Beautifully Broken

The Bridge

Ryker Pov

I quickly walk to my English class. I have never been happier to be in English class. The hour goes by fast and I quickly run to my next class undetected by Caleb, Violet, and Alana. I sit down and relax back in my seat. History class, an easy hour, we never do anything in this class. I sit there and begin to zone out as class starts. It's about fifteen minutes into class when I hear my name over the loudspeaker "Ryker Matthis to the office please? You need to leave for the day." I get my bag slightly confused about why I was missing the last two hours of class. I get to the office and see my CPS caseworker in the office waiting for me. "Come on Ryker, we need to leave." I nod my head. My CPS caseworker could pull me out of school because my foster parents called and gave permission. I go and get into Justin's car, "What happened Justin. Did I do something wrong?"
"No," Justin says looking at the light bruise the showed up on my cheek and the bruise that is next to my eye. "I need to make sure your new foster parents know about these bruises that just showed up." He says slightly mumbling. "New foster parents?"
"Yeah, Mr. and Mrs. Kolassa asked us to try and find you a more stable placement if we could."
"Also known as they don't want me around."
"No, also known as they want you to be safe and know that a group home is not the best environment for you."
"Sure," I say rolling my eyes looking out the window. Not that I was complaining that I had to leave, because I was quite excited to leave, I was scared the next place could be worse.

We pull up to my group home about forty-five minutes later. It's now 3:00, "okay, Ryker you have forty minutes before we need to leave. Can you get everything ready in that amount of time or do you need help?"
"I think I can manage," I say running upstairs leaving my backpack in the car. I pull out the duffle bag that Caleb's parents had given me to transfer my stuff in. They didn't like the fact I was transferring my belongings in a trash bag so they bought me a duffle bag instead. I quickly pack up all of my clothes and the few possessions I had and zipped up the duffle bag. I walk back downstairs and see Mr. and Mrs. Kolassa walking out of their office with Justin. "Alright Ryker, ready to go?"
"Yes, sir." I say "Thank you for letting me live here, thank you for everything you have done."
"It was a pleasure." Mrs. Kolassa said with a smile as her husband shook Justin's hand. "Alright bud, let's go." I walk out and set my duffle in the back seat. I climb into the front seat of Justin's car. "Okay, we need to go to the CPS office and do a little bit of paperwork and grab a few things for you then you can go meet your new foster family."
"Foster family? As in foster siblings?"
"Yes, your new foster parents have a few kids."
"Great. Little kids to deal with."
"Ryker."
"What, I don't typically stay in placements long. Maybe I can break my record this time." I say with a small laugh. "Yeah, maybe you can stay here for a whole four months," Justin says. "Aren't you the optimist, I was thinking of breaking my three-week record from the Nealsons, I think I can be moved out of this one in two weeks."
"Ryker, this is a nice family. Please try to be good, you might actually enjoy it here."
"No, I don't think I will." Justin lets out a sigh. I watch out the window slightly proud of myself that I had won the argument. We pull into the CPS office at 4:30. We get out and walk inside. We walk back into Justin's office and I sit in the chair against the wall. "Well, we need to leave at 5:15 to get to your new foster home on time, until then I have some toys that you can play with over there."
"I'm fifteen."
"There are legos. Who doesn't love legos." I roll my eyes I lay my head up against the wall and try to sleep for a few minutes. I guess I was successful because Justin woke me up at 5:15. "Okay, are you ready to meet your new foster family?" He asks me. I roll my eyes trying to keep my cool when really I want to meet this family. The way Justin talked about them maybe I could stay there for a record-breaking four months. We get in the car and drive to a nice area of town. We drive into a really nice neighborhood. "Justin, do I have to transfer schools?"
"No, this family is in the same district you are in. You don't have to transfer schools." I feel a sigh of relief. I was significantly farther away from Caleb's family now, and that scared me a little bit, but I was so happy that I could at least still see him at school. We pull into the driveway of a two-story house. It looked really nice. "This is where they live?" I ask almost in shock. "Yeah, are you excited to meet them?" I nod my head as I get out of the car. Justin grabs a file and I walk to the backseat to grab my backpack and duffle bag.