Chapter 1: Difficult Day
Beep Beep Beep
The body under the blankets didn't want to get up. She would do anything not to have to get up and go to school today. It was the first day back to school, and she wasn't looking forward to it.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Rin pulled a little of the blankets away from her head as she listened to the beeping, positive that the noise had gotten louder. 'Just close your eyes,' said Rin to herself, 'and you won't remember where you are.'
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Rin was just about to turn the alarm clock off when a hand beat her too it. Rin looked up into the face of Mrs. Johnson, the "House Mother".
"Rin!" yelled Mrs. Johnson, "If you don't get up and dressed NOW, you'll miss breakfast and the bus, and you'll have to walk, because I'm not driving you."
Rin grumbled something about Mrs. Johnson being a fat toad, before she left and almost instantly felt a wooden spoon hit her square on the head.
"Don't you say things like that, you ungrateful orphan," said Mrs. Johnson from the doorway. "You are in a nice place and there are many children who would love to be in your shoes." With that the woman left the doorway.
Rin looked up to see seven beds already made, and no one around. Rin got dressed and watch a mouse run out of her closet. "Yeah, such a nice place," said Rin in a grumble.
She put on her shoes and watched as one of her toes could be seen through both the shoe and the sock. "Who would want to live in my shoes, you old hag!" yelled Rin. She always wondered how that old hag had ever married.
Rin hurried down stairs to see 20 other children eating breakfast. Rin was the oldest, and the only one in high school. They all lived in Madam Carol's House of Orphans. Basically, they lived in a dilapidated boarding house from the 1900s with a crotchety old hag that only wanted the money. What really bugged Rin was that Mrs. Johnson's name wasn't even Carol, it was Prudence.
She sat down and began eating when a bell rang and everyone stood up. Rin put down her spoon that was covered in yesterday's oatmeal, and stood. 'So goes another day in the life of an unwanted orphan,' thought Rin to herself.
"Now," started Mrs. Johnson. "Today is the first day of school. You are all to be on your best behavior. You will go strait to school on the bus, and you will walk home. I need you to get some groceries on your way back. There is no exception. Blake and Amy will take the younger children home, while Rin, Margaret, Samantha, Alexander, Robert, and Bradley will go for the groceries. Now hurry up and wait outside for the bus."
The older kids grumbled. They knew the bus wouldn't be around for another 20 minutes. Mrs. Johnson wanted them out so she could watch her shows. They never got to watch television, and it made an impact on their lives.
"Did you hear what I said?" asked Mrs. Johnson, her voice raising, "Get outside NOW!"
The children quickly grabbed their bags and ran out the door. Miss Crogan was at the door, and handed Rin an envelope.
"What's in here?" asked Rin.
"That is the money, and the shopping list," said Miss Crogan kindly. Miss Kathy Crogan was a blonde lady who took care of the youngest children. The ones that were too young to go to school. She looked after them until they got to 9. Then you were Mrs. Prudence Johnson's. "There is a little extra for you to get a snack with, just don't make it too big."
"Thank you Miss Crogan," said Rin quietly as she headed out the door.
Rin caught up to the rest of the kids as they made their way to the bus stop. Most were grumbling about having to leave so early. The younger kids were quietly sitting on the bench.
The youngest one there was Roy. He was five years old. His mother had just left him at the orphanage. He didn't know where he was at first, and he took a long time to calm down. He was only 3 when he was dropped off, never to be taken home again. He was a beautiful boy. He had dark black hair and surprisingly blue eyes. He was very smart, but he was very quiet. He was easily picked on. More than once, Rin had to step in and help Roy out of fights with Maria.
Maria was a sparkling six year old with curly red hair and brown eyes. She was taller than Roy, but seemed to always want to pick on him. She had been in the orphanage since she was only a few months old. The adults had had high hopes for her since she was so cute, but she wasn't very good with strangers, so she was always sent back. It had an impact on her life, but she always seemed to go through with shining colors.
Her best friend was Bell. Well, the children called her Bell, but Mrs. Johnson called everyone by their real names. Isabella was her real name. She was a shy seven year old, with long black hair. She had tan skin, and an accent from her mother, Catalina. She had been an orphan at the same place a few years before Rin. Catalina had come into some trouble with a boyfriend, and got pregnant. She left Bell there when she was very young. She had become close to Maria because they both had come to the orphanage in the same way. In their hearts, they always felt like Rin was their mom as she had been the one to take care of them as a baby, because Miss Crogan had others to take care of too. Most of the children there now thought of Rin as a mother or a sister.
"Hey, stop that!" yelled Rin to Nat and Joe. They were trying to tip a mailbox.
"Sorry Rin," said the two boys together. They were too cute to stay mad at.
"Just don't do it again," sighed Rin.
"We won't," said the twins as they ran and sat on their back packs.
Nathaniel and Joseph were complete trouble makers. Rin usually was the one to go to parent-teacher conferences for most of the kids, so she sat through a lot from the boys. The twin blonde haired children were smart, but clowns. The boys had been left there by their older brother after their mother had died. It was the only way they knew of how to keep themselves normal. They both looked at Rin with their bright green eyes and smiled. They had angle faces which made it impossible to stay mad at. The only reason they weren't adopted was because they didn't want to be. They always said that their brother was going to come back for them. No one would tell them that their brother had died from a drug overdose; they didn't want to break their hearts.
"OW!" said a little girl with pig tails in her hair. "Why did you do that?"
"Because it's fun," said a little boy with long brown hair that was tied back.
The little girl was Mae. She was 11, and had long blonde hair that she always kept in pigtails. One of the older girls had to braid her hair, because it was so long. She had freckles all over her face and she had deep blue eyes. She was a strong girl, even though she had been beaten as a child. It took her months to actually open up and talk to people. Some of the doctors had figured that Mae had been sexually assaulted, and would be afraid of men. It was actually the opposite. The first person she talked to was Peter Dougall, the cook. He had actually gotten her to talk, and then she seemed like a new person, always singing and talking with everyone.
The boy was Phil. Phillip was 10, and trouble, or he wanted to be. He was in the age where he wanted to be just like his parent. He had just gotten dropped off at the orphanage at the beginning of summer. Most had been surprised that he had just opened up, but he seemed to fit in like everyone else. He had nightmares though, about when he was younger. He was abused as a child, and forced to live in a basement for long periods of time. It was only because he was different. He had glasses and short, brown hair with brown eyes. Rin could tell that he would grow out of this phase because he never really did anything wrong.
Rin let her eyes travel over the rest of the bunch. The older boys were talking to the newspaper stand owner. They were always interested in the news. Alex, Bob, and Brad. The "Dream Team", as they were called, planned on making a difference in the world. For 11 years old, they knew exactly what they were going to do. Alexander was going to be a fireman, Robert was going to be a teacher, and Brad was going to be the best doctor the city had ever seen. They were always trying to get as much knowledge as humanly possible about current events. They newspaper man named Jack was always giving the boys extra papers. He had a soft spot for the boys, and always insisted that the papers were on the house. During the summer, they boys had delivered newspapers around the city. The red heads were exactly what you wanted. They were going to make a difference because their father had been a dead beat alcoholic. He had beaten the boys many times, sometimes putting them in the hospital, and finally the DCF had taken them away. They were always okay though. The sparkle in their brown eyes never went away.
The other siblings in the orphanage were Amy and Margaret, or Maggie for short. They were 13 and were identical twins. You would never be able to tell them apart except for their eyes. Amy had blue eyes and Maggie had green. With short black hair, the girls were talkative and boy crazy. Rin hoped that they wouldn't get too bad because that was what got them there in the first place. Their mother was a prostitute and had gotten pregnant from a trick. She put the girls up with her mother and her mother sent them here. She didn't want them and their mother didn't want them either. They were two unwanted children. Now they had a bunch of people who loved them, and they were happy. Their dream was to have all of them get their own place and live together. Rin knew it wouldn't happen, but she wouldn't smash their dreams. They worked during the summer and had saved all their money to do something like that. They had made over 500 dollars during the three months, and hadn't spent a penny.
Rin spotted Blake looking at a red car that was parked by the bus stop. Blake was obsessed with cars. He wanted one of his own some day, and saved up his money too. He was only 13, and had a bank account with over 3,000 in it. The tall, lengthy kid wanted to be a racecar driver, and wanted to drive on a track as black as his hair. He had brown eyes, and was ambitious. He had actually been run over by a car, and had been left to die. He had stayed in the hospital for almost a year, and the DCF sent him to Carol's. He had been afraid of cars in the beginning, but soon wanted to master them. He was the resident fix-it man. He could fix anything if he put his mind to it. He was still secretly afraid of cars, but he would overcome it some day. He would always have the scars from his experience, but he would eventually master his fear.
Over near the bus stop sign was a group of girls giggling and laughing. Rin could spot four heads in that group. The tallest was Sammy. Samantha was a tall girl, but she was also considered over weight. The children at school would make fun of her, and she would come home crying. She was a girl of little self confidence, but she would always speak her mind. Before she would come home, she would always tell those kids what she thought of them. She was abused as a child, so it was amazing that she would stand up for herself. She was strong though. She was always sent on the shopping trip because she had the strength to carry things. A sudden wind came up and it caught on her wavy light brown hair and blocked Rin's vision of her lovely dark hazel eyes.
Rin looked down the street wondering if the bus would ever come. All she knew was that the sooner it came, the sooner she could see the babies in the nursery. Matt, or Matthew, was the youngest. He was only a year old, and the newest one. He was a baby that was found in the dumpster. Rin shook her head as she tried to figure out how anyone could leave that sweet boy like that. He was always laughing and had unusual green eyes.
The other new addition was Rose. She had been left on their doorstep with a tag on her blanket. She was of Native American dissent. The name left on her blanket was Rozene, but Rin, being the smart girl she was, looked up the name and found it was the Native American name that meant Rose. She was a beautiful girl with dark eyes and dark hair. She was going to be adopted soon, or that was Rin's prediction.
The only one in the nursery that wasn't a baby was Dave. David was actually a child of another orphan that, one day, just left the orphanage. She had been 18, and could leave at anytime. Mrs. Johnson had never found her, or she would have given the child back. He was of mixed race, with darker skin, and thick black hair. Mrs. Johnson was a very racist woman, and didn't want anyone with African American blood in her home, but Miss Crogan convinced her that it would be best. So the little black eyed baby was left in Miss Crogan's care. Rin worried about how Dave would be treated when he got older. She had tried very hard to get Dave adopted, but with no luck. She hoped that she would be able to help him when he got older.
"Rin, when are we going to school?" asked a little girl with a yellow ribbon in her dark red hair. Faye was 12 years old, but still very naïve. She had gorgeous blue eyes that had flecks of green in them. She was always ready to learn, but she was so shy that she never got a chance to show it off. She had been beat for being too smart, and now didn't like to prove that she was smart publicly for fear it would happen again.
"Soon Faye," said Rin as she smoothed the girl's hair.
She ran back to her two friends Ella and Liz. Ella was a little pistol. She had fiery red hair, and the temper to match it. At 12, that was a bad thing to have. She would tell you exactly what she felt, no matter what happened to her. She had been molested and beaten as a child. It was a common thing now. She had mouthed off too many times, and her mother broke her arm. Her father had molested her, and her mother had divorced him. Her mother had taken up drinking and finally DCF took Ella away from her abusive father.
Elizabeth was a quite girl with long black hair that she kept in a pony tail. She was 12 also, and had a similar life to Ella's, only that she didn't speak up. Ella had on multiply occasions, help Liz get out of a bad situation with bullies at school. Liz had become a wall flower who wouldn't defend herself. She had gotten better though. When she first came here, she wouldn't talk to anyone, but with Ella's help, eventually made friends with almost every one.
Just then, the bus had pulled up next to the stop. The door opened to reveal an old woman with white hair.
"Hello children," said Shirley, "I'm sorry I'm late."
The children all got on the bus, ready to go to school. As Rin sat down, she looked at her watch. It was only 7:25. Shirley had always allowed Rin to ride with the elementary and junior high school students since she had gotten into high school. Rin looked out the window as she knew that today would be a difficult one.
To be continued…
This is my next Fan Fic, and I really don't know how often this will be updated. I think once a week. Alright, I'll try to get DitR updated soon, but I need to write it first. Lol… review and be kind.