Snippet #1943638

Aeri watched the scenery fly by out her window, and closer to her new foster home. Her eyes began to droop, but she refused to let herself fall asleep. She had just endured a five hour plane flight, and though her case worker advised her to sleep, Aeri had found herself often stopping an attendant and asking to check for an oxygen leak, or ask how much gas they had, or making sure that the pilot didn't have any heart problems (he could have a heart attack, you know. The plane would go down before anyone would ever realize what had happened!). It felt odd to be out of her small town and into a big city. It felt weirder not to have her mountains. Everything here was just so.... flat.

"What's their names again?" Aeri asked, even though she hadn't ever forgotten them. She just hoped she could con her caseworker to tell her something about them, something she hadn't studied about in their files she had begged her caseworker to let her see. And, she needed something to keep her awake.

The caseworker signed, glancing at Aeri through the corner of her eyes. "I've told you everying I know about them, Aeriana."

"Awww, Mrs. Hale!" Aeri whined. "Tell me again. Please? Do they have a dog?"

Mrs. Hale sighed. "I don't know, Aeri. Maybe. I'm a caseworker, not their family member."

"You could be," Aeri pointed out. "I mean, we're all actually related somehow, with Adam and Eve. But you never know, you could be the kid of their long-lost uncle, or the granddaughter of the neice of their great-grandma. Or maybe..."

"We're here," Mrs. Hale interrupted, climbing out of the beat-up red minivan. Aeri jumped out of the car and scurried over to catch up to her caseworker, who was inside and exchanging words with her new family members (and quite possibly, Mrs. Hale's aunt's husband's kids). She noticed a few other kids in the room as well, her new siblings! She cast them a smile before turning back to the Hinton parents. "Do you have a pet?" she interrupted, "Or, quite possibly, a piano?" She pointedly ignored her caseworker's chastising glare.