At around nine thirty, Mrs. Littrell came and softly woke Michelle up.
"Hello, honey. How did you sleep?"
"Really well, thanks." Michelle shyly answered as she watched her new mother put the shade up, letting in the sun. It matched her mood.
She realized that, for once, she hadn't woken up at dawn.
Michelle got out of bed and followed Mrs. Littrell downstairs.
"Wow, Mrs. Littrell, you didn't have to make such a big breakfast!" she exclaimed at the sight of the table. There were plates of bacon, omelettes, pancakes, bread, ham, cheese... To put it more simply, it was full of food. Lots of it.
Michelle hadn't had any such meal at home, nor at the Orphanage, and was quite overwhelmed by the abundance of food.
" 'Ello, Michelle!" Baylee brightly yelled while he sunk his fork into a piece of scrambled eggs.
Michelle poured herself a half cup of orange juice, not wanting to seem greedy, and then helped herself to as much food as she felt she could without seeming greedy, as well.
"Why, honey..." said Leighanne. Michelle shrunk back, expecting to be hit. Her mother had done so whenever Michelle had wanted anything else than the bare necessities.
Of course, Leighanne did nothing of the sort. "Help yourself to as much as you want, don't be shy."
"Okay." Michelle said, but still didn't help herself to any more. "Mrs. Littrell, where's your husband?" she asked before popping some eggs into her mouth.
"You can call me Leighanne, honey, and to answer your question, he's gone to see his friends. You know, the ones who sing with him? He's told you about that, hasn't he?"
"Yes." said Michelle. "Are they going to come?"
"Just one of them for now, and then we'll go shopping. You need many things."
Michelle nodded thoughtfully. She didn't really want to meet Brian's friend, but she was anxious to not let down her new parents, so she wanted to make as good an impression as she could to their friends.
After breakfast- Leighanne finally managed to assure her that she could eat as much as she wanted- Michelle skipped upstairs, trying to find her room. There were so many rooms! She couldn't remember if hers was the second or the third on the left, so she looked in.
"Ahhhh!" she screamed. Then, shaken, she looked down at the soft thing that had rubbed her leg.
"You all right, Michelle?" called Leighanne, concerned.
"Yes! It's just Laika, she startled me." Michelle answered, then picked up the black kitten, taking her in her arms.
"We both got homes, huh?" Michelle whispered to the kitten. "We both needed a home and we got one."
She opened the third door on the left, and was relieved that it was her bedroom. She'd found it.
She pulled her photograph album out of her backpack, which contained all her things, and stared at the only picture she had. She was starting to see blurry.
The picture was her only photograph of Carrie and herself, and she could not really recognise herself.
She'd looked at it so many times that it was bent, but you could still clearly see the faces of the two girls. Michelle at the time had been eight months old, and Carrie, right next to her, had been not yet four. What was most important, they seemed happy.
That was one of Michelle's most prized possessions. She'd stolen it from her mother's album and her mother had never realized it- she didn't bother to look at the pictures. She just stuck them in the album and promptly forgot.
A tiny tear escaped from Michelle's eye.
'I miss you, Carrie.' she thought.
She carefully returned the photo to its place, looking around for something else to think about and concentrate in. And she realized she hadn't unpacked.
She didn't have that many things, anyway. She put away her underwear in just a minute, then worked on finding a good place to put her two T-shirts, her only skirt, and her jeans, so worn that they had several rips and were too short for Michelle. But she'd always had to put up with these things. She put away her two sweaters and her only tennis shoes.
She was also wearing her only pyjamas.
She changed into some of her clothes and took one last look at the photograph before going back downstairs.
Hopefully, one day, the photograph of the family would include Mr. and Mrs. Littrell, Baylee, Michelle... and Carrie.
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Hold up... hold on... don't be scared
You'll never change what's been and gone
May your smile shine on... don't be scared
Stop crying your heart out, Oasis.
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Michelle's photograph.
