Yet another torturing day of school had ended and Evelyn was sitting on the school steps like usual. After hearing her mom calling for her from the car, she walked towards the car and shut herself in it.
"How was school?" Delaney asked.
Something sounded off about Delaney's voice- it was no louder than a whisper and it sounded bitter. Something looked off about Delaney too- her eyes were red and her once lovely pink cheeks were now tear-stained.
Evelyn struggled to answer- did she ask what had happened first or did she answer her mom's question first? "It was fine. What happened?"
Delaney managed a weak head shake and drove off like usual. 'What had happened to her? She was fine yesterday..' Evelyn thought. She bit her lip and wondered what she could do to seep the information out of Delaney- she had never seen her mother so heartbroken before.
Upon reaching home, Evelyn was about to head to her room as usual but noticed the house was eerily empty- her dad and siblings were nowhere to be seen. Yes, her dad did have work but Brian had already graduated and Talia still had to wait for several months before she could enter kindergartens-they should have been lurking around somewhere in the house.
"Can we.....talk?"
Evelyn spun around to face her mother. She frowned. "Seriously, what is wrong?" she asked.
Delaney took her wrist and sat her on the couch. "This...I....you.." Delaney mumbled incoherently. She let a sob slip out before taking a deep breath and locking eyes with her daughter. "I didn't know how to tell you this and I haven't told you yet because all this time I thought you were still too young, but up to yesterday, when going through the family photos, I realized you're finally old enough and I can finally tell you."
"This is something I've been keeping a secret for a long time- way too long, in fact. And I know this information I'm about to tell you is going to be hard to process, but sooner or later you'd find out anyway so I'm just going to tell you now. Keeping this secret from you has made my heart feel heavy for the few times I've thought about this matter, but..... remember when you was young and you asked me why there wasn't a single photo of you when you was a newborn?"
Delaney sucked in a breath and clutched her heart- she didn't know telling Evelyn this would be so painful. She looked away from Evelyn and her hands fell to her lap. "Evelyn," she whispered. "You're....."
Evelyn's eyes widened as she came to the realization of what her mom was saying this whole time. Her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach and she blinked back tears. "I'm...adopted?" she asked, finishing her mother's sentence.
Evelyn's eyes swerved left and right-Brian must be somewhere filming this whole thing and trying his best not to laugh. She giggled and locked eyes with her mother once again. "Since when did Brian convince you to join his pran-" she stopped halfway. Her mom's desperate eyes told her the truth. Her vision became blurry as tears formed in her eyes. "I'm adopted..."
The word 'adopted' sounded so foreign. Evelyn refused to believe it. She shook her head. "No," she mumbled, tears making their way down her cheeks. "No, no, no, no, no...."
Delaney fidgeted with the end of her plain-green blouse. "I'm sorry. I should've told you earlier. It's hard to accept it, but I'm sure it'll get to you eventually."
"Do they know?"
"Who?"
"Brain, Rick and Talia."
"Brian was there when we adopted you and Rick and Talia knew as soon as they knew what 'words' meant, Evelyn. Everyone in our family knows- your aunts, your uncles, your siblings, me and your dad, your cousins- everyone."
Evelyn was flabbergasted- her family made her feel-and treated her-like she really was a part of the family. She had never felt left out-never.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier, Evelyn. That's one of the things I regret. But, believe me, everything's going to be okay and back to normal as soon as we end this conversation. The only minor difference is that you know you're adopted. But that doesn't change anything."
Evelyn nodded, but on the inside she was screaming and pleading for this to be a lie. It didn't make a minor difference- it made a huge one. But she wanted to obey her mother and she felt way too weak and powerless to object.
"Maybe I should get you some tea to soothe you and send you to bed. It'll take quite a while to process that." Delaney shuddered. Evelyn pulled herself up but as soon as her feet was on the ground, she immediately started shaking-she felt sick. Not physically, mentally-and that was WAY worse. "Oh, and Evelyn?" Delaney asked before heading to the kitchen. "This.....is for you." she handed Evelyn the photobook and turned away.
After a cup of tea, Evelyn was wrapped tightly in the comfortable covers of her bed and she struggled to even close her eyes with all the thoughts consuming her. What did it mean to be adopted? What would she feel like now? Would her whole life change because of this one fact?
A tear streaked down her face and she fell unconscious.
"Everyone, act natural." Was the first thing Evelyn heard when she went down for dinner. She bit her lip and nervously stuttered to the dining table. She fidgeted with her fingers and took a seat, now fidgeting with the end of her blouse.
Delaney, who Evelyn assumed was the one who told everyone to act natural, was serving plates of pasta. "Hey, Mount-o Everest-o! How was your day at school?" Brian finally asked, breaking the silence. In this occasion, she would usually tell Brian to drop the act and stop calling her by the nickname he'd created for her, but she looked away, hesitating before answering his question.
"Good." she muttered weakly.
Brian gave an awkward nod and looked down to his plate of pasta. The family ate dinner in silence, and as soon as Evelyn was done, she dumped the plate into the sink and locked herself in her room.
Just before she got into bed, she heard muffled voices and footsteps outside and she stealthily creeped towards the door on tip-toes, trying to avoid making any noise. She pressed her ear against the door.
"I think I told her too early. Maybe I should've waited a couple more years before I told her. She's too young to hold this information on her shoulders."
"You did the right thing, Delaney. She would've figured it out by herself anyway."
The voices stopped and she could hear more footsteps. Evelyn leaned against the door and buried her palms in her face. Tears streamed down her face, and when she finally stopped crying, she was a watery mess.
As the truth slowly sank into her, her world started to collapse bit by bit.
Tired.
Frustrated.
Flustered.
Scared.
When Evelyn woke up, the mix of emotions greeted her and she sat up slowly. She rubbed her eyes and stifled a yawn.
The event from the day before flashed through her mind and she tried to shake out of it. She clutched her temples and curled into a ball, wishing the ground would swallow her whole.
When she stopped feeling bad for herself momentarily, she glanced around her bedroom. She wasn't even sure if it was her bedroom anymore. The warmth and safety of the comfy bedroom had faded away and was replaced by coldness and unsecurity. Her eyes landed on the digital clock she received on her birthday and she realized she overslept.
She didn't mind the fact that she was missing school anyway. She doubt she could even survive another day at the miserable place. As she got up, her bones cracked and she felt stiff.
"Evelyn?"
The door slowly creaked open and Delaney entered. "Are you feeling better? Me and Bentley decided to give you a day off school- well, several days, actually. Or as long as you need."
Delaney opened the door slightly and came in, shoving a plate of honey and sugar coated waffles with whipped cream and strawberries into Evelyn's hand. "Here. I made your favourite. I figured you might need something light and nice food to help digest after the heavy news yesterday."
Evelyn stared at the waffles and at Delaney. "I...you...why...how...where?" she mumbled incoherently.
Delaney sighed and bit her lip. "I know you have a lot of unanswered questions filling up your mind right now, and I'd be happy to answer them as long as you finish this up." she signalled to the waffles, handing Evelyn a fork. "In the meanwhile, I'd better get Bently here."
Evelyn choked down the waffles just as her parents-it felt wrong to call them that- Delaney and Bently shuffled into the room. "Hey, kiddo." Bently greeted her. "How are you doing? Are you holding up fine?"
Evelyn managed a weak and shaky nod and Delaney gently sat onto her bed. "Go ahead," she said, signalling for Evelyn to start asking her questions.
"Where?" was the first thing that came into Evelyn's mind. "W..where did you guys find me?" her voice came out quivering and she swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat.
Delaney gave a miserable sigh and Bently took charge. "We found you in the nearby woods. We were just taking a night walk with Brian and we heard crying. We followed the cry and it led us to.....you. You were wrapped in a dirt-covered blanket and tucked into a tree trunk- as if someone wanted to hide you. When we saw you there, we couldn't ignore you and leave you there."
"Then...why did you guys adopt me?"
Delaney took a deep breath and answered. "At first we tried to put you up for adoption- but no one wanted to adopt you. Afterwards we sent you to an orphanage in hopes of you being adopted, but even after a few months, you were still there. Overcomed by guilt and many, many more reasons, we decided to adopt you and you inherited our surname in no time."
Evelyn's eyes widened as she came to a realization: "So my current birthday isn't my real birthday?"
"There was a note attached on the pink blanket you was wrapped in- it told us some useful information about you. Thankfully, the note contained your birthday date, your name and your age. And before you ask, no, it did not write your surname. It was just 'Evelyn'. And we thought it was a beautiful name as well."
Evelyn reached to grab something as she breathed in the information-it was too much for her. She locked knees to avoid falling and wheezed in each breath heavily.
Her red, puffy eyes produced more tears and she couldn't hold it anymore longer and burst. Tears soon became rivulets and before she knew it, the top of her sleeping wear was soaking wet. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Just a gaspy, ugly wheeze.
She looked to Delaney and Bently, who looked were in about the same condition as her. "It's gonna be okay..." Evelyn whispered to herself, trying to convince herself to calm down, when she knew it was definitely NOT okay.
It had been a few weeks after learning she was adopted and truth was becoming more bearable. She was back at school again and she felt like she was a part of the family again, which Delaney and Bently had reassured her thousands of times she was.
Things had calmed down and gotten back to normal, where she dared to speak up for herself when Brian called her the ridiculous nickname and she was beginning to feel the comfort of her room once again.
Delaney was right- everything WAS normal- the only change was that she knew she was adopted. As she sat down to dinner that night, she hungrily devoured the stew that was served and sprinted up to her room to finish some unaccomplished homework.
As soon as she was seated in her desk, she popped in a earbud and tuned out to the relaxing and peaceful music she was playing. She was in the middle of typing an essay about the Ancient Pyramids when a yell startled her, causing her to knock over the cup of water by her side.
"Darn," she mumbled when she noticed the wet spot on the carpet where the water had spilled. Suddenly, she caught a whiff of smoke. "What the-?"
"FIRE!"
"EVELYN! WHERE ARE YOU?!"
The door slammed open and her dad barged in. "Evelyn! Are you okay?" he asked, examining her. "We have to go! Quickly!" he grabbed her hand to march off but she slipped out of his hold.
"What happened?" she asked.
"There's a fire! We have to go!" Bently yanked on her arm, attempting to pull her out of the room. "Wait! There's a few things I need to get." Evelyn objected and yanked her arm away. She picked up her backpack and dumped the contents in it out. She stuffed her phone, laptop, the photobook her mom had given her when she had explained that she was adopted, and a few more precious possessions inside and zipped it up.
"Jeez, there's a FIRE! There's no time to get your stuff! Hurry!" Bently's eyes bulged as he covered his nose and mouth using his shirt. He covered Evelyn's nose and mouth as well, dragging her down the stairs.
As she followed him down the stairs, she could see smoke pouring into the house. "The mall nearby caught on fire and the fire has already reached our neighborhood. We need to go, and fast." Bently explained, pulling her out of the house. There, a frightened pair of siblings- Rick and Talia, a worried mother- Delaney, and a nervous and fidgeting brother- Brian, greeted them.
Together, the family flocked to the emergency exit that the neighborhood had installed recently and fled to the open-space area, where a few other people had managed to escape to. "Are...we safe?" Talia asked in a quiver.
A yell answered her question. "EVERYONE, RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"
The building next to the area caught in flames and the building started to collapse bit by bit. Flame-pieces of the building came tumbling to the area, and the tiny crowd screamed and started to run around, confused of what to do in all this chaos. A woman ran to the forest, eager to get away from the fire, and soon, the crowd followed.
As Bently and Delaney led Brain, Talia and Rick to the forest while Evelyn stayed rooted to the ground, eyeing the forest. "We have to go!" Delaney grabbed Evelyn's arm and dragged her towards the forest. "But the fire will spread faster in the forest! If we go in, the situation might worsen!" Evelyn argued. "We don't have a choice! Look around, Evelyn- the fire's surrounding every single area besides the forest!" Delaney exclaimed, gripping Evelyn's arm even harder and running towards the forest.
Evelyn sighed- it was the only choice. She fled to the forest with Delaney and together with Talia, Rick, Bently, Brain and the crowd of people, they ran away as far as they could from the fire which had already devoured the first trees of the forest. As they reached three fourths of the forest, the fire had already devoured half of it and was creeping closer.
"The exit!" someone shouted, and they could see a clearing in the forest at the front. A road and more buildings awaited them outside, and the crowd increased their speed.
"Hurry!" Bently yelled, encouraging the family. Evelyn lagged behind, occasionally looking behind to see if the fire had caught up with them. "Oh no..." Evelyn whispered. The fire was just a mile or two behind her, and yet she could still feel the hotness coming from it.
More screams came from the front and her fears were confirmed. The trees in front of the crowd had somehow caught on fire. Flame-covered trees started to fall over, and she heard Talia's scream echo through the forest as a flame-covered tree fell on top of her family.