The Burning Rose

Chapter 4: Decisions

The town of Patch was small. There was no real system for helping orphans, but Summer Rose had friends all across the globe that she had reached out to about finding Cinder a home. And after the reply letters came in, Summer threw herself wholeheartedly into the work.

Unfortunately, after the past few weeks, Summer's enthusiasm was starting to fade.

"Okay, thank you for your time! Next time let's get some takeout and sodas!" She said as yet another potential family left the meeting room.

As the door swung shut, she let out a sad sigh. That was the last one for today. Just like the past two weeks.

She gathered up the papers angrily. She was getting sick of hearing the same excuses over and over again. No medical history. An accident caused a death. To wild, or unpredictable. Bla bla bla! Why couldn't they just say they didn't want a fourteen year old daughter with huntress training!? It made her mad that they wouldn't even give her a chance.

Cinder had been taking it pretty hard too. She hadn't even sat in to hear what this family would say. She knew they would reject her too. As if Cinder needed anymore unfairness in her life.

Summer put the papers into a folder and opened the door to the hallway.

Across from the room they were renting was Cinder. She was leaning against the wall, her arms crossed.

She was wearing a dark red sleeveless dress with fingerless gloves. A single earring hung from her right ear and she had put on some makeup. She had a pair of nice high heels to go with her outfit. A gift from Summer to her.

Despite all this, nobody seemed to think Cinder was worth their time. One look told them all they needed to know. She was going to be a handful, and nobody would be willing to take that chance.

"Hey." Summer said softly. "Don't worry about it. You're too good for them anyway. Let's go home. I bet Ruby's getting anxious." Cinder said nothing but followed Summer out into the cloudy parking lot and into her car. It wasn't a long drive back home, but Summer still wanted to get home quickly and put some good food into the girl's stomach.

Ever since the fight on Cinder's first day, the two siblings had been unable to resolve things. Yang had started to do the most childish things to get back at Ruby. Putting her things too high for her to reach, hiding her fairytale books, super gluing the lid to the cookie jar shut (okay, The rest of the family found that incredibly funny.) and putting gum into her hair. It had been a bad few weeks.

Unfortunately, Ruby had been getting her revenge in an equally childish way by trying to spend all her time with Cinder, (much to the older girl's annoyance.) as a 'new' sister. As a result, Cinder had been drawn into the line of fire for Yang. And now Cinder was reaching her wits end. Her toothbrush being used to scrub the toilet, her clothes being buried in the garden and Yang had even tried to steal Cinder's swords. Fortunately, Summer had caught and stopped her before Cinder found out. Summer didn't even want to think about how badly that would have ended.

During her stay, Summer found herself learning more about Cinder as well. Like the girl had a knack for reading. Summer had caught her reading one of Ruby's fairytales. She had offered to buy the girl some books, but Cinder had declined as she didn't want much stuff to pack when she moved out.

Summer had also learned that Cinder had a temper. And a very bad one at that. She normally had a more reserved personality, but that had been a result of being a slave. Her true personality was of a sassy, prideful girl who preferred using her fists over her words. And was quick to anger.

More than once Summer had to physically step between Cinder and the object of her rage. And even worse, said object was normally Yang. The two seemed incapable of getting along. And while Summer had a good guess it was normally Yang who started the fight, Cinder was older and stronger and wouldn't hold back against the eight year old.