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.
I see a Man and Woman walk out of the house to meet us in the driveway. The woman puts out her hand. "My name is Jennifer" I shake her hand and smile. Then the man sticks out his hand "Clark." I shake his hand as well. "My name is Ryker."
"We are so glad to have you here Ryker. Our kids can't wait to meet you."
"I'm excited to meet them, I get along okay with younger kids..." My sentence was stopped midway by Clark. "Oh, no. Ryker your the youngest. Our daughter is fifteen, and our sons are sixteen and seventeen." I must have had a confused look on my face. "Don't worry they are all excited to have a little brother around the house," Jenifer says. I must have started blushing a little bit. I didn't think I was going to be the youngest. I pick up my duffle from the ground and follow Jenifer and Clark inside. "We're going to go talk to Justin in the dining room. Chase come here! Chase will show you to your room." I see Chase Harris come around the corner He runs up to the front door. "Yeah, Dad?"
"Can you show Ryker to his room?"
"Yeah, no problem follow me." He says motioning for me to follow him around the corner. I follow him around the corner and up the stairs. We walk into a second living room. Chase starts walking into one of the rooms. "Your room is right here. Next to Carsons. Mine and Alana's are on the other side of the room. Just knock if you need anything." He says before walking across the room. I set my bags down on my bed and start to unpack a little bit. I was shocked, to say the least when I realized whose family I was living with, then the argument from a few hours ago resurfaced in my mind. I hear a soft knock at my door and quickly turn to see Alana standing there. "Did you know?" I ask. "Yeah, my parents told us at lunch."
"Is that why you were acting weird."
"Yeah, I'm not gonna lie it shocked me a little bit." I let out a small laugh. "So I guess I get to experience this family that you keep talking about firsthand."
"Yeah, I hope you like it. Maybe you can stick around for a while." I nod my head. "Have you meet my Brothers?"
"I meet Chase and I've meet Carson at school a few times."
"Well, School Carson and Home Carson are two different people."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I like Home Carson a lot better." She says as I see Carson sneak up behind her. He pokes her sides causing her to scream. She jumps back into his chest, he wraps his arms around her to stop her from falling to the floor. "Carson!" She screams while laughing. Carson puts out one of his hands still keeping a tight grip on Alana with his other arm. "Hi, I don't think we've officially met. My name is Carson, I'm seventeen, I'm the oldest." I shake his hand "I'm Ryker, I'm fifteen."
"It's nice to meet you, Ryker." He says before looking at Alana. "I'm gonna steal her really quick, it was nice to meet you." The next thing I knew I saw him carrying Alana, she just relaxed and accepted him carrying her. "I've learned not to fight, He always wins anyway." She waves as she is carried off into his bedroom.
Alana POV
Carson carries me into his bedroom and closes the door behind us. "You know I don't like it when you carry me."
"I know and I'm sorry, but I really needed to talk to you and that was the fastest way to get you."
"Just because it's the fastest doesn't mean it's the best."
"I know, I'm sorry."
"What do you want Carson."
"I don't know."
"No, you know. Tell me." He sits there and ponders for a minute, "If Ryker and Caleb are best friends does that mean Caleb is going to be over here more often because He's already over here a lot." I roll my eyes. "Carson." He smiles at me. "Alana it's nothing."
"Carson, if it's important to you it's not nothing." He takes a deep breath. "When I was downstairs I overheard Mom, Dad, and the caseworker."
"And?"
"I overheard that Ryker's parental rights were severed."
"Yeah? I've known that for a while now."
"Don't you find it odd that Mom and Dad bring in a foster kid that's our age with no parental rights? I mean the last time they did that we got stuck with you." My mouth drops open and I backhand his arm. He lets out a laugh as I glare at him. "No, I don't think this is the same situation."
"You don't think Mom and Dad are going to adopt him?"
"No, He was in a group home and..."
"Yeah, I know what happens there. Is that where the bruises are from?" I nod my head. I get up and walk back to my room not wanting to continue this conversation further. Carson follows me out and walks towards Rykers room.
Carson POV
I walk over to Ryker's door and knock so He knows I'm there. I slowly open the door and see him sitting on his bed. "Hey Buddy, you want to play?" He gives me a weird look "I'm fifteen, not five."
"I know, sorry I haven't had a younger boy around the house for a while."
"Didn't you say Chase was younger than you?"
"Yeah, but I was adopted when I was nine and Chase was eight so this is how we talked to each other." I walk over and sit next to Ryker on his bed. "Then you got Alana when you were how old?"
"Well, she's been with us for just over a year now. We got her last September and the Adoption was finalized in March I think."
"Really?"
"Yeah, My mom always wanted a little girl so when she heard about Alana they decided to try to adopt her."
"Do you know why they took me in?"
"No, sorry I don't," I said pushing his hair out of his eyes. He flinched when he saw my hand go for his face, but let me push the hair from his eyes. Moving his hair only reviled more bruises though. He must have seen concern on my face because he quickly pulled away. When I was about to say something we heard Mom's voice from downstairs. "Kids Dinner!"