The hound and the fox. Part one.
By Sengir84
Over the last few weeks Shane slowly heard more about the adoption plans of his parents.
They had visited the orphanage a few times already and were quite infatuated with a 10 year old fox girl. There was not much known about her past, but she made such a good impression and she was so well-behaved in the orphanage that her past didn’t matter to Gerard and Caithlyn. Shane came along last time as well and he had to admit, the girl certainly looked the part. She was a blonde fox with red hair and a black tipped tail, but her most outstanding feature were her eyes. She had two differently colored ones. One was blue and the other was green. Her name was Evalyn.
Today would be the day that she would join the household. Shane did a final check of the third bedroom. The room was adjacent to his bedroom and used to be moms workplace, but she put her computer and Disney stuff in the attic now.
As he looked over the way the bed and cabinets were put together and found nothing wrong, he heard his father shout for him. It was time. They were going to pick her up.
Shane hurried downstairs, put on his shoes and jacket and followed his parents to the car. He brought along one of the stuffed animals she was going to get. A nice big brown bear plush. Shane won it on the carnival a few months ago, but he never used it and it just sat somewhere in a corner of the room. He figured girls liked dolls, so this would be a nice first present.
The orphanage was quite a big standalone place with a big yard where children from all ages, sizes and species were playing together. The headmaster was a gruff-looking lion, but when Shane saw a young girl fall on the pavement in an attempt to catch a ball, the lions soft side quickly showed itself when he picked her up and tended to her, only releasing her from his care after making sure she could continue to play.
The Boders waited for this to play out and when the little girl scurried along, the lion straightened his clothes and greeted the family. He lead them inside and in the community area, where the fox, Evalyn, was waiting with her bags and some small toys.
When she saw the Boders arrive, her already perky ears went up even more and she rushed towards them, hugging the family.
The parents retreated with the headmaster to sign the last set of papers, while Shane and Evalyn waited with her stuff.
As the two kids sat in the area, they couldn’t resist to start questioning each other about their seemingly different lives. They took turns answering each of their questions:
Evalyn learned that Shane was an orphan himself and was adopted by the Boders when he was still a baby. In return, she told him that she joined this orphanage at age 5, but had no memory of her life before that.
When Shane told him about his hobbies and his soccer play, Evalyn told him that she liked to kick a ball every now and then as well, but just for fun. She liked watching the game too though. They also shared their favorite soccer team which ended up being the same team.
Evalyn told Shane about her religious streak and that she sometimes likes to dress like a miko and perform rituals, Shane said that the dress up part sounded fun, but he had no idea what his own religion was. His (soon to be their) parents were raised to be catholic, but he can’t recall ever going to church himself. They celebrate Christmas and Eastern and stuff though.
After that, Evalyn asked some questions about her soon-to-be parents and the family dog, Merza, and Shane answered as best he could.
After just under ten minutes, the adults came back from the last formalities and it was time to fully welcome Evalyn into the family. Gerard and Caithlyn took care of Evalyns bags while Evalyn stepped outside and greeted all of her friends in the orphanage. Shane was sent back to the car to get his present. The bear was too big to carry inside without knowing how much stuff they had to carry from Evalyn, but now that he didn’t have to help, Shane could give the bear to her anyway.
He took the bear out of the car and waited on the patch of grass until his parents would call for Evalyn and they would come to the car as well. It didn’t take too long and when the girl caught sight of her first present she jumped into the bear, tackling Shane in the process, and thanking everyone for the opportunity to be in a loving family like this.
On the car ride back, the four couldn’t stop talking to each other and Evalyn learned a lot more about the city and the environment she would be living in. She was a bit nervous about the new school, but was very interested in the afterschool activities. The music band in particular sounded like something she might like.
As the family arrived back at their house, Gerard went in the house first to put Merza on the leash, just in case. But Merza was very well behaved when Evalyn came over the doorstep and looked around with awe in her eyes. Merza sniffed the girl a bit and Evalyn responded with a ruffle over her head.
Gerard was satisfied with the reaction of the Labrador and let her off the leash while he helped Caithlyn and Shane to bring in Evalyns stuff. Shane brought the stuffed bear and told Evalyn to follow him upstairs, where he would show her bedroom.
As the two kids entered the bedroom, Evalyn gasped. She’s never had a room for herself and this room had everything she wanted. A fluffy bed, nice cabinets, a collection of smaller plushes and even an empty corner that she asked for in one of the last sessions in the orphanage, where she could perform her religious rituals.
After that, Shane showed of his room as well. It had a similar setup, but had a few soccer posters and a TV-set as well with game consoles hooked on it. Evalyn was very interested in the consoles, having only heard of them and never played them before, and Shane popped in some easy racing game to slowly ease her in to things. As far as he was concerned, she could come in any time to play with the consoles.
Evalyn kissed Shane on the cheek and thanked him for showing her all of this. The kids then went downstairs to help her parents sort Evalyns stuff.
After dinner everything was finally sorted. Shane took Merza out for her walk while Evalyn stayed behind.
Evalyn took this opportunity to ask Caithlyn and Gerard about school and other stuff to do in the surrounding area. She also mentioned her interest in music arts, though she had no idea what to play yet.
Evalyn took a seat behind the family computer and looked through some stuff online like new dresses and videos about learning how to play the flute and the piano.
When Shane came back, he showed her his social media and encouraged her to make one for herself as well, which she did. Shane was the first to add her as a friend.
Shane started up his Skype and through the webcam showed Evalyn off to some of his friends. Amongst those friends was the Cheetah boy from the first soccer match of the season. He and Shane had quite a bit in common and they skyped often. They had not visited each other yet, but made plans for a day in a vacation where they could come together.
Evalyn was a bit shy at first, but slowly opened up to the people on the other side of the screen and answered a few questions herself.
As Gerard and Caithlyn looked at the two kids, they couldn’t help but smile. So far everything went much better than expected with the two, but they did note they needed another computer. Evalyn seemed to pick things up quite easily and if things continued even Gerard would no longer be able to work at home with the kids hogging the computer.
As Gerard looked at the clock, he saw it was already 9PM and he asked the kids to clean themselves up and get changed. As they heard the kids being done, the parents went upstairs to make sure they went to their rooms . Multiple good night kisses later, Gerard and Caithlyn went back downstairs for some private time.
Evalyn had one final ritual before bed. She went into her empty corner and concentrated, magically revealing her other three tails. She thought she went through these past years perfectly. She had been teasing the boys in the orphanage quite a bit, but never got in trouble for it because she knew when to stop. This boy looked quite susceptible to her charm as well and she had to admit, he didn’t look too bad either.
She hoped for a bit more of an reaction with the kiss on Shane’s cheek, but after seeing how the family gave their goodnight kisses she figured that she needed to go a bit further to get a reaction out of him.
She did an Eastern dance, focused, and hid her tails once again. As she hopped in her bed, she heard a few moaning voices downstairs. She smiled a bit and drifted off to sleep. Content with both her new family and the potential for more.
