A look back into the life of Little Lisa, and her new parents, The Reeds.

While not filled with violence, the Caution is there for the mention of it.

Please note, this was put out before an edit, so I could post something for Christmas. This will be edited later for punctuation and spelling.

The spare room in the Reed’s house had been empty for years. For a few years, all it had was a bed and a dresser, for the occasional visitor. Although many people didn’t want to stay in a bright pink room. That all changed a year earlier. Now the room was occupied on a full time basis.

The room was still pink. The bed had changed to a smaller, full sized bed, and some other belongings had shown up. From a desk for schoolwork, to a vanity and a box for toys. All you needed was one look inside and you knew the room belonged to a young girl. And Lisa loved her room, from the bed, to the pink walls and all the other stuff in there as well. The bed was better than the old ratty mattress her parents had for her at their old place. And the clothes were clean, plus the room was bigger than the tiny room she used to have with her birth parents.

Sometimes that felt like a whole different life, like something she had watched on a movie. Then other times, she felt as though she was still in a movie, like Annie, where the little orphan girl goes from rags to riches. Although the riches she got from the Reed’s weren’t something you could measure in money, stock, bonds or even precious metals. These riches were love and affection.

As December had donned, her room became a bit more crowded. A cardboard table was sitting in Lisa’s bedroom and on it were several bits of scrap paper, scissors and several copies pictures that had been taken over the past year. In the center was a collage that she had been working on, something she wanted to make for the Reeds. It was also something she wanted to make for herself.

It had been an eventful year for her, from being attacked in that alley and left for dead, and then adopted, life had gone from bad to great. She had heard the old phrase of pictures being worth a thousand words, and with the copies of pictures on the card table, she had enough words to fill several novels. Sure, all of the pictures were taken in her home town, but each of them held significance. Looking back to a picture taken at the Reed’s house on the Christmas eve a year before, she saw her hair was in a buzz cut and bruises were all over her face. As she looked through each of the photos, she could see how the bruises faded and her hair grew. All of the newer pictures showed the same thing. Lisa had a brilliant smile.

Her hair wasn’t the only thing growing. At first, it had filled her with fear, when her chest had began to hurt one morning in June. That was followed by a few more days of aches. At first the fear was that her lungs had collapsed again, until they realized the pain was not her lungs. A trip to the doctor told her that she was starting the long trip into puberty. Then came the joy of being a girl after all. Sure, her chest couldn’t yet fill a training bra, but that didn’t matter to her. She wore one proudly.

Then in August, she began going to school. That was a new set of fears to overcome. She had never been to a school, and only dealt with children at her old church. Luck was with her and none of her school mates attended that church. She had wanted to go sooner, but with her lungs and the fear of them deflating, she was put on a lot of bed rest and relaxing. So in that time, Karen took it upon herself to teach the girl what she would need to know, so she could be ready to go to class with children her age, and not held back a year or two.

Her hands stopped working on the now framed picture collage she had been making and she smiled. She wrapped the item she had been working on. It wasn’t much, just a thank you to her adopted parents, in the form of a large collage, filled with the copies of pictures of them from the past year. She was going to take it with her and give it to them at the party that night at her Adopted paternal grandparents’ house.

It would be her second Christmas with Gerald’s family. Last year, due to her being released on Christmas eve, the family party had been moved to their home. This year, it was back to his parents’ house. Of course, that was after the five o’clock church service.

She felt they deserved more, but she was just a child and had little spending money, so she wanted to make something by hand. She was also aware that she had been less than stellar and several times she had pushed the limits of what the Reeds would allow, just to make sure they weren’t going to send her away. It was a constant fear that her parents would get out of jail and demand her back and force her to live as a boy again. But so far, that seemed unlikely. But living with Karen and Gerald was only the first hurdle that she had to cross the past year.

Church had been another hurdle for the little girl. She was so used to a fire and brimstone preacher. Everyone was evil, everything was wrong. So she was too afraid to go and that left her home with either Gerald’s mother or sister. Yet each week she’d watch as Karen and Gerald would come home, laughing, or talking about the service, then they would talk to her about what was covered. It took several months of this happening for things to change and in April, she went to the Easter service. Her first time in the church was almost too much, but she loved the fact that everyone was so friendly and the preacher wasn’t going on about how evil everyone was. In fact, there was a sense of love that stayed in the church.

When she was done with her wrapping, she looked to the clock and headed to her bathroom for a shower. She took a shower and when she was finally dried off and wearing her panties, she did her daily check. She turned sideways and looked to the mirror, just to see if any improvement had been made since she had woken up that morning.

“Lisa?!? It’s almost time to go! You almost ready?” Karen’s voice called out.

Her attention was pulled from the mirror. She knew they had grown, she was sure of it, even if they didn’t show that much. “Almost! Just checking something!” She called back. She put on the padded training bra, something she insisted on wearing, and then her slip. She could hear someone walking up the stairs as she slid on a bright green dress.

There was a knock at the door and Karen, her adopted mother, opened the door slightly. It wasn’t for modesty or politeness. Just that Lisa had asked for some privacy, to finish the presents without them seeing.

“You ready?” Karen asked.

“Almost.” Lisa said, slipping into her dress. “Can you help me with my hair? And zip up my dress?”

Karen smiled as she entered the room and went to her daughter, who was busy making sure her dress was straight. She was surprised how far the little girl had progressed in the past year. The first year with her had been full of ups and downs. From the emotions of a girl who was afraid her parents would return and dealing with the torture of what her birth parents had put her through, to the medical problems she had undergone, to the fact that she was loved and by people who loved her as the girl she should have been all along. There were still nightmares and Lisa had been wetting the bed. She had also taken a long time to get used to large groups of people. That was changing, slowly.

Karen zipped up the dress, then she had Lisa turn to the mirror and she helped her daughter put her hair into pigtails.

Several minutes passed till they heard Gerald call from downstairs. “You two ready? We need to get going if we’re going to get the good seats!”

“Almost ready!” Karen called back. “Just fixing Lisa’s hair!”

“I’ll warm up the car. Lock the door on your way out!” The voice called again, then they heard the front door close. When Karen was done, she gently hugged her adopted daughter, then kissed her cheek. Even Karen couldn’t believe the past year had really happened. Sure there were issues, like a young girl trying their patience, to make sure she wasn’t going to be sent back, to scares when Lisa’s breath was short and ragged. Each time, Karen and Gerald met the problems with love and acceptance.

When her hair was fixed, Karen grabbed the girl’s coat and held it out for her. She slipped it on, then they left the pink bedroom, but not before she picked up her purse and the present she had made. Lisa followed her mother down the steps. The plan that evening was to head to Gerald’s parents for Christmas eve after church. She had already met his siblings and her new grandparents last year, and each of them loved her. They were aware that Karen couldn’t have children herself, so they were ready for them to adopt. Altough Lisa was older than they were thinking about getting.

Her first visit to the church was almost too much. Several of the older ladies swarmed, not in a bad way, but each wanting to see the little girl that had stolen Gerald and Karen’s heart. Several of the kids wanted to meet her too. Once she realized she was safe, she warmed up to the people at the church. But it took a while.

Months passed and Lisa had managed to get over some of her fears of groups of people, and churches. Not all the way, but enough so she could play a sheep in the Christmas pageant that had happened a week earlier.
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Gerald pulled up by the front porch as they walked out. Lisa opened up the back door to the car, put her present to her parents on the seat, then slid in and smoothed out her skirt before sitting down.

When the church service got out, it took the three of them almost half an hour to get to the car. Every few feet they were stopped by someone who either asked how they were doing, or were given a baked treat from the older ladies. Some of the ladies, who were known for knitting, handed the little girl a small package. She took each one with a smile and thanked each of them, as did Karen and Gerald.

Finally they made it to the car and Gerald carefully loaded the baked goods and presents into the trunk. As he got in, once his wife and daughter were no longer talking to the other ladies, he started up the car. “Now Lisa, you can either open those tonight, or wait till tomorrow. Either way, you will need to write out thank you cards for each of those ladies.”

“I will. I know Mrs. Baker said she wanted to see my face, so she had me open it now.” She held up the ends of a scarf that was around her neck. “I love it!”

“Did you say thank you?” Gerald asked.

“Yeah, I did.” She said with a nod.

“That is a nice scarf. They really like you.” Gerald stated.

As her Dad put the car into gear, she thought about the past year, like she had done often. She looked out the window and noticed it was snowing as they left the parking lot of the church. She could still remember the smell of the car when she got in a year ago, just after her release from the hospital. She couldn’t help but shed a few tears and a let out a sniffle.

“Lisa, are you okay?” Karen asked, as she looked into the mirror on her visor.

“Yeah, just thinking.” Lisa said, as she pulled a Kleenex out of her tiny purse and dabbed at her eyes. Thankfully she never wore makeup yet, as Karen thought she was too young, but this made clean up when she cried a lot easier.

“About what?” Karen asked her.

“Just the past year.” She said, looking out at the snow falling. “And how I have the most awesome parents.”

They both looked in the mirror and smiled back at her. Gerald spoke up first. “And we have the best daughter in the world.”

“And I’m sorry for being kinda difficult this year.” Lisa added.

“Lisa, we totally understand.” Gerald said. “We still love you, no matter what.”

Lisa leaned back into the seat. That warm feeling she had felt for the past year was still with her. She still thought about her real parents, but after everything she learned about her past, what happened when she was born and how she was treated by them and her grandfather, she was glad she was no longer living with them.

She was amazed that in one year her life had turned completely around. She was happy now, and living the life she should have had all along. A life her birth parents stole from her. Now she had new parents and with them, a whole new family. Sure, there were still problems, no family could be free of those. But at least Lisa knew she would never be beaten, stabbed and left for dead by her new parents, just for living as a girl.

As the snow kept falling, she leaned against the door, her forehead touching the window, and watched as the world slowly turned into a Christmas wonderland. It had taken a year to show her that life could truly be good, not like the last few years of her life. This was different. She was loved. And she loved them right back.

As the car turned onto the highway, to start the ten minute trip to his parents home, Lisa mentally vowed that she would be a better child than she had been. No more making problems. She could see they loved her. They lived their lives around her and she belonged there. One year at the Reed’s house had been better than any of the time at her birth parents home.

I hope you all enjoyed my Christmas offering this year.