ideas

Love, Hope, and other Unexpected Things

Kendra Evens doesn't except help very well, she doesn't talk about her feelings, she doesn't take the easy way. She doesn't follow the rules, or does what's expected. She's always been strong and independent, taking care of her younger sister Katie, and working hard to make sure no one finds out that their mother hasn't been seen or heard from in almost eight months.

Until one day, the police arrive along with a social worker. Mara Evens was arrested a few days prior, in another state. They tell Kendra that her and Katie can't live by them self.

Kendra assumed that they were going to put them into foster care, but to her, what they did instead was much worse. They contacted her father, who only recently discovered Kendra existed.

Him and his wife were glad to take in Kendra and her five year old sister. In fact they saw it as a blessing, since they had also recently found out that they couldn't have children of their own.

Kendra isn't as excited, one; she's never met them. Two; they have way too many rules for her to be comfortable. Three; they're church people.

On top of all of that, now they expect her to stop acting like Katie's parent and start acting like her sister, despite the fact that she has basically raised her little sister since birth. She didn't spend the last two years of her life, lying about her age, to get money to feed and take care of Katie, only for two new people to walk in and take over.

Her father and step mother on the other hand, just want Kendra to be able to live a normal life. They want her to be a kid, not a parent. They want her to get the opportunity she was almost robbed of, by Living with her mother.

~•~°~•~

"Kendra!" Nancy yells at me as I try to walk away from her after getting out of the car.

"What!" I snap at her.

She looks over at the woman next door, standing on her front porch watching the whole encounter. I roll my eyes, thinking she's going to tell me to go inside so that the neighbors won't talk about us. "Can I help you miss Reeves?" She says sarcastically, surprising me. The woman shakes her head and then goes back inside her house. Nancy turns back to me "we have to talk about what you did."

"I don't want to talk, I don't even want to be here. If it wasn't for Katie breaking down like that, we wouldn't be." I tell her, breathing hard through my nose. Trying to contain my anger, and the feeling of betrayal over what happened at the bus station moments earlier.

"Well that's too bad, because we're going to talk about it." She tells me, and I can't read her face, not being able to tell if she's angry. I don't say anything and she walks closer to me, "come on let's sit down."

I follow her, sitting down on one of the chairs on the front porch. I don't know why I'm doing what she wants, maybe it's the shock over hearing my little sister call her "mommy" earlier. Or maybe it's because unlike my mom, when I would do something to make her upset, she hasn't hit me.

After we both sit down she turns to me, "what happened earlier, you taking Katie from her school, was definitely wrong. You could have been arrested for kidnapping if me and your father hadn't cleared everything up." I don't look at her, something about how she keeps looking at me with concern instead of anger, doesn't feel right.  She continues talking "Then you tried to board a bus with her, did you even know where you were going to go, or what you were going to do after that?"

I shrug, I hadn't really thought farther then taking Katie with me. I hadn't even packed bags, it was just something I had decided this afternoon after getting into a fight with Becky Gallagher.

"Honestly, think about what could have happened if Katie hadn't had freaked out wanting to come home, and that security guard hadn't realized something was wrong." She says, studying me.

"We would be headed somewhere, where we could go back to the way things used to be." I tell her, my anger coming back.

"Is that what you really want? To have to lie about your age, give up a chance at education, to live in fear every day that someones going to find out that your alone, and take Katie away from you, to worry about finding somewhere to live, and if your going to be able to eat today?," She pauses looking at me to make sure that I'm hearing her "do you really want that for Katie?"

I just sit there, not knowing what to say, looking down at my hands. So  she begins to talk again "I didn't think so."

"I'm sorry" I mumble, slowly looking up as I hear my father's car pull into the driveway.

She nods, "I know, but I think you should also apologize to your sister, you scared her today."

I bite my lip and nod, standing up as Katie comes up the steps holding onto my father's hand. I smile at her, "hey Katie Kat, can I talk to you?" She steps slightly behind my father, shaking her head, and I know I really messed up. "Please, I just want to say I'm sorry."

She looks to my father and Nancy, who nods at her. Katie finally steps out from behind him, "okay, but it better be good."

I smile at her little attitude, "alright," I kneel down to her height "I'm really sorry for what I did today, I shouldn't have taken you, and I shouldn't have tried to make you runaway with me. I especially shouldn't have yelled at you when you didn't want to come with me. Can you forgive me?"

She looks like she's contemplating it, then she nods "okay, but can I ask you a question?"

I nod too "sure anything."

She reaches up touching my eye, I flinch back at the sting "did mommy do that to you, because you in trouble for taking me?" She looks over at Nancy, so I guess she's referring to her.

Becky had given me a black eye when we got into that fight, the bruising wasn't as dark when I was with Katie earlier, only in the last hour did it become more prominent. I shake my head "no, this mean girl at school did. I don't think Nancy would do something like that."

She looks at Nancy "promise?"

Nancy and my father kneel down too, "we would never hit one of you girls." My father says.

"We promise" Nancy finishes.

Katie nods, "okay, can we go inside now?"

My father laughs, everyone standing back up. We all start to walk into the house, I head for the stairs when my father calls out "don't think we won't be talking about your fight later, that definitely hasn't been forgotten." I groan as I walk up the rest of the stairs.