Parking Lot Kids

Chapter One: This Is The Day

Senior Summer: Late June

Remus

Sunlight was just beginning to peek through the broken blinds, meaning I had stayed up for the entire night. Again. It's a little hard to fall asleep when your whole life is going to change in a matter of hours, and it's not like the relentless car horns and police sirens help.

I rolled over to check my phone, the cheap bed creaking loudly from my movement. The cracked screen read 5:05 am. Great. I had about half an hour's worth of peace and quiet left until the whole house was filled with screaming children. Yet another perk of being a foster child. Overrun homes, stuffed with as many children as legally possible so the parents got more money for their "hospitality". I'm glad my crappy life makes you money Ms. Penny.

But there was today. A chance for things to be different. A chance of an actual possible decent family. I was being transferred to a new home, with the possibility of it being a permanent placement, at least until I was eighteen and no longer the state's problem. Hope and Lyall Lupin were the names of the "oh so generous" people who volunteered to take me in. From the picture I had seen, they looked nice enough. Hope had petite features and a kind smile, while Lyall seemed to tower over her even while seated. Everything about Lyall seemed oversized. His smile took up half his face and gave his eyes those little crinkles at the corners like in the movies. I could picture them as great parents but not to me.

"They have no other children," my caseworker explained to me over a cup of shitty deli coffee a few days prior, "and they were overjoyed to find out about you." I rolled my eyes. Linda, my caseworker, was great, but her optimism gave me a headache.

"Great," I responded with fake positivity, "I'm sure it'll be amazing." A small part of me always hoped these would be THE parents, my forever family, but my 9 years of foster home experience told me to think otherwise. I was only setting myself up for disappointment.

"REMUS!!!" I was then snapped out of my thoughts. Another look at my phone told me it was now 5:31. Chores. Linda wasn't coming for another five hours to take me to the Lupin's, so it was business as usual until then. Make breakfast and cleanup, then help the younger ones with homework. And since today was Saturday it meant dusting, mopping, and my favorite, cleaning the bathroom. Only five more hours.

Five hours. Five hours of doing the most absolute boring shit ever, but I managed to get through it. As I was finishing up last of my chores, I heard the sounds of Linda's 2008 Toyota Corolla pulling up to the curb. My cue to get my shit, and scram before Ms.Penny could find some other chore for me to do. Grabbing 'my shit' was not a laboring job. My years as a foster kid, I learned it easy to keep my luggage to a minimum. The less, the better. I exited the hell hole of the place I was living in without saying a goodbye to Ms. Penny, I'm sure she won't mind. I wouldn't be surprised if I was already replaced by some new poor foster kid.

Linda greeted me with one of her signature apricot scented hugs, which I have to admit I enjoyed a little bit. "Jeez kid have you gotten taller since the last time I saw ya?" she questioned playfully. Linda always greeted me like this ever since I could remember and I still responded with my usual "Maybe you're just shrinking."

"So kiddo, how ya feeling about the new family?" Linda asked as we got into her car. I knew this question was coming and I still didn't have an answer.

"Umm..." I stalled while throwing my bags in her backseat. "I guess I'm hopeful," I finally stated, it was at least half true. We drove for a few minutes in awkward silence until it became too much, and I moved to turn on the radio. A Latin pop ballad immediately began playing, typical. I began to switch through the channels, until I found one playing David Bowie. I could see Linda roll her eyes out of the corner of mine, but Linda never minded me taking over her music.

I watched my home of 17 years, good ole' NYC, pass by as Bowie sang "Rebel, Rebel". 45 minutes passed, and I had realized Linda never told me where the Lupin's lived. "Hey, where are we going?" I asked.

"The Hamptons," she replied nonchalantly.

Of course they're rich , I thought to myself. I never had much money, even before I was a foster kid. Fenrir Greyback, my real dad, was too drunk to hold down a job, and my mom had escaped the hell hole of my birth family's house before I was even 5. I had been put into foster care when I was 7 and although Greyback was no longer a part of my life, he left scars that would never let me forget him. A real Dad Of The Year, impossible to get rid of. Ever since then I'd bounced around inner city foster homes, until now. Now I was going to be rich. For however long they decided to keep me, my brain commented.

Time flew by quickly. The busy crowded highway changed to backroads with trees surrounding each side of the road. Eventually Linda makes a turn and I know we are there. And there it is. The place I will be calling home for at least a month. It's a large rustic looking house with immaculate landscaping, a concrete driveway, and some type of rich cars, parked in the open garage. Two figures stand waving on the wide front porch.

"We're here," Linda said.