The Rules They Broke

Chapter 1: The Ten Commandments

ELIJAH

Present Day

Elijah Russo leaned back in the kid-sized chair that the social worker, Kim, had stuffed him into. He thought better of it when the legs started to creak and brought them all back down to the floor. His butt was getting numb waiting here. Kim had promised to come back with his sister in two minutes. It had been more than fifteen.

For the first five minutes, he had been wild with panic about meeting this girl he hadn't seen in nine years. For the next five minutes, the panic had turned to excitement. That had put him in a better mood to see her. During this time, he wondered whether it had been Kim's strategy to take longer than promised so he was less anxious during the meeting.

Now, he was just bored.

He was sitting in a children's playroom, not much bigger than his living room. Toys had been stacked neatly on the shelves, cleaned up just for his arrival, and small chairs were placed here and there in an attempt at a welcoming atmosphere. To Elijah, the place just seemed sad. He wondered if his sister had been here long. Kim hadn't told him much about what she had been doing the past few days.

Just as he was about to go down the hall to the front desk and ask them to call for Kim, the social worker herself opened the door. Behind her, a curly haired girl with a splash of freckles across her nose and a sheet of paper clutched in her hand walked in. Her eyebrows were drawn tight across her forehead.

Elijah stood up so fast he knocked over the tiny chair behind him and the tiny table in front of him. He noted that while Kim laughed, made an offhand joke about it, and helped him pick up the knocked over things, the girl stood stiffly behind her.

"Hi," he said to her.

Without a shadow of a smile, without even opening her mouth any wider than was barely necessary, she said, "Hello."

"I know that you both know each other," Kim said, "so I won't do all the introductions. I'll leave you guys to talk. I'll be back in a few minutes. Olivia, be good."

Olivia murmured something that sounded like it was neither an agreement nor a disagreement. Kim seemed to understand, however, and left the room.

Elijah sat back down in the chair. It creaked beneath his weight in the silence. Olivia stood stiffly in front of the chair meant for her. "I didn't really think we would be meeting in these tiny chairs," Elijah said. "You sure you don't want to sit down?"

Olivia sat in the chair across the table from him. "The actual meeting room is being used," she told him.

Kim had told him. "I heard."

There was another awkward silence.

Elijah knew it was his job, as the older one, to carry on the conversation, but he couldn't remember how to talk to kids or girls. Unfortunately, Olivia was both of them.

"So," he prompted. "This must be really weird. You probably don't remember anything about me or the others."

"I know everyone's names," she said slowly, as if assessing his question while she spoke, wondering how much to reveal. "I remembered that from before. Elijah, Logan, Blake."

"Anything else?"

She shrugged offhandedly and looked down at the floor. She didn't say anything else. Elijah felt the silence press down on him again. He decided to ask her about the other thing he had been really curious about.

"What's that paper? Is it for this meeting?"

Olivia put the paper flat on the table, facing her. "Yes. We were late because I was writing this."