This World's An Ugly Place

A note landed on my desk and I was snapped out of my ongoing daydream. History class was never a subject I was good at, so it was extremely easy for me to get lost in my thoughts during it. I blinked and looked at the piece of paper that had landed on my desk and I turned to look at the person behind me; Jack, my cousin whom was only older than me by a few months. He motioned towards the note and I released a sigh and turned back towards the teacher.

I unfolded the paper quietly. Our teacher, Mrs. Red, normally gets pretty lost in her lectures, but I didn't want to get caught passing notes once again in her class, so I chose to take the quiet route about this.

Did you hear from Ms. Wendy?

I frowned at that. Ms. Wendy was the woman who ran the home I lived in and since I'd known her for a few years now, I felt like she was a growing aunt to me. I scribbled down a 'no' before tossing the note back towards him. Not even fifteen seconds later, the note reappeared onto my desk.

There's a new kid coming to the home.

The last person to be put into the home was Lily, our youngest girl at the home currently, and recently our oldest member had finally been able to leave the home permanently as he had turned eighteen. I was suspecting a new kid would transfer soon, but I didn't think it would be so soon. I then scribbled down a 'so what?' and tossed it back to Jack. He let out a huff at that before tossing the note back.

From what I heard, the kids our age.

I felt my mouth pop open at that. Generally, when kids got to the age sixteen, they got to choose where they wanted to stay. So this had to mean that the kid either didn't want to stay with family or he had no family to stay with.

"Ms. Rose, what is that you're reading?" My teacher's voice interrupted my thoughts and I quickly shuffled with my papers, taking out one of the pamphlets she had handed to us today.

I shot her a challenging glare. "The paper that you gave to us today, Ms. Red," I spoke back, sass dripping from my voice. I felt Jack kick the back of my chair and that only caused me to frown further. He was trying to warn me not to start anything, but I couldn't help myself when it came to Ms. Red. She was my most dreaded teachers.

"Oh, it is, now is it? Would you care to show the class all of your papers?" she asked and I held her stare.

I opened my mouth to speak but the bell rang and I quickly hopped up from my chair. "Sorry, I would love to, but I have to go," I said quickly, stuffing all my papers into my bag. I hustled towards the door and Jack was right on my heals.

"I swear, Sebastian is going to kill you if you get another detention from her," he scolded me and I pouted my bottom lip out at him.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," I said. "I just seriously can't stand her."

Jack shook his head. "Try explaining that to Sebastian and Ms. Wendy."

I frowned again at my cousin. "I don't need you lecturing me, too."

"I'm just trying to save you the trouble," he said, holding his hands up. "Are you coming over today?"

I let out a hum. "I don't think so, Lexus is working tonight. I think I'm going to the music shop since Sebastian's working too."

"Cool, I'm coming with you," he said. "But shouldn't you stop at the home first?"
I shot him a glare.

"I'm sorry!" he said quickly, looking away. "I don't mean to lecture, it just comes out. I've been hanging out too much with Lexus."

"Anyways, why should I stop at the home? The new kid will be there either time I get back," I said now.

"Because I want to know who it is, too."

"I can almost guarantee you it's not going to be a hot chick," I told him as we pushed the school door's open and walked into the school parking lot. Thankfully Jack had his own car.

Jack pouted at that. "But if it is, will you put in a good word for me?"

I couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Yeah, sure, whatever."

"Sweet!" he cheered, clicking his keys so the car unlocked. "So...you want me to stop by the home before we head to the music shop?" He gave me his puppy eyes as we climbed into the car.

"Dear, God, you're so annoying," I growled and I leaned back in my chair.

"Yeah, buddy!" Jack called out now, knowing that was a yes from me.

"But just let me go in alone, okay? I don't want to over bare the kid if the, uh, incident happened recently with their parents or caretakers," I said quietly and Jack nodded his head as he pulled out of his parking space.

***

I walked into my foster home and was greeted by a quiet surrounding. Normally, the home would be buzzing with life, but since most of the kids that lived here were in middle school, they were still stuck in school. The only kids that got home early were me, since I was the only kid in the home in high school, and then the youngest kid, Lily, since she was being home schooled for her first few years due to personal issues.

"I'm home," I called out and soon Ms. Wendy appeared in the living room entrance. The foster home was just like any other house, it just had a lot of extra bedrooms in the upstairs.

"Oh, Angel, you're home early!" she exclaimed, pulling me into a hug. Mrs. Wendy was my caretaker until I got old enough to leave the home, and I bonded with her quickly after my parents died. "Usually you're not home until almost curfew."

"Yeah, well." I shrugged my shoulders. "Jack told me there was a new kid so I came to investigate it."

Mrs. Wendy chuckled softly. "Yes, there is. His name is Alex and he's actually in your grade," she said with a smile. "Quite the handsome boy, if I do say so myself."

"Oh my god, Ms. Wendy," I said through a chuckle. "Does he have Chris' old room?" I asked, referring to the kid that had just recently left the home. His room was right next to mine.

She nodded her head. "The poor boy seems to be quite shaken up about what happened. I didn't ask him much questions, but he just arrived a few hours ago. Please be nice, Angel."

I wrinkled my nose. "Since when am I not nice?" I asked and then let out a chuckle. "I will be, but I'm not sticking around for long. Jack is waiting outside for me and then I'm going to see Sebastian."

Mrs. Wendy nodded her head. "All right. Remember curfew, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," I waved her off as I descended the stairs. Right at the top of the stairs was my room with a big'DO NOT ENTER' sign hanging across it since most of the younger kids like to mess with my stuff. I opened my door and dropped my bag onto my bed before closing the door behind me. I walked to the next room over and was greeted by a familiar, small voice.

"Are all these your CD's?" Lily asked followed by a loud clatter. I raced into the room without thinking twice to knock first.

"Lily, what the hell?!" I demanded as a bunch of CD's were spread across the ground in front of her. "What did I tell you about touching people's stuff?"

She pouted her bottom lip out at me. "You only said that about your stuff, not anyone elses!"

"Gees, kid, that goes for anyone's stuff. If isn't yours, don't touch it unless you ask first," I scolded. I was too caught up in disciplining Lily that I hadn't realized the boy standing a few feet away from me watching me with a shocked expression. I guess he wasn't expecting to be invaded so quickly into this house.

Lily stomped off to pout and I knelt down on the floor to pick up the CD cases. "Hey, I'm sorry about that. Lily's the youngest foster sibling we have here and she doesn't really know manners yet," I said with a shrug.

The boy didn't answer, he simply sat down on his bed.

As I picked up the CD's, I stacked them up on one of his dressers figuring they went there. "You got some cool taste in music. Especially Green Day, they're really good live," I said placing my hands on my hips but he still didn't say anything. I bit down on my lip and looked around the plain room. It felt so naked with all of the walls having nothing on them. "So, uh, my name's Angel, and welcome to the foster home. I live in the room right next to yours so if you need anything, I'll be there during the mornings and then usually I'll be home before curfew."

Again, the boy said nothing. He flicked his head to get the hair out of his eyes and I let out a small sigh. I didn't blame him for not talking, in fact, when I first arrived here I didn't talk much either.

"What's your name?" I asked, tilting my head to the side as I ran a hand through my hair.

"Alex," he said quietly.

I nodded my head. "Well, Alex, it's nice to meet you," I said, sticking my hand out and he hesitantly shook my hand. A car horn honked outside and I cursed under my breath. Jack was always impatient. "Hey, I've got to go but I'll be back tonight. We can talk some more later," I said as I walked towards the exit. Or not.

"See ya," he mumbled and just by that I knew I would be able to break his shell. Whether this kid liked it or not, he was going to open up.

Notes

Welp, this is my most current story since I've finished most of 'Before I Fall Asleep.' This one probably won't be updated as much since I'm generally writing longer chapters for this story, so I hope you guys don't mind a bit longer of a wait than I had with my other stories <3 Hope you enjoy so far :D