Chapter One: Home is Where the Heart is
Kia
I sat on the cold steps outside the police station. The man sitting beside me smelled like mothballs. He said he was my worker. He was nice. He gave me a pack of Reese’s while we waited.
“The family you’re going to stay with were best friends with your parents,” he said.
I squeezed the teddy bear in my arms a little tighter.
“I think this is her.”
A black car pulled up, and a woman stepped out. She was tall and really pretty. She walked right up to me and hugged me so tight my cheeks squished together.
The lady and my worker talked for a while. I tried not to listen. Mama always said to stay out of grown folks’ business.
“Come on, Kia. It’s time to go,” the lady said.
“Be good, Kia.” He waved goodbye, and I watched him disappear as we drove away.
I sat in the back with the lady. There were two more men in the front seat.
“Kia, you can call me Auntie Rose,” the lady said. “And you can call my husband Uncle Donavan.”
I looked at the two men in the front, trying to guess which one was her husband.
“Oh, no, sweetie. My husband is the Lycan King.”
King, I thought. So, she was the Queen.
I shifted in my seat, uncomfortable. My legs felt funny. The lady kept talking, happy and bright.
“I have two sons, so you’ll have them to play with.” She paused. “I know this is going to be hard for you, Kia, but I promise I’ll try my best to give you everything your parents would have given you.”
I picked at a loose thread on the seat and nodded without looking up.
Outside the window, everything I knew was getting smaller and smaller. Wow, I whispered to myself. Everything here was bigger. The buildings were tall and shiny. There were so many people walking around. My eyes went wide when we turned and stopped in front of a big gold gate.
“Come on, Kia, let’s get you settled,” Rose said.
This place was huge. I wondered if my parents had ever been here before.
“Donavan! Boys!” she yelled. “We’re home!”
A man came down the stairs. Oh, I thought, he’s what Mama would call handsome. He was talking to one of the boys. It looked like he was in trouble. Or maybe not. One boy was loud. The other one was quiet.
“Hi, Kia. Welcome to Graymoor, the Lycan Kingdom,” Donavan said.
Rose’s voice went softer as she pulled him away, whispering something in his ear.
“Hi,” the boy who’d been getting fussed at said. “You’ve got cool-looking eyes. My name is Bellamy. This is my big brother, Thomas.” He bumped Thomas’s shoulder. “Say something.”
Thomas finally looked me in the eyes. “Sorry about your parents,” he whispered.
“Thank—”
“She doesn’t want to be sad, Thomas,” Bellamy cut in. “Come on, Kia, I got some cool toys the other day.”
He didn’t wait for me to answer. He just grabbed my hand and pulled me up the stairs. I glanced back at Thomas. He was still standing there at the bottom, like he’d just lost something and didn’t know how to get it back. Bellamy moved faster than a kid who had too much candy. His room was just as big as the living room. There were toys everywhere. Yep, this was kid heaven.
“So, this toy can go really high in the sky. Mom said I can’t play with it in the house. But Dad said I could as long as I don’t break anything.” He shoved the remote to the toy plane in my hand. “Go on give it a try.”
“I don’t think—”
“You won’t get in trouble. Just try it.” He explained what the buttons do and how to make it fly. Move the stick up to make it land. Down to make it go up. The other stick moves it to the right to make it go left. Push it left to make it go right. It was confusing. I pushed down on one button, and the plane went up. I pushed forward too hard on another button, and the plane almost hit me in the face. Bellamy thought it was funny. “You almost took yourself out.” He had tears coming out of his eyes.
“Be careful,” a voice whispered out. Looking back, Thomas stepped into the room.
“Oh, Thomas stop being a grinch,” Bellamy said. “Let her figure it out.”
I tried again but this time I pushed the buttons slower. The plane started to go where I wanted it to go. I was really flying it. Bellamy and Thomas both looked amazed.
“Try making it go in a loop.” Bellamy said.
“Okay.”
I pushed on the buttons again, but the plane refused to go in a loop. And because I got angry, I mashed on the buttons so hard it did a zig-zag thing, next thing you know the plane crashed into the window. Glass shattered everywhere. I froze, Bellamy said a bad word, and Thomas snatched the remote control out of my hand.
“What is going on up there?” Rose shouted.
“Oh my gosh! What have I told you boys about playing with that toy in the house.” She yelled. “Thomas, you know better. You’re grounded.”
“Honey,” Donavan said, when he walked into the room. “It was an accident. Why don’t you kids go play in another room while the maids clean up.” Rose opened her mouth to say something. “The window will get fixed before nightfall.” When Donavan said that Rose closed her mouth.
She huffed, irritated, like an angry bird. “Boys go outside. Kia, I want to show you to your new room.”
Bellamy and Thomas left the room first. Then I followed Rose down the hall, and she stopped at the next door. “Your room is between Bellamy’s and Thomas’.”
The first thing I noticed was that everything was pink. The covers, the pillows, and the toys. There was a big doll house sitting in the corner and a small pink table with a mirror and a chair in another corner. But what caught my eye was a table that had a shelf full of puzzles. “Your mom told me you were good at putting these things together. I wanted to make sure you had plenty of them.”
I wanted to say thank you, but I was still scared to talk to her. I nodded my head to let her know I heard her.
“This door goes to your bathroom. In there is where you will find your closet. I’ve already gone shopping. I wasn’t sure if you had a certain style or not but if you like maybe one day we can go together, and you can pick out the clothes you like.”
I nodded my head again. “Is your favorite color pink?” I whispered.
It was as if I asked her a hard question. “Umm, well, yes, it is. I take it it’s not yours, is it?”
I shook my head no.
“Got it.” She smiled a little and shook her head. “You’re not going to like half the clothes in your closet then.” She placed her hand on my shoulder. “I’ll let you get settled, then. Tomorrow we will go through your closet. Whatever you don’t like, we will take back or donate. I’ll let you choose. Then we will go shopping. What do you say?”
“Okay.”
Her smile looked a little smaller. My chest felt weird. Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything about the pink. She said goodbye and left me to myself. With my teddy bear still in my hands, I walked around the big room. Testing out the bed, playing with some of the toys. Then I opened my first puzzle. It had over two hundred pieces and it made a red wolf in the middle of a forest. I loved how the wolf looked like my hair.
This wasn’t home. I miss my parents. But dad always told me home is where my heart is.
