[This chap has a little section about racism. Don't read if you don't want to. I felt the need of putting it in, and I'm sorry about that. I'm against racism, and have always been. It's just that some characters and also people in real life are racists and then you gotta stand up for yourself. 'Kay? Good.
AlsO WHAT?! 800 reads????]
I stumbled into the home after school at 4 pm the day after, undoing my shoelaces carefully as I always do.
When they finally were off, I heard my phone calling. Without looking at who it was, I picked up while taking my coat off.
"Hi?", I said, a bit distracted.
Right arm first, left one afterwards.
"Hi, hi there Ruth, how's your day been?", Vanessa said happily, talking fast like she was late somewhere.

I reflected on my day. Ansel, Rachel & Warren had been staring at me from the moment I walked inside, and everyone soon followed their lead. I couldn't understand why, so I hadn't said a thing during this whole day, making my voice crack.

"Great, yours?", I said, walking through the corridors, looking down on my feet as I silently watched all the other kids going by me, sighing by how 'slow' I was, as I, with dedication, avoided every single little crack.
Trip on one, and Lin & Vanessa will die.
"Brilliant, been a stressful day though, as always. Um, I'm actually right outside. I thought I could help you pack, and also brought someone who's really excited to meet ya", Vanessa rambled on.
"Oh! Um, like there's basically nothing to pack, I never really unpacked", I said, already walking back to the door.
"Ah, okay! Lin's in rehearsals at the moment and show starts kinda soon, so what about a visit in our apartment then?", she quickly changed the subject of the question, and I smiled by how she didn't sound disappointed.
"Y-yeah sure!", I said, and for the third time changing course of my walking - now to ms Abbott's office. "I-if you don't mind, I need to ask ms Abbott for permission?", and in my head it sounded like a statement, but it came out more like a question.
"Of course!"

I sneaked my head inside, opening the door just a little after tapping the doorknob 23 times so Vanessa & Lin wouldn't leave me, feeling the staring by ms Abbott begin.
"Hi, miss, I-I, um the couple that came to visit yesterday, y'know? Well, they're my next foster family a-and invited me over, for, um, dinner"
Lie. Great lie though. You need to work on them.
She seemed to look surprised.
"They are your new foster parents? The Latino couple? Oh, shit, I just can't let that stand, y'know. I'm gonna call mr Chang and we'll find a loving white acceptable family for you", she spat in disgust.
"No! Please don't. I like them. The papers are signed. I don't want another change", I spat back, sounding like I knew what I was talking about.
"Okay, you can leave, but I'm not liking this. I thought the system had fixed this shit", angrily looking through her papers. As I started to close the door, I mumbled under my breath.
"Racist"
Ms Abbott opened her mouth, her eyes showing anger as she stood up, clenching her fist in the table.
"What did you call me, Ruth?"
Almost paralysed, I froze in the doorway.
"N-nothing, miss"
She snorted. Walking the few meters to be right in front of me.
"I heard you, you little shit", slapping me. "Don't you dare be back after 8", she shouted behind me as I ran the fastest I could down the corridor, suddenly realising that I never hung up and picked up my phone from my left pocket.

"H-Hi, I'm back & allowed to go", she didn't answer. "Hello?"
"Um, yeah, take your bags with you!", she seemed a little distant, and slowly the penny fell down.
"Y-you heard the conversation, r-right?"
"Yeah"
"S-sorry", instantly regretting everything that had happened.
"No, no, you did nothing wrong! It's not that thing that buggers me. Did she hurt you?"
"No"
Lie.
I grabbed my bag, still wearing my backpack, finally on my way out when I started to tie my shoes, while Vanessa kept on talking.
"She did, oh shit, just come down from there", she talked fast, and hung up.

I ran down the stairs, carefully so I wouldn't miss a step. Smiled as I got out, seeing Vanessa standing with the little boy, their son Sebastian, that had been with her the first time.
She hugged me, looked at me carefully, inspecting my face for any bruises or scratches, as the little boy had a tight grip around her leg.
"Hey, Sebastian, come say hi to Ruth", her soft voice said while picking him up when she finally turned her attention from md. He shyly hid his face, pressing it against Vanessa, but only to seconds afterwards look at me curiously. His tiny hands was reaching for my face, as he giggled.
"Rueeee", opening his hands, trying to say my somewhat unusual name. "Sleepy girl", he said looking at Vanessa, smiling.
"Hi Sebastian!", I said excitedly, waving, and his little face lit up by the attention he was getting.
"Hello!", he said back as Vanessa put him back on the ground, and him immediately taking my right hand, and I directly began to worry.
Don't step on a crack.
Tap your side three times per house you past, or Sebastian will die.
Blink twice per lamp post you see, otherwise Lin & Vanessa will die.
Breathing in time with my heartbeat that was slowly accelerating.
"Let's go!", Vanessa cheered, and we started walking.
Me? Silently tip-toeing beside Sebastian, holding his hand preciously of fear that he would go away, as we followed Vanessa who'd taken one of my bags, who looked back, smiling, once in a while.
If she only knew what was going on in my head.

When she finally stopped, I realised that we were right outside the Theater.
"W-what? But - you said?", I said a bit confused, but she just shushed me and laughed as she patted my back and smoothly shoved me inside, picking up Sebastian in her arms as he clapped his hands excitedly.

Lin jumped from the left side of the doorway, hugging me.
"Hey, hey, hey!", his excitement spreading a little smile to my face, almost unrecognisable.
"Hi?", I said, still a bit confused as they led the way to the stage, where more people sat and stood, talking to each other, until we entered.
"YAS! Ruth is in the house, people!", the nice guy who'd kept an eye on me last time, Anthony, shouted. I giggled a little as everyone cheered, walking onto the stage. "We welcome you to our humble Theater", he continued, laughing as he bowed.
"T-thank you", I said, trying to make them feel like I was thankful. Although, I didn't have a clue what was going on.
"Can we eat the pizza now?", Daveed said, wearing an Oakland shirt, laughing.
"Well, yeah", Lin couldn't help but giggle as everyone attacked the table.
I looked up to his face, asking him quietly.
"Um, Lin, wh-what is this?"
He brightly smiled by the question.
"It's your welcome home-party, because what V & I didn't mention yesterday was that you could come home by this beautiful evening", my mind not getting a tight grip about what was going on.
But, I promised ms Abbott to be home by 8. Hopefully she knew about all this, right?
"And pizzas, two days in a row, what could ever be better?", as we walked over to the table full of different kinds of the Italian meal.
I just smiled. Every cheek, a showing, real smile. I wanted to smile so everyone could see.
"Oh. Okay", I said, as I put a slice of pepperoni pizza onto my plate, the only slice that was left from that one, and the sight by it gone made the table look a bit more cleaned.

"Thank you, so so, much, both you and Lin, this is really lovely of you", I said, leaning onto Vanessa's shoulder, placing my head there carefully, as everyone sat on the floor in a somewhat circular shape.
"No problem, sweetie"
Lin walked over to us, holding two plates, and a knife and fork under the right one, as Sebastian came running right behind him, the whole casts 'aww' echoed.
Everyone seemed to talk to each other, while I just sat there, looking at them. Lin cut the little pizza slice on the right plate into tiny pieces, and soon trying to get Sebastian's attention from playing with me.
"Okay, Homeboy, this is a new thing called pizza. Plane or train? Or what 'bout boat?", and Sebastian's clapping on 'boat' was the decision. As soon as Lin started to sound like a big old ferry, he got even more excited and was more than happy when the little piece of new food landed in his mouth.
I unsurely looked around in the crowded room, turning my head to Lin.
"Um, L-Lin? W-what's everyone's name?", I whispered to him shyly, him leaning to me in order to hear.
He chuckled, and started talking over everyone's voices.
"Hello, people! So it seems that Ruth here is too shy to ask everyone, so introduce yourselves, please do! Daveed, you first, man"
Daveed just pointed at himself, or to be more precise, his Oakland-shirt, like 'me?'.
"Daveed, or Lafayette or Jefferson, from Oakland if that wasn't clear", he laughed, and I smiled as a response and they moved onto the next person.
"Let's ditch my whole name, I'm Oak. Oak, Oak, Oak, not from Oakland though. Mulligan & Madison, which you probably knew", the guy that had tried to stop me while running said, his face seemed too nice to ignore.
"Heh, not r-really, I-I barely know anyone's name here..."
I shyly looked down.
"Weren't you at like Ham4Ham or something?", a girl with long, curly, brown hair said, sitting next to Anthony, soon to be revealed as Jasmine, or Jazz.

Tap the floor 77 times.

"Um, well, I just kinda happened to be in the c-crowd that day", I said, letting out a small laugh. "Don't worry, I assure you, I have heard the album. My classmates raved about it in school so I listened to it to feel like a part of the group", and with me adding that, everyone started to laugh at Lin's comment.
"Ouch"
Including me, even though I started to worry. Did it sound like an insult?
"Loved it though", I quickly said when the laughter died out.
"Aw, you're cute. Let's keep you here, Lin & V, promise you'll keep her!", a girl with black hair, sitting beside Oak, her eyes making me feel almost precious.
Lin & Vanessa laughed, but nodded happily.
"Well, it's my turn anyways, so, hi, I'm Pippa, or well actually Phillipa, or in the show as Eliza Hamilton"

When we'd almost been through the whole group, there was only a kind-looking man left.
"I'm Javier, please, call me Javi. And since Lin took a day off today, I'll be A dot Ham this evening", I smiled at his nice way of looking at me.
"And I'm Ruth", I said, doing a little wave, but when Tommy told everybody to go and get ready, I turned to Lin, giving him a desperate look.
"You, you, took a day off?", I said shyly.
"Yeah - I wanna spend time with you", he smiled.
Guilt wasn't my favourite thing. He took a day off from work because of me. So many fans will be disappointed today. It'll be all my fault.
Tap. Now.
"You really didn't have to!", I said in protest, pathetically tapping without a goal, making a little rhythm.
Tap - tap, tap - Tap - tap, tap, tap
Adding another tap for each series.
Lin just looked at me brightly.
"I wanted to..."
But we got interrupted by Sebastian, running across the stage, shouting my almost-name.
"Rueeeeeeee!"
Lin gave Vanessa a look, as we both stood up. He smirked as Sebastian hugged my leg tightly.
"Looks like we're keeping Rue too, V, future vision seer"
"Yep. But let's get these pizza boxes and paper plates outta the building so we won't interrupt the show, shall we?"
But I was already picking up the used paper plates, putting them in a straight pile, when I once in a while tapped my leg. Or the wall. Or the floor. Or the staircase. Or the table.
It was all intentions, that everybody had.
-----
Hai peeps!
I was actually planning on finish writing this last night, but I may have gotten too tired🌊

Hopefully it was a cute, happy chap, with a spice of ms Abbott's narrow-minded world, and that y'all enjoyed reading it🎉
I'm trying to get in more in Ruth's mind, and if you think it's a bit too much, please tell me. I can cut down on it, y'know🌬
Please leave a comment or two if you liked the chapter, or maybe a vote? Things like that always makes me write more💓
I still can't get my head around that we have 800 reads in a month, like, hOW?!

It's the last chapter of 2016, a year that hasn't been the best but it's had its own mountains of happiness. And, maybe, or most likely, 2017 is going to be better🌈

Have a lovely last day of 2016,
Sincerely,
C

Published; 31st of December, 2016