———
Ali's perspective:
"Hmm… what did you say?" Ali asked, as she was not sure she heard her correctly
"There's a nice woman who would like to adopt you and Mei." The caretaker replied politely
"Really? What about Marcus? Is he getting adopted with us also?" Of course, one of Ali's first thoughts was about Marcus.
"I'm sorry, but marcus won't be getting adopted with you. Only you and Mei will get adopted today.." The caretaker apologized
"Can you please ask the nice lady to adopt him also?" Ali didn't want to lose Marcus. If she would be getting adopted, of course she'd want to share her happiness with Mei AND Marcus!
"Again, I'm so sorry. Mei already requested the lady to adopt you AND Marcus, but the lady only decided to also adopt you.." the caretaker felt bad for Mei, Ali, and Marcus. The three who seemed absolutely inseparable would now be separated..
"Oh.. okay." Ali was really disappointed but didn't voice her mind
"Now please, follow me. Someone has already packed up all of your and Mei's belongings. The nice woman would like to adopt and take both of you home as soon as possible, so we're going to meet her right now. After she meets you and finishes dinging the paperwork, she will take you to your new home." The caretaker tried to brighten the mood
"Hm.. Okay..!" The caretakers attempt slightly worked a little
As they walked, Ali was left to her own thoughts
'I'm really getting adopted..? And it's with Mei..?' Ali was trying to comprehend the whole situation
'I'm glad that I'll stay with Mei, but I'll really miss Marcus.. I hope he gets adopted soon.'
Ali continued to think more about that, when suddenly a thought dawned upon her
'I know the caretaker said the lady was nice, but is she actually nice and not just pretending..? I wonder how old she is.. is she pretty? Will she tell me to call her— Ali hesitated— mom..?'
Ali's head was filled with a million thoughts about her new 'parent'. She had heard before that some stepparents could be mean, so she was a little worried
'I wonder if she has any other kids or pets..? or books, perhaps?' Ali gasped as she thought 'MAYBE she has a piano! Maybe she sings?! OOH, what if she-'
Ali's thoughts were interrupted when the caretaker said "and here we are. Your new foster mother is in that room with Mei. I'll let you go in and talk to her first for a little before I come in."
'She's in here!' Ali focused intensely on the door as she opened it slowly
Ali had already had a couple images in her head as to what the woman looked like, but what she saw shocked her
There was a tall, beautiful woman standing there. She had long, silver-ish hair, beautiful big green eyes, basically perfect skin, and she overall just looked perfect.
Ali couldn't find any flaw in the woman's appearance, except for the fact that the woman seemed a little cold.
"Hello, you must be Ali. You can call me Rose. I'll be your new foster parent. It's very nice to meet you." After the woman said that, she glanced at Mei and said
"I'll let you two catch up for a minute. I'm sure today has been a busy day for both of you." Rose said
Her real purpose wasn't to let the two catch up, but to observe them both. She wanted to make sure these children were good enough for her standards in many ways..
~~~~~~~~~
Ali turned to face towards Mei and said
"Isn't this so crazy? You and me are getting adopted TOGETHER!"
Mei nodded and replied "yeah, this whole thing has been really crazy. It would have been much better though, if Marcus could go with us.." Mei stopped speaking for a second and sighed
"though I guess it would be better if he remained. The little kids still need someone to look up to. If you and I can't be there for them, I'm glad Marcus is.."
Ali looked around and said "and honestly I don't even think we'll be able to say goodbye to him.. The caretaker told me our new foster mother, Rose, wanted to take us home as soon as she signed the papers.."
"Yeah, they said the same thing to me.. I guess we won't be able to say bye to anyone else before we leave.."
At this point, Rose decided to announce "here! I've filled out all the required paperwork"
Rose handed the paperwork to the caretaker who walked in
"Thank you.." the caretaker quickly said before skimming through the paperwork "okay, you're all set to go! Let us know how Mei and Ali are doing once they settle in, as we would love to know how much they like their new home..!"
And with that, Rose quietly turned towards the girls and motioned them to follow her
Mei and Ali obeyed, but when they walked out of the orphanage doors, Ali just couldn't help but look back
'I hope Marcus will be okay..' Ali thought
~~~~~~~~~~~
On the car ride to their new home, the air was silent
The woman driving, Rose, hadn't said a single word since they got into the car
Mei and Ali hadn't either, seeing that the atmosphere was a little awkward
Ali was thinking when she silently shook her head, frowning a little
This did not escape the woman's eye, as she adjusted the hanging mirror a little to look at Mei and Ali
"Is something the matter?" Rose calmly asked
Ali looked almost surprised for a second, as if she hadn't expected rose to see her shake her head, before she replied
"O-oh.. no, nothings the matter.. I was just wondering if you had any other kids. Or maybe any pets, perhaps?"
Ali brought up the thought that was in her head since she was told about getting a foster mother
"Hmm.. I do not have any other kids, though in a sense, you both will have many other siblings." Rose said after thinking for a second
"What do you mean by 'other siblings'? Didn't you just say that you had no other kids?" This time, it was Mei who spoke
Rose chuckled and replied "you two will be raised as my disciples. I have many other disciples around your age, but you two will personally be trained by me. After all, you both are now officially my adopted children. The other kids aren't. So, in a sense, you two will be higher up in my disciples."
When Ali heard that they would be disciples, another thought that she had had earlier suddenly came to her head "D-do you mean disciples, like you are a famous movie star or singer and you're going to teach u-us how to sing and dance or maybe even act??!" Ali was getting really excited
One again, Rose chuckled and replied calmly "no, i will not be teaching you any of THAT. You both will be my disciples in hacking. I hope to raise you as the new best hackers in the world, after me of course."
After a quick moment, Rose added "though, if you would like to dance, I can look into hiring someone for your little hobby. Both of your main focusses will be on hacking, though."
That was quite honestly a lot of information to process, as Mei and Ali were left speechless
Ali didn't know what to feel..
(End of Ali's perspective)
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