Adopted (a Zalfie fanfic) [1]

Chapter 19

*Zoe's POV*
I was so pleased that I had managed to bring Lily out of her shell a little. She was like a whole new person out there and even though we were only in the back garden of her care home, it felt as if we were in a new world entirely, in our own little bubble.

We sat and talked for a while. For half of the time, we weren't even talking that much, we sat there in silence. But it was a comfortable silence, not at all awkward like I had expected it to. I didn't have my phone on me and she didn't have hers, so we had no idea of how long we'd been there for.

It was only when Emma came out looking for us that we realised it was getting on a bit. I'm presuming Emma knew about Lily's little secret spot because she came right to it. "It's starting to get a bit cold. Do you want to come in and we can have a chat in the office?" She asked. Lily, who was sat up straight against the bark, looked at me and then back at Emma. You could tell she was getting anxious again because she started to bite her lip.

"Formal meetings in the office aren't really for us. Maybe we could go somewhere else inside though?" I asked.

"Urm yeah, okay. How about the light room? I'll make sure no one's in it and you three can talk in there, yeah?"

"Yeah okay. Lily, is that alright?" I looked at Lily, who was looking down at the grass.

It took her a few moments before she could think of a reply. "Oh, urm, y-yeah...o-okay." She said. I breathed out a quiet sigh of relief. We stood up and walked the short distance back to the house. Lily trailed behind us a little at a slower speed. We got back into the house and luckily enough, all of the children seemed to be elsewhere as we walked through the kitchen and into the 'Light Room'.

As soon as I stepped inside, I gathered why it was called that. Tall lava lamps were positioned in all four corners of the room and fairy lights were rigged around the ceiling and on the furniture. There was a bookshelf on one wall and a table and chairs on the other. There were a few beanbags positioned randomly on the hardwood floor. It was very relaxing. "This is where the children go if they need a little bit of quiet time or if they need to calm down a bit. It's mainly used for the little ones." Emma said.

"It's very relaxing." I said, sitting down on a pink squishy beanbag.

"Right, I'll just go and get Alfie." Emma said, placing some folders on the table and leaving the room. Lily elegantly sat herself down on a beanbag towards the corner of the room and looked awkwardly around at her surroundings.

"Do you come in here often?" I asked her.

She was silent for a few short moments, as if she was rehearsing her answer in her head. "W-when I was younger, I-I used to have to come in here to 'calm down' or 'think things through'. I-I haven't been in here in...phhh, ages."

"Oh right. It's a very cute little room." I said, in an attempt to lighten the mood a little

"I-it is if your not being forced to talk about things you rather wouldn't." She said, staring at the lava lamp beside her. Emma saved me from having to think of a reply as she came bursting through the door with Alfie close behind. I just flashed a sympathetic smile at Lily and then smiled at Alfie who was plonking himself on a beanbag next to me.

We were all sat in what was, near enough, a circle. "Right, so I thought that you would both quite like to know Lily a little better and I think the best way to do this would be to play a fun game of something very similar too 'Would you Rather'. Zoe and Alfie, you are going to write down ten Would you Rather questions and then pass the paper on to Lily. She can then write her answer down and hand it back to you." She explained, looking round the room at all of us. "Got it?" We all nodded.

Emma handed us a piece of paper and Alfie and I each took it in turns to think of a question each, so in total we had ten questions. They were silly things like 'Cats or dogs?', 'Dresses or leggings and blouse?', 'Tea or Hot Chocolate?' and so on. The more I thought about it, the more I agreed that it was actually a very smart idea. We got to know more about Lily yet she didn't have to be pushed out of her comfort zone.

We handed the piece of paper to Lily and she started scribbling away, her neatly joined writing steadily filling up the page. Once she was done, she handed the sheet back to Alfie with a small smile. Scamming over it we found that she preferred dogs to cats (she was allergic), disco pants were more her thing and hot chocolate was a staple for her.

The next two hours were spent playing games such as 'Uno' and 'Frustration'. It was quite hard attempting to hold a conversation as Lily still wasn't really speaking that much. You could tell she still felt uncomfortable but I knew we had made progress. When she chuckled at one of Alfie's jokes was the moment I realised that we were changing her life and she was changing ours. Nothing compares to the happiness adopting a child brings with it.

It got to around 5:30pm before we decided it was time to head off home. Whilst we were collecting our things, I realised that we hadn't gave Lily her little present yet. As we were saying goodbye at the door, I handed her the gift bag. "Just a little something to say thank you for joining our family." I told her. She looked inside it and for the first time since we met her, her smile stretched from ear to ear.

"Th-thank you so much! I-I love it." She said, ecstatically.

"We'll organise to see you again soon, yeah?" Alfie asked, giving Lily a small hug. She nodded before stepping back and look if at us both.

"Th-thank you." She said. I gave her a quick hug and then made my way out of the door, Alfie by my side.

"Well that went well." Alfie said, taking my hand in his as we walked to the car.

"It certainly did Mr Alfred Deyes." I replied, looking up and smiling.

Author's Note:
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