I'm startled out of my sleep by our age group's foster mother screaming. I hadn't actually taken the time to learn her name yet. I'd been here for a little while now, it was just that I didn't care all that much. There were several adults here that I still didn't know by name.
"Wake up ladies, it's adoption day." She announces with a booming voice going down each hallway.
I tiredly raise my head off the pillow and look at Maya through a squint, "What does that mean?" She sighs standing up, starting to get dressed.
"Parents come and judge you like you're some show pony and if they like you, they'll take you. If not, you're stuck here and you feel greatly insulted." I roll my eyes and flop my head back onto the bed.
Eventually we all rise to get dressed. I put my hair in a braid and flatten my sundress out. Kaylee saunters into my room already dressed and sits on my bed patiently waiting for me to do her hair.
I wasn't sure I wanted either of us to get adopted, I'd be eighteen in a few years and then I'd be able to take care of her on my own. We wouldn't need to rely on anyone else.
Still, I knew it was better to just go along with the antics of this place so I simply fix her outfit and pull her hair into frilly pigtails so she didn't radiate "I'm difficult," which was hard for Kaylee.
Once ready, we stand outside our room doors and watch as the couples are allowed in. They walk right by, criticizing us in front of our faces, sometimes stopping to stare like we were animals at a zoo. We were either too short, or too fat, too ugly, or just "didn't fit the family look."
I was beyond offended but I remained quiet and maintained my fake smile. A nice looking couple stopped in front of me and I prepared myself for another blow.
"So what's your name?" I was thrown off by the fact that they were actually speaking to me, and also shocked by the normalcy of the question, but still managed to gather myself and answer, "I'm Jessica, nice to meet you both... How are you?" They grin and I see I had their attention.
"Good, and you? How do you like it here?"
"Fine. This place isn't horrible there's just loads of chaos."
They smile at my candor but it was honestly just easier than trying to lie.
The women leans over to the man, I was used to this move, it meant they were going to discuss me.
"I like her."
Did not expect that.
He nods agreeing before they turn their attention back on me.
"Would you mind if we adopted you?" My eyes went wide involuntarily and my hand flew to my ring finger to practice my nervous habit as a wave of uncertainty hit me.
Woah.
I didn't anticipate us being chosen this early. We've only been here a few months. And that was less than a ten minute conversation, how were they so sure that they wanted to let me into their lives? What did this mean for me? New home? New family? I might be on board for that, but I'm not on board with leaving Kaylee. She hates this place and she would go nuts if I left her.
"um.. no, NO. I wouldn't mind that at all. But, my sister's here too and I can't leave her behind."
They nod understanding, "Which one is your sister?" I excuse myself quickly and go over to Kaylee. My palms started to sweat as my anxiety bubbled and I could only calm my mind by reminding myself that this would probably fall through, it usually does.
I spot her talking to a snobby-looking couple, the wife being engulfed by a fur coat while the man wore a stuffy tux. I cut in and excused her politely to bring her back with me.
"Be nice, be respectful, and just be yourself."
The couple and her have a nice conversation with me just observing their dynamic and mannerisms, I could tell Kaylee was a bit nervous because she didn't know these people and they were asking her a million questions, but I held her hand tightly and tried to comfort her.
"I think we can adopt the both of you, if they'll allow it." Kaylee's eyes grew double in size while my eyebrow quirked. I couldn't help feeling excitement at the notion, all I could think was, ten more feet, I was managing to keep me and my sister together. But where? Would we move from our town? Our state? Our country? I wasn't sure, and it was all happening so fast that it felt unrealistic.
"Where do you live?" Kaylee asks boldly, and I give her a reprimanding glance but felt undeniable relief that she asked so I didn't have to. "We live right around the corner from here, we actually just bought a house."
Processing that information put me on edge. There were multiple apartments and condos for sale around the neighborhood vicinity right now but the only house that seemed to be on the market was our old house. It wasn't a huge deal if it was our ticket out of here, I just didn't have any fond memories in that place.
I give a wide smile and nod, mentally demanding Kaylee to do the same so we didn't ruin this chance for ourselves.
Even though it would be my old house, at least it meant I could go to my old school and have the same acquaintances. It was extremely difficult being in a relationship with a boy I could only talk to on the phone, with the rare and supervised visits when he was free and parents lent him the car. It was torture.
The man adjusts his tie giving me a warm smile before grabbing his wife's hand, "We'll go speak to the director and sign some papers." We both return the expression and nod in acknowledgment before going to our respective rooms to pack.
Once in the sanctuary of my room I allow my smile to drop and sit on my bed for a moment feeling a bit overwhelmed. Soon Maya and Maddie rush in beaming excitedly.
"I'm getting adopted." Maddie announces out of breath trying to calm down and process the information. I smile hiding my own nerves, "I'm so happy for you." She practically jumps into my lap hugging me causing us both to laugh childishly.
"I'm sorry that I'm leaving you with this psycho." I smile as she pulls back to look at my face, "Actually you're not... I'm getting adopted too." Her eyes go wide as she gasps hugging me again, "Why aren't you more excited?!"
I sigh standing up collecting my items glad that I never fully unpacked.
"It's just happening really fast. Kind of just got here."
"Yeah this place is weird. It doesn't do that whole billion year wait for a kid. They do background checks on the parents that walk in, make sure they're not lunatics, make sure they have enough space and are financially stable enough to handle a kid, and then they let them take their pick. It's a very fast process."
I nod understanding, trying to listen to what she was saying while simultaneously wiping the sweat off my palms on my dress.
What I had learned about the foster kids in this building was that we were all orphans. It was the only reason adoptions like this were allowed. The system usually lets the parents of foster kids have a few chances to get their act together and get back into their kids lives, but if those parents aren't in the picture anymore, the kid is up for grabs by either foster homes or parents looking to adopt.
"Well you know what's freaking insane guys?" We both turned to Maya who had walked in a bit after us but hadn't spoken since she arrived, "Someone is considering me. And like, not as a joke." We smile and quickly go over enveloping her in a hug.
I was glad that my new friends were going to be happy, they deserved it after each enduring their own unique trauma, even if the coinciding timing was a bit unnerving. How odd that after years of adoption days for them, and a few months of being here for me, today was the day we all got sent away. I didn't mention it though knowing it would ruin the moment, and when we separate we all start to pack again.
"You know it's weird that you got picked up so quick Jess. People are here for years before couples even set their eyes on them."
"Maya." Maddie reprimands her, I smile and wave her off, "It's fine Maddie, she's right. I didn't expect it to happen so fast either. I'm just glad I'm not moving across the country or anything."
I finish my bag and sit on my bed watching them as they pack away their own clothes.
"Where are you moving?"
"I think it's my old house, they said they're only around the corner and the only house I've seen on the markets I've been keeping track of is my old one. Ever since you know... the incident."
They both look my way to see how I was feeling about it. "Are you okay with being in your old house?" I shrug and try to put on a look of confidence, "It's not like I have a choice. At least I'm familiar with the area. I'm just not ready for the stares I'm going to get from the neighbors that knew my parents and thought they were normal." The girls nod in understanding.
"Well, lucky for you, my new family is very close to that neighborhood so you'll still have me." I smile a genuine smile actually feeling relief.
"What about you Maya? Do you know where you'd be staying?" She shook her head with a shrug, "I forgot to ask for specifics but they said it wasn't too far from this place so I'm guessing I'll be relatively close to your horror house." She poked at me, "Maya." Maddie scolded her again but I simply rolled my eyes, "It's okay Maddie. I don't get offended by Maya's jokes. We're friends right? We're allowed to tease each other."
Both girls beam at my statement agreeing.
There's a knock at the door and we all turn our heads. "Jessica, your new parents are waiting." It felt weird to hear, "Coming." The lady leaves without another word.
I turn to the girls with a frown, "You both have my number, you can call at any time." They nod agreeing and we give each other short tender farewell hugs.
I wave walking out the door to see Kaylee waiting, standing next to the couple with a somewhat blank expression. I offer a warm grin putting an arm around my sister.
"We're going to be just fine." I whisper to her before kissing her head. She half smiled, "Ten more feet right?" I chuckle in agreement, "Ten more feet."
~~~
"I'm sorry but I never caught your names."
"Greg and Maria."
"But we have no problem with you calling us "Mom" and "Dad." Whatever you're more comfortable with."
My eyes go a bit wide at her statement. It was way too soon for me to consider her my mother, but if it made her feel better I guess I wouldn't make a big deal about it.
I questioned the home coordinator before we left and found out that Maria couldn't have kids and that's why they were looking to adopt. They had tried taking in regular foster kids at first but the uncertainty of how long they'd stay and the inability to form a solid connection with them because of it traumatized her a bit. She wanted kids of her own but they apparently weren't interested in adopting a baby, they knew the system had kids that were older and needed parents. And though the orphaned foster kids were usually traumatized, I could tell she had a healing personality and somewhat of a savior complex.
It was obvious she just wanted us to call her "mom" so she could truly feel like a mother, it was understandable. And they were making a huge sacrifice taking us in, so if she wanted me to call her "The queen of hearts," that's what I would do. Even if it made me a bit uncomfortable.
"What do you guys do?"
"We're both doctors, different specialties." I nod taking in the information.
Kaylee was utterly silent holding my hand as we sat in the backseat, I knew she just needed to warm up to them. I squeeze her hand indicating I wanted her to ask them a few questions to break the ice.
"Uh... where are you guys from?"
"Well we were both born here but my wife has a bit of Latina blood." He said it playfully utilizing a stupid voice while nudging her which made me chuckle as she lightly hit his arm. Even Kaylee had to express a small giggle.
"Have you guys ever traveled?"
"Not much time to travel, do you know how many years of schooling it takes to be a doctor?"
"No, how many?"
"Too many to count. And it was exhausting. By the time I was out, I was practically on my deathbed."
I couldn't help but enjoy his comical expressions and evident amusement at his own joke.
"You're nowhere near old enough to be saying that."
"Well thanks Jess." We both grin warmly at each other through the rear view mirror before he goes back to paying attention to the road.
"So they told us you two were a bit famous. What for?"
Kaylee's body went stiff and I quickly squeezed her hand demanding her to keep quiet and maintain her face so they wouldn't suspect anything.
"Our birth parents were a bit nutzo and they've been on the news a few times, and I'm sure they've mentioned our names." They both nod believing my tale. It wasn't exactly a lie, but I wanted to feel them out before we gave them the full truth.
We get to the old house as I predicted and it took me a second before I could force myself out of the car.
"Jess what's wrong?" Maria immediately questions me, I shrug trying not to worry her, "Old neighborhood." She helped me grab my bags, "You two used to live around here?" I nod shutting the trunk behind her before walking in, "Yeah. Brings back memories." She sets my stuff down at the front then turns to me, "Good or bad?" I half smile looking away from her, "A little bit of both."
I finally start to absorb the scenery. Everything looked different. The walls were a calming sunny yellow and the floors were a glossy wood. They had replaced all the furniture and installed new lights. Together, it gave the house an unfamiliar brightness. The tables were a nice mahogany with couches that had beautiful comfy looking embroidered cushions. The rugs were fuzzy matching the color of the couches and all the curtains were open. There were numerous paintings, mirrors, and glass decorations taking up empty spaces. This place was completely disparate from the dark, bare-walled house I lived in before.
"What do you think?"
"It's beautiful." She smiles pleased with my answer.
"You guys can decide what rooms you want. I'm sorry they're so bare, I just wanted you guys to be able to decorate it however you pleased." She seemed extremely anxious to please us, and I could also see her waiting for Kaylee to say something, anything.
"It's amazing. Thank you." I try to reassure her before pushing Kaylee up the stairs. Everything up here looked foreign as well and I loved it.
"Can you be a bit nicer?" I reprimand Kaylee as I continued looking around. "I'm just trying to get used to it. It's a lot."
She goes into her old room and I assumed that was the one she was going to claim so I hesitantly walk into mine. I was once again pleasantly surprised to find it completely changed. The once freezing room was now warm, with carpeted floors and a large white queen-sized bed with silk sheets. I had an overhead fan that wasn't there before, along with a nice white vanity and nightstand table. I could hardly remember which spots used to be stained with blood.
I began unpacking and settled in, finding a place for all my items. I didn't want to change a single thing about my room, it felt perfect.
When I was all done I bounced back down the stairs to see Greg sitting at the island kitchen bar talking to his wife while she prepared dinner. It was an adorable sight and I hoped that when I was older, married with kids I would be able to find little moments in the day to just sit and talk with the people I cared about. All I wanted was to grow up and not deal with the kind of crazy I've had to deal with for years.
"Hey, can I go see a friend of mine? They live like two houses down." They both turn to me before Maria answers, "Yeah sure. Just don't be too long, I'm making dinner." I nod agreeing before going back up the stairs to grab my phone.
I poke my head into Kaylee's room and find her slowly unpacking her belongings, "I'm going to the Gonzalez house. You coming?" She immediately brightens up and drops everything to follow.
We get to their house in record time, with Kaylee practically making me chase after her, and knock on the familiar door.
The door swings open to reveal Diego on the phone, he sees us and stumbles on his words as his eyes go wide, "I-I'll call you right back," He puts his phone down before pulling the both of us into a tight hug.
"Holy crap, what are you guys doing here?" We both giggle as he releases us not really knowing how to explain the situation.
"Who's at the door Diego?" Lilith calls to her husband sounding annoyed. "Come see for yourself." He responds excited making my sister and I roll our eyes. Lily saunters over and as soon as she spots us she gasped, "Am I seeing things? Get over here." And we both rush to hug her.
She pulls away and holds my face, "How are you?" I smile enjoying the familiarity of her touch, "I'm fine. It's not as bad as the movies make it seem." She lets out a sigh of relief giving me another squeeze.
"Did you take care of her?" She pulls Kaylee close to her as she questions me. "Yes, I took amazing care of my sister." She looks down at Kaylee who was shaking her head playfully in disagreement.
They laugh as I gasp at Kaylee's response.
"Please go greet my son who's been in this stupid dramatically depressed state since you left." I half smile feeling guilty for actually being a bit happy that he missed me so much. "You're a psychologist. Aren't you supposed to be able to fix him?" We walk past the couple going into the house, "Yeah. Psychologist not miracle worker."
I smirk jogging up the stairs to his room knocking on the door lightly. He lets out a loud annoyed groan which made me scrunch my nose confused. "Go away mother."
I stifled my laugh shaking my head before knocking again. "I'm not in the mood." There's a noise on the other side of the door which I assumed was him throwing something, probably a pillow.
I decide against waiting for his permission to come in and open the door before crossing my arms over my chest.
"If I walk all the way back home, I'm not coming back." He looks up shocked before jumping out of bed and picking me up. I giggle hugging him tightly.
"Holy shit, how are you here?" I grin as he puts me down but doesn't let me go. "It's a weird long story. This couple like— adopted us..? Not sure why, but they moved us into my old house and—" He interrupts me, "Jess I really just want to kiss you." I rolled my eyes knowing exactly what he meant not even offended that he wasn't really focusing on my story, "Fine."
He smirks pulling me closer to him by my waist, pushing the hair out of my face, and staring into my eyes for a moment making me feel extremely nervous and excited before he covered my mouth in a gentle kiss allowing me to experience something completely new and foreign.
I did not wake up this morning thinking that this was how my day would go. He made me feel something I never wanted to stop feeling. I felt the heat start in my toes going all the way up to my face and bubbling in my stomach, a kind of heat I knew he could feel as he kept one hand expertly on my cheek and the other low on my waist.
Oh my.
It was slow and gentle at first, but after a few seconds it felt like lighting as a million fireworks exploded all over. I almost couldn't breathe, but if that was my payment for this feeling, I was fine with never breathing again.
If it wasn't for his muscular arms holding me up my knees surely would have buckled from how fast my heart was beating. It felt like forever but only lasted a few moments before he slowly pulled away and examined my face closely. First my lips then my eyes. I was out of breath and speechless.
"Was that special enough for you? Did you get your fireworks?" I chuckled slowly trying to catch my breath and push the heat away from my face, "Any more fireworks and I probably would have imploded." He smirked before shaking his head and kissing my forehead, "You're a handful Cortez."
~~~
I lay on his chest hearing our sisters' combined giggles next door.
"I need to get going soon." He calmly runs his fingers through my hair, "I don't want you to go." I smile shifting my position so I was now facing him, "I don't want to worry my new parents." He sighs running his thumb along my cheek. The atmosphere was extremely peaceful and I honestly never wanted to leave my comfortable position in his arms, but I had to. I didn't want to make Maria and Greg think they made a huge mistake adopting us.
"Why don't you just ask them if you can sleep over?"
"They don't even know I'm at my boyfriend's house. If I want their trust, I'm already off to a bad start." He watches me curiously as I sit up.
"So where do they think you are?"
"A friend's house." He throws his head back laughing and I pout suddenly feeling guilty. He quickly and gently pecks me making me blush taken by surprise.
"What?" He questioned my reaction, I shake my head putting loose strands of hair behind my ear, "You just, made me nervous." A cocky smirk appears and I roll my eyes reprimanding myself for feeding his ego.
I stand up grabbing my phone from his nightstand table before turning to him seeing he was settled in his bed. "Come on. You're walking me out." I hold my hand out and he groans dramatically before taking my hand and standing up.
"Let's go Kaylee we're leaving." She stomps out of Camila's room without saying anything before jogging down the stairs and waiting at the front door. Jayden and I look at each other equally as lost before brushing it off and walking down the stairs slowly.
I shout a goodbye to his parents as I open the front door to leave.
"Bye." He pecks my lips once more, his hand dangerously low on my hips before I lightly smack it away pushing him and giggling at his stupidity. "Bye," He teases in a sing-song voice and I roll my eyes grabbing a hold of my sister walking home.
Once we arrive we find both of them at the table talking and waiting for us.
"Well you guys took your time."
"Really sorry, we just lost track."
"Lighten up Greg we're in the middle of summer and they're both responsible girls."
I smile at Maria defending us as we join them at the table, "Time flies when you're having fun." Greg chuckles as he picks out a board game from the stack he had on the table and Maria gives us each full plates of food.
We looked like an average family, and it was starting to feel like a normal family.