-Oliver-
The day at school ended way too soon. I never thought I'd be sad about it, but now I was. I waited for Jaden and the others by the exit, wanting to spend a few more minutes with them before I had to go home. I could feel Natalie close by, and when I closed my eyes, I could feel Jaden too somewhere at the far end of the school. He was on his way to me.
While I waited, I focused on the spirits around me. Most of them were a little wary of me, and when I opened my eyes, I could see a lot of them giving me nervous looks. They weren't afraid of me, more like... Amazed.
That was so odd... I'd spent countless of days in this building, feeling invisible. Well... I had been invisible a lot. It was weird to have so much attention to myself. I wasn't a fan of it.
I turned to look outside, trying to forget the people around me, and focused on that one bright light in my reality that was quickly approaching me. Jaden. He was almost there. I turned around to see him walk towards me with Arch and Tilly on his heels.
I smiled at him and stayed still, waiting for him to get to me. When he did, he immediately pulled me into a hug, taking in a deep breath.
I really wanted to go back with him. Back to his territory. I didn't want to spend the rest of the day all alone again. That thought made me feel bad because of course I wouldn't be alone with the caretakers and the kids, but... It had stopped being my home the moment Henry tried to steal Jaden's Echo.
We spent a few moments outside, not really talking much. The mood was gloomy, and way too soon, Natalie appeared next to her car. She stood there without saying a word, just watching me. I knew it was time to go, so I turned to say goodbye to Jaden.
"I'll come visit you this evening," he muttered.
"You shouldn't," I said quietly, no matter how badly I wanted him to come. "It's not safe."
"The fuck I care? I'm an alpha now, I can do what I want," he told me, all huffy and puffy.
I smiled at him, but still, I shook my head with a sigh. "You can't fight against shadows."
"What shadows? The entire town is blasted full of wards," Jaden snorted.
"And yet we're still in constant danger," Arch said quietly.
"It's not gotten any better?" I asked him, and he shook his head.
"I still get bombarded by warnings," he told me. "We're not safe, no matter what they tell us."
"Would you be surprised if I told you I'm not surprised?" I asked, and he gave me a tired smirk. Then I turned to look at Jaden again. "I don't want you to come. If something happens to you..."
The look he gave me hurt my body and soul. I placed my hand on his cheek, trying to find the words to speak, but couldn't. I hoped he could at least feel what I was feeling. Maybe he did, since he sighed loudly.
"Fine, I won't come."
"I don't want you to get hurt," I whispered.
He growled at me with squinted eyes. I hugged him tightly before facing the fact that I had to go.
"I'll see you tomorrow," I told them all, pecked Jaden's lips and left.
It really was hard to walk away from them. Natalie gave me a sad smile when I stopped next to her but didn't say anything. I could feel how sorry she was for me.
"How was your day?" she asked carefully once we were in the car and she started driving.
"Weird. People kept staring at me," I told her.
"The news travel fast in a small town like this," Natalie said apologetically. "Did they do anything, or say anything?"
"No, they just stared."
"Good. Even though most of the people in here are part of the supernatural community, we still need to make sure outsiders won't find out about us."
"Hmmh..." I uttered, looking out the window. I saw a big truck parked in front of one of the houses we passed by, and then another. And a third one. "Are those... Moving trucks?"
I could see people carrying a big couch into the truck as we passed them by.
Natalie let out a deeper sigh. "Like I said, news travel fast... We all moved here to find peace and quiet, a place we could have normal lives with the humans. This battle freaked out a lot of people, and I can't blame them."
"That's why it was so empty at school," I muttered. "They're moving away."
"Yeah," she nodded. "Oliver..." I turned to look at her, and she gave me another apologetic look. "My boss wants to see you. I think she's already waiting for us."
"What?" I asked with wide eyes, my heart suddenly beating faster.
"There's nothing to worry about," she hurried to say. "She just wants to talk to you and make sure you're doing all right. But she has no idea about our world, so I need you to stick with the story we came up, okay? You were with me and Mike the entire time. You needed a quiet place to focus on your studies."
I nodded, feeling super nervous. I got so nervous that even Cedric woke up from his slumber and checked if we were in danger.
Way too soon, Natalie parked the car in front of the group home. I wanted to throw up. I sucked at lying! How was I supposed to remember what I was allowed to say and what to keep from her boss?
"Just take a breath," Natalie smiled at me. "You've talked with her plenty of times – she just wants to check up on you."
I nodded, trying to do as she said. Thankfully, her boss was a nice lady, so I wasn't really afraid of her. But that didn't stop me from being nervous.
I followed Natalie inside and stopped to greet the kids who swarmed to say hi. I took longer than usual to talk to them all just so I didn't have to go face the boss of the house.
Mrs. Carter.
When we got past the entrance hall, I spotted her sitting in the living room area. She turned to look at me with a friendly smile on her face and stood up.
"Oliver! It's so nice to see you," she spoke as she walked towards me. "I hope you're doing well?"
Uh... Sure.
"I'm great," I lied with the best smile I could muster.
She stopped in front of me, giving me such an intense stare I felt like I was shrinking. I didn't dare to say a word, nor even think anything in case she knew how to read minds. Honestly, I wouldn't have been surprised if she did. Though her spirit was clearly human.
"You probably already know why I'm here, correct?" she asked, and I gave her a timid nod. "Don't worry, I only want to hear how you are doing. Come – let's go to the office."
She started walking out of the room, so I had no choice but to follow her. Every step I took felt heavier and heavier, especially after I realized Natalie wasn't following us. I stopped to look back, and she gave me an encouraging smile, gesturing to me to follow Mrs. Carter.
I swallowed hard, and turned back around, only to see Mrs. Carter looking at me again, waiting for me by the office at the end of the hallway.
"Would you rather have a caretaker accompany you?" she asked kindly, and I nodded. I nodded so fast I hurt my neck.
"Natalie. I mean... Mrs. Bundt," I said sheepishly.
"All right," she said and waved at Natalie, who quickly joined us by the door.
After we stepped in, Mrs. Carter went to sit down on one of the armchairs in the room, gesturing at us to take a seat on the couch in front of her. I felt like a little child when I followed Natalie's example, not letting her get even an inch away from me. The harbinger of Hades, everyone...
"So, how have you been?" Mrs. Carter asked again, and I knew she expected a longer answer this time.
I tried to be more elaborate with my reply while being careful with my words. "I'm doing pretty good. Nothing to complain... Just school stuff and all... I've been trying to go for walks more often... Oh, and I have some great friends at school now, so it's fun," I spoke.
"Good, good," she said slowly. "You seem to be doing well, yes. It's been a while since you and I had a chat, and I do see a difference in you."
I smiled awkwardly at her.
"But I heard you've had trouble at school. I have your latest report card here, and I must say..." she trailed off as she pulled the paper out of her briefcase. "It seems like you're slowly falling behind. Your grades are still pretty decent, but not as high as they used to be."
I felt an ugly knot in my stomach when she turned to look at me sternly.
"Do you have anything to say about that?" she asked, still with a kind tone, but it made me even more nervous.
I tried my best not to look at Natalie for help. "I... It's been quite hectic around here lately," I said quietly, trying to stick with the story Natalie had made up. "It's been hard to focus on schoolwork. The kids... I love them all, but there's no quiet space for me in here."
"And that was why you stayed with Natalie for a while," Mrs. Carter nodded. "Do you think it was beneficial for you to stay with them?"
I nodded right away, hoping she didn't want me to tell her more about my time with them, for obvious reasons.
Of course, she wanted me to talk about it.
"It was great," I smiled. "It was so much easier to focus, and I slept better and... And it was nice. I mean, I love the kids but... It's a lot, you know?" I spoke, hoping my answer was sufficient enough.
"I think I understand what you mean," she nodded, turning to look towards the door – the kids were being really loud, as always. "Are you having sleeping problems?"
"Kind of," I nodded. "There's five other kids in my room and they wake me up quite often."
Mrs. Carter nodded again, grabbing another paper from her pile. "I've talked with your primary caretakers, and they all say the same about you. You are helping them quite often with different tasks from taking care of the kids to cleaning the facility. They all mentioned you don't have any hobbies except for the evening walks, but they didn't mention your new friends?"
"Oh – I met them a few weeks ago, just after my birthday," I told her.
"I see," she nodded slowly, again staring at me like she was trying to read my mind. "There is something I'd want to talk about, if you are all right with it?"
I tensed up immediately and turned to look at Natalie.
"What is it?" Natalie asked cautiously on my behalf.
"For years, you suffered from PTSD and nightmares," Mrs. Carter began. "Would you be all right talking about that?"
I hesitated for a moment, but the topic wasn't as scary to me anymore as it used to be. So, I nodded. "I guess."
"Go ahead, then," she said encouragingly. I had been expecting a more specific question, so it took me a moment to figure out what to say.
"I... I don't have nightmares that often," I finally spoke. "Angry and loud people still scare me, but... I feel like I have a better understanding on what happened to me."
That was the truth. I knew now exactly what I saw in my last foster home, and it didn't scare me that much.
"Go on."
I shrugged and peered at Natalie before turning my attention back to Mrs. Carter. "I don't know what to say. It happened, but... I'm getting better. I'm trying to move on."
"Are they still affecting you?" Mrs. Carter asked.
"A little, yeah, but I don't get paralyzed from fear anymore," I said truthfully. "I can deal with scary situations better now."
Again, she nodded and stared at me. Then she finally grabbed another paper. "If you don't mind, we're going to schedule your appointment with your psychiatric sooner than expected this time, preferably in the next few days."
I frowned. "Why? It's only been a little over a month?"
She stopped to look at me, hesitating for a moment. "How do you feel about the possibility of being fostered again?"
It was my turn to stare at her. That was a bomb I didn't expect to be dropped today. "I... Sorry?"
"How do you feel about it?" she repeated.
I knew exactly how I felt about it. "No," I shook my head, moving closer to Natalie.
"It's all right, honey," Natalie said, and took my hand in hers. I suppose she could feel my panic. "It was just a question. No one is forcing you to go through with it."
"Could you be more specific on why you don't want it?" Mrs. Carter asked quietly.
I had to take a few deep breaths to calm down. I never could've imagined how much that question would affect me. "It's too much," I said with a weak voice.
Too much had happened already. I would not be able to handle having new people around me. People I didn't even know. Besides, there were only two people in this world I wanted to foster me.
"If it's not Natalie and Mike, I don't want to be fostered," I said.
I looked up at Natalie, who for some reason was suddenly crying. But she was smiling, too.
"So you would be all right with Mr. and Mrs. Bundt giving you a foster home?" Mrs. Carter asked.
"Yes," I sniffed. Then a thought occurred to me. "Is... this an evaluation?" I asked, turning to look at Mrs. Carter.
"Not the official one," she told me, nodding at Natalie. "But we are currently looking into the option of you having a home with Natalie and Mike."
"But..." I turned to look at Natalie again. "You said your home is too small."
"We sold it," she whispered. "Augustus bought it."
I could only stare at her. I was barely aware of the fact that I was crying. "You mean...?"
"We applied a week ago," she told me, wiping her own tears.
"We still need more information from your psychiatric, and we want to see Mrs. Bundt's new apartment, but right now I want to know what you think about it," Mrs. Carter told me with a smile.
"Yes," I nodded right away. "If it's Natalie and Mike... I want to be fostered by them."
"Then we will move on to the official evaluation," she said with a smile.
"I'm..." I whispered, turning to look at Natalie again. "I get to move in with you?"
"Let's not jinx it," she told me with a wide smile. "But the apartment is perfect. It's only a few blocks away from here, and it's huge. You'll have your own bedroom with a joined bathroom and there's enough room for your friends to visit us and... and... And you should see it!"
"Why didn't you say anything?" I laughed and sniffed.
"I wanted it to be a surprise," she sniffed and smiled. "But we shouldn't jinx it."
I was at a loss of words, so I hugged her instead. I completely ruined her shirt by crying all over it. She hugged me so tight... Part of me feared that it was just a dream, but the bigger fear was that this was actually real, but I'd screw up the evaluation.
"Well, I better get going, but it was nice to see you, Oliver," Mrs. Carter said and stood up. Natalie and I both did the same, trying to stop crying. "For what it's worth, we all believe you deserve a real home, and we are all working towards that goal. You will hear from us soon, and hopefully, I can bring you the good news next time," she told me.
"Thank you," I whispered. "I really want that."
"Then I'll do my best to make that happen," Mrs. Carter said.
After she left, I turned around to hug Natalie again.
"I really, really want to move in with you guys," I told her.
"I promise you, I will do anything they want to make that happen," she whispered. "Absolutely anything."
To have a real home... I wanted that so badly it hurt.