Adopted

I woke to the sound of a door slamming shut downstairs. I looked at my alarm that was sitting on the windowsill, 7:30. And today was Sunday, adoption day. Damn this day with all that is holy and orange, I cursed to myself. All adoption day is, is people looking and treating you like animals and giving you false hopes of a new home. They shower you with toys and love only to turn their backs on you when you need them most. Then back to the orphanage. I should know. It’s happened to me to many times to count.

I felt the bed shift and looked to my right into the eyes of my best friend Ayden. He had beautiful kind green eyes that you felt you could spill all your secrets to and trust that he wouldn’t tell, and he wouldn’t. He had dyed black hair and silver snakebites.

“Today’s adoption day!” Ayden screamed at me with a big smile on his face. “Lets celebrate by dancing!” He pulled me out of my warm cozy bed and onto the freezing hardwood floor. I made a face at him letting him know that I was displeased with his method of waking me up. “Don’t give me that look, Just Dance! It’ll be okay!” He screamed/sang successfully waking everyone in the building. I could hear groans of protest coming from the other beds.

“Ayden!” Shelly screamed at him. She was a girl with short extremely curly red hair and dull green eyes. She was also 17 while Ayden and I were only 13. “What the fuck did I tell you about waking me up at-” She looked at her watch “7:32 in the morning!”

“Nothing, you’ve talked about 7:29 though!”

“You little smart-ass fucker! When I get done with you they won’t find anything left!” Shelly screamed getting off her bed slowly so as to scare Ayden.

“Oh shoot.” Ayden yelled, pulling me along with him out of the room and down the stairs. “We need a new hiding spot Flower! She found the last one we hid in!” I giggled at the silly nickname he gave me. My real name was Violet but he says that violets are flowers and he wants to call me something no one else would have. He pulled me to the broom closet next to the stairs and dragged me in shutting the door behind us. “HAHAHAHA she won’t find us in here!” Ayden yelled.

“She will if you keep making noise.” I whispered in his ear.

“Shh Flower, stop making noise or she’ll find us!” Giggling at his silliness I sit down on the floor patting the ground softly next to me so he would sit too. Instead of sitting next to me though, he decided to sit on me.

“Fatty.” I muttered right as the door opened bathing us both in light from the hallway. Miss Talahan, or mom as we call her stood in the doorway with her arms crossed. She had kind gray eyes and wavy brown hair that went to her shoulders. Ayden hadn’t noticed her yet.

“I can’t help it!” He mock cried, jumping off my lap into mom. “Hi Mommy!” He screamed cheerfully changing moods fast.

“Ayden, Violet, What have I told you about hiding in the closet?” Mom asked, looking pointedly at Ayden.

“You said ‘Ayden don’t drag Violet into the closet when people are here looking to adopt.’ But no one is here because they always come at noon and never in the morning because they have to dress and get fancy and drive here a-” I covered Ayden’s mouth with my hand, giggling when he continued to talk into it.

“Well Ayden there are people here looking to adopt, and they want to see Violet.” Mom stated with a proud note in her voice. I stare at her, confusion written all over my face. Who would want to see me? Especially someone that has never even seen me before? She saw my face and gave me a reassuring smile. “You’ll understand soon Violet, just come and meet them. You’ll be surprised.” I uncovered Ayden’s mouth and slowly got out of my kneeling position on the floor and stood up.

I gave Ayden a fear-filled glance. He caught my look and instantly engulfed me in a hug. “It’s okay Violet. I won’t let them take you. I promise.” He whispered consolingly in my ear.

“Come on Violet, They’re not like the last ones. I checked their files and everything. I promise you, They are not like the others.” Mom never promises anything unless she was absolutely sure about something. I walked out the door with her, dragging Ayden with me. “Violet, I believe they just want to meet you.” Mom said uncertainly.

“Mommy,” Ayden stated his long rehearsed speech. “Where ever she goes, I go. Where ever I go, she goes. We are brother and sister, sister and brother. A done deal, a deal done. You cannot separate us cause if you succeed we would be dead inside for we cannot live without one another.” He started walking towards mom’s office, now dragging me along with him. “Also, if we are separated the stars will explode and the sun will drop from the sky, the oceans will migrate onto land and the animals will eat dirt.” Opening the door to her office he pulled me through sitting on the old green couch in the corner and pulling me on top of him to sit. “Then the Unicorns will come out of hibernation in the forest and eat all the skittles so they can make more rainbows, Flower’s Monster Muffin will not like eating cookies any more and sheep will float up to become clouds.” Taking a deep breath he continued on. “ So if you separate us the world will fall into chaos and their will be no sweet foods because we were separated. You catch my drift? You ride my boat? You sing my song? You dance to my music?” I stared into his serious face letting small giggles escape. Ayden looked at me with a dignified expression. “I’m serious Flower! You don’t doubt me do you?” Shaking my head no I bury my face into his neck so he wouldn’t see my smiling face. “Wow! Flower! Don’t look, but there are five giganormous colorful trees in the room!” Knowing that Ayden never lied to me I kept my face buried in his neck, not wanting to see them.

“Ayden.” Mom said sternly. “What have I told you about talking like that in front of the people you are talking about?”

“Nothing!” He yelled indignantly. “You said something about that mean lady who wanted to adopt Flower and completely ignored her and then when I called her a Bitor she actually listened that Flower didn’t want to get adopted by her!”

“What’s a Bitor?” An unfamiliar male voice asked.

“A bitch and who whore who feeds on the misery of others.” Ayden replied with no emotion evident in his voice when he talked to them.

“Why don’t you like us?” Someone else asked bluntly. Whenever Ayden doesn’t trust someone he doesn’t show his emotions towards them and they think that he doesn’t like them. I could feel Ayden tense underneath me and pulled back so he could see the worried look on my face.

“It’s not that he dislikes you, it’s that he doesn’t trust you.” I stated so quietly that I doubled they could hear me if the room wasn’t so silent.

“What do you mean by that?” The same male voice asked. I thought that I had spoken enough so I didn’t say anything, I also didn’t want these people to know about my past, that means no hints what so ever.

“What she means is th-” Mom started but I quickly turned my face away from Ayden to glare at her sending a silent message meaning ‘Shut Up!’ She took the hint and snapped her mouth shut.

Satisfied that she wasn’t going to spill anything about me to a bunch of strangers I took one look at them and instantly cower into Ayden, hiding my face in his neck again.

They were big men. 5 big men with tattoos slowly taking over their bodies. They also wore dark clothing and had a look that said DANGOROUS! If they wanted to break me they could easily, unlike the others who tried. I knew these ones could make me beg for mercy. Ayden wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me tighter against him assuring me that he wouldn’t let these men hurt me. No words needed to be spoken, we just knew these things.

“Ayden, take Violet out of here.” Mom said softly. I felt Ayden shift under me and remove one of his arms from around my waist to place it under my knees, picking me up bridal style. Keeping my face safely pressed in his neck so I wouldn’t see the men, Ayden opened the door and shut it with his food behind him with a decisive bang.

“Well that went well.” He stated. I let out a small laugh my face still buried in his neck so I didn’t know where we were going until it was too late. I heard him slam another door and took my face out of his neck looking wide eyed at the basement door. A door that once closed could only be opened from the other side. We’re locked in. I turn my stare onto him. “What? I thought we needed a break away from everyone for awhile.” He said giving me a n innocent look. He carried me down the stairs into the basement. There were 2 rooms in the basement. One room had a boiler with canned food incase of an emergency. The other room had a dark green carpeted floor with 2 couches, one a light green the other was a dark red color with a faded flower pattern. A picture of Ayden and me next to a waterfall was taped to the wall. And then there were our instruments. We had a piano that we had found at the dump. It was in fairly good condition. Deep gouges in the sides, chunks of wood missing and millions of scratches, when we had found it some of the strings were broken but when we fixed them it played perfectly fine, the appearance was the only bad thing about it. We had found a really good piano chair with only a few holes in the cushion and many scratches.

The guitar we have is new. Our school had a drawing contest and I had won. The guitar was a dark purple with an image of a running leopard on the bottom front.

“Mew.” Looking down I saw my kitten Sweetie staring at me with wide blue eyes. She was 7 years old but still looked and acted like a frightened little kitten.

“Hey baby.” I said quietly getting on my knees slowly so as not to scare her with my sudden movements. Even though she couldn’t see me she could hear really well. Reaching my hand out slowly I let her smell me so that she would know it was me. “How are you?” I asked her.

“Mew.” She replied, rubbing her head against my hand and purring.

“Did you miss me baby girl?” I whispered.

“Mew.” She blindly walked towards me. I picked her up placing her on my shoulder. She dug her claws in my shoulder so she wouldn’t fall. Standing up I walk towards the piano and sit on the chair playing a few random notes when I realized something.

“Ayden, you know that I’m still in my pajamas?” I said, turning around to see Ayden jump on the green couch. He looked at me with his innocent green eyes.

“No.” He said. “ I thought that you changed. Cause you usually change so fast cause you’re a-” he stopped talking when we heard the basement door slam open. His expression turned from innocent to confused. Everyone knew not to come down here. It was Ayden and mines sanctuary. And it was also where we made our music. We heard clumping sounds on the stairs made by multiple feet. Ayden had a better view of the stairs so he saw who it was before they were in the room. His eyes widened and he whispered ‘uh-oh’.

I looked at the stairs, waiting for them to enter the room. First Miss Talahan came in then the men from her office all shuffled in behind her with smiles plastered on their faces. Miss Talahan looked beyond happy, she looked ecstatic.

“Violet.” She started looking at me with that same scary happiness. “These men have decided to adopt you and Ayden.”