Ronna laughed and went up to the glass before running her finger down it. “Teddi, did you use a permanent marker on this?”
Her face dropped. “Oh no. I thought it was the dry erase kind.”
Austin clicked his tounge. “Listen, at least it wasn’t on her face this time.”
The family laughed and Milt pulled out his phone to show me a picture of a younger Teddi with a full beard and curly mustache. “She was a pirate and wanted to add a little something extra.”
“That lasted for two weeks.” Austin draped his arm around his sister’s shoulders. “Sometimes I feel like I can still see the mustache.” He touched her lip and she started wrestling with him immediately.
Ronna and Mike shook their heads.
Ronna offered, “Well, they behaved themselves for almost fifteen minutes, that’s a new record.”
Mike pushed the pile of wrestling kids out of my room.
Ronna smiled. “Do you want to settle in here and get some time to yourself? We can do a tour of the rest of the place after dinner?”
“Uh, sure. Thanks.” I glanced over at Rocket who was attempting to jump up onto the bed. Milt picked her up again, again holding her like a baby.
“I’d love to grab a shower.”
“Totally understandable,” Ronna said. “After I had the kids, it was the first thing I wanted to do when I got home from the hospital. There are towels and stuff in your bathroom.”
She opened a door I thought was a closet, and sure enough, I had my own bathroom.
“Thank you. I appreciate it.”
I watched as Ronna and Mike met their gazes and smiled. Man, these people were putting off a genuine vibe.
After the whole lot of them left my room, Austin came back.
“Let me get this door for you. Come out whenever you want. And if you want to have space tonight, I’m pretty sure I can slide pizza under the door.” And then he closed the door.
I stood there for a while, but then had a seat at the desk. It was a lot. A lot of walking and a lot of new people. A lot to absorb. These were seemingly nice people. I had questions as to why they wanted to foster a kid my age. The room was set up as gender neutral, sort of a guest room.
After exhaling loudly, I opened up the Chromebook that was on the desk. It was brand new. I guess my heart thought I’d be going home after the hospital and seeing Pixie even though I was angry with her. This new place seemed like a different universe entirely.
_______________
After my shower, I put on some sweatpants and a t-shirt from the suitcase. Fuzzy socks and a hoodie made me feel normal. I put the clothes from the suitcase into the dresser, which was empty. It took me a few times to try to walk out of the door and into my new home. I heard the doorbell ring as I stepped out. The door across from mine was ajar and Austin exited the same time I did.
“Pizza’s here. Perfect timing.” He was wearing black track pants and a pink t-shirt. He had a scarf wrapped around his neck and his hands were littered with rings. He certainly had his own style. “I’ll show you the way.” He led me up the stairs just as Mike closed the door with a stack of pizza boxes balanced on his arm.
Rocket was at the top of the stairs dancing around, eyes fixed on the pizza boxes.
“Hey, can you guys tell the other kids that the pizza is here?” Mike walked up the rest of the stairs and we followed him. I was going to pet Rocket, but she followed Mike.
Austin slowed once there was room to walk next to me. “Okay, so you want the tour while we go get them?”
I shrugged and remembered that hurt, so I winced as well. “Yeah, sure.”
“You okay?” His eyes were full of concern.
“I just forget that some stuff still hurts. I’ll be fine.” I looked around at the top of the stairs. There was a living room, dining room, and a half wall that separated the kitchen. It was way more space than I was used to. Hell, this house had way more space than about eight stores from the city neighborhood smashed together.
There were pictures in frames all over the walls. School pictures. Candid shots. Just a life pasted all over the walls. Austin showed me the bath and a half on that floor, then we went up another set of stairs to the top floor. He knocked on a door decorated with stickers, a silver set of letters that said Teddi, and what seemed like marker designs.
“More Sharpies?”
Austin snickered. “She loves to make permanent decisions with as little thought as possible. I fear for my parents when she hits eighteen. She will be covered in Disney tattoos.”
Teddi swung open the door and music flowed out. Upbeat pop music played around her flush face. “Dancing in the next Selena Gomez TikTok?” Austin asked her.
She grinned. “I’m starving!” She blew past us “Dibs on the bubble piece!”
“Um?” I had no idea what she was talking about.
Milt opened his door before Austin could knock. “Dibs on the bubble!” He pulled off a huge pair of headphones.
“Teddi already called it. You can suck on no bubbles tonight.” Austin touched the end of Milt’s nose.
Milt was unfazed. “Dips on the second bubble!”
I was able to peek into Milt’s room and it was a gamer’s dream lair. He had shelves with tons of different gaming systems on them and three TVs on the wall. The walls were painted black and the curtains drawn shut. There was a shooter game paused on the main monitor.
“I hope you aren’t fond of the bubbles on the pizza dough. Because those fools will fight like animals for that slice.” Instead of going down the stairs to dinner, Austin continued the tour. He got to the double doors and flung them open. “This is Mom and Dad’s room, where we were all conceived and we don’t ever want to think about it.” He waved his hand around with flourish.
I laughed out loud. “It’s...nice.”
The room was large and had two closets and a sitting area. The house was neat, but still had some piles of clutter.
“If only it were soundproof.” Austin closed the doors behind us. “And that’s the whole situation. We have to keep the doors closed because Rocket will pee on the carpet. She has no self-control about that. The pool doesn’t open until it’s warmer, but there’s a hot tub and we have a game court out back.”
He descended the stairs quickly and I was a little slower to keep up. When we got to the dining room, I realized they had enough chairs for all of us. Not an extra chair jammed in.
I folded into the routine of dinner easily. The family told me some about themselves, but I didn’t offer much. It seemed like we had so little in common. I mean, I had to be there and see how it went, but the way these kids joked with their parents told me that they’d never spent a day in their life afraid of them.
I had two cups full of lemonade and three slices of pizza. I found out that Mike was an engineer during the day, but loved playing basketball in the backyard at night. Ronna was crafty and so was Teddi, and they could spend way too much money in Michaels. Milt actually had a part-time job at the local game store that he loved going to. He knew when all the exciting game titles were coming out, and he and Austin usually went to midnight releases together. Austin was clearly beloved with a sharp tongue and a quick joke. I recognized that he was different, and I was super interested in the dynamic of acceptance here. They all seemed to know who Austin was and enjoyed him as he was.