A New Family

The Start of Something New

A women with short black hair in dress pants and a button up shirt knocks on the metal sliding door. Behind her is a young, 15 year old girl with a back pack and a small duffle bag. After a few minutes it opens to reveal a young man with black scruff for a beard in a black long sleeve shirt and jeans on.

"Mr. Hale? Derek Hale?" The women asks and he furrows his eyebrows and nods.

"This is he. I'm sorry, who are you?" Derek asks her leaning on the wall between the door and the wall.

"My name is Alexandra Anderson, I'm a social worker. May we come in?" She asks him and Derek nods before opening the door more, to let them in. He closes it behind him and they all stand there waiting for someone to talk. "Mr. Hale, do you know a Claire King?" She asks him and the girl cringes in her spot to hear the name out loud.

"She was a girlfriend of mine like freshman or sophomore year of high school, why?" He asks looking from the social worker to the young girl behind her who did not look particularly happy.

"Well... this is Hope, um, the daughter of Claire... and you. At least that is what it says on her birth certificate." Mrs. Anderson says and Derek's eyes widen as he looks back at the girl again, his daughter. "Maybe we should talk somewhere more private." She tells him and he nods and they go to walk a little aways. Hope looks around before settling on the couch placing her bags on the floor.

She looks over at Derek and Mrs. Anderson talking and sighs as she looks away and forward. After a few minutes Mrs. Anderson walks back over with Derek trailing behind her.

"Hope, so I have to get going, but call me if you need anything. I'll be here for the rest of the weekend just out of town, okay?" She tells her and she smiles and nods.

"Yeah, thanks, Mrs. Anderson." Hope tells her standing up and watches as she goes out the door. As the door slides closed Hope just sits back on the couch and Derek stands there awkwardly for a minute before sitting at the other end.

"So... Hope, that's a nice name." He tells her and she just narrows her eyes.

"Look, you don't have to pretend you want me here or that you're a dad. Just show me where I could take a shower and where I'll be sleeping and we'll be just fine." She tells me and he stares at her for a second before nodding.

"Um, bathroom is second door on the right and it attaches to the guest bedroom, you can stay in there." He tells her and she grabs her bags heading that way. She places her bags on the floor at the end of the bed and pulls out a pair of jeans with a tank top and hoodie. She makes her way to the shower and gets in and out drying off and changing before heading back out into the living room to ask for something to drink. That's where she finds Derek with two boys who looked to be just older than her.

"Hope, this is Scott and Stiles." Derek tells her and she nods.

"Hey, I'm Hope." She says and holds out her hands for them to shake.

"Why don't you take Hope to get ice cream." Derek tells them pulling out some money.

"I'm 15, not 5." She tells him sourly and turns to the boys. "But I could go for some food if you two are down." She tells them and they nod.

"Yeah, sounds good." Scott says and Hope smiles taking the money from Derek and leading the way to the door. She makes her way down the stairs to the parking lot with Scott and Stiles in step behind her.