**ADELINA**
"Why don't we watch TV?" Iris suggests.
"No." I say, wrapping my arms around myself. "You need to leave."
"Adelina," her eyes soften, "please tell me what happened."
"Nothing happened. I just don't want to live with a bunch of stuck up strangers!" I exclaim. "So please just leave!"
She frowns. "I'm just trying to help."
"I didn't ask for help." I say shakily. "I didn't ask for any of this." I clench my fists, my nails digging into my palms.
"I know, but—"
"Just leave." I say impatiently.
"Okay." She stands off the bed and walks out without another word. When she's gone, my eyes begin to overflow with tears. They run down my cheeks and onto the bed. I go over to the door and twist the lock.
I go back to the bed and grab my phone, then go onto Luke's contact.
ME: I hate it here.
LUKE: Why???
ME: My new sister hates me. She grabbed and pushed me. I fell on the floor and hit my head. And my new mum didn't wake me up from my nap yesterday so I got no sleep last night. And now I'm tired but I can't sleep because then I won't sleep tonight either and it'll just keep happening. And they're proper tight. They have lots of rules and my new dad clearly doesn't like me. Which is weird because they were the ones who came and found me, and now they're acting like they don't even want me here. I don't want to be here either. I said I was gonna call Wendy but then they went somewhere. I just wanna come home. I hate it here!!!
LUKE: Why didn't your parents do anything?
ME: I didn't tell them. They probably wouldn't care anyway.
LUKE: You don't know that unless you tell them.
ME: I do. I told you that they don't like me.
LUKE: They're probably just awkward because they don't know you. You should tell them.
I frown. I turn my phone off and set it back on the bed. I move closer to the window, staring out of it.
I hear a knock on the door and snap my head over to it.
"Adelina!" Michael exclaims.
"Yeah?" I say quietly.
His voice sounds softer when he says, "can you open the door? I wanna talk to you for a minute."
"No." I respond.
I hear him sigh. "Okay. Why don't you come out then? We can order food again, if you want."
"I'm not hungry."
My phone buzzes, and I pick it up, looking at the notification waiting there.
YOU ARE READING
Finding Adelina
Teen Fiction𝓐𝓭𝓮𝓵𝓲𝓷𝓪 𝓖𝓮𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓼𝓮 is thirteen years old and, as far as she's concerned, doesn't have a family. She's been trapped in foster care for the majority of her life, being passed from foster parents to foster parents, and that's how she...
