Alana in the media^^^^

I had never enjoyed my own home so much. Cherry was so different from the shy, scared little girl she'd been when we first met.  She was just a normal little girl. Well, mostly normal. She still had her quirks, but who doesn't? She spent most of her time playing games and telling stories. She laughed, she sang, she danced. Her bruises were starting to fade and her limp was mostly gone, she was sleeping better and eating again.
   So much had changed just in March alone. Sebastian had moved in with Larisa. Monica was avidly planning our wedding, with no official date, and had agreed to move in with me. For the time being Emerson was still living in the house too.

———

  The particular day I'm continuing our story on Cherry and I were alone in the living room. Emerson was holed up in his room. Cherry, Monica and I were leaving in three days for Houston. Monica was coming over for lunch, she hadn't moved in yet, and wouldn't be for a few months because she was waiting until she had to re-up her lease. I was sitting on the couch, scrolling through Instagram.
"Deedee!" I looked up at Cherry and pushed my glasses up.
"What?"
"Ba da bay! Ba da bay!" I smiled.
"Sure." I opened my music and turned on Down by the Bay by Raffi. It had become her favorite song. She'd even made up a little dance for it. I started a live stream on Instagram. She was dancing and clapping and singing along and it was the cutest thing I'd ever seen. Comments were flooding in about how cute she was and how they wanted to know what color my hair was since I'd just recently lost the blond. I was back to black, but they didn't know that yet. I ended the live stream. Cherry kept dancing even when the song changed. My phone started ringing, ending the music.
"Hello?"
"Hi! This Naomi Wyatt calling for Remington Leith."
"Speaking."
"Hi. Um, Jess Meyers gave me your number."
"Oh. Oh!"
"Yeah. I have an eleven year old girl who needs a place to stay for a little while. Can you take her?" I know I should have thought more before agreeing, since I was going to Houston in three days, and I should have consulted with Monica, but I didn't have time. Besides we'd had a talk about if this kind of thing happened again.
"Absolutely."
"Wonderful! I'll bring her by in an hour." I gave her the address and then she hung up. I turned the music back on and set my phone on the coffee table.
"I'll be right back." I told Cherry. She wasn't paying attention though, she'd gone back to dancing. I walked into the kitchen and knocked on Emerson's door.
"Come in." I opened the door. He was sitting cross legged on the floor drawing on a large sheet of paper.
"Do we still have an air mattress somewhere?" He looked up.
"I don't know. Why?"
"Uh. . ." He eyed me, suspicion evident on his face.
"What did you do?" He asked.
"I may or may not be fostering another girl."
"Remington. . ."
"I can't say no, Emerson. She needs a place to stay."
"You're an idiot."
"Thank you. If we did have the air mattress where would it be?"
"The shed or the upstairs closet."
With a genuine thank you I left his room and closed his door. I peeked into the living room to check on Cherry, who was still dancing, before running out to the shed to find the air mattress. It was there, shoved in a garbage bag and covered in dust. I carried it into the house and up the stairs to Cherry's room. It had been Sebastian's, but I'd gradually been turning it into Cherry's. The walls were yellow now and she had pink sheets on her bed. There wasn't much in it, but it was a work in progress. I pulled the air mattress out of the garbage bag and unfolded it. Then I went down to the shoe closet where I knew we had a bicycle pump. Inconvenient, but unfortunately all I had. It took me almost forty minutes, but I did get it blown up. I found a fitted sheet to put on it and a pile of blankets. I gave her one of the pillows from my bed, in a clean pillow case, and hoped it would be okay. I felt bad I didn't have any thing better. I got back downstairs and dropped onto the couch. My arms hurt.

———

The doorbell rang. I hauled myself up off the couch. I opened the door and found Naomi Wyatt and who I guessed was the girl I was fostering.
"Hi, I'm looking for Remington Leith."
"That's me." I pushed my glasses up again.
"Oh. Hi. I'm Naomi. And this," she rested her hand on the girl's shoulder. "Is Alana." Alana waved at me.
"Hi. Come on in." Cherry came running over and wrapped her arms around my leg.
"I'm afraid I don't have time." Naomi said, but sent Alana inside. "Here's her things." She offered the handle of a large green duffel bag. It was a lot heavier than I expected. "She's allergic to corn. In any form. She has an epipen in her bag. She can show you how to use it if you don't know how."
"Okay."
"I have to run. But thank you so much for taking her in."
"No problem." Naomi smiled, waved at Alana and left. I closed the door and turned around. Alana was standing two feet behind me with her eyes on the floor. Her dark hair fell in her face.
"I'm Remington. And this Cherry."
"Al-Alana." She looked up. I smiled at her. She made a feeble attempt at smiling back.
"How about a quick tour of the house?" She nodded. "Well, this is obviously the living room. There's movies in the cupboard under the tv and we have Netflix so feel free to watch whatever whenever. Unless someone's using the tv. That would be kinda rude." She humored me with a small smile and I kept going, "The kitchen is through here." I picked up Cherry and led Alana into the kitchen. "Eat whatever. That door leads to the backyard, that one leads to the utility room which is where the washer and dryer are if you need to do laundry." I pointed things out as I mentioned them, "This is, so my younger brother lives with me, this is his room." I knocked on the door.
"What?" Instead of answering I knocked again. He came and opened the door. "What?" He glared at me halfheartedly.
"Ebosern!" Cherry exclaimed and put her arms out for him. He took her from me.
"This is Alana. Alana this is my brother, Emerson." She waved and pulled the sleeves of her purple sweater down over her hands.
"Nice to meet you." Emerson said, losing the glare.
"You too." Alana whispered. Emerson took Cherry with him, but didn't close the door so she could get out.
"He spends most of his time in there. Now, upstairs." I grabbed her duffel bag off the floor and led her up the stairs. "Bathroom's right there. Towels are in the hall closet. That's my room. And this is Cherry's room. You'll be sharing with her." I sat her duffle on the floor by the air mattress. "Sorry about the air mattress."
"It's fine." She looked around the room.
"I'll let you get settled in. I'll call you when lunch is ready." She nodded and sat down on the air mattress. I nodded and left. As I descended the stairs I watched the front door open and Monica walked in. I took a deep breath and psyched myself up for the conversation we were about to have.