Chapter 5
Jaina was still crying when she stormed into Raven house. Ignoring the headmistress calling her name, she ran up to her room and slammed the door. She stood, hands clenched for a minute. “It’s not funny!" she whispered, wiping her eyes with the back of one hand.
She didn't understand why people were cruel. What had she done wrong? Why was the universe punishing her? Anger slammed into her. Jaina picked up a cup her roommate kept by her bed. The glass cup met the wall with a satisfying crash.
“I am not cleaning that up," Amanda March spoke from the door.
Jaina whirled on her "Go away!”
“No, this is my room, too, remember?" Amanda crossed the room to sit on her bed. “Look, tell me what's wrong. I'm supposed to be your mentor after all.”
“I hate my life,” Jaina growled.
Amanda cocked her head. “Because you have it so hard? At least you're not going to school with blue skin.”
“At least you know who you are!" Jaina snapped.
“Well, I did this morning, but I’ve been through so many changes since then,” Amanda said grinning, hoping for a laugh or at least a grin, but Jaina only looked confused. “Alice in Wonderland?”
"What?" Jaina still didn't get it.
“It’s a book, but I guess you never read it or you did before you lost your memory," Amanda
sighed. "Look just tell me what happened.”
Jaina rubbed at her face, looking very young. “Dr. Oliver and his wife asked if I would be their foster daughter.”
Amanda was frowning now. "They offered you a home and you came back here and broke a glass?”
"Fourteen," Jaina said in a sad voice.
“Fourteen..?" Amanda repeated.
*”Fourteen families have been my foster families. Two of those said they wanted to adopt me. The Olivers are not going to be any different.”
“I get it... well, sort of. No one has shown you any sort of kindness since you were found.
All you know is pain.” Amanda was looking down at her hands as she spoke. “Sometimes I wish
I didn't know who my family was. They told my I was going away to boarding school and dropped me at a bus station with a one way ticket to the other side of the country and an address that didn’t exist. Then they moved with no forwarding address.”
“I didn’t know that," Jaina responded
“Like Lucas says, we all have problems"
“Life sucks." Jaina declared. “People suck."
Yeah,” Amanda said softly, “Sometimes they do.”
—
“So..." Tommy checked the list Mrs. Thunderstone had given him. "To foster an Inhuman child we need a safe room. But I’d bet you can't just buy one of those. I plus It says we might need new certain… upgrades. A sprinkler system, for example.”
Kat nodded, “Talk to Mrs. Thunderstone about the safe room. And I’ll start calling around about a sprinkler system.”