After All This Time

New Friends

Dear me,

It’s summer break in 3 days, I’m really excited to just lay in bed all day and read and watch Harry Potter. Tonight I’m hanging out with Brooke, which I’m a little nervous about. I haven’t been good with talking to her and she invited me to her house along with some of her friends. Being with just Brooke would be fine I guess but there are other people coming too and it makes me even more nervous. Other than that, at the house it has been alright. I’ve been getting along with Chloe. It’s been easier to talk to everyone now. I still get nervous sometimes but it’s getting better and I’m glad about it but also afraid. I’m getting attached to this family and I might have to go soon again. I don’t want to get too attached to them because when I have to leave, it’s gonna be even harder.

I’m sitting in math class right now. I don’t pay much attention to it. I’m just writing in my diary, waiting for the bell to ring too I can get out of here. Today Chloe is not driving me home because I’m going to Brooke’s house immediately after school. It’s the last period so after the bell rings I have to find Brooke in the parking lotted she’ll drive me and all of her friends to her house. I’m very nervous.

After 15 minutes, the bell rings. I put everything in my backpack and walk out to the parking lot to find Brooke and her friends. They’re already there.

“Hi.” I say quietly letting them know I have arrived and we can leave. We leave to her house as the music in the car is blasting and the girls are singing along.

We’re hanging out at Brooke’s house, it’s been fun but I haven’t really said anything. I like Brooke and all but honestly I’d much rather be home right now and play Steph or watch or read Harry Potter. I don’t want to be mean towards Brooke and tell her I want to leave. I just don’t feel very comfortable being around people that I barely know. I barely know anything about Brooke or any of the people here. I feel like Brooke and I could be good friends but I don’t like being around so many people.

After about 2 hours chilling at Brooke’s house everyone goes home, including me. Brooke’s house is just a 15 minutes walk to my house so I decided to just walk. At Brooke’s house we mostly talked about school and what everyone is doing in the summer. I guess it was fun but I’m so glad to go home.

I walk into the kitchen where Sherley was already cooking dinner. “Hey.” She says when she sees me.

“Hey I say back. “What’s for dinner?” I ask her and she tells me we’re having spaghetti. I love Sherley’s cooking. It’s always delicious.

“Did you have fun at your friend’s house?” She asks me and I nod. “Steph missed you, she was really looking forward to playing with you when she came back from school.” Sherley says. I feel so bad that I wasn’t here, but I can play tomorrow with Steph and it’s almost summer break so there’ll be lots of time to play.

Chloe walks into the room. She’s wearing some punk kind of outfit and it looks really good on her, not gonna lie. She’s wearing ripped skinny jeans, a white t-shirt with a brown ish jacket over it and a beanie on top of her head.

She smiles at me and I smile back. It’s still kind of weird that she’s so nice to me after all the hate she sent towards me but I guess I could understand. One day I just burst in here and make the whole family different. I guess it could be annoying for her but it’s not like I have a choice where I go to. My social worker does that job, so she should have been mad at him and not me because I have no control over where I stay.

“What’s for dinner mom?” Chloe asks her mom.

“Spaghetti.” She answers. “Could you and Emma set the table please?” She asks us.

“Yeah sure.” Chloe answers and I just nod. Me and Chloe set the table for the 5 of us.

“Dad is working late so you don’t have to set a plate for him.” Sherley says right after we’ve just finished setting the whole table. I could see in Chloe’s face she was annoyed at that. We put Jack’s setting back in the cupboards.

“She could have told us earlier right?” Chloe whispers to me as we’re walking into the living room to watch tv. I chuckle a little at her comment.

We both sit down on the couch and watch tv while we wait for dinner. “What do you wanna watch?” Chloe asks me.

“Whatever you want is fine.” I tell her quietly. She puts on a random channel, turns out it’s the Simpsons. We watch for a while and laugh at the funny comments the characters make.

“Dinner’s ready, can someone get Steph from her room?” Sherley yells from the kitchen.

“I’ll get her.” Chloe says and gets up from the couch and goes upstairs to get Steph. I get up and sit down at the kitchen table at the place where I usually sit.

Steph and Chloe come into the kitchen and they sit down as well. We eat dinner in peace and after we eat, we clean up our own dishes and we all go into our own comfort zone in our room. Only 2 days left of school, then summer break.