Adopted by Hamilton

Chapter 56 - Walking Tobillo

At 6:30 Friday morning Tobi jumped on my stomach to wake me up. I jolted up in bed, and she was sitting on me.

"Tobi, no. It's too early." I sat up and rubbed my eyes.

"I think she wants you to walk her." Lin was leaning in my doorway.

"At 6:30?" I asked.

"That's when she wakes me up." He said putting a leash on her. "Do you want to come?"

"Sure, just give me like 5 minutes."

"Alright." He said stepping out of my bedroom. I changed into a Fun Home t-shirt and jeans, and straightened my hair.

"I'm ready." I called, stepping out into the kitchen.

"Nice shirt." Lin said, getting up from the couch. "Can we go?"

"Yeah."

"Come here Tobi!!" He yelled patting his lap, Tobillo came running into the room, with her leash still on. "Let's go!" He picked Tobi up and carried her outside, with me lagging along behind.

"Do you usually walk the dog at 6:30 in the morning?" I asked

"Yeah, only when she wakes me up. I like the walks though, I never used to take them before I had a dog."

"That's nice." I suck at conversation. Seriously. I'm awful at this.

"Anyways, your boyfriend texted me yesterday. Technically during my interview, but I didn't have my phone on me at the time, I got the first text that morning, he said that you were going to meet with Nick and Luke."

"Yeah, I made sure William would be there though, I was safe."

"Yeah, I know you were safe, my only question is, why?"

"I... Um... I guess, I guess I just needed to know." I said.

"Needed to know what?"

"I needed to know why they kept coming back for me, why they didn't just give up, and move on to some other girl." Lin laughed a little, "what's funny about that?"

"I'll tell you in a second. Continue."

"Ok, well, I wanted to know, and I just wanted to end it, I felt like explaining to them that u wasn't worth it would just end everything."

"Did it?"

"No, they kind of just told me that I was a pity project."

"Wait. A pity project? Why? What did they mean by that?"

"I thought you knew." I said, he told me that William texted him.

"Yeah, no, he didn't tell me this part. Elaborate."

"Ok, so, I told them that they should just give up on me because I'm being walked everywhere, and picked up directly from class, and they told me that William and, um..." I fumbled, not really wanting to say this, "you, didn't really care about me." I sped up a little wanting out of this conversation.

"Wait, hold up." He said, running up to me. "Why would he say that?"

"I don't know."

"Did you believe him, why was his basis?"

"His basis was that I was kind of just around because it brings the show good press."

"Ok, well the show doesn't need any more good press, in fact, I'm pretty sure we need bad press, we'll never close at this rate."

"He said that you wouldn't of adopted me if it wasn't for Hamilton, that adopting a kid, with the orphanage that Eliza founded, is too on the nose and un-realistic. That its all for the press."

"Well, he's half right."

"Wait what?" Color drained from my face, was I really just a pity project?

"I wouldn't have adopted you if it wasn't for Hamilton and Graham Windham." He said laughing a little, "but that's not a bad thing. That day I saw you at the grocery store, I had just finished a meeting with Graham Windham and Pippa about what can happen in foster homes. Then I saw a teenage girl with a giant bruise on her face, who was in the system. I looked into your file, I saw that you lived with drug addicts, that you made honor choirs and couldn't go because the families didn't want to pay, I saw that you auditioned for The Beacon School, and only got to go because the school pulled together a full ride scholarship."

"Ok, but, you do care about me right?" I asked.

"Of course, we chose to adopt to give you a chance at life. It would be silly to say that we've loved you ever since the day we started fostering you, because we didn't know you, all we knew was that you deserved a chance, and we could give you one, then, over time, we did begin to love you, and care about you, and want to protect you. So yeah, if it wasn't for Hamilton, we wouldn't have adopted you, but why does that mean we care about you any less?"

"Ok." I said softly. I'm a wreak. "Wait, what was funny?" I asked, recalling him laughing earlier.

"Oh," he started, "Nick is still trying to get under your skin because you've ruined him. He's trying to get you back for getting suspended, and Luke? Luke just thinks your hot and is trying to hook up with you, but he doesn't realize that that is never going to work. Do you hear me?" He asked, "never." I laughed. "On a brighter note," he changed the subject, "we leave for D.C. on Sunday!"

"Oh my gosh! Yeah! I forgot!" Bam4Ham was happening and I totally forgot!

"Yeah, you'll get to meet the President."

"Oh my gosh, really?" I asked.

"Of course! We've all met him, why shouldn't you?"

"This is cool, and weird, I never thought I would meet Obama."

"I never thought I would meet Obama either, but I've met him a couple of times."

"That's crazy. So that's happening on Monday, and we're leaving on Sunday?" I clarified.

"Yeah. We're gonna film so many Ham4Hams, all over the White House!"

"This is gonna be so cool!" I squealed. I get to go to the White House, with everyone, and meet the President. Oh my gosh, how lucky am I?

Thanks for reading!

-Abi