Bonds over Blood

Note: This is a fictional story, not my real life.                                                                       


                                                                       Bonds Over Blood

                                                                       Wishing for Impossibilities

            I've heard home is a great place. It's supposed to be where you belong and where everyone is nice to you. Home is your mother and father and little brothers and sisters that look up to you that have your own blood. I wish for that, a home with a nice house and parents that love me and brothers and sisters that will play with me and we can be happy together. Whenever I tell Jeffrey this, he's always replies,

             This is your home. The other children and I are your family now. Think of us as family because the ropes are only as strong as the bonds, so make your bonds with us strong. Forget about everything. Forget your sadness, and replace it with the joy you will find here. Forget your anger and replace it with the comfort from this orphanage. It will be for the best, so you can move on with what happened.  And I did forget. I forgot what me and my family did together, what they looked like and everything else about them. Except their screams. That and the sound of a swerving car and the smell of a car fire. I'd much rather forget that than everything else about my parents. I used to wish it whenever I thought about it. But wishing is for the gullible and for those that think if they talk to themselves about how much they want something it will come true, but it's all just false hope. I don't wish anymore. It's a waste of time and only makes you reflect on what already happened, and I don't need to reflect anymore on my parents' deaths in the car crash, when I could have died with them. My car door opened somehow. My seat belt broke. I fell out of the car safely. My parents crashed into the opposite car, and they died. I'm alive, but left to die from my own depression. I used to wish. I don't anymore. Otherwise I have to look back at what happened. I should have died happy with my parents. I'll never be happy.

         

                                                                      Irreplaceable

You are in my orphanage now, under my watchful eye, but soon you will have a new home with your new parents. That's what Jeffrey says to me all the time. Who would take me? Parents that want to adopt ignore the older kids, they want the younger ones to raise them like their own. The little kids are all cute and are always adopted. The older ones are thought to be a damper around the house because they might never accept their foster parents as their own and would never show the same love. I came here at 10, and have been around for 3 years. I'll be hear until I'm 18, no one would choose me. My friends leave as quick as they come.

             Mike and I have been friends since I came here, and he's been here about the same time as me, and we're the same age. The friendship between us was like the knot on a rope, a strong one. I tell him I want a home, but he's a bit optimistic. He too says that I am home and the orphanage is friendly and stuff like that. He doesn't understand though. No one does. As much as I'm good friends with them, they are not my family.

                                                                    A Promise

             Steve knows how to make an insult, how to taunt people and how to win a fight. This is exactly what he does to people he makes enemies with. And Jeffrey (being his usual optimistic self) refuses to see the bad in anyone, so he always thinks of Steve as misunderstood and just has a problem controlling his actions and his anger. He's the big bully in this orphanage, and he's got it in for me. During lunch on my first day here, I had tripped and all my food spilled on him. He made sure that I regretted that, and whenever I tell Jeffrey this, he always talks about me apologizing and how Steve goes through a tough time and stuff like that. Two years ago last summer Steve pushed me into a fight, and I ran outside so we could take it there. I fought back a gave him a good bloody nose. He looked up and saw everyone in the orphanage looking out the window gaping at what I had just done: I stood up to the alpha and got away with it. He swore that he would get adopted before I did. I don't have any hope that I would anyway, so he doesn't worry.

                                                             An Event of Hope

               Jeffrey says I'm a pessimist. He says I always look at the negative side of things and I rain on everyone's parade, scoffing and making sarcastic comments at people who hope for good things. Usually he's wrong, but this time he's right. A couple came in looking for a kid to adopt. Apparently they wanted one that was well behaved and obedient, because the man told me that I was to address him as Sir and his wife as Ma'am. They chose me. Me out of all people. I was overjoyed and Mike was happy for me too, but I could see his sorrow. I was the only friend he had that wasn't adopted, so we were great friends. I gave him a quick look of sympathy, but he didn't really catch it. When I finished packing my stuff and left the orphanage, I saw two things that upset me: Mike fiddling with two pieces of rope that when tied together, they would make a knot that was one of the strongest and represented the joining of two ropes looking distraught, and the menacing look on Steve's face as I drove away with my new family.

                Something wrong son? Sir asked.

                When I heard him say son, I was immediately comforted and replied, No. He gave me a glance. No Sir. Then he nodded his head approval.

                                                                      Making Up For It

                My new family was great. New parents, a new house, and I felt happy. I no regret surviving the car crash. My new parents have given me love to erase those thoughts. They turned out to be a little more strict than I thought however. I heard a shatter of glass one time and saw a beautiful glass that was treasured by Ma'am. She came in seconds after me, and wailed over the broken glass, and Sir came in and yelled at me so loud, I thought I would go deaf. He told me the glass was an extremely important family heirloom and to never do anything like that again. I told him it wasn't me, but he picked up a rock next to the shattered glass. He told me he wouldn't tolerate lying either, and anymore would earn me a ticket back to the orphanage. When I looked outside, I saw someone running away with a slingshot in one hand and a fistful of pebbles in the other. It was Steve.

                  The next day, Sir and Ma'am made me clean the garden as punishment. I was to clean up all the leaves and petals on the ground and water everything. There garden was beautiful and and a small pool, many bright pink and yellow  They saw that I was doing a good job on it, so they figured it was okay to go get some groceries really quickly and that I had the garden under control. As soon as they left, I saw Steve with a sly smile on his face. He told me that since he didn't keep his promise, he would have to make up for it by getting me into trouble again to send me back to the orphanage. With a triumphant grin, Steve pushed over a second antique item: The bird bath fountain that Sir specifically told me to be careful with. It was now broken. With that, Steve ran away, and left me with more than just a broken fountain: he left me with a future that once again pointed towards the impossibility of having any kind of family at all. I only stood there in silence, as I heard Sir stepping inside and dropped all the groceries upon seeing me.

                                                                  A Promise Kept

                     Steve succeeded. Sir sent me back to the orphanage, explaining that I was to disobedient and I disregarded the rules. When I came back, Sir and Ma'am came looking for another kid, so they chose Steve. He left with victory on his face, until Sir said that they'd send him to boot camp first so they won't get another kid like me. Steve was extremely lazy, a late riser, and always gave attitude whenever he was told to do something. He wouldn't last a day with Sir and Ma'am. He wouldn't get the special treatment or pampering that he always dreamed of when he would get adopted. That would never happen: Steve would have to be obedient, quick-thinking, and a hard worker, all things that Steve wasn't. It would be a long time before Steve got to move away from Sir and Ma'am.

                                                                  A Second Chance                       

                Steve's adoption wasn't enough to cheer me though. My second chance to get another family was gone. Mike was happy though to have me back though. He had finished tying to ropes together in a tight knot and was now swinging it around, pulling it and yanking it to test the strength of the knot. 

Stop being so happy, I just lost my chance to leaving the orphanage, and getting a family I said. That stopped Mike. 

But I am your family. So are Jeffrey and everyone else. All our friends in the orphanage are your family. 

Family is parents and a house and brothers and sisters, not other kids whose parents died.

Family is looking out for each other and showing love, and they don't even have to be rich or successful or even your own blood. It was unbelievable. He was brainwashed by Jeffrey into actually thinking that whole bonds thing. I  I heard someone calling me. It was Jeffrey.

Yeah? Who's this? I pointed to a young couple next to him.

This nice couple would like to adopt you said Jeffrey. I couldn't believe it. The chances of this were impossible. I was getting another chance to get a family. 

Yes I shouted. Of course I want to go!

                                                                      My Hidden Family

I packed my things and was right to finally make it right and be happy with a real family. This time I would never come back though. I said my good-byes and was about to get in the car. Leaving with a family was my dream and what I wanted more the anything in the world. Before I got in, I looked at everyone that I had befriended and thought back to what Mike had told me. I realized he was right and that whenever Jeffrey said that families are only as strong as their bonds, he meant that just because I don't get adopted doesn't mean no one cares about me and that I don't have family. The couple asked me if I forgot something, and I told them that I already had a family, but I didn't know it. I told them they would have to find another kid to adopt, because I chose to stay. I ran up to all my friends then looked at Jeffrey. He smiled as though he knew why I had made that decision. Because I already have family, and I found my happiness. Jeffrey was right. He told me I had family if I only treated everyone in the orphanage like that. I understand now that blood can be thicker than water but that only depends on the bonds you make for them and how much you care about them. So for you to decide whether blood will be thicker than water, and if you care more about blood relatives than your friends or not, because Mike isn't my brother, but we made a brotherly bond, and he is my family. And Mike has never been able to untie the knot he made.