Chapter 8
Albert had dropped off Jane at her new foster house. It was a man who was fostering, he was also fostering four other kids. One a year older than Jane, her name was Kelly. Two eight year old twins, their names were Charlie and Yanet. The youngest kid was seven his name was Peter. Jane was in the kitchen washing dishes when Kelly walked in. "Hey how are you settling in?" She asked. "What's the man's name?" Jane asked avoiding her question. "Frank, I think. Why?" "Curiosity." "Don't you know curiosity killed the cat?" Kelly walked closer and asked, " How long have you be in?" "What?" Jane was sure no one knew about 'that' incident, but she had to vertify. "The system," Kelly answered unaware of the alarms that she had rung in Jane's head. "At this point it feels like my whole life," Jane stated. "Then you should know how things work." "Yeah, I know how things work. We get crapped on too much."
"Hey have you ever sung before?" Kelly asked, changing the subject. "What?" Jane was confused she no clue why Kelly would ask her that. "I'm in a band but we need another singer for our duets. I don't know if you sing though," Kelly informed her. "Another singer?" "Yeah, we have a drummer, pianist, bass player, DJ and a singer. Though we don't often use the DJ, she's usually backstage. I'm currently the only singer, I asked the other but the drummer can't sing. The pianist is too shy. the DJ flat out rejected and the bass player said he'd only do background vocals," Kelly explained. "I've never tried to sing before," Jane told her. "Well, why don't you try auditioning for us? That way we could all hear you sing, and we'll let you know what we think" "Not sure if I want to humiliate myself in front of a band full of people," Jane admitted. "I would say that we'll be nice about it but you seem like the type to hate pity." "That obvious? How about this, if I decide to go and I'm actually decent you get to tell me I'm terrible. That way I won't know your opinion," Jane told her. "Here's the location of where we're going to be," Kelly gave her a card, then left.
Jane was in the bedroom she had to share with all the other children in the house. She was looking through her bag for something. Suddenly she heard yelling from the living room. She went to see what was happening, it was Frank yelling at one of the twins, while the other was in the corner terrified. Jane was about to walk over but Kelly stopped her. "No one stops this for a reason," Kelly whispered. "We're the older one it's our responsibility to protect them," Jane then walked over to Frank.
"What's going on?" Jane asked. "STAY OUT OF THIS BRAT!!" He yelled. "Or what?" Jane knew what was going to happen if she kept poking at the bear. "I'LL MAKE YOU." Jane looked at the twins and told them," Get out of here." They did as they were told. "YOU BRAT!" He yelled and punched Jane in the face. Jane was brought to her knee and then stood up. "STAY DOWN!" He yelled and punched her again. "I don't kneel to anyone," Jane said as she stood up again.
Kelly stood frozen in place terrified at the scene that unfolded in front of her. He would yell and hit them but he never had a kid that would get up even after a heavy punch, that's what scared Kelly the most. She had seen others try to fight back but she hadn't seen someone just get up and take the beating like Jane was.
After a while Frank got tired and went to the kitchen for a beer, he had left Jane standing in the livingroom with a bloody face. Jane went to the room but stopped when she saw Kelly sitting down against the wall crying. "If it's any conxulation this beating isn't that painful, despite what the blood on my face says," Jane attemped to make Kelly stop crying. Unfortunately, Jane wasn't good with people especially people with tears. She sat down next to Kelly, and heard her cry for a few more seconds.
"He didn't hit them," Jane said. "What?" Kelly asked between sobs. "That's the reason I was okay with it. He didn't hurt the twins," Jane admitted. "But why…did you keep…getting up?" "Like I said, I don't to or for anyone." "Is that it? Did you take a beating just for your pride?" Kelly was now getting angry. "It's all I've had for most of my life. I just can't lose it." Kelly understood that, having something to hold on to. Although she couldn't fully understand it, knew what it was like only having one thing to hold onto. "I get it, music is….my safe place." After that they sat there together for a while longer.
Before Kelly left she had applied makeup to Jane's face. Charlie, Yanet and Peter went to school while Frank went to work. Jane was left alone in the house, however she had to check on Dato. Although right now she was supposed to be in school. She still went to the same school as before but Frank didn't care if they went to school. In fact he didn't care where they went, the less he sees them the better for him. However Jane knew Jess would want to see her, even if it was just at school. Jane decided to make sure Dato had enough food and went to school.
Jane was walking down the hallway when she heard Jess. "Jane!" Jane turned around and was hugged by Jess. Jane was caught off guard and didn't know how to react she simply let it happen. Jess let go and told Jane, " I'm so happy to see you." "I've only been gone for about a day," Jane reminded her. "I know but it feels like a long time already. Remember I used to see you everyday." "Yeah," that was all Jane could say. "So how's your new family?" Jess asked. "Good, they're good," Jane couldn't tell her the truth. She was afraid Jess would get hurt. "That's good, maybe we can have them over for dinner sometime," she said. "Well they're pretty busy people so I don't think that'll be possible," Jane said, trying to avoid any further conversation about her new foster family. The bell soon rang and they both went their separate ways.
Jane had to ditch school to go see the band, she wasn't sure if she wanted to audition for them. When she arrived at the place they were sitting at their instrument, talking among themselves. The first to notice Jane was the bass player who said, " Well it must be my lucky day, because a beautiful girl just walked in." Everyone turned their attention to Jane. "That line never work does it?" Jane asked him. "Sadly not yet."
"You came. Jane this the band, the guy who just gave you one of the worse pick-up lines is Bryan. DJ here is Everlyn, and the pianist is Wes. And the drummer is Devin," Kelly introduced them. Then turned to the band and explained the situation. "This is Jane, she's going to audition to be our co-singer." "Why didn't you tell us about this before?" Devin asked angrily. "I wasn't sure if she would come," Kelly explained. "It's good to have another pretty girl here," Bryan said. "Ignore him, it's nice to meet you Jane," Wes said. "Yeah it's good to have another girl here. I was starting to suffocate from all the boy stink," Everlyn stated. "Hey!" Both Bryan and Wes said at the same time. "Well it's nice to meet you all," Jane said.
"Well don't get too comfortable you still have to sing," Devin told her. There was awkward silence while Jane and Devin looked at each other intensely. "Let's get to it," Kelly tried to end the awkwardness. "You can sing any song you and use this microphone," Kelly told her as she and the rest of the band got off their instruments to let Jane sing. As Jane walked up to the microphone, she spotted an acoustic guitar and asked," Um, can I borrow this?" "Yeah," Kelly answered although confused. Kelly didn't know what she needed the guitar.
Jane took the guitar and went up to the microphone. She began to play the guitar, the band was surprised and impressed, but Jane didn't see them she was focused on her playing. Then she began to sing lyrics she could never forget.
"Tonight, we're living in our dreams, don't wake us up. We want to be, in our fantasy. We dream of a normal life. With people who care for us. We can be free; we can be us. No more hiding behind these masks. We're dreaming a fantasy. Oh, how we wish to have the normalcy. Don't wake us up. No, we want to be, in our fantasy. Dreaming of a fantasy." Jane slowly fades out the guitar. Devin crossed his arms while the rest of the band clapped.
"So what do you guys think?" Kelly asked. "She sings amazingly," Bryan approved. "One hundred percent," Wes agreed. "That was awesome," Everlyn said. "She was decent," Devin reluctantly approved. "Well I think that was terrible," Kelly said then smiled at Jane. While everyone was confused as to why she would say that, Jane gave her a small smirk. "What song was that?" Bryan asked. "Actually a friend of mine wrote it," Jane explained. However what she didn't explain was who it was written for. He wrote it for Jane but they hadn't seen each other in a few years. He was one of the few guys that made staying in the foster system worth it.
"Do you think your friend would mind if we finished the song and used it as our own?" Everlyn asked. "Don't think so why?" Jane asked. "We need a new song," Wes said. "In that case he would be fine with it. As long as he gets some credit," Jane explained. "Is he a musician?" Bryan asked. "Not necessary. He likes doing a bit of everything." That's where Jane learned a lot of things she knew. "Did he teach you how to play the guitar too?" Kelly was curiosus. "Thought you said curiosity killed the cat, but yeah he did." "In that case, I'll send you an invite to our group chat," Kelly said. "Okay, I have to go. See you later." With that Jane left.
Jane had returned to school and bumped into Jess. "Hey, where have you been I couldn't find you earlier," Jess stated. "I was…" Jane was interrupted by a group of girls. "Hey Jess you coming?" One of the girls asked. Jane was puzzled that after all this time someone who wasn't her was finally talking to Jess. Jane asked herself why. "Just a sec. They asked me to go to the school fair. It's in a couple of days, but they said they wanted to hangout with me for a bit," Jess explained. "Oh," was all Jane could say. "Why don't you join us for lunch?" Jess asked. "No, go have fun with your new friends," Jane wasn't in the mood to talk and certainly not to some high school girls. "Are you sure?" Jess wanted to make sure Jane was okay with it. "Yeah," Jane said with a small smile. Jess walked off with her new friends and Jane realized that things were changing once again. Jane knew should wasn't going to return to the house she was previously in. No matter if she wanted to or not. Jane had to live with situations like this. She would never have a family and frankly she didn't want one at this point.