Aubrey Garcia's Journey home.

Chapter Two.

   (warnings)

 Aubrey's eyes snapped open, and she cried out. Memories swirled in her head, making it hard to breathe, hard to think. 

When she came to a more functional state of mind she sighed. She sat up and stared at the room around her for a moment, trying to remember where she was. Right. Aubrey slipped off her bed. 

Her newest foster parents had given her their guest bedroom, a cozy space with a small bed and a quaint desk. Though she couldn't see it at the moment, she knew those obnoxiously blinding yellow walls were right next to her. She carefully stepped to the side to avoid bumping right into one.

She wasn't particularly clumsy but she steered clear anyways. After all the last thing she wanted was to land herself in an emergency room this early in the morning. Aubrey peeked through the curtains. She was met with a dazzling sight. The sun was slowly climbing up the sky turning it stunning shades of purple, blue, orange, and pink.

            She climbed on the second floor balcony, grabbed her sketchbook and began to paint. The morning breeze lightly ruffled her dirty blonde hair, and she sighed contently. She had a tendency to get distracted, or to lose track of time completely. It was hard not to though, with the sky looking so perfectly beautiful and paintable. 

In fact, how dare the sky be so lovely and distracting, it was ruinin' her only chance to get changed. She could imagine it already, her foster siblings bursting in the room, demanding that Aubrey get out, stealing her things and running off. It wasn't uncommon for foster siblings to steal from her, even Aubrey had stolen from them a few times. That was just how it worked.

By the time she was finished it was about time for her to actually get ready. She walked back inside the room, and grabbed a book. Aubrey chuckled at herself. So much for getting ready. She sat curled up on the bed for a while, her mind slowly emptying of all things but the book in front of her. And that was how she liked it. After all, books were an escape from the world she lived in. Books reminded her of happier times before all of this. Sometimes they even remembered her of house 1, the first family she had been thrown out of. For the first month, it really seemed like they would adopt her. She was different, sure, but Aubrey had truly believed that they would keep her, that they would let her stay in their home. It hurt even more when they had kicked her out, privately telling her social worker that "We don't think we can properly accommodate a child like Aubrey." The woman had clasped her hands in her lap and looked away from Aubrey's social worker. "We just wouldn't know what to do if she had another..." The woman trailed off. "Panic attack." She had said it as if it was some sort of unnatural occurrence that didn't happen to people all around the world.

Aubrey heard hushed voices from downstairs, momentarily jolting her from the past. Her heart sank as she registered their oh so familiar tone. She had her suspicions about what they were talking about, but she didn't want to assume too quickly. She quietly tiptoed down the stairs being careful not to trip. Aubrey had mastered the art of silence after years of sneaking past foster siblings and parents, years of making herself as unobtrusive as possible. She could practically turn invisible if she wanted to, it was a necessary skill for people like her.

"I-i don't think..." Came a voice, her foster parents voice to be exact. She could never remember her name anyhow after a while she stopped keeping track. Something along the lines of Tessa? Terrisa? Tasha? Something that started with a 'T'. 

"I don't think we can keep her." Whispered Tasha, and Aubrey sighed quietly. She knew this would end up happening, just not so soon.  It had only been one month, and so far Aubrey hadn't done anything too extreme. "It's just that we don't want her being a bad influence on our children. Our real ones." Aubrey winced at that and despite her best efforts she couldn't help but feel slightly wounded. Aubrey forcefully shoved that down, and tried to force on her usual mask of indifference. She couldn't afford to be weak, not here.