You saved me Maddie

New life, new me.

We arrived at the group home a few minutes early, even though we stopped at the hospital on the way. I pulled my bag out as I stood outside to look at the building that was supposed to be my new home.
"Hey, listen" the social worker said "hide anything valuable, kids here they steal a lot".
I just nodded. She started walking inside and I followed her, like a shadow. We walked up to the front door and knocked. A blonde middle aged woman opened it. A smile spread across her face when she saw me.
"You must be Estelle" her happy tone sounding very forced.
I nodded. The woman stepped aside so that we could enter.
"I'm Anita" she said, closing the door behind us.
Anita and the social worker talked for a while, discussing payments and my needs, Anita reassuring that she would take great care of me. Then she showed me up a set of stairs to my room. In my new room there was already two girls in there, on one bunk bed. Anita pointed to the top empty bunk.
"That's yours" she said "dinner at eight, have fun".
She left and closed the bedroom door behind her. The girls turned their attention to me. They looked to be older than me, maybe 17? I climbed up to my bed, putting my bag at the foot of the bed. The girls just stared at me for a while, not daring to say anything.
"Where are you from?" One of the girls asked.
A tall girl with blonde hair and brown eyes.
"Los Angeles " I said.
"Fun" the other girl said.
She was shorter, had long brown hair and dark eyes. I nodded at them before I pulled out a book Maddie had bought. "The secret garden" i opened it on the first page and just read for a while before we were called down to dinner.
Eight kids and one grown up sat down at a big table. We started by saying grace but first I got strict instructions to only have seconds when everyone had finished eating. Then we said grace and after that we ate in silence. There were six girls, including myself, living at the group home. The rest of them were boys, aged ten and seventeen. Safe to say they stuck to each other like glue.
After dinner I went up to my room, the two girls that shared it with me followed me.
"So where are you really from?" The blonde one asked.
"Los Angeles" I said.
"No" the brunette shook her head, "What's your story? Where are you from?"
"Ohh" I said as the realisation hit me "My mom left and my dad was abusive"
The girls didn't look phased at all.
"And when my mom died my dad remarried a drug user, and when he started using he went crazy" I shifted as I sat on my bed. "He killed my sister and we're supposed to kill me when we got in an accident and they took him away."
The blonde one turned to the other girl.
"Millie, that sounded worse than yours" she said.
Millie nodded. The blonde one looked like she just realised something and said;
"Oh I'm sorry, I'm Lilly and that's Millie" she pointed to Millie.
"Ellie" I said.
"How long since you left your family?" Millie asked.
"About two weeks now" I said.
"Wow" Lilly raised her eyebrows.
I pulled up my blanket and slipped underneath, leaning against the wall. My phone buzzed, so I pulled it up. One text from May.
"Hey, how are you"
"I'm okay" I answered her.
Another buzz.
"Are you sure?"
"It's a bit different here" I typed.
"I figured :/" May typed.
"Do you know how Maddie is doing?" I asked her.
"I can ask mom, hold on" May told me.
I klicked on a game to pass the time. A notification from May appeared at the top.
"Maddie got to go home after a few days, she's staying with Buck for a while, cuz she needs to find a new place"
"Okay, thank you" I turned my phone off and looked at the time. 20:45.
I decided to go to sleep, even though I knew I would lie awake for hours.
The next two weeks were a bit like that, breakfast, homeschool, lunch, homeschool, free-time, dinner, bed. I never really slept though. Always my eyes on the door, not knowing who could come inside.
After those two weeks something changed. The seventeen year old boy at the group home didn't like me. I knew that before, but when he started picking on a ten year old girl I lost it. She had lost both her parents a month ago and the only thing she had left of them was an old phone. An old phone that the seventeen year old wanted. He started picking on her and I felt the urge to step in. Long story short he beat me up. I didn't remember that much, just him punching me. Then an ambulance arrived as I saw someone I recognised, Buck.
"Buck" I said with a slur.
He looked at me and then looked back at someone. An older man in his 50s. The man nodded to the ambulance and Buck backed off as the paramedics did their job.
"Hen?" I asked Hen.
She looked up, eyes meeting mine.
"Chimney" I continued.
"She's probably concussed" Hen said as Chimney nodded, agreeing with her.
I was strapped in on a gurney and Hen was putting something on my arm.
"You are gonna feel a little pinch" she said, and stuck a needle in my arm.
Chimney was carrying something from the back of the ambulance to the front. My bag.
"Where did you get that?" I slurred.
"One of your friends gave it to me" he said dismissively.
Friends. I never realised they were my friends. My mouth twitched up in to a smile.
After a while the ambulance stopped and I was wheeled in to the emergency room. I could see Hen and Chimney stopping as doctors took over my gurney. Chimney waved before doors shut after them.
Hours later I was put in a ward, my ribs all bandaged up and my foot in a cast for the following two weeks. I was in that ward for almost a week and no one visited me. I didn't text May because I didn't want to disturb so I just ended up watching tv.