Finding Selene

Chapter Eight: 13 Years Prior To Present Day

Selene learned a lot at dinner. Everybody talked all at once and somehow still managed to have a coherent conversation. Selene listened, nodding, and giving small smiles of acknowledgement in between spaghetti bites. She didn’t have many memories of her parents, but she felt like her family dinners would have been this warm and open if they had still been alive. Selene was lost in thought mixed between her would-of-been life and how good the spaghetti was when she realized the table was silent. Looking around she realized everyone was waiting on her for something.

Mrs. Mitchel chuckled, “You were a million miles away, Mary, do you like the spaghetti?”

“Selene.” Selene wasn’t sure why she let her own name fall out of her mouth for the first time in years, but she felt something pushing her to say it. Her cheeks flushed as everyone stopped and looked at her a bit harder.

“What’s Selene?” Bethany asked slowly, like she was unsure of how to proceed.

“Me. My name is Selene, my mother… she named me Selene. They made me change my name along time ago.” Tears fell down her cheeks as the words fell out of her mouth. For a moment nobody moved, processing the information given to them. Nobody asked who the “they” Selene spoke about was; it didn’t actually matter who “they” were. Bethany leaned over from her position next to Selene and leaned her head against Selene’s while hugging her with one arm.

“We’ll make sure your true name is on the official adoption paperwork when we go to finish the process in two weeks,” Mrs. Mitchel paused and stared at Selene with glistening eyes, “What a beautiful name for a beautiful girl; You have the strength and beauty of a Goddess- it’s right that you would have the name of one too.”

“Thank you, Thank you so much, Mrs. Mitchel.” Selene was openly crying and everyone around the table also had tears in their eyes but when they heard their mother addressed so formally a collective laugh was heard around the table. Mr. Mitchel even laughed so hard he snorted.

“Dear, you can call me anything, but you don’t have to call me that. My first name is Sierra and that’s Michael.” Mrs. Mitchel grinned as she talked, pointing to Mr. Mitchel.

“Yes, ma’am.” Selene said quietly, cheeks flushed again.

“Great! Now that that’s settled, we need to plan our shopping trip this weekend. But first, your father and I decided that since tomorrow is Friday everyone can stay home from school and we’ll enroll Selene on Monday. Since you’re the same age as Mason and Riley, Selene, you’ll be in the same grade and we can request that you be in the same classes, if you’d like.” Selene smiled appreciatively and gave a small nod as she finished up her plate of spaghetti and garlic toast. She eyed the remaining spaghetti and toast unsure if it would be acceptable to ask for more. She’d never been able to before, but she noticed Mason had gotten another two whole scoops.

As if she knew where Selene’s mind had gone, Bethany piled another heaping scoop of spaghetti onto Selene’s plate with two slices of garlic toast before heaping two scoops and two pieces of toast on her own plate. The inconspicuous grin that Bethany shot her had Selene breathing a sigh of relief and grinning back while everyone around them continued their discussion about shopping the following day. It was decided that in the morning there would be a simple family breakfast of pancakes and sausages, since Mason declared he is a ‘growing man’ and needed the protein. Following breakfast everyone would ‘load up’, as Michael called it, into the family van and would make the first stop at Coffee-R-Us.

Bethany leaned over and whispered to Selene, “It’s not just coffee, they have delicious smoothies.” As far as she could remember, Selene had never had either of those so what they had didn’t mean much to her, but she was interested in trying it since everyone seemed eager to go.

“After drinks, we will go to Ross. They really do have a little bit of everything. We will play the rest of the day by ear. I want to stop by the school and get Selene registered, and then whatever we don’t find at Ross we can pick the best spot to go for. We’ll have lunch-and before anyone asks, Selene will get to choose- whenever most of us are hungry.” Sierra looked at everyone except Selene as if daring someone to argue with her about the food choice or timing. “Smart choice, guys.” She emphasized “guys” like it was the males that had the most risk of argument. Michael chuckled, making Selene relax as she finished eating her food, far more quickly than she should have.

“Alright, ladies and gents if everyone is finished eating it’s time to settle down and head to bed. For the new lady in the house the nighttime routine after dinner is that everyone has two hours following when we leave the table to do their own nighttime routine, finish chores, and relax. After two hours is up, we consider that “bedtime”. However, we do bedtime differently because we know that all bodies, and minds are different and require different amounts of rest and sleep. So, at bedtime we just ask that everyone be respectful of others in the house; Stay in your room as much as possible, music and t.v. volumes down, lights dimmed as much as possible, and if you need to get either myself or Sierra or a snack, or a drink just try to be quiet when you do.” Michael looked at Selene and grinned, “I know that was a lot of words, but do you have any questions or comments? Concerns?”

Selene shook her head and started gathering plates, “No Sir, I definitely understand. Thank you both for dinner, it was very good.” Before she could over burden herself by grabbing more dishes from the table- the dishes in her hands were carefully pulled away.

Marcus looked panicked at her stricken expression, “I’m sorry, little sis, I didn’t mean to startle you. It’s my turn to do dishes and I didn’t want you to hurt yourself trying to carry them all.”

Selene shyly took a step back and headed towards the stairs. Confused, frightened, tired, and satisfied from the first good and filling meal she had in a while Selene was more than ready to lay down in her comfy new bed and cuddle with Apollo. Once in her room she undid her hair and carefully brushed it out before washing her face with the hand soap in her bathroom and brushing her teeth. She listened to everyone bustling around outside her door while she climbed into bed and pulled Apollo close to her chest. Someone knocked lightly on her door as she pulled her blanket up to her chin and Selene called out to let them know they could come in. It made her smile secretly that she had so much privacy since she couldn’t remember the last time she had a bed to herself, much less a whole room.

“Hello Dear, everyone wanted to say goodnight, but we didn’t want to overwhelm you. Marcus also wanted to say sorry if he did something to upset you, but I told him it was probably not anything he did?” The last part Sierra told to Selene seemed like it should have been a statement but sounded more like a question.

Selene shook her head and smiled, “I’m sorry I upset anyone…I just… I don’t know what I’m supposed to do here, and I didn’t want to get in the way.”

“Oh honey, can I come in and sit down for a moment?” At Selene’s small nod of approval Sierra eased inside the door and closed it behind her then made her way to the side of Selene’s bed where she perched on the edge, “Darling, you don’t have to do anything except be a kid. You, Mason, and Riley are responsible for keeping your own space clean and learning how to take care of your own selves, your own bodies and hygiene. In a few years, once you’ve learned about yourselves, you’ll gain more responsibility, but you need to be a kid first. I know you don’t know us, and we don’t know you but that will change, and we will all learn about each other. We want you to feel welcome, loved, and part of our family. We will always take care of you, support you, love you, encourage you, and give you advice when you need it. That being said, it is important to know that we may not always see eye to eye. You may break rules and may have consequences for that. You will probably get mad at me, Michael, and all of your siblings at some point, and that is okay; it is normal. The important part is that we work through it and don’t stay mad- that we always come back together because that’s what family is. They always find their way back to each other. That’s what we will always do, no matter what.” Selene nodded and Sierra gave her a small smile then made her way for the door, opening it as she turned back, “Goodnight. My dear Selene.” Then the door was shut, and Selene pulled Apollo closer to her as she cried- releasing emotions she didn’t understand until she fell into a deep sleep.