They actually want me?!

“Why do you say so?” David asked sinking his teeth into a slice of pepperoni.

“Well, when I was little, my mom was a junkie and that’s why the state took me and my sister away from her.”

“Oh well, did you guys ever meet later on?”

“My mom always tries to kidnap us back whenever they send us to a new place but she never had us for long. They started separating my sister and me to make it harder for us to find to contact her.” she took a sip of her coke.  David sighed and watched her; she seemed like a nice girl in so many unfair situations that she didn’t deserve to be in.

“Hey you don’t need to talk about it if you don’t want.” David reassured. Sheila shook her head “No it’s fine. I don’t let it bother me all the time.” They ate the rest of their pizza in silence and left.

   When they got home, Claire had gone out and Penelope was taking a nap, which Sheila thought was a miracle. She didn’t see Derek, she thought he went out so she went to her room and plopped herself on the bed. She arranged her new clothes in the white closet and lay down on the bed again, bored. Then she remembered her sketch book was in her backpack and took it out.

She went through her sketches at first before deciding to draw the fountain she remembered seeing when she went shopping with David. She was just getting to the middle when she heard a knock on the door and watched it gently open to reveal Derek smiling at her.

“Oh hey, didn’t mean to disturb you, can see that you’re busy.” He said.

“Oh no I’m not, come on in.” she replied patting on the spot beside her. He sat down and noticed her drawing book lying on the bed.
“Is this yours?” he asked her. Sheila nodded shyly “Yeah, I draw a bit. I’m not that good by the way.”

“But these are amazing. You should be a professional, it would suit you.” He said. She took her book from him and for a moment their hands brushed. Sheila looked up, blushing. Derek didn’t seem to notice, he probably didn’t even feel their skin touching anyway.

“Well I just wanted to check on you, see if you’re ok. I guess from the shopping bags scattered around here, you and my dad had a long shopping trip.” He smirked lightly at her.

“Oh well yeah” She laughed. “Your dad made me pick most of the stuff even though I was afraid it was too expensive.”

“Welcome to the Hollands’ life.” He chuckled.

“When I was back with Karen, she always never took me to anywhere to shop for clothes. It was only Veronica who occasionally bought me clothes because we’re kind of close.” Sheila said.

“Hmm well you better get used to it because this is how you’re going to live from now on.” Derek stated finally. Sheila nodded.

“So do want to get a Popsicle? I think there’s still some left in the freezer. If not we could always go out and get some.” Derek asked her.

“Sure, why not?” And she followed him downstairs. Unfortunately, there were some in the freezer so they didn’t need to go out to get any. Shame, Derek really wanted to continue his conversation with Sheila. She was an interesting person, she went through a lot and yet she wasn’t bitter or rude or harsh, but she just acted loving and caring not thinking about herself at all.

When they were settled on the couch with their chocolate mini magnums, Claire came downstairs.

“Hey.” She said to Derek as she passed, eyes glued to her BlackBerry as always. It was when Sheila spoke up that she finally noticed her “Hey Claire.”

She curled her lip a bit then said “Oh, hi. Um sorry I couldn’t come shopping with you and my dad I had bad stomach flu. Hope you guys had fun though.” With that she left to her dad’s study.

“See, I told you she doesn’t hate you.” Derek said.

“Well thanks?” Derek flung his arm on her shoulder and said “I think you’re going to get along well here.” Leaving her, flushed to the checks.  

 

         “Claire, hurry up or we’re leaving without you!” Derek shouted from the bottom of the stairs, making Sheila wince beside him. He was driving them to school and they were almost late, thanks to Claire. The previous day, he and Sheila had talked till it was late. David came and met them then had to practically force Derek to let Sheila go upstairs. Even then he didn’t stop till he walked her to her room.

“Claire, hurry up!” he shouted again.

“I’m coming!” Claire finally replied back, rushing down the stairs nearly tumbling down in her pink ballet flats. “Geez, I’m here already.” She said to Derek straightening her slightly out-of-place bangs.

“Come on, or we’re really gonna be late.” He said already headed towards the door and opening it.

“Humph, and to think it’s just 7:20.” Claire mumbled on the way out.

The ride to school was comfortingly quiet. Claire listened to songs on her iPod, barely paying attention to anything. Derek was silent surprisingly, but when they arrived and Claire hopped out of the car, he held Sheila back before she could open the door.

“I’ll pick you up when school’s over ok?” she nodded and he let go of her arm gently. Sheila walked into school still a bit dazed from the way Derek held her back at the car, as she walked into homeroom. All through the morning periods everything went smoothly, although Claire barely acknowledged her, Mike didn’t go near her. Maybe Derek had scared him off or maybe he got bored and found a new kid to bully.

It was lunch period and Sheila made her way to the cafeteria by herself. She paid and took her tray to an empty table. She took just a bite out of her pizza when she saw someone set their tray beside her. She looked up and saw a girl wearing a blue wrap around sweater with black skinnies and purple flats standing beside her.

“Um, hi is this seat taken?” she asked.

“No, it’s just me.” Sheila replied.

The girl sat and said “Thank you, this place seems so crowded and I didn’t think anybody would want me to sit with them. I’m Lauren by the way.” She said sticking out her hand and coking her head a bit to one side letting a bit of her brunette hair with red highlights fall a bit over her face.

“Sheila.” She politely shook her hand. “You’re new?”

“Yeah, I just moved to LA from Seattle.”

“Oh well, welcome to Hunter High.” Sheila said. Lauren giggled and said “Thanks. No one’s made me feel welcome ever since I got here. I walked to the hallways by myself till I found my homeroom.”

“Oh, well I’m sorry about that.” They chatted a bit till lunch was over. It turned out they had Art together, Sheila was glad that she had a friend to go with.

After that Lauren had AP Biology and so Sheila was left alone in history class. She wouldn’t have minded being by herself, if Mike wasn’t in her block. So far he’d left her alone so he would just ignore her right? Wrong. Immediately he spotted her, he grinned and sauntered to his seat behind her. Sheila closed her eyes and hoped he would leave her alone but he didn’t. The first chance he got when Mr. Will turned his back, he poked Sheila with the sharp end of his pencil. When she yelped out loud, the whole class turned to her. Even Mr. Will said “Is everything alright Miss. Lane?” she nodded and buried her face in her book, which was already red beyond belief. When the bell rung, she rushed out before Mike could get the chance to even breathe near her. She wished Derek was there, he would have told Mike off. Too bad he was a 10^th grader.

School ended in a blur. Sheila met up with Derek at the car park where he seemed to have been waiting for her. He smiled when he saw she approached him, her silky brown hair running behind her.

“Hey.” she said smiling.

“Hi, sorry I couldn’t come sit with you during lunch. detention.” She nodded her head in understanding. She was secretly glad that he didn’t ditch her.

“It’s ok. I wasn’t lonely, I made a friend. Her names Lauren.”

“Ok, I'm glad. We should really get going.” he turned to open the car door.

“What about Claire?” Sheila asked quickly.

“Oh, she’s with her friends. She’s staying there till late for some project or something.” He said getting inside. Sheila sighed, and then followed him. They were both quiet for a while, then Derek put on the radio and ‘Wrecking Ball’ by Miley Cyrus was on which was Sheila’s favorite song so she sang along. She didn’t even realize how loud she was until Derek chuckled and said “You have a nice voice. Just one of your many talents, I guess.” Sheila blushed a bit “Thanks, no one’s ever told me that before.”

“Hey, I wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true right?” he said. When they got to the house, they saw a silver Sedan parked outside the Holland’s garage. Sheila immediately recognized it as Veronica’s car and announced “It’s my social worker’s car. I guess she’s back already.”

“Well let’s go see what she’s here for.” Derek said parking in the garage. Derek got out and opened the door for Sheila, who by the way, was blushing like mad. They both went into the house and met Veronica sitting on the couch in the living room with David. She greeted them both with a smile and said to Sheila “Hey, hope you’re ok? Mr. Holland has told me everything.” Sheila sat down on the opposite couch facing both David and Veronica, while Derek even though uninvited sat down too.

“Um, Miss. Wade and I have been discussing and well Sheila, you have been in some pretty bad situations with other foster families and well we don’t think it would be good for that to continue.” Sheila took a breath and waited for it.

“We want you to stay.” her head shot up in surprise. This was definitely not what she was thinking.

“You mean we’re adopting Sheila?”  Derek asked.

Veronica spoke up “Well it’s not adoption or foster care really. It’s more like a temporary arrangement. The judge on your case gave agreed to a temporary arrangement were the Hollands let you stay with them for a while since you haven’t had such good experiences in the past and they seem to like you a lot.”

“But how did you do all of this in such a short while?” Sheila asked. This time David answered “Well, we’ve been talking since Saturday and since we’ve all grown used to you in such a short while, we think it’s best you stay with us, that’s if you want to?” Everyone looked at Sheila as she inhaled deeply. This was what she wanted, a family to stay with that would accept her right? She looked at Derek who seemed to have the most pleading eyes in the room.

“Yes I do want to stay.” He broke into the biggest grin Sheila had ever seen. David also seemed happy.

“Well since that’s taken care of can I have a word with Sheila?” Veronica asked. Derek nodded happily and watched Sheila as she stood up with Veronica. When they were in David’s study, Veronica finally said “Well Sheila, I guess things will be going good from now on.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Veronica folded her hands. “What’s wrong Sheila? You aren’t happy with it?” She asked. Sheila sighed “It’s not that I don’t it’s just a bit too fast. They hardly know me and I hardly know them Veronica.”

“Sheila I'm a professional and I know what I'm doing. Do you think I didn’t consider that when Mr. Holland asked me the first time? These people really like you, they do. David said he sees something in you that make him want to know you better. Not in a perverted sense by the way.”

 “I guess you’re right, like always.” Veronica grinned to that. “Besides, that boy seemed glad you were staying.”

Sheila cocked up an eyebrow “Who Derek?”

“Oh that’s his name. He seemed very glad you were staying. VERY glad.”  Her eyes sparkled mischievously.

“Noooooooooo Veronica. Derek does not like me that way.” Sheila protested.

“Alright if he you say so.” she replied raising her hands in surrender. “I think we should go back to the living room and meet them.” David settled everything with Veronica and she made some calls and stuff.

Derek just stood by Sheila all the while and kept grinning like he’d won the lottery or something. Mrs. Greenson took Penelope to the park so they weren’t around. Veronica stayed till evening explaining everything and how it worked. When Mrs. Greenson and Penelope came, they were happy with the news, especially Penelope as always. When Claire came, Sheila was a bit nervous about how she would take the news. When she saw Veronica and her dad explained everything to her, she didn’t yell or scream or act badly to Sheila all she did was say “Well, since it’s already been decided, it’s alright I guess.”  She went upstairs to her room.

That night when everyone went up to their rooms finally, Sheila laid on her bed thinking about everything that happened. She felt as if someone would jump out of a box and say “Gotcha! You’ve been punked!” Because there was no way in a million years she ever imagined she would be where she was. With the Hollands, in a huge house and lots of acceptance. All her life, no one ever accepted her. All the foster homes and shelters, she always felt rejection and lonliness. She even began to think that was a normal thing in her life till fate pushed her into this situation. She felt, what was the word, secure. She never felt that way in her life but now life was finally smiling at her. She was safe.         

 

Author's Note

i hope you guys actually review now