ELLA

They told me that I was an orphan, and that at the age of three years old I had lost my mother, father, and oldest sister in a terrible car crash. Of course, nobody had seen the car crash, or found the bodies. They just knew that on the night of June 17, 2003, three girls came crashing onto the doorstep of Creighton Academy for Orphans and Delinquents.

They say that the oldest girl had stumbled out of the forest, dragging a little girl, who couldn't have been more than three, and a girl not much younger than herself. The youngest, was sobbing, kept screaming about a monster. The middle girl, was wide eyed and frozen. They say she wouldn't speak to anyone for days after. She only stared straight ahead, and rocked back and forth as if she was looking somewhere else… The oldest was desperate, not scared like the others, more angry. She kept screaming at the sky. Then she started crying.

It could only be deciphered days after that the three girls had been in a severe crash. The oldest and youngest were sisters, bringing along their friend. Apparently, the storms had been so bad that lightning had struck the car, and sent it spiraling into a ditch. Six had been in the car, three had escaped alive, and unscathed. The three that had died, a mother, father, and young girl had never been found. In fact, there was no record of the crash. No car, no damage, only three terrified girls.

I was the youngest of the three girls, Amy was my remaining sister. She was nine years older than me, but she treated me more like a daughter than a sister. She was smart, too. Not your normal smart kid: straight A student, Student Government President, headed off to Yale smart. No, Amy had probably surpassed that kind of smart at birth. Amy knew every Ancient language there had ever been, plus 17 of the world's modern languages when she'd been brought to Creighton. You could give her any equation in math and she'd be able to solve it before you could even get the whole thing out. She knew every book that had ever been published, and memorized them all word, for word. It was like every piece of information, every bit of knowledge was crammed into her brain. When I was younger, I used to resent her for it. Even though I was smart, I wasn't anywhere near close to Amy smart. But I took it, and I learned to live with it.

Did I say I learned to live with it? Okay, I resented her a bit… a lot a bit… But come on, she was perfect!

Emma was Amy's best friend, she was two years younger than Amy, but the age difference didn't hold them back. Anyway, I was told Emma had practically lived with my family. Whenever I tried to ask her about it, she would just frown and sulk. Still, it always made me wonder, if they were still alive why hadn't they raised her after my parents had died?

Today though, today was the day. The day where after nine years of my life, living in a dorm room with 3 other girls, all my age, all not so good kids, today I was finally getting out.

Amy and Emma had already gotten out a long time ago. After 6 years in Creighton, Amy had turned eighteen and left us. She'd found a small apartment nearby, and gotten a good job as a reader for Schoolastic. The job didn't pay much, but it was a steady income, and got Amy enough for an apartment with two bedrooms. Anything else she needed, came from the money our parents had left us. Nobody seemed to ever remember them banking there, but there was a small fortune in the account under their names, so she took it.

When Emma turned seventeen, the year after Amy had gotten out, Amy had sprung her, too. Emma told me that she could leave because she was almost of a legal age, and Amy would be watching over her. Heck, they'd be living together! But I wasn't allowed to because I was 'too young, and it would be too dangerous having me live with two young girls, finding their independence'. I'd told her 'screw it, I feel mature enough', but she'd just chuckled and promised that I'd be out soon.

Twelve months later, and I can tell you that soon hadn't ever been so slow.

I heard a knock on the door, "Ready, Ella?"

"Just a minute!" I shouted, lying flat on my stomach and thrusting my upper torso under the bed, to get a better look at anything I'd missed.

Clearly, I hadn't cleaned out my bed in a while, because I found a bunch of gum wrappers, scraps of paper that I had thrown out, and a bunch of socks I'd misplaced long ago.

I could hear the door slam open, "What are you doing?"

I felt the tickle in my nose before I could slide out from under the bed. I let out the loudest sneeze I'd ever had, and slammed the back of my head against the slats of my bed frame.

Letting out a string of curses, I slid out from under the bed.

"Stupid dust mites," I shouted, kicking the corner of my bed post. "Ouch!"

Being hurt, while trying to look angry makes it really hard to give someone your most intense glare. Especially if that certain person who's glaring, also happens to be jumping up and down on one foot, clutching their other foot in their hands. Which makes the person who you are trying to glare at in a most intense fashion not be able to take you seriously. Which of course makes you even angrier, and by rules stated above look even funnier.

"Stop laughing!" I whined, when my foot finally stopped throbbing.

Tears were trickling down Emma's face now, and the loud howls were still coming out of her mouth.

"S-sorry," she said through fits of giggles. The giggles, seeming increasingly funnier to her, making her laugh even harder.

"It really hurt!" I complained, flopping on my bed.

When the giggles died down, Emma jumped- more like crashed onto the bed, settling comfortably next to me.

"That was beautiful, by the way," Emma giggled, apparently the laughter had completely left her system after all.

"Yeah, yeah," I grumbled, crossing my arms.

"So you almost ready to go?" Emma asked, regaining her composure. "Amy's got the car parked outside, and if we don't leave soon she'll attack us by the time we come out."

Amy was just about the most impatient person I knew. Last year, when Amy and Emma had taken me out to dinner for my birthday, Emma had gone to the bathroom while Amy was paying the tab. After 30 seconds of Emma being away, Amy had started tapping her foot, and complaining about how slow Emma was. And 'where was she? It had almost been a minute!' Of course, at the same time, no one was faster than Amy. She ran track her sophomore year, and won the long distance race in the time a normal person would have run the 100 yard dash.

Emma grinned at me, and my anger melted away. I was leaving today, I had no reason to be mad. It was finally happening.

"My stuff's over there," I pointed to the small trunk on the end of my bed. It held all my clothes, and text books.

I didn't really have much, I'd lived in an orphanage most of my life, so the only clothes I'd gotten were the ones from charity, and stuff Amy had gotten me since she'd left. The only thing of value to me was an old picture, nine years old to be exact.

It was a picture of my family, one from before everyone was dead. I didn't know much about the picture, other than the people in it. I'd found it when I was seven, and snooping through Amy's stuff. Buried at the bottom of her trunk was an old photo. There was a young toddler in the picture. The little girl had wavy blonde hair, with streaks of golden brown running through. Her eyes were a pretty grey color, not deep, serious grey, but soft, almost transparent. The next girl in the picture was much older, eleven or twelve. That girl had dark black hair and pale blue eyes. The last girl, and oldest was a young girl with pale brown hair, the way the sun was hitting it made it look almost blonde. Her eyes were a delightful blue color, the color of a brilliant blue sky, if you will. Along with them were two young adults, there was a young woman who resembled the middle daughter, and a young man who looked much like the youngest.

From the start I knew who the two younger girls were. Obviously the toddler was me, the girl looked exactly like me! Well, except for the fact that I was older now. The same went for the middle girl, she looked like a younger, less tall version of Amy. The two adults didn't trouble me either. My parents. I'd never seen them before, and every time I looked at the picture, they sent chills down my spine. I loved the fact that I looked like my dad, the very thought of it filled me with warmth. The same feeling you got when the sun hit you on a warm summer day.

No, the one who troubled me was the oldest girl. It seemed to be a family picture, but I'd never heard of having another sister. Finally I'd confronted Amy, who admitted we had a sister. A secret she had long kept, and had been planning to tell me when she thought I was ready to be told. My other sisters name had been Phoebe, and she'd been just as bright and as radiant as her name had meant. She'd been 15 when she'd died, and it had left Amy shattered and broken even more than our parents deaths had. And that was all I could get out of Amy. I'd tried to get more, but her blue eyes had turned to an almost gray color, and she looked like she was about to shut down.

"Well," Emma declared, snapping me back into reality, "we better get going."

She hopped of the bed, and dusted off her jeans. She picked up the chest filled with my things, and walked out into the hallway. She was probably going to check me out, once and for all.

A small knot formed at the pit of my stomach, as much as I'd wanted to get out, this had been my home. It wasn't a bad home, exactly. I'd had food, made friends, the normal teen stuff. Part of me would always be with this place, it was my first real home.

"Well, you coming or not? We could always leave you here, alone," Emma called.

I laughed, racing out the open world. To my new life.