September 8th 2011
I dragged my large bag to the trunk of the worn out Toyota. I glance at my aunt again as she slams the door to the drivers seat. I make the wise decision of sitting in the back seat. I pull the brochure out of my pocket for the thousandth time.
Bumpy Roads juvenile home is a great way to get a teen their needs since most are so close to 18 we do the reasonable thing and house them until they are ready and prepared to leave to start their own successful lives. But we do have other options if you would much rather your teen to not stay till 18.
1) 1-6 month housing includes group sessions about acceptable behavior.
2) 1-4 year housing includes therapy sessions with Dr. Grant and group sessions.
3) Housing till 18 gives you both sessions and you have to stay in the commons house for your permanent stay.
I drop the pamphlet down mortified. I am going to be staying at fucking Bumpy Roads until I'm 18 because I'm such a fuck up. I leaned my head on the window holding back my tears. I already had all night last night to cry about this, so I'm not going to start right now.
I am Caspian, also known as Cass. I just turned 15 a couple months ago. I have been living with my aunt ever since I was 9 because my parents decided to move off to Cambridge Jamaica for research, but sadly the both got infected by a rare fungi, my father died last year and my mother is still getting treatments till this very day... My dad was cremated, my mother thought it'd be nice for me to have part of his ashes with me, so she sent me a necklace with a heart pendant, which when you open it reveals the ashes that is covered by glass, on the glass it says:
Let Go
I'm not exactly sure if that was supposed to motivational or not, but I treasure it. I look out my window to see a sign that says Bloomington, IN . I sighed knowing we were going to be at my new home in a matter of minutes. My eyes started to prickle. My aunt turned on a dirt road, we kept driving further out into the country, but it was still considered to be in the Bloomington area. We reached these three houses one in the middle clearly marked commons house. I literally almost started hyperventilating. My aunt got out quickly and went over to my side and wrenched open the door that I was leaning on. I fell to the dirt floor with a thud. I groan as I get up off the ground dusting myself off.
" You did this to yourself." My aunt reminded me as she dropped my duffle on the dirt road. I look at it for awhile before looking at her in the eyes. She gave me no emotions which made me upset.
"Why are you doing this? I already lost my parents." I say quietly as I was looking this woman in the eyes trying to get something out of her.
"Cass, I didn't ask for a kid in the first place! And you remember those rules we set down when you stepped foot in my house, you get 3 chances then you're out, you're lucky that I let you slide on the third time but i thought that meant you wouldn't screw it up, but here we are" She coldly stares back at me as she goes into her shirt pocket and pulls out a cigarette.
"But, you promised my dad, your brother, that you would take care of me." My voice was shaking as I tried to hold my tears back. She lit the cigarette and scoffed.
"Promises were made to be broken." She took a long drag and blew it in my face.
"You hag." I pick up my bag and start dragging it towards the commons house, but as I was walking away my aunt yelled to me.
"See ya when your 18 Cass!" Feeling bold I put my hand up high in the air flipping her off. I hear her tires roll away on the dirt path. When I reach the porch to the commons house I freeze. This is it, my new home. I lift my hand hesitantly and give 3 raps on the door. I hear foot steps, the door swings open and I'm greeted by a girl who looks 12.
"How may I help you?' Her voice is high pitched and it makes me want to bite my ears off, I shake off the thought and give her a smile.
"I'm Caspian." The girls eyes go wide for a second, then she starts laughing. Slightly annoyed I glare at the girl.
"I'm sorry, but Mama Vi thought you were a boy!" I fold my arms over my chest and growl.
"Well clearly I'm not." I hear more foot steps and one more person approached.
"Mama Vi, this is Caspian!" The little girl continued to giggle, and I look up to who I believe to be Mama Vi, she's kinda chubby with dark brown curly hair, and she's wearing a floral shirt with khaki capries. She places a hand on her forehead and closes her eyes.
"Oh dear, this is not good, we accepted you because we thought you were a boy and we had the room, oh my goodness." She opened her eyes for a second looking at me. I never considered my appearance until now. My raven black hair is usually put into a messy bun or ponytail, I wear band T-shirts and skinny jeans, and as always, my red Chuck Taylors. In these two seconds I also questioned my nationality, the little girl was clearly black, so they should be okay with a Japanese/Hispanic in their house right?
"Well come on in Caspian, I'm really sorry about the mix up, but we have no more housing rooms for girls in any of the homes here in Bumpy Roads." I bit the inside of my cheek, trying to think of something, but I'm brought out of my thoughts when somebody came bounding down the stairs.
"Is the new guy here yet?" I look to see a tall blonde boy around my age, he's wearing a Walk the Moon shirt and grey sweatpants. I'm not afraid to admit that I was checking him out. He points a me with his thumb. "Who's this?" Mama Vi clears her throat.
"This is Caspian, there was a slight mix up with the name and all, are systems mustive assumed or something." She started talking to herself as she was deep in thought.
"Soo, what I'm hearing is that a girl is moving in with me?" The boy raises his brows slightly with excitement etched on his face. Me and the little girl scoff and both say "As if." Mama Vi's brows are pulled together in thought.
"I think you just might have to room with Ross here." My jaw drops at this woman's insanity.
"Are you crazy?" I start pacing back and forth shaking my head.
"Well if we don't, then I'm going to have to put you in a foster home, and you might not get to come back here." I stop pacing and plop down in a chair cause' I know she's right.
"Oh come on! We'll be best buds!" The boy who's name I had already forgotten put his arm around me. I flinch at his touch but remind myself to relax.
"Okay, I'll do it." The little girl's jaw dropped. Then the boy grabbed my hand making me flinch again.
"I'll show you our room then." He pulls me up stairs as I struggle with my bag. We passed a couple of doors with white boards on them and names like Zac or Martin we turned a corner, at the very end of the hallway was a door with the name Ross neatly written on it along with some badly drawn penis'. He lets go of my hand and erases the board muttering the word Jerks. He rewrites his name then put &Caspian. I rolled my eyes at the new edition. He grabs my hand, again, making me flinch, again. He pushes open the door to reveal a slightly messy room on one side but the other side looks bland. Just white sheets and a bare wall, but Ross' side has colors of red and white. I grab my bag and throw it on the bed and look around.
"You get half of the closet and those two drawers. I nodded my head as I started to take out my stuff already hanging my shirts. I glance at Ross' shirts to see he has just as much band T-shirts as me. I guess Ross seen me staring.
"What's your favorite band?" I shrug my shoulders and continue to hang up clothes.
"Paramore, Greenday, The 1975, Beatles, and sometimes the Vamps." I go back over to my bag and get my jeans and my only two pairs of shorts and fold them into a drawer. Then go back to get my socks, underware, and bras. But I dropped something when I was walking back to the drawers. Ross picked it up snickering. To my demise Ross picked up my red thong. I snatched it out of his hand and stuffed it in the drawer. I then went back to my bag and grabbed my books and journals setting them under my bed for safe keeping.
I plop down on the bed with a huff and close my eyes feeling exhausted from the turn of events today, and its barely 3:00 in the afternoon.
"so, what's your story?" I open my eyes and look to the side to see Ross on his bed too, his bed is not that far away. I could poke his cheek from where I am. I look back up at the ceiling and shrugged.
"I fucked up." Ross sits up on his bed and rolls his eyes.
"Yeah? Well so did everybody else in this house. Now what's your story." I rolled over and propped myself up on my elbow and snorted.
"I'm not just gonna tell you, you have to earn my trust." I thought about something for awhile.
"How about you tell me something that no one knows about you?" Ross looks off to the side and sighs.
"When I was 5 I used to have a fish named butthead, and I thought it'd be cool to put him in the microwave. But it wasn't, there was butthead all over that microwave." I chuckled a bit.
"let me guess you had a best friend that named their fish Beevus?" Ross nodded his head seriously. Making me laugh.
"Okay now spill, why are you such a fuck up?" I sit up on my bed and pull my knees up to my chest.
"I've always been one, I guess this fuck up was the last fuck up."