It was pouring with rain as he stood on the front steps of the building. Grrrrr he hated this. Why, oh why, did he have to do this? He looked at the fading blue door. Just because his boss wanted him to, what was it? "encourage the general public by setting a good example". He travelled to yet another adoption place. He had been doing this for months on top of the other work he was forced to do as a nation. He stood there a minute gathering his thought then finally knocked on the door. It was lacking a door knocker or bell.
A woman quickly answered the door as though she had been standing there the whole time and smiled at him.
"Good morning, how can I help you?" she said in a voice that seemed to radiate happiness
He glanced at the overly cheerful woman. And quickly responded
"I'm here to see..." he looked down at the piece of paper he was holding telling him the name of the person his appointment was with.
"... Mrs. Johnson"
"Oh ok then, come in, come in" She said moving over and bashing her knee against the door
"Oww" she uttered out of habit it seemed
"Are you okay Miss?"
"I'm just fine thanks, would you like me to take your coat?" she asked politely while rubbing her hit knee.
"No thank you I'll hang on to it"
He didn't wait to risk anyone looking through the pockets.
She led the way along a corridor and up another flight of stairs practically skipping down the corridor. When they reached the top of the faded green carpeted stairs she led the way along a landing with white painted wall. It was very light in here with many windows along the walls looking out onto the streets to the front and side and onto the typical raining weather. He followed her all the way down the hallway until they reach a strong wooden door at the end with a small brass plaque reading "Mrs. Johnson"
"Here you go. Just knock and go in"
"Thank you very much, you can go now."
He said quietly. He always got nervous in these place it was just so unnerving. She left skipping down the corridor. When she had gone into a room he hadn't noticed as they passed about halfway down the hallway. He turned round to face the door again and knocked three times before he lost his nerve.
"Come in please" She called through the door
He turned the handle and opened the door when he looked in he saw that the room was pristine not a speck of dirt out of place. Her desk was placed at the back of the spacious room. The walls were painted white with absolutely no specks or marks from painting it. He suspected that the only reason it was wallpaper, which had a less chance of paintbrush marks, was that it would peel away after some time. The floor was covered with a thick electric blue carpet. There was a light grey filing cabinet that had so many drawers it nearly reached the ceiling in the far corner next to the desk in easy reach from the swivel chair, she was sitting in behind the desk. In front of the desk there were three chairs. These chairs were bright green, the kind often found in a consultants office for talking to people.
He felt slightly out of place with his damp clothes and wet jacket in his hands. She was just placing the document she had probably just been reading into a neat pile on the side of the desk. She smiled at him surveying his damp appearance
"It is horrible weather we are having" she said
"Yes it is, but it should let up soon" he said quietly
"Well, have a seat then and we'll talk about how we are going to go through this"
...
He walked out the door thanking her as he went. Just as she had said the clumsy girl from earlier walked along and met him and led him further down the corridor as he walked further it got slowly noisier as he began to hear children talking and mucking around at a way away.
"Could you please tell me where we are going?" He asked politely
"Just along here and through that thick door there"
She pointed to the door right at the end of the corridor and hit her hand against the wall as she lowered it. She didn't even seem to notice and carried on walking. "How does she not make a mess I would imagine she would always be knocking things over" he thought to himself. "Maybe she isn't allowed in Mrs. Johnson office for particularly that reason" they reached the door. "Why are the children separated from the other part of the building" As though she had read his mind the hyper active girl said quickly
"This is the administration part of the building; you entered through the door specifically for them." She smiled "I get asked a lot"
"Thank you very much" he replied
"No problemo." She grinned at him; the happiness was starting to get to him a bit like Italy did.
"Oh if you need any help just ask someone for May" she smiled as she became to look through her keys for the one that unlocked the door that they had reached and now stood before.
"FOUND IT" She said pleased
"Now go talk to them they won't mind this happens all the time"
She pulled open the door he walked slowly through and she closed softly behind him before he now saw children playing games with each other drawing and just talking. The youngest playing with toys on the floor and the oldest were just talking while lounging on the sofa.
...
She was laying on her bed reading the new book her best friend had given her on the last time they had seen each other. There was no-one else in the room with her. They were all downstairs talking and whatever else they did. So the shared bedroom was empty. Normally there were four of them on two bunk beds. When they had first got the bunk bed in there had been a scramble between the other three as to who would get the top bunks. She had never cared for this as she preferred the bottom bunk anyway considering the amount she fell out it was just plain safer on the bottom bunk. The room was filled with the other girls stuff. The dressers in the corners were filled with makeup and nail varnish. There was a full length mirror hanging on the wall and several smaller ones on the dressers. The dressers were divided so they had half of one each. The one she shared didn't have anything of hers on the top. Her clothes stuffed messily into the drawers on her side while on the other side the clothes were neatly folded or hung up.
The floor was beige in colour something she wasn't too happy about but didn't say much as who'd listen to her anyway. The walls painted white like in all the rooms for convenience so people in them didn't have a colour they hated too much. Most of her possessions were either under the bed or in the bottom drawer of the dresser. While all the cuddly toys were piled at the end of the bed. No one ever dared touch the pile in fear it would fall over and squash them. That and when it was knocked over an alarm somewhere in the middle would go off very loudly and shrilly.
She was lying on top of her favourite covers. The space ones she was given before she came here. They glowed in the dark which for some reason annoyed the others. She was wearing a black t-shirt and black combats with a black belt the buckle was a sliver box which the belt went through then locked into place, it had plastic sliver gems studded on it though most of the time it was covered by the long t-shirt. She was wearing her glasses at a slight angle from reading in bed bending them.
The screen beside her changed the image as someone was walking down the corridor outside the room. She had cameras everywhere that when she was in her room played on a small screen hidden behind a sliding panel on the wall. It only opens to her touch while the screen only came to life after an iris scan of her eye.
She noticed the change in colours on the screen beside her. She glanced at it and saw a small girl walking towards the door of the room having passed all the other doors. She put her book down carefully marking the page with a homemade bookmark with xiaolin showdown characters along it.
A soft knock came at the door. She rose off the bed avoiding hitting her head on the bunk above and opened the door to little Lizzy standing uncertainly before her.