"No"
"Come on honey, try it"
"No"
Leanne pushed the shirt into Sarah's unwilling arms. The girls had been shopping all morning and so far Sarah had barely gotten anything and Leanne was getting quite exasperated. Sunny and Carly had left hours ago to do their own things. They had gotten everything they needed and got quite bored with Sarah's picky taste.
"I am never going to wear that" Sarah mumbled. Leanne puffed her cheeks in annoyance. She was going to try another tactic.
"What is the first rule of survival?" Leanne asked bluntly.
"Blending in" Sarah mumbled with a frown. Leanne raised an eyebrow and waited for Sarah to say something. The young girl sighed dramatically and stomped her way to the changing room. Leanne grinned and pumped her fist in the air in victory.
Sarah mumbled the entire time as she stripped her coat off and put the thin long sleeved shirt on. It was a light yellow colour and Sarah almost puked at her reflection in the giant mirror. She stepped out of the room and Leanne put a hand on her mouth and tried to stifle a laugh.
"My mistake, you can take it off now" Leanne giggled and Sarah rolled her eyes while slamming the door. Once she was out again and into her oversized old coat she glared at the older woman. "Fine, if you are really bent on buying me clothes then I want dark, not light. No dresses or skirts and I don't want fluffy nor tight and no designs"
Leanne nodded and took notes. They walked out of the shop and made their way down the alleyway where there were plenty of different clothing stores. Sarah looked around uninterested in what she saw. Who knew shopping was so difficult and Sarah honestly hated shopping. To see so many people buying so many useless things made Sarah's blood boil. Most of these people disregarded the fact that others had no money to even buy food. They spent left and right as if money meant nothing while less fortunate people struggled to earn a penny.
Sarah stopped in front of a shop that looked decent and walked in. Leanne followed her already disapproving of the style but being a lady with good manners, stayed silent. Whatever clothing the brown haired girl wanted, Leanne would accept it and buy them as long as it allowed her to get rid of the horrid piece of attire both girls owned.
This time it was easier for Sarah to choose. She picked long sleeve shirts, pants, sweaters and t-shirts on Leanne's behalf. Sarah was not keen on wearing short sleeved shirts but bought some anyway just to make the older woman stop being so pushy. Leanne insisted on buying more than what Sarah needed and the girl was tired of arguing. By the time they were done shopping, it was late in the evening and both of them were exhausted.
They made their way to Chapters, a book store, and went looking for Sunny and Carly. They found the others at the little coffee shop at the end of the store. Carly was sitting in front of Sunny reading a fashion magazine while the little Japanese girl had her nose in an anatomy brick. Leanne sat down while Sarah went to get a cup of coffee.
"Finally, we were about to leave without you" Carly said without lifting her eyes from her magazine. Leanne smiled and ruffled her daughter's hair. "Not the hair", Carly squirmed away slapping her mother's hand away. Leanne laughed and turned her attention to Sunny who had yet to greet them. She was writing down notes in her paper book.
"Don't bother" Carly said "We came here to relax and here she is studying about the human body. She hasn't said a thing since we sat down"
Sarah came back with two coffees and sat down on the remaining chair. She gently tucked a strand of Sunny's hair behind her ear which startled the young girl. Sarah cocked her head to the side to see Sunny's confused expression when she slowly looked up from her reading and smiled.
"Finally getting notes of it huh?" Sarah chuckled.
"Yep. I'm almost done" Sunny grinned.
"Are you not a little young to be studying the anatomy, sweetie?" Leanne asked perplexed "Shouldn't you be reading about love and gossip?"
"I like the anatomy. I learned so much by reading it" Sunny said. "You don't gain anything by reading a love story"
"Who told you that?" Carly asked offended. She loved sappy romance stories.
"Sarah" Sunny said with a shrug of the shoulders. Carly turned her attention to the older girl but was interrupted by her mother who didn't want any arguments today.
"Do you want to become a doctor?" Leanne asked curiously.
"No, it's for self defense" Sunny's grinned faltered a little. "Ever since we met, Sarah either took books from the library or we would come here to study about things that would help us survive crucial events" She explained "We tried to divide the subjects and teach each other to better understand. Sarah learned about things like mechanism so she could deconstruct a car or start it without a key and I learned about the anatomy of the human body so Sarah doesn't have to protect me all the time.
"It helped a lot but I had gotten a bit rusty so I decided to refresh my memory and reread the books" Sunny finished. Sarah had taught Sunny how to defend herself against men bigger than her. She learnt about an artery that was hidden in the inside of the leg which was low enough for her to attain.
She remembered once when she had to use a knife against a mugger. It was two years ago and Sarah had been fighting against a drunken man when a second one grabbed Sunny from behind although she was never without a knife. It was a gift her foster sister had given her a few months after they met and Sunny always kept it close to her. She always hid it in her boot where it would not be in the way.
-
"Don't worry Sunny, we'll be back tomorrow, ok?" Sarah said as she opened the door for her ten year old protégé. Sunny had been going to the library every night for the past week. They were living in this crappy house with a horrible, horrible couple who hated each other so much, they would yell constantly and throw things at each other. Sunny was scared of them and Sarah hated being in the house, but they were obligated to stay there until the woman in charge of them would find them a new house which, apparently, was getting harder by the year.
"Onee-san, why can't I read novels?" Sunny asked as she hopped in front of the older girl. "Why can't I read books about dragons and fairies and princesses?"
"Because you don't gain anything from them" Sarah said as she grabbed Sunny's hand and twirled her around. Sunny giggled but it was cut short when strong hands grabbed her from behind. She screamed in surprise before trying to fight her way out of the iron grip that was holding her.
"Sunny" Sarah screamed. She stepped towards her sister but a man stopped in front of her.
"Hey girly, what'cha doin'?" one guy slurred. His breath smelled alcohol and his eyes were bloodshot red. He sneered and grabbed Sarah's forearm, but Sarah, who had been practicing fighting used an aikido move to remove her wrist from his grip and ran around him to where Sunny was. Unfortunately she didn't get far as greasy fingers found themselves tangled into her hair. Sarah's head was jerked back as the guy pulled her back and punched her in the stomach.
"Bitch" he snarled as Sarah fell on her knees. The guy lifted his leg and swung downwards to kick her but Sarah caught it and pulled until the guy was off balance and fell on his back. Both of them got up with grunts and looked at each other with pure hatred and disgust before lunging at each other.
Meanwhile, Sunny was screaming and trashing around in the man's string hold but to no avail. He dragged the little girl further and further into the alley. Sunny tried to call for help but a fat sweaty hand covered her mouth. She could hear Sarah's voice and fighting.
Sunny was so scared that she had forgotten everything her sister had taught her. She couldn't remember what to do or how to relax. Her brain was frozen into an abyss where she couldn't find her way. She could hear Sarah screaming something and tried to understand the words.
"Knife Sunny, use your knife"
Sunny finally comprehended the words and remembered something. Sarah had given her a knife for her birthday and she always kept it in her boot. Information started to flow back into her brain and she could start to think properly. Sunny also remembered what she had been reading about the anatomy and knew what she had to do. Still trashing around the big man's arms, Sunny reached out and grabbed the knife that was securely in her boot. She opened the blade and rammed it into the man's upper leg. The man screamed and let Sunny's small body go. As soon as she was on her feet, the Japanese girl ran towards her sister who was being beaten by another guy. She took a wood board that was lying by the trash and hit the guy's head as hard as she could. But Sunny was only ten years old. The evil man didn't even fall on the ground though he was stunned long enough for Sarah to recover. She grabbed Sunny's hand and ran as fast as they could away from the two men.
Sarah pulled the younger girl into a park and once she deemed to be far enough she stopped running. Sunny fell to the ground exhausted and pulled her knees to her chest. She rested her head to subdue the on-going headache and started to cry.
"Gomennsai, gomennasai" Sunny cried.
"Why are you sorry?" Sarah asked "Sunny, you did nothing wrong"
Sarah sat down Sunny and rubbed her back soothingly. The younger girl leaned into the touch until her head was on Sarah's chest and the older girls arms were securely wrapped around her. She quietly spoke with comforting words to her sister to calm her down.
The man had beaten Sarah pretty good but she refused to let it show because all of her attention was on Sunny. They stayed like this for a while until Sunny stopped crying.
"I won't read any romance story, I promise" Sunny said into her sister's shoulder.
"It's not what I meant" Sarah whispered "I'm sorry I pushed you to hard" Sunny lifted her head and looked at Sarah's beaten face.
"No, you were right; it doesn't do any good"
-
"Sunny? Are you ok?" Leanne asked from beside her. Startled, Sunny jumped a little before shaking her head to remove the memory and smiled sweetly at the older woman.
"I'm fine thanks"
"Good, because I'm starving" Carly said to lighten up the mood. All four of them got up and picked their tons of shopping bags and walked out of the store but not before Carly walked into an aisle and came back with a book. She silently went to pay for it and handed it to Sunny.
"Here, read this. Once you are done, we can talk about it, and if or if not it's worth reading a romantic story." Carly smiled at the little Japanese girl and joined her mother by the front door. Sunny was startled by the nice gesture and looked at the book. It was a romantic adventure novel with werewolves and vampires.
When they arrived home, Leanne cooked diner and changed into her work clothes. She had a night shift and was already going to be late. She kissed her kids and Sunny goodnight without notice as if it was the most normal thing to do to a girl she fostered less than a week. Leanne waved Sarah goodbye and was out of the door before anyone could finish their food. Since Dean was on a business trip, the kids would be alone for the night. Even though it was against the rules for Sarah to be alone in a house without supervision, Leanne trusted her to behave while she was gone.
Minutes later, when Ben was teaching Sunny how to play Call of Duty, another car arrived in front of the mansion. Carly finished her super, put her dirty dishes on the counter and quickly made her way to the bathroom. She came out prepped and pampered to go to a party with tight jeans shorts and a bikini top. Even though it was below fifteen Celsius that night, Ken, who was organizing the party since his father was not there, had a house bigger than Carly's and a steaming hot pool in the back.
Carly was almost out of the house when she noticed Sarah looking at her disapprovingly. Carly rolled her eyes and put her coat on.
"Don't tell mom and dad" Carly said before walking out of the house.
Sarah sighed, hoping that her blond foster sister would not get into any trouble tonight. Instead of worrying for a sixteen years old girl who is old enough to make decisions, Sarah went to find Sunny and Ben. She found them sitting on the floor in Ben's bedroom playing god knows what, but by looking at the screen, Sarah was already disapproving of the game. She had seen enough blood and guns to want to play it in a virtual world.
Sarah watched the kids play on the consoles for a few more hours until it was time to go to bed. Ben was slowly getting used to Sarah's presence and was beginning to relax when she was near him. He wasn't scared the whole time she was lying on his bed because he was in fact in awe of her. He thought she was like this really cool anti-hero warrior with battle scars he was craving to see. Ben had an imagination big enough to create imaginary worlds where his family and friends were awesome characters and both Sunny and Sarah didn't fail to part of his stories.
That night, Sarah was in dire need of sleep after a stressful day of shopping. Something she had never bothered to do before since most of her clothes were stolen or from the Value Village for less than ten dollars. Instead of the sunlight which Sarah had hoped would wake her up, it was the sound of her new ringtone. Sleepily, Sarah reached out to grab her IPhone and put it to her ear.
"Yeah?" Sarah grumbled.
"Sarah" Carly shaky voice cried from the other side of the line. "Please come get me"
4p