Diamonds Dancing

Coming Down (Rika's Pov)

Five. The first memories of the foster home. Clutching onto the social worker's hand, she remembered looking up at the dull building and seeing many small faces peeking at her through the windows.

She remembered being perplexed as to why the social worker had dropped her off in this large building

Why was she going there all by herself?

Did the women finally manage to track down her parents?

Ten. The first time she met Ada, her adopted foster grandma.

She entered the communal living area to find warm eyes and a head of grey locks. She was struck by how soothing and peaceful the elderly woman appeared, and despite being the shy kid in the house, she greeted the unnamed stranger with a toothy grin and offered her some coffee.

She had never made anything like it before. She had no idea what coffee or tea were, but she knew it was the polite thing to do because characters in movies and television shows were frequently shown offering the hot beverage to their guests.

Her coffee was made with boiling hot water and three whole coffee beans that she did not grind beforehand.

Nonetheless, Ada smiled as she retrieved the stale coffee and said the words that made her heart swell for the first time in the ten years she had been alive.

'Mm, delicious! You are a such a little darling, aren't you?'

Sixteen. She had been kissed for the first time as a dare in a horrible game of truth or drink. And by her sixteenth birthday, she had lost her virginity to the person who tormented her on a daily basis.

She used a whole bottle of shampoo that night, scrubbing her scalp until it bled and red stained her face.

Eighteen. She had been living on the streets for two years when she met her saviour and guardian angel, Marco Finchley. Her troubled life came to an abrupt halt when the grumpy man took a liking to her and offered her a room at his sleazy motel.

There she found her first real friend, and her first glimpse of hope.

Twenty. Twenty was a special number to her and one that she held close to her chest.

For it was the age that she met the broken family of three who soon became her everything.

"Be careful," was the clear warning she noticed as she opened her eyes and blinked in the morning sun streaming in through the windows. "If one of you drops it again, I'm not going to order another cake."

"Enough already! You don't need to repeat yourself, we heard you the first time. I'm not an idiot like Jan, so I'm not going to drop it."

"You sure?"

"Yes, Daddy." Their particularly testy preteen daughter sighed heavily.

A loud thud was heard in a matter of seconds, followed by complete silence.

Slater's throaty morning voice could be heard from outside the door, and to put it mildly, he sounded irritated. "You two are going to drive me to my death, didn't I tell you not to fucking drop it?"