So let me thank you for your time, and try not to waste any more of mine

(Note: A couple people point out that I forgot all about Cumulus in the last entry. They were correct, and so I went back and edited it so he was in it. Sorry guys, my memory is not the greatest and since I don't have an editor and don't proofread, sometimes I miss stuff and mess stuff up! So, if you read it before the edit, Cue didn't pop out of thing air, I did fix it!)

I wanted to call someone from home, but I was sure if it would help me feel more or less home sick. This is what I wanted, though. To be away from everyone, to stand on my own two feet, to figure things out for myself and by myself. I just hadn’t realized that it would be this hard.

I also didn’t want anyone from home to know how hard it was for me. Hadn’t I whined about being a big girl and being able to do it on my own? So I should suck it up and do it on my own. I just needed to get settled – being settled would help settle me down. But Cumulus whined at the door, and I knew before anything else, I needed to give him a better walk.

The kids hadn’t arrived yet – a session was as long as they needed it to be (and the director had told me some of those sessions had lasted a year or longer.) But the kids did get what they called “vacations” – some of the kids earned the right to go home for vacations, and other kids who were still on the lower rungs went to a different facility, and their families came out to do family counseling. At the end of vacations, caseworkers went out to the homes to meet with the kids who went home, and sometimes they were allowed to stay there. I was coming in after one of these. The caseworker’s had mad their decisions about who was staying home and who was coming back, and tonight at the meeting I predicted I would get my list of girls.

The “camp” I guess we’ll call it, for lack of better terms, was relatively small. I wasn’t sure how many adults we had on staff, but I knew I’d have no more than eight girls in my group – and I was told that eight was pushing it, and if they needed a cabin that sized, was usually given to a more experienced staff member. I’d be in charge of this “core unit” (they used to call it a “family unit” until the kids started calling it their “F.U”) We’d take meals together, and do “core activities” together. However, the girls would each have classes and therapy, and when they were doing that, I’d be doing one on one therapy with a few other kids. All in all, from my packet of information, they wanted our core kids to get close to us, BUT, they also wanted them to get used to trusting other adults, which is why they mixed up staff members a little. Keeping it close knit meant any problems that arose could easily be discussed and understood between staff.

All in all, I loved the idea of the place. But the actual reality was a cold room with a naked full-sized bed and empty white walls.

“It’ll get better.” I mumbled to myself. “Once the girls are here and you’ve made friends and you’re settled.”

With that pep talk, I pushed myself off the bed and leashed up Cue to take him for his walk.
After a nice long walk, where Cumulus relieved himself on every tree he came into contact with, I headed back to my cabin with the hopes of decorating it a little to make it feel more like home. Instead, I ended up making my bed, and falling asleep with Cumulus snuggled up beside me.

I awoke to a loud knock on the door, and I jumped.

“Damnit!” I mumbled to myself, feeling groggy all over again. I stumbled out of bed and in the direction I remember the door being.
It was the guy, again.
“Ready?” He asked, turning before I could answer.
“Sure… But hey. What’s your name?”
“Santana.”
And with that, he was off again, again so quickly I had to run to catch up.

Santana took the last seat in a row, so I couldn’t sit with him. I had planned on it, since I knew nobody else. However, a warm face waved me over and patted the seat next to hers. She was short, with spiky brown hair, and clunky jewelry.

“You must be new recruit. I see they sent out the welcoming committee for you.”
“Uh, what?” I asked, confused.
“Tana. They sent him to pick you up, I’m assuming? You look lost, and that’s usually how Tana leaves ‘em. Oh,” she said, smacking her forehead. “Where are my manners? My name’s Micah. Have a seat.”
“OK. I’m Ella. And I don’t want to be rude, but I don’t really have a clue what you’re talking about.”
“I’m sorry.” She said, laughing. “Sometimes people say I talk cryptically. I don’t mean too, I guess I just assume everyone is always on the same wavelength as me. Let’s start over. Santana greeted you at the airport, correct? Or maybe greeted is too warm a word.”
“Yeah.”
“He’s like that with all the noobs. Totally cold, totally stand off-ish. I don’t know why they send him to pick people up. I remember not that long ago they sent him, and some girl almost left the day she got here. He made her cry.”
“Oh, well, he wasn’t mean to me…”
“He wasn’t mean to her either. And really, he’s not a mean guy at all, he’s just very closed. The girl thought she had done something to offend him and was just hurt. Which, honestly she was way too sensitive to be here anyway. Anyway, so I don’t sound like a total gossip, Tana is a really good guy, once you get to know him. He’s just very closed off. You looked so lost standing there, I didn’t want you to think we were all like that. New places can be confusing.”
“Well, no offense to Santana, but if he’s like that with all noobs, how do the kids take him?”
“He’s not like that with the kids at all. He’s one of the best and actually takes on the harder cases most of the time. It’s just the adults.”
“Oh…”

I wanted to ask more questions, but before I could, the meeting was called to order. Still, I couldn’t shake Santana from my mind, and I kept peeking at him out of the corner of my eye. I guess most girls would consider him good looking. I usually went for the clean cut all American boys, but I could appreciate the beauty in his features. His skin was a caramel color, his eyes a deep brown. His jaw was chiseled and a tad on the scruffy side, while the hair on his head was buzzed and barely there at all. He was tall, and broad shoulder, but as I noticed earlier, quick on his feet.

I didn’t like him. While Micah had called him closed off, I thought him to be more rude. The fact that he was only this way with strangers ticked me off even more – it was almost as if he thought I had something to prove to him. I wasn’t there to earn anyone’s trust except for the children, so he could go fuck himself. I sat there, fuming more and more, wondering if there was any way I could nicely request that someone else be in charge of showing me around, when Micah nudged me.

“What?” I asked, breaking out of my thoughts.
“They asked you to introduce yourself.” She mumbled, eyeing the room.

I felt my cheeks turn red at the fact I had been caught not paying attention. I stood slowly, facing the opposite way of Santana.

“Hi, I’m Ella. I’ll be an intern here for the next six months. I came from a program that worked with inner city kids. I loved it there, and I miss my kids right now, but the time came to grow and move on to better things. I’m eager to meet you guys and the new kids and see what all you have to teach me.”

I then sat down, and I couldn’t help but glance in Santana’s direction. That fucker hadn’t even stuck around from my introduction.

I wanted to fume, but instead made myself focus on the rest of the meeting – which was short. We were dismissed to go pick up our information packets and head off for small group meetings.