Shine Bright Shirley

Chapter 1

Grace's POV:

"Shine bright Shirley"

Those three words were the last words my mother ever said to me before she passed away and now almost 5 years on I can still hear them as if she had just spoken them. However now as I'm sitting slumped in my social workers run down car, I can most certainly say that I am not shining bright in any sort of way.

The red headed character Anne Shirley from the book "Anne of Green Gables' was my mothers favourite childhood character and therefore when my mom saw that I came out of the womb with the most fiery red hair she knew that Shirley had to be my middle name. While kids in school would point and tease me growing up because of the colour of my hair my mother would say that I was gifted to carry the rare red headed gene that was passed down from my great great grandmother.

Growing up my mom would call me Shirley more than she would call me Grace, heck sometimes I even forgot my actual name was Grace. It had always been just me and mom growing up. I never knew my dad although I would barely even call him that, he left as soon as my mom got the news she was pregnant with me. Not that I cared mom did a fine ass job of being both parents, she would cook the most delicious homemade meals yet also knew how to joke around and be immature. Now when I think back to that period of my life I don't know how she did it, I don't know how she managed to be a single parent and work at the local diner just to make enough money to get by.

I knew we weren't like those rich families who could spend money on luxury items and afford to go on 4 vacations a year. Somehow though my mom made me feel like I never needed or wanted any of those things, and that if it was just me and her we could concur the world and somehow I believed her.

I was 10 when she got the news that she had been diagnosed with leukaemia and it was one of the worst days of my life. I was never religious but every night before bed I would pray that there would be a cure or that she would win her battle against the deadly disease. For a while I thought that my prayers were being answered, she was fighting it and at one point it seemed to be getting better however that was not the case. She fought it for 2 years, in and out of chemotherapy however even when she was at her worst she was still the most positive and cheerful person I've ever seen. However the day before my 12th birthday she passed away, it was then that I was officially all on my own and got swept up and put in to the foster care system.

~

The Dukes were the first foster family I went to stay with, for the first two years of staying with them everything seemed fine. The foster parents were so kind and caring and gave me my own space and time to grieve over my mother. They treated just like they treated their 2 biological children who were both around my age and who also treated me as if I was another sibling, they could never replace my mother but they made me feel loved during a very shitty period of my life. However during the last couple years of staying with them things slowly started to change.

Their two kids started to change their attitude towards me, they went from being all kind and involving me in activities to giving me the cold shoulder. My last six months of staying at the Dukes was hell, the foster parents went from loving me to loathing me all because of their two kids, or as I liked to call them satan one and satan two. It was as if they didn't like to see me finally becoming happy because as soon as I started to properly settle into the Duke's household they wanted me gone and I have to applaud them because they did exactly that.

What did they do may you ask?

Well they made me look like a thief by supposedly stealing money from their parents and valuable jewellery from their mom, the parents called my social worker and wanted me gone as soon as possible. I can't lie and say I wasn't incredible hurt when leaving the Dukes since I really was, I couldn't believe that the parents believed that I would do all of that but then again of course they were going to believe their biological children over me. I'm only a foster kid and thats all I'll ever be.

~

That is why now I am currently sitting in my social worker Helen's run down car, the same car she had five years ago when she first picked me up to take me to the Dukes. A sense of deja vu hits me, as we are now on the way to my new foster family and hopefully my last.

I have about a year and a half until I'm eighteen and then I will officially be out of the system and on my own. Although the thought of being all on my own scares me to shit as I have no idea where I'll go or what I will do, I also can't wait because then I won't have to worry about anyone letting me down. I'll be able to make my own decisions and make my own rules and shine bright just like my mom wanted.

"So where to this time?" I ask, keeping my eyes looking out the window at all the tall, dense trees surrounding the road we are driving along.

"Haven Falls, its a small town, it will be a great place to spend your last year in the system." Helen said as she quickly took her eyes off the road to glance at me. I just replied with a nod of the head. "Please try to be a little more enthusiastic Grace, it took me a while to find a family willing to take in a 16 year old girl." She is right not many families want to foster older kids they all want to be looking after the younger kids.

"I'm sorry, you don't know how thankful I am of you Helen. You have helped me out so much over the years, and once I get out of the system I will make sure to repay you."

"Oh sweetie, you don't need to do such a thing this is my job after all. Now would you like to hear about this new family you are going to be staying with for the next year?" Nervousness washed over me as I looked over to her and shyly nodded, lets hope they will be better than the Dukes.

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First chapter done, hope you all like it! :)