Red paint, blue paint, green and yellow, purple too and all of the colours of the rainbow are all over my hands and my red art smock.

I was standing back looking at my colourful piece of work with a big grin on my face. I was in a mess and I was enjoying every moment of it. But it wasn't for too long.

There was a knock at the classroom door. The principal walked in and spoke to the teacher. I looked at my painting and I added a splash of pink and black paint. Then before I knew it my art teacher told me to put the paint brushes down and to clean my hands. So I did as I was told, hoping that maybe I was going to start another painting, but unfortunately I was taken out of that room to the principal's office. Whilst walking along the corridor towards the principal's office, I tried to think of what I may have done wrong lately. The only thing I could think of was that I had thrown my lunch away at lunchtime that day because it was too mutilated to even contemplate eating. I wondered what it could be about and why they wanted to see me. I had begun to get a little anxious so I began to walk a little faster.

My brother Nathan was sitting in a chair with a blank look on his face when I walked in the room. Then behind me came my sister Tasha. We were all seated in chairs and then a lady walked into the office. Her long blonde hair swayed as she walked. She held a brief case in one hand. She was a well dressed person wearing a pink shirt, grey pants and a black jacket. She looked like a business woman. Why on earth were we all doing in the principal's office? It would be very unusual for us all to get into trouble at the one time. I didn't like the look of things when I first walked into the office. The lady who was a stranger to me and probably to Tasha and Nathan as well, said hello to us all, and then sat herself down. I was sitting there twirling my feet around as the seat was too high for me to touch the floor and not taking much notice of anything except trying to make up a really good excuse for throwing my lunch away. But I didn't understand why Tasha and Nathan were here and why the woman was sitting opposite us. I'd never seen her in my life so why was she here now?

"Now we have brought you all here to tell you that you cannot live with your father any longer. He cannot handle you so he has turned to me. We are going to take the three of you to a nice little place where you will be happy. You will make lots of new friends and do lots of new things. It will be just like home," the lady said in a happy kind of way.

We all sat there stunned until Nathan stood up with an angry look on his face and said, "That's not fair! How come we didn't know about all of this? I want to stay with my Dad." He had his fists clenched as if he was going to hit somebody. It sounded as though he was going to cry during his outraged speech but he had managed to control himself by breathing deeply and he sat down quietly.

I felt the same way but I didn't want to say anything because I knew it wasn't true. My daddy would never do a thing like this. He loves us too much, I hope.

"It will all be for the best. But now you must go because you have a long trip ahead of you. I wish all of you the best of luck," said the principal as if he knew all along what was going to happen.

"It's not true. It can't be. Dad would never do this to us," I said whilst trying not to get upset, but Tasha agreed with me so that made me calm down a little. I didn't want to get upset in front of a stranger. Besides I couldn't let her know that this news was upsetting me. I knew I had to be strong.

"But I will still get to come to this school and see my friends won't I?" said Nathan in a hopeful way.

"Come on now. Enough questions. You have a long drive ahead," said the lady in an impatient manner.

So off we were shuffled to gather our school bags without saying another word, because we were told to be quiet walking down the corridors. Before I grabbed mine, I took off my red art smock and stuffed it into my bag. I was feeling very miserable in that I felt the lady had no right to tell us at the same time. I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye to my dad or my friends. I agreed with Nathan that it was so unfair but I couldn't do anything about it and I still couldn't believe what was happening. I thought there was probably a surprise waiting for us at home, so I thought about what it could be. I was happy in a way, that I wasn't told off about the mutilated sandwich I had thrown away. It wasn't my fault it ended up the way it did.

Tasha walked by in the corridor and I picked my bag up and walked with her. The lady was also walking along side us as if to make sure we wouldn't run away. Tasha had a tear rolling down her face, so I whispered to her that it would be all right but she believed the story and whispered back, "Get out of your dream of a life! Can't you see this is for real? Look at us! We are being taken away without any say. Our dad can't look after us any more. He's too old. Somebody else is going to and we can't do anything about it. I'm going to miss dad and how he made us laugh." There were more tears rolling down her face. She looked so sad. Maybe she was right I thought. I was so confused. I didn't know what to believe nor think about except that it was not fair.

Nathan's bag was down another corridor. When we passed the corridor he was walking up it with his head hanging down. He came up to us and walked with us, but still with his head hanging down. I tried to grab his attention by glaring at him but Nathan didn't take any notice. I wondered what he was thinking about. He too was probably thinking it was unfair. There was silence in the corridor except for the sound of footsteps. I knew whilst I was walking that it would be the last time that we would walk down this corridor so I said goodbye in my mind before we left the school.

There was a dirty white van waiting outside with somebody sitting in the driver's seat. The van was waiting for us, as I realised when the door was ajar waiting for our arrival. We hopped in the back of the van and the door closed. The lady hopped in the front and whoever was sitting in the driver's side started up the engine and drove off. I couldn't believe that what had just taken place had happened so quickly and fast that now as I am sitting in the van I had to go through my mind again to run through exactly what had just happened. I simply could not believe what had just happened.

We drove past all of the familiar sites until there were no more. I didn't know where we were, and I wasn't game enough to ask because I didn't know the people who were taking us. We were taught not to speak to strangers so I don't particularly want to speak to them. After all, they were taking us away from everything we knew here. Already I didn't like them. It is true. We are going somewhere a long way from home. I felt all of a sudden scared of what was going to happen to us and whether we were going to see our dad again. I just sat there staring at the scenery contemplating my thoughts until I fell asleep.

The next thing I knew, it was dark and Nathan and Tasha were still asleep. It seemed as if we had been driving forever. Then we came to a halt. Tasha and Nathan both woke up and sat back properly in their seats to see what was happening. We were told we could get out of the van and go inside. So we hopped out of the van and started to walk out. We huddled closely together with neither of us knowing what to expect and probably feeling quite a bit scared.

"WOW this place is big!" Tasha said in amazement but in quite a sad little voice. Nobody else said anything until we walked inside into the kitchen section of the house.

"Now children this is Maria the cook."

She was wearing an apron I guess to look the part, but I hated the look of her face. It was all screwed up and she had little hair on her head. She was a plain woman who wore plain clothing and no make up which was a pity because it could have improved her appearance.

"She is going to give you some dinner. I must leave now so have a good time. Maria will introduce you to everyone else. Goodbye," the lady said. Then she walked out of the kitchen. Well thanks a lot for dumping us here I thought. We were all alone with no friends to talk to nor family with us. We had been left alone in this big wide world and I was beginning to get scared of what was going to happen to us all next.

We all sat down at the table and we were given mashed potato with peas and a chop. We all munched away quietly and when we finished we sat there patiently wondering what was going to happen next. Our plates were taken off us and we were given a refreshing cold glass of milk to drink. It tasted fabulous especially after the long drive, I was feeling quite thirsty. "Well you must be feeling tired. We shall get you off to bed and let you have a good nights sleep," Maria said.

We were shown where the toilet and bathroom was. Both rooms were painted in a light shade of green which didn't look too bad. There was a nice lengthy bath and a shower in the corner of the room as we entered. The strange thing was that there were no towels or even hand towels hanging up. The bathroom looked pretty bare except for the nine toothbrushes that hung in holes on the wall next to the sink. There must be a lot of people living here I thought to myself. It was just like the toilet where there were three packets of six toilet rolls sitting on the floor. I hadn't seen so many toilet rolls at once in one toilet. Then we were lead to our bedroom. The door was opened and the light flicked on. There was hardly anything in the room. There were three pillows and a pile of blankets. What were we to sleep on? The floor I thought to myself. I wish I was home.

"I'm really sorry, but the beds for you guys have not come in yet. You will have to sleep on foam mattresses which are in the cupboard. I will just go and get them," Maria said whilst walking off to get the mattresses.

All three of us stood in the empty room in a daze. We were obviously meant to sleep in the same room together.

"What is this?" Nathan said in disgust.

Maria had just walked in and said, "This will be where you will be sleeping, don't worry it will look much better when we get the beds and a chest of drawers in. Now, here are your mattresses. Please put some blankets on if you can and I shall just get your pyjamas for you all."

So we all tried to put the blankets on the bed, but it wasn't too crash hot. We had never really made a bed before, but something told me we had better learn fast because we might have to do it from now on. I didn't get very far in making my bed anyway. I was too busy thinking about what was going to happen next. What was going to happen to dad and if we were going to see him again. Where were we going to go to school and if I would make new friends. I also wondered about who else lived in this gigantic house and what they're going to be like. I wish I wasn't even here because I was beginning to really miss my friends and most of all my father. I wanted to see him so much.

Maria came back and gave us our pyjamas. We put them on whilst she fixed up the beds a little more in silence. We all stood there watching how efficient she was at making the beds. She obviously knew more than cooking.

"Now you may go to the toilet if you wish and hop into bed. I want you to have a good sleep so you will be bright and breezy for the morning. Then you can meet everyone. Goodnight," Maria said pleasantly. She walked out of the room and turned the light off on her way out. Gosh it was dark, I thought to myself. This is nothing like home. There are no toys to play with here in our room and there are no wall hangings either. Home seemed to be a much warmer and homely place than here. We had real beds and teddy bears on them. Our favourite doona cover was on our beds along with our clothing in our wardrobe. We didn't have any of our things here. All we had was each other. We didn't even have our father here. I wish I could be there right now looking out of my window at the stars. Boy do I miss home already.

"I wonder where we are," Tasha said out loud.

"I don't know but I wish I was home. I liked my bed better there and my big brown teddy bear is there too. I wish I could give him a big hug along with my dad. I miss him too. I wonder what he is doing right now?" Nathan said disappointingly.

Then we said goodnight to one another but I couldn't go to sleep. I kept on thinking about what was going to happen next. I also thought about the journey over to this place how it felt a little mysterious in a way because nobody told us where exactly where we were going or where we were when we arrived. Oh gosh where's my dad? It seems as if we have travelled miles away from him. It felt so unfair. Why did they do this? WHY?