1

Originally Published: 2013-2014. Updated July 2017; November 2019; July 3, 2020; September 25, 2021; August 7, 2023; August 26, 2023. 

      TWO WEEKS after meeting The Coutures; Evie Andrews is sitting in her apartment going through her old scrapbook made over the years. She was born a few months early and her birth mother had given her up shortly after she was born. She doesn't know much about her birth mother or father. So all the memories she has are the pictures and memorabilia she collected over her years in foster care.

      She's sitting on her brown beaten-up suede couch ruffling through the foster family memories she's kept through the years. She comes to her favorite picture of her and the best foster family she was in. A 40-year-old Polynesian couple standing next to a 6-year-old Evie with her foster sister. Those 4 years were the best years of her life. Stacie and Byron had to release her to Child Protective Services at the age of 10 because their 6-year-old died and Stacie had major PTSD and depression and a panic attack that turned into a heart attack and passed away. Byron tried to take care of Evie. But his struggle in the past with anxiety and alcoholism overcame him and he let it control him. So he had to let Evie go. That's when she started to jump from Foster home to Foster home again.

      Just recently she requested to get emancipated from the terrible home situation she was in at the last foster home. Now she lives in a small apartment connected to Sydney Seaside United School. The apartment originally was for the first Principal of the school when the school was formed. However since the school is in control and has enough staffing, Mr. Sanders lives in a small house 10 minutes away from the school. 

      Evie also works as an assistant for her Art teacher and stays after school to help with any school activity they need her for in return for cheap rent. She has to follow strict rules living in an apartment that's on school property.

      As Evie looks at the next page of a note her first crush, she laughs. Then she flips to a picture of her birth announcement. Her eyes focus on it for a minute. It's too blurry to understand what it says. 

      She gets up and goes to her bedroom and brings a copy of the original. She stares at the names confused. The woman who is named makes sense. She knows Brianna Andrews is her mother. But she doesn't know her dad's name. 

      The man named in the birth announcement isn't even from Australia, New Zealand, or Florida. All the places her mother has lived. 

      She recently met the man in the announcement and his kids. And he didn't seem to acknowledge her. His daughter looked like she could be related to her, but the boy she wasn't sure. But Kevin did look shocked. Kylie was caught off guard too. She and Kylie share the same full lips and the same wide nose. Kylie's eyes are the same shape as hers and the same color. Except for their skin tone and hair color, their faces were pretty similar. 

      Evie stares at the birth announcement as a tear runs down her cheek. She wipes it off. Either he doesn't remember her or he doesn't know about her. Either way, she had to figure out if he was actually her father. As for the other girl who was born with her, she's not sure if it's who she thinks. There was a girl in one of her foster homes who looked like her and acted like her who was her age and they shared the same birthday. She and that girl had the same skin color and hair. But she didn't share the same eyes, nose, lips, and facial structure as her. 

      Evie sits there contemplating if she should ask Kevin about it, but she's only known the Couture's for about a month. Her thoughts get interrupted when she receives a text. The text is ironically from Kylie. She's not sure what to tell her when she asks her if she wants to come over for dinner. She doesn't want to decline but also doesn't want to be around Kevin when she's unsure of what his connection to her and her birth mother is. So she politely accepts. 

      She doesn't know how she'll act when she's around him and Kylie. But she thinks it's about time to spend time with her new friend and her family. Most of the month she has been texting Kylie because the Couture's have been unpacking and getting settled into their house and buying stuff for Nicholas and Kylie before they start school.

      After Evie puts the birth announcement and Scrapbook away, she brings out her Sketch Book, colored pencils, and Copic markers to continue working on the costumes for the first play of the new school year. 

    Along with the Drama Instructor and Principals, she's the only one who knows what they are doing. She has always been in love with The Little Mermaid. As a kid, she thought it was because Ariel is a mermaid and she's obsessed with mermaids and sea life. But growing older she enjoyed it because it portrayed a little bit of Greek Mythology and she always thought it was interesting. She was shocked when she read the original tale of The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson. She immediately watched the Disney version afterward to see what they left out and toned down.

      As she's working on Ariel's skirt; she thinks of how she just wanted to remember the few good memories she had during foster care while flipping through her scrapbook, but she unexpectedly found some news about her family. News that not only raises questions but also news that gives her a little bit of hope.

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