this is me trying (adopted by taylor swift)

chapter 1: somethings you just can't speak about

Evie stared at herself in the mirror as she ran her hands over the purple fabric of her dress that her brother had bought her.

"You ready to go?" Hunter asked as he knocked against the frame of the open door, watching his little sister who was just staring at herself quietly in the mirror. "You look really pretty," he tried. He knew it wouldn't mean much coming from him, but she still turned to face him, giving him a little smile.

She nodded before she did a quick spin in front of the mirror, causing the purple fabric to swirl around her and her curly blonde hair to fall precariously on her shoulders. She smiled briefly at her reflection before she followed her brother out of the hotel room.

"So, what do you want to eat?" Hunter asked, earning an anxious look from his little sister. She stared at him for a moment before she turned away and looked at the ground.

He sighed inwardly. "How about burritos?" he asked, pointing at a burrito place they'd just passed, and Evie nodded.

They walked into the burrito place and Hunter settled Evie down at a booth before walking up to place their order, holding a ripped-out piece of paper from Evie's ever-present notepad that she had scribbled down her order on.

When he came back to the table with two burritos, a root beer, and an apple juice, Evie was doodling on her notepad. He didn't even bother asking what she was drawing, she would never show him.

"Eve, foods here," he murmured, sliding the juice and a kids burrito across the table to her. Evie smiled at him, turning to a new page of her notepad and drawing a big heart with arms and legs and a smiley face on it with a little thank you at the bottom, before handing the pad over to her brother so that he could see her appreciation. "You're welcome," her older brother smiled, sliding the food in front of her so that she would remember to eat it, instead of just drawing.

"We've got about an hour and a half before the concert starts," he said as he glanced at his watch.

Eve nodded, setting down her pen and notepad and starting to eat her burrito.

"Are you excited?" her brother asked, which earned him a nod in response. She glanced up at her brother after taking another bite of her burrito, tilting her head to the side and giving him a look that said 'what about you?'

"I'm excited too," Hunter smiled. "You know I love Taylor Swift." And he wasn't even joking. If he was being perfectly honest with himself, he was probably a bigger fan of Taylor Swift than his little sister was. But he hadn't even been the one to buy the tickets. Their mom had bought them months ago, wanting to take Evie on a special trip just the two of them. But... that hadn't exactly worked out. So now he got to take her.

When they got to the stadium, Hunter kept a careful hold of his little sister's hand. She'd probably be fine if they got separated, but she didn't speak and she was his responsibility now. Her social worker probably wouldn't be too keen to hear that he lost his little sister at a Taylor Swift concert.

When they got to their seats there was a Dad with his daughter who looked to be a few years older than Evie, probably 11 or 12. They had introduced themselves to each other, and Hunter had introduced Evie, explaining that she didn't talk.

He wasn't sure if that was the right thing to do, he didn't know if telling people that made Evie mad at him, but it never seemed that way. Evie never got mad anyway. He tried to remember what his mom would do whenever she introduced Evie to her friends, but she used to talk back then. Rarely, but enough to introduce herself and not seem impolite.

The dad had asked how Evie was supposed to enjoy a concert if she didn't even talk. From the way he asked, Hunter could tell that he wasn't trying to be mean, but that's still how it came off. And his daughter picked up on it too, telling her dad not to be an 'insensitive jackass' and then complimenting Evie on her dress and giving her a friendship bracelet.