brothers.

30.1~ Exposed

Mild trigger warning: Contains mentions of self-harm. Reader discretion is advised.

After school was over, I went to my first meeting with the foster kid club. They seemed a lot nicer than the Book Club, so I just hoped it wouldn't turn out the same as yesterday.

The club met in a classroom. The desks were arranged in a circle, a table pushed to the far wall. There were bowls of candy, cans of soda, and an open box of chocolate cookies.

"Diana, hey!" Blanche came up to me and took my hand. "Glad you came. You want something to eat?" To my surprise, Alma was also present.

"Just some soda, thanks." I served myself a cup and sat down at the circle with everyone else.

"Alright, I'm gonna start. So... who's new here this year?" Delancey asked the circle.

I raised my hand with a couple other people.

"Okay, let's introduce ourselves! Diana, how about you go first?"

"Um... okay. I'm Diana Watson. And I just moved in with the Field family, and I'm staying for about half a year."

The other two introduced themselves; one was a boy named Derek who had just entered foster care, and the girl wasn't a foster kid, but joined anyway. Her name was Jessie, a junior.

"I'm actually part of the school newspaper," she continued. "I came to get an article out of the meeting. I thought, since we have some... interesting guests here, the school could have something exciting to read about."

Interesting guests?

"I'd like to inform everyone else about how foster kids live and how their experiences are, so they're not so ignorant, you know, there's a lot of prejudice against foster kids, and I'd like to change that."

"That's a great idea," said Delancey, "and we could increase membership. Most other foster kids here either don't know we exist, or don't want to join. This could help them, and help the rest of Summit's community know more about us and the system."

"Actually, could you repeat that?" Jessie said, taking out her phone. "That's a great quote."

"Sure." Delancey repeated what she said, talking into the phone.

She was writing an article? I squirmed nervously. I hoped she didn't ask me anything.

"Okay, so... I just wanted to ask y'all how you feel in this club, if you relate more to other people, found anyone to connect with... stuff like that. Uh, how about you?" Jessie smiled at me.

"Me?"

"Yeah. How do you feel now that you've joined Summit's Family of Fosters?" She turned on her phone's voice recorder. I got a little anxious, seeing the soundwaves scroll by on her screen.

"Um..." I glanced at Blanche, who nodded encouragingly. "W-well, I just joined, so... it's hard to say. It's my first meeting."

"But do you feel like your life here at Summit High will improve now that you've found your people?"

My people? "I'm not sure how to...?"

"I mean... there's a lot of rumors about you. But now that you've joined a club of people that relate to you somehow, you think you can sorta... make new friends easier?"

"I guess so?"

"And I bet there's gonna be a lot more new members with you around. Lots of people want to meet you, so you could make a lot of friends," Delancey pointed out.

"Lots of people want to meet me?"

"You're famous here," she said. "And now, people will get to know you for you, not because of... you know."