Chapter One
11 year- old Mary- Lynnette crept down the stairs, careful not to make a sound lest it wake Ms. Claudia, the orphanage 'mother'.
She clutched the make shift pillow case bag, filled with her few possessions, close to her chest and closed her eyes.
This is it, she thought. Tonight's the night.
She reached out, fingers resting on the lock, and smiled. She turned the lock and… click. Her hand moved to the doorknob and suddenly the door was open.
A blast of freezing, New York winter air swept past her and into the orphanage she so desperately wanted to leave.
Freedom was just in front of her. Just one step away.
A step she didn't have the chance to take. A bony hand grasped her shoulder and she spun around to face Ms. Claudia.
"What do you think you're doing?" The older woman's voice rang out. "Are you planning on going somewhere?"
"I-i-I was just-" Mary- Lynette cursed her inability to articulate words in front of the orphanage mother.
"Just what?" Claudia rolled her eyes. "Running away again?"
Mary- Lynnette bit her lip. "I was…"
"Hmmm, you were." Claudia grabbed Mary- Lynnette's wrist and clunked up the stairs that Mare had descended with such caution and hope only a minute earlier.
Claudia stormed through the door and into the main bedroom of the girl's. Arranged in rows were the beds of the seven girls who roomed with her in this wing of the orphanage.
She shoved Mary- Lynnette into the bed and grunted. "I'm letting you off easy, but let me tell you, you try something funny like this again and you'll wish you'd never been born."
Claudia sneered and walked back out, locking the door of the bedroom behind her.
"I told you it wouldn't work," A smug voice said from the corner of the room.
"Shut up, Keller." Mary- Lynnette grumbled. "I'll make it out next time."
"Sure," Keller said in a sarcastically cheery tone, "practice makes perfect, right?"
"Raksha," Hannah sighed.
"All right, all right, I'm sorry." Mary- Lynnette got the feeling Keller was rolling her eyes. "I'll try and be more supportive of her delusional fantasies."
"Fantasies!" Mary- Lynnette bolted out of the bed, outraged, and ready to take the other girl on.
"Yes, fantasies." The dim light filtering in through the window illuminated Keller, who was sprawled out on the bed like a cat. "Because you're never really going to find your parents. None of us are. They left us here, that means they don't want to be found."
"Would you two shut up," Jez growled, obviously still half asleep. "You've gone through this one hundred times before."
"Don't worry," Five year old Poppy, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as always (no matter the fact it was 3:00 in the morning) chimed in. "Next month, when Hannah turns 18, she'll adopt us all, and then we'll be free! We won't need to find our parents, then."
Jez snorted. "Yeah, right. Like that's going to happen."
"It's going to happen." Hannah promised. "I know it will be difficult, but things will work out. I'll make sure they do."
-0-
Mary- Lynnette had hoped at if she didn't gain her freedom, then at least she would be able to get a hint of sleep before Claudia got them up to work. But fate didn't favor her.
Only an hour later, an incessant tapping roused Mare and the tip toeing of one of the girls across the room had her fully awake.
She squinted into the darkness, then exclaimed, "Jez! What are you doing?"
"Shhh!" Jez hissed. "You'll wake the others. Just go back to sleep."
"What are you doing?" Jez was at the window now, and Mare gasped when she realized someone was balanced on the sill on the other side of the glass.
"Who…?" Mary- Lynnette breathed.
"His name is Morgead." Jez unlatched the window and the boy jumped inside. Jez was 14, almost 15, and beautiful. Mare wasn't surprised Jez had a boy sneaking in to meet her. That is, she wasn't surprised until she actually saw him.
His face was streaked with dirt, and his clothes were wrinkled. His hair wasn't much better. Mare could understand a boy seeking out Jez's company, but a streetrat? And Jez had actually let him in, despite the high standards she expected everyone to meet.
"Thank goodness," He complained. "Do you know how hard it is, climbing two stories up an iced building and then holding on? You took forever to wake up."
"Well, you woke up someone else too," Jez waved a hand at Mary- Lynnette, who was sitting up now.
"What's going on?" Mare demanded. "Who are you, how did you meet Jez, how did you get up here, could I be able to climb dow-"
Jez gave and exasperated sigh. "He hasn't even been here ten seconds and you're already asking him to help you escape."
Morgead grinned. "You'd crash and fall to your death if you tried going out through there. I've been doing this thing my entire life, you'd be a newbie. Plus, I'm more suited for the job."
"Why," Mare demanded, eyes narrowing, "because you're a boy?"
Jez make a choked sound of indignation. "Do you really think I'd let him in if he thought boys were better than girls?"
"I didn't mean it like that," Morgead shrugged. "I just meant it would be easier for me to climb up because it takes more than a bad fall to kill people like me. But for people like you…"
"People like you? People like me?" Mare gave him an incredulous look. "What world do you live in, 'cause I live in 1933."
"I just meant," Morgead stopped and pointed at his teeth, grinning.
Mare continued to stare at him. What a strange boy, she thought. Then, she speculated, he was perfect for Jez. Jez was always saying cryptic, seemingly insane things like that.
"Come on, Morgead, we don't have all night." Jez tugged at his arm.
"Alright, I'm coming." Morgead shot one last grin at Mare and then let Jez pull him to the door.
"It's locked," Jez said, and Morgead snickered. "Well," She prompted. "Unlock it."
Morgead bent down, and in a few short moments, the lock clicked. "Your highness," Morgead said, sweeping open the door with unnecessary flourish.
Then they were gone.
Mare envied how quietly Jez could walk, whereas her own feet couldn't stop tripping over nothing.
Her stupid feet that Claudia always seemed to hear.
Sometime after that she fell asleep, and when she woke to Claudia's whistle, Morgead was gone.
-0-
"Up and at 'em, girls," Claudia barked. "The laundry man should be here any minute."
Mare's vision blurred, then focused on the slim, well dressed form of Ms. Claudia. The dress was pulled tight in most places, leaving nearly nothing to the imagination.
Mare shuddered.
Nothing had changed; it was the same each month. Claudia was terribly conceited and flaunted what she had whenever any member of the opposite sex came near, no matter how old. Take the laundry man, Mr. Winfield, for example. He was 60 something years (A fair 15 or 16 years older than Claudia), and still she dressed like this for him.
"Did you not hear me?" Claudia blew into her whistle once more. "Up and at 'em!"
Mare swung her feet over the side of the bed and pushed herself up. She wasn't the only one having difficulty getting out of bed. Jez looked twice as bad as Mary- Lynnette felt.
Poppy, however, was the absolute opposite of Jez. Jumping up and down squealing, "Laundry day! Laundry day! Will we get to see Mr. Winfield?"
"Yes, Poppy," Claudia rolled her eyes. "Mr. Winfield comes every laundry day."
"Eeeee!" Poppy, undeterred by Claudia's snide remark, jumped up on the window sill and peered out eagerly. Mare's mind shifted briefly to Morgead, who had climbed in that very window, then went back to Poppy as she laughed in delight. "He's here!"
Poppy rushed to the door and stood guard, waiting for the kindly old laundry man to show up- most likely bearing news from her twin brother, Phil, who had been stuck into a boy's home on the opposite side of the city.
"Mr. Winfield!" Poppy crooned with delight when the elderly man pushed his laundry cart through the door.
"Poppet!" He opened his arms and Poppy rushed forward to give him a hug. "Dearest, I was just visiting with your brother."
"You were! What did he say?" Her grin covered the majority of her face, squishing the rest of her features into oblivion.
"He said to tell you that he will see you in February." The old man grinned. "For he is being adopted by a family only three blocks down from here."
"Ahhhhh!" Poppy jumped up and down, screeching in delight.
"Poppy!" Claudia snapped, and Poppy's cries of joy faded (although her grin didn't).
"Well," Mr. Winfield said, getting back to business. "Clean sheets and clothes for everyone."
One by one, the girls filed forward, thanking Mr. Winfield for the new linens and disposing of their old ones.
When they were done, Claudia pulled the old man aside and began polite chitter chatter.
That's when Mary- Lynnette saw her chance.
She hoisted herself into the cart and burrowed under the blankets. She felt the weight shift on top of her, one of the other girls trying to better hide her, probably.
The cart jerked forward and behind her, Mary- Lynnette heard Poppy's voice through the blankets as it bid Mr. Winfield farewell.
Hello!
Well, that's it for this chapter. I'm back at the concept of putting book characters into movies, and I've learned from my mistakes! So, hopefully, this won't turn out like PJO: Grease *shudders* That really went badly.
Please review!