A week after my seventeenth birthday, a guard approached my parents and I during meal time. This wasn't an extreme abnormality, so I wasn't too worried. I should have been, however, because what he said next changed my life forever, no matter how dramatic that sounds.

"Kadence," the guard said, "Now that you have turned seventeen, and finished the time for your crimes, you are being set free. Without your parents."

My jaw dropped open. I didn't want to leave my home. I wasn't ready.

"You are being put into foster care, and will join high school. Good luck."

I nodded, a frown forming. We knew this would happen at some point, though I had always dreaded the day. I was sent to collect what little belongings I had.

The same guard drove me to my foster care home. He kept me in handcuffs the whole ride there, even though I was supposedly being released. We pulled into the driveway, and as he was uncuffing me, I took the time to look at the house. It was big. Not mansion size, but still very large.

As soon as I stepped out of the car, the guard drove away. Guards didn't seem to like me very much, but they all knew me by name. I was like that troublemaker kid in school. The one every teacher and administrator knew by name, because they were all previously warned about them.

I walked up the driveway and to the house. I knocked on the door without hesitation. Kadence West doesn't know fear.

The door swung open wide. A plump woman stood there, with a wide toothy smile on her face. She looked way too happy and nice. She wore a blue and purple flowery Hawaiian shirt, flip flops, and faded blue jeans. A blue visor was perched on her head.

"Well hello there! I'm Diana Huckle. Welcome to my home!" The lady said, again being overly cheerful for the situation.

I just stood there, semi-awkwardly. I'm not a big fan of good people. Or cheerful people. Or people in general.

"What's your name sweetie?" Diana asked.

"Kadence," I said, raising an eyebrow a little.

"Such a beautiful name for a beautiful girl!" Diana exclaimed, opening up her arms, as if to hug me. I hated hugs. She might get stabbed if she hugged me.

This lady was really starting to get on my nerves. She was way too peppy.

"Please come in, come in!!" I forced a small smile, that probably looked beyond fake. It was kind of like that scene in The Addam's Family Values, where Wednesday is at summer camp, and she forces on a smile for them, and that annoying girl like freaks out. I love Wednesday.

Diana stepped aside, and I walked into her house. The color scheme was pink and yellow. Bleh. I preferred orange and black.

There were about ten cats walking around her living room. I hated cats.

The whole place smelled like cat urine, tuna fish, and old people. I didn't try to hide my disgusted face.

Three other kids sat on the living room floor, looking bored as heck. One, a boy, was playing with the fuzz on the pink carpet. Another boy stared blankly out the window. The other, a girl, picked at a hang nail. All three of them were thin, very thin, and pale.

"Children, meet our new guest, Kadence." Diana said. The children looked up, but their facial expressions didn't change. They looked miserable.

Diana stood over the girl. "This is Nina, she's fifteen." Diana went and stood over the boy closest to Nina. "This is Jack, he's seven." She stood over the last boy. "This is Shane, he's fifteen too."

"Children say hi to Kadence." She said, after no one greeted each other.

"Hello Kadence." Nina, Shane, and Jack repeated, in miserable, monotonous voices.

Diana gave them a disapproving look, as if their extreme boredom was both annoying and all their fault.

"You can put your stuff down upstairs," She said, turning her attention back to me, "Nina, show Kadence your room."

Nina stood up, and walked up the stairs, without waiting to see if I followed. I did.

Our bedroom was small, but bigger than my jail cell. The walls were a sickly green, and the itchy carpet was a dark yellow color.

"This is ugly." I said, setting my few belonging down onto the lumpy mattress.

Nina nodded, but didn't look at me. "You can talk you now. How bad is this place?" I asked.

Nina looked up at me, as if surprised that I cared about what she had to say. "Bad." She whispered. "Don't break the rules."

I nodded, a little confused. "How long have you been here?" I asked. "I don't remember a time when I wasn't here." Nina whispered, keeping her eyes down.

My eyes widened. I didn't want to be there. Not at all.

"Jail is so much better than this place." I commented.

"You were in jail?" Nina asked, astonished. "Yep, born and raised there." I said, quite proud of the fact.

"Wow. What was it like there?" She asked. "It was awesome, I love it." I said.

Nina's eyes widened, and she took half of a step backward. She looked afraid of me.

"Have you ever killed anyone?" She asked, her voice dropping off to a quiet whisper again.

Understand that I didn't want to scare her. I didn't mean to. At the time, I didn't get that most people don't kill, and the idea is repulsive to them.

"Yep." I said, deciding that the best way to answer it was, being frank with her.

Her eyes widened even further, defying what I thought was possible. The circumference of her eyeballs grew.

"A-are you going to kill me?" Nina asked. Her voice shook a little bit out of fear.

"No, you're my friend." I said, taking a seat on the uncomfortable bed.

That didn't seem to calm Nina down much. I think she thought that I was demented. She wasn't wrong.

"Aren't you going to unpack?" Nina asked, looking at my belongings. "Nah, I don't plan on staying here long." I answered, flopping onto my back.

"Take us with you, please." She pleaded. Nina didn't look like the person I had been talking to for the past ten minutes. Instead, she looked like a hopeless, scared, and depressed little girl.

"I'm going back to jail. You're welcome to come if you choose." I said.

"No! I can't go to jail. Jail is for bad people. You may belong there, but I definitely don't." Nina exclaimed.

Nina's exclamations weren't like other people's. Not at all. Most people get louder and have more emotion in their voices. Nina's volume didn't change, though there was a small amount more of emotion in it.

"Okay, whatever. I'm just saying it's so much better than here." I said, dropping the subject.

Then a bell rung from downstairs. Nina jumped up like her life depended on getting downstairs before the bell ended.

"Come on! If we are late for dinner, we get closet time! Hurry Kadence!" Nina said, grabbing my hand to pull me out of the room.

I wondered what closet time was. I didn't think that it was the best time to ask, however.

Unfortunately, right at that moment, I realized that I had to pee. Our conversation had distracted me from my need to urinate.

I peered down the hall. There was a bathroom a few steps to my left.

"I have to pee, you go on without me." I said, pulling my hand out of Nina's grasp.

"No, Diana will be furious if you're late." She attempted to argue. "Well I have to pee. I don't care about Diana." I said, running into the bathroom.

Nina didn't wait for me. I didn't expect or need her to though.

I did my business. It was weird to pee in a real bathroom.

I went down the steep staircase. I walked into the kitchen.

The only noises you could hear were forks clanging onto the plates. The children and Diana are silently, nobody making conversation.

Then Diana saw me. She stood up and came over to me.

"Because this is your first meal with us, I'm going to forgive you for being late, just this once. Next time however, well let's just hope that there isn't a next time." She threatened.

I nodded, not flinching at her words at all. I wasn't afraid of her.

I walked right past her, and sat down at the table next to Nina. Nina, Shane, and Jack all had wide eyes, as they stared at me in shock.

I shrugged a little and smirked, sending the message that it wasn't a big deal. Disobeying someone or something came naturally to me.

I piled my plate up with food, and dug in. I had always had a large appetite.

Nina, Shane, and Jack slowly resumed eating, after exchanging glances with each other.

Diana huffed in anger, then plopped down in a chair. I'm surprised the chair didn't break.

We were sent up to bed, once we finished eating. The lights needed to be out by 8:30, so we had an hour to prepare ourselves.

Diana gave me a pair of her pajamas. They were huge on me.

The guard had given me about a week's worth of clothes, but he didn't pack any pajamas.

I got into to bed at 8:35, just to rebel Diana. Nina got into bed at 8:25.

Diana came in to make sure that the light was off. "Goodnight children." She said loudly. If we were asleep, that would have awakened us.

I fell asleep quickly after that, despite the bed's uncomfortableness. But I was used to uncomfortableness.

The song is Back In Black by ACDC. This song like radiates Kadence vibes, in my opinion at least.