Home (2 page)

“Oh, wow...look!” Madeleine squealed, when she reached the attic.

“Be quiet,” Allie whispered. She might as well have been talking to a wall. Madeleine raced over to one of the beds. It was covered with clothes. Clean, new girl clothes. Shorts, shirts, undies, socks, sweaters...even shoes. She gently stroked one of the sweaters. “I don’t think anyone’s worn these before.”

“Look at this!” Luke threw himself on top of a bed that was covered with boy clothes, and he rolled and squirmed like he’d jumped into a pile of leaves.

Allie looked at her bed. Someone had made it for her, and it was topped with neat piles of clothes, too. Allie’s heart skipped a beat when she looked at the tag on one of the shirts. Walmart. She closed her eyes and ran her hands over the soft fabric. She could remember so clearly the last time they’d gone to Walmart. It was for Madeleine and Luke’s first birthday. The twins had loved riding around in the shopping cart, and they’d waved at everyone who went past. Their mom had laughed at their silly games. She’d bought bright yellow paper plates, plastic cups and even balloons.

That was before, of course. Before the booze and the loser boyfriends.

Allie dropped the shirt and frowned. “Be careful,” she said. “It’s a trick. They’re trying to make us leave Mommy.”

“Couldn’t Mommy come live with us, here?” Luke asked, as he struggled to pull another shirt over the three he’d already put on. If Luke got anything new, he had to wear it, hide it or eat it. It was another one of those freaky things that normal kids just didn’t do. Which meant Luke had to stop. Now.

“No, she can’t.” Allie pulled all but one of the shirts off her squirming brother. “And stop putting so much stuff on. It makes you look weird.”

Allie quickly put on one outfit—just one—keeping an eye on her brother the whole time.

“Come on, let’s take a look around,” she said. They hurried past Thor, who was sneaking leftover pancakes off the counter, and stepped outside. It didn’t take long to figure out what JoJo and the other two had been looking at.

“Wow, poor doggie,” Luke whispered, as he scrunched closer to Madeleine. It
was
a poor dog. A dirty, skinny dog with matted, bloody fur and a big bandage where its front right leg should have been.

Madeleine and Luke inched closer to the thing. It was lying on a fluffy blanket, panting and whining softly. Oddly, when it saw the twins coming, it lifted its head and thumped its tail on the ground. Luke reached out and touched the dog gently on the belly.

Allie stayed close to Madeleine and Luke—she didn’t want to get near the dog, but didn’t want to leave them alone with it, either.

JoJo squatted down beside the twins. “The owner ran over him with a truck and left him for dead,” she said, gently. “The Humane Society brought him here so he could recover.”

“Why here?” Allie asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

“We foster injured animals,” the tall guy said. “Get them healthy enough that they can go back to their homes or go up for adoption, if the owners are crap.”

Allie’s eyes narrowed. “So, we’re just another one of your charity cases?”

The tall guy smirked. “Different issue,” he said. “You don’t smell quite as bad. Want to help name him?”

“No, we...” But before Allie could shut them up, Madeleine and Luke blew their vow of silence. Again.

“How about Trevor?” Madeleine asked.

“I like Fluffy,” Luke said.

“It’s a boy, silly. How about Edward?”

“No. Mitzy.”

“It’s a
boy
,” Madeleine said, elbowing her brother. “How about Marcus?”

“No. Fido.”

“Tripod,” Allie blurted out. JoJo snorted.

“Tripod?” Madeleine asked.

“It’s a thing that goes under a camera to hold it steady while you take pictures. It has three legs, like the dog,” JoJo said. “Tripod...I like it! Oh, and guys...it’s nice to hear you talk.” JoJo smiled at the twins as she scratched Tripod behind his ears.

Freckle boy smiled at Luke and Madeleine. “Come on. I’ll show you around. I’m Jonathan.”

Allie got ready to say something snotty. It was important to get off on a bad foot in foster homes. You had to seem normal, but not likable. That way, they’d have no excuse to keep you, and they wouldn’t
want
you, either.

So Allie opened her mouth. Then closed it. Madeleine and Luke were already following freckle boy...Jonathan...into the barn. Allie took a deep breath and squeezed her fists tight, digging her nails into her palms. Day one, and things were already falling apart.

“You can go, too, you know,” JoJo said, quietly.

“I know that.” Allie hurried to catch up to the twins. But when she stepped into the musty old barn, she froze. A cow—the biggest she’d ever seen (and she’d seen three)—was staring at her. And there was nothing but a fence holding it back. She could easily be trampled to death.

“Madeleine? Luke? Where are you?” Allie flattened herself against the wall, then slowly shuffled down the alleyway. She struggled to see through the murky, smelly darkness. “Madeleine! Lu....aaaaiiiggghhh!”

Allie thrashed wildly, trying to shake off whatever horror had just landed on her head. Screams of laughter from above told her where the twins were.

“My hair! What’s in my hair?”

“It’s hay, silly!” Allie looked up to see Madeleine, Luke and Jonathan peering down through a hole in the ceiling.

“How did you get up there?” Allie brushed the hay off her neck. It itched like mad—worse than when Mom cut her hair and left the scratchy bits behind.

“The ladder!” Luke pointed to a flimsy ladder that hung down from another hole in the ceiling. It was close—
really
close—to the big cow’s pen.

“Um...is that cow dangerous?” Allie asked.

“It’s not a cow, you moron, it’s Blackie, our bull,” Jonathan said. Allie stared up at him—really looked at him for the first time. He was kind of small, and pale and flabby, and had a stupid grin that she wanted to smack right off his face. Allie made it a rule to never get attached to other foster kids. It made leaving them easier. She was having
no
trouble following the rule this time.

“Allie, please come up,” Madeleine said, smiling sweetly.

“I’m coming.” Allie slowly climbed the rickety ladder. “What’s the big deal, anyw...”

Oh. Allie froze, speechless, her head sticking up through the hole in the ceiling. It was an enormous room. A room packed with hundreds—maybe thousands—of big hay bales. A room filled with sunbeams and floating dust specks.

More importantly, it was a room filled with cats. Dozens of them, running and wrestling and playing all over the hay bales.

“Barn cats are kind of wild, but they’ll warm up to you if you feed them,” Jonathan said. He pointed to the twins. Luke was holding out the bottom edge of his shirt to make a pouch, and Madeleine was filling it with cat food from a big bin.

“We’re going to feed them and that will make them love us forever,” said Madeleine, who really did think life was that simple. “Jonathan says this is a haymow. Maybe Mommy can live here?”

“You don’t have to frown all the time,” Jonathan said, staring at Allie. “It’s not that bad here.”

“Oh, what do you know?” Allie climbed up the last few rungs of the ladder, brushed the hay off her shoulder and then stomped toward the twins.

“Hey, watch out for...”

The hole. He’d been trying to warn Allie about the hole. Of course, he didn’t get the words out in time. Which was why Allie ended up falling—surprisingly fast, too—down through the hole and onto the cow that was actually (and this made it
so
much worse) a bull.

“Help me!” Allie screamed, as she slid off the bull’s back and landed in a pile of something warm and squishy. Allie scuttled backward through more squishy stuff, then practically threw herself over the wobbly fence into the barn’s alleyway.

“Aaaaiiiggghhh!” Allie jumped up and down shaking her arms frantically, trying to get the stuff off. The stuff that was, of course, bull poop. The twins scrambled down the ladder, then skidded to a stop when they saw Allie.

“Oh, Allie, you need a bath,” Luke said.

“That thing attacked me!” Allie screamed, as she scraped her legs against the barn door, trying to wipe off the clumps of manure.

“Allie...” Jonathan said.

“I could have been killed...I
hate
this place.”

“Allie!” The boy was pointing at Blackie. The bull hadn’t moved—he was standing in the same spot he’d been in when Allie first came into the barn. He’d been chewing before, and he was chewing now. That was it. Chewing.

“Allie, he’s 16 years old and he’s got arthritis. He barely moves. We only keep him as a pet.”

“I hate this place.” Allie fought back tears as she looked at the stains all over her brand-new clothes. “I hate everything.”

“You really are quite the witch,” Jonathan said. “Where’s your broom?”

Allie just glared, focusing on the stupid boy’s stupid freckles.

Thunk...thunk...thunk...

Luke. He was sitting in the barn doorway, whacking his forehead against the splintered wooden frame.

Thunk...thunk...thunk...

He was hitting the wood hard—really hard. He was in his trance—the one he always slipped into when life got too stressful for a six-year-old boy.

“Go away,” Allie snapped, as she pushed past Jonathan.

“Luke, please stop,” she whispered, when she reached her little brother. “Please...I’m sorry...I didn’t mean to get mad.”

“It’ll be okay, Luke. Allie will protect us.” Madeleine squirmed in close to her brother.

“Luke, please.” Allie cupped Luke’s bruised head in her hands and pulled him to her chest. “They’ll make us stay here longer if you do this.” It was true. Freaky things like hurting yourself, hoarding things, breaking stuff…social workers liked to blame it all on bad parenting. And they kept kids away from their families for longer and longer—sometimes forever—if they found out about it.

“Come on, Luke. I really need a bubble bath. Show me where you put those silly tub toys.” Allie carefully lifted her little brother to his feet. Luke smiled faintly. Good. One problem solved.

JoJo was sitting at the kitchen table talking to another woman when Allie and the twins walked in. Her eyes shot to Luke’s bruised, swollen forehead. “What on earth?”

“None of your business,” Allie muttered, as she hurried the twins toward the bathroom.

The strange woman stood up and blocked Allie’s path. “Well, Allie, it’s
my
business,” she said. “I’m Jennifer Stone.”

Oh, great. It was her—the new social worker who was going to poke around in Allie’s head and give her dumb advice

Allie stepped in close. Close enough that the woman would have to smell the manure all over Allie’s clothes.

“Here’s the deal, Jennifer Stone,” Allie said, in her snottiest voice. “I’m not going to some hick country school. I’m going home for ninth grade, so I’ve only got eight weeks to play your games. You tell me what to do to make you happy, and we’ll get this over with.”

The worker leaned in even closer (like the smell didn’t bother her one bit) and lowered her voice. “No,
here’s
the deal, Allianna Marsh,” she said. “Your mom’s an alcoholic, and you know it. If she sobers up, you can go home. If she doesn’t, you’ll be spending ninth grade in a hick country school.”

Allie blinked, then stepped back. This one wasn’t warm and fuzzy. The game was going to be different this time.

JoJo put her hand on Luke’s shoulder. “What happened?”

“Let’s go,” Allie wrapped an arm around each twin and herded them toward the bathroom.

“The file says Luke self-injures as a way of soothing himself,” the Stone woman said, as she flipped through a pile of papers on the table. “And Allie’s parentified—she’s trying to raise the twins, since her mother isn’t doing the job.”

“Shut up,” Allie yelled. “You have no business talking about us like we’re not even here.”

The woman looked at Allie and raised her eyebrows. “And were
you
planning on telling JoJo? She needs this information so she can help you.”

“We don’t need help. You had no right taking us away from our home.”

The woman sighed, then put on a fake I-care-about-you smile. “We’re going to keep you safe until your mother can do the job herself.” Allie absolutely
hated
that line—and a dozen foster workers had said the same stupid thing over the years.

Allie pulled Luke and Madeleine closer, and marched them to the bathroom. The Stone woman might not mind the smell, but it was making Allie queasy.

Allie had just put her hand on the bathroom doorknob when she heard the explosion. A deep, low rumbling sound followed by a massive
whooomp
that shook all the walls and rattled the windows.

She froze, waiting to see if the house was going to stay up or come crashing down.