I do not own lady and the tramp, BUT, i do own the rights to my brain... I think. lolz XD
When you ask most kids my age about their past, the most common answer you'll get is what happen to them after the age of five. If you ask for more, say when they were three, you'd hear either 'I don't remember,' or 'I got off a boat to live with an Amer family,' and that's all they know. But when you ask me, I can tell you in great detail about what happened when I was three. I got off a boat with lots of Orphs my age or a year older. I was given a plastic I.D band with an address stamped on it and a paper to give to my new parents.
After that, all I know is that I was put in a small car that had three other kids that were going to the same neighborhood as myself, and that is was a long ride that seemed even longer than the boat ride. I still don't believe that it was only an hour.
Then, I got off and met my new 'mom and dad', Jean and Jarrod Ward. Although they're very sweet and kind, and insist that I call them mom and dad, I always calls them by their real names.
I never knew my real parents, hell I don't even know what country I came from or what my real name is, just that at one point in my family history, I was American. But, every Orph can say that.
See, an Orph is someone that had someone in their family that fled America in the time of the Great Thing. No one knows what it was, it was rumored to be a monster that could reach down the throat of a man and snap its spine. Others say the monster would rape the women until they died. But, most say it was the Americans trying to escape their own stupidity. I think it was the stupidity.
What ever the reason, a few people stayed, and now their getting the other countries to give them three to four year old kids that had ancestors that were American. 'We don't want imbedding.' I remember one of my teachers saying.
Now that you know something about my past, let me tell you about my so called future. Today, I turn sixteen and a half. I no longer attended school, I can get a job, I no longer am restricted to a curfew and, most importantly, I get my Key.
A Key is a skeleton key that has an I.D number engraved on it. It's connected to a metal chain that is required to be worn unless you want to go to Orph-pag (It's similar to a thing called a dog pound I read about.)
One more thing that you should know about Orphs, here, we're not technically counted as people, well we are as in we can vote and hold office but, we're seen as a…um… I think they said a cat or dog (what ever they are). I think a better named would be a house pet. Yeah, that's what they were called. So if you got in a fight, ran away, or found without some sort of I.D, you would go to the Orph-pag.
But on the happier side, I can't wait for Jarrod and Jean to get home from the Key Department. I don't understand why I couldn't come too. Though, they did let me invite my three best friends to keep me company. Ebony, who is seventeen with beautiful sunshine blond hair that's as cheery as her personality, Ira, who's nineteen and has hair as red as it can get that goes perfect with her slow, but violet temper, and last but not least Mae. She's eighteen and a half with black, black, hair and she's what you would call a girl that has had three boyfriends in the past three minutes. But we all love her; even if we never get with a boy she hasn't had first.
"So," Ira said up-side-down on my bed, flipping through a magazine "You finally get to join the big girls huh?"
"I can't believe it!" Ebony bounced up and down excitedly "You can come clubbing with us now!"
Yeah, there's only one club and it's just a building that plays a bunch of music while people dance and others sit in a circle made of six couches. 'Yay, I just wasted five hours of my life.'
"And I can introduce you to the local bad boys," Mae snapped her gum, lying on the floor "Like John, I heard he ran away from the Orph-pag Police and got away."
"Oh, special," I leaned my head on the wall behind were I sat with the radio quarter of the way blasting. "Sorry Mae, but unlike some people, I want to keep it for a special someone on my wedding night, not some cute guy that bats his eyes at me from across the classroom."
"Hey," she sat up "what was I suppose to do, it was eighth grade."
"Offer a knuckle sandwich and tell him to fuck off," Ira flipped over to look at her "That's what I do."
"Anyway," Ebony chipped in "aren't you two still dating, or did he not live up to his talk?"
We all giggled as Mae turned red, "We broke up before he could show it, let alone talk about it!"
"Let's move on," I said "Who here is really freaked, raise your hand."
"Sophie," Ira sat up and slid off onto the floor, "we all told you a million times each that it's not a painful, life changing thing. All that happens is, they put it around your neck and boom, free to rain terror on the 9:02pm and beyond scene."
"Still," I twirled my brown hair "It feels like just yesterday, I meet you guys on the first day of preschool, and now I'm getting my Key, and Mae will probably set me up with the first guy she sees."
"Wrong, the…" counting her fingers "twelfth guy, the other eleven are mine."
Laughing, I went down to the kitchen for four more energy drinks when I saw, "Guys," I shouted up the stairs "Some guy out on my lawn!"
Mae rushed down the stairs five at a time, followed by Ebony taking it three at a time, and lastly Ira at the slow speed of two at a time.
Crowded at the window, we all looked to Mae.
"Who's that hunk in your yard?" She asked.
Everyone was speechless, finally some one of the Y chromosome she didn't know. Call the scientist, major break through!
"I don't know," I headed towards the front door "But he's on my yard so I get to talk to him first."
Groans from all around as I walked out on the lawn. "Can I help you?" I asked when I got in hearing range.
"Maybe," he said "I don't know if I'm in the right neighborhood,"
"I can point you in the right direction!" Mae and Ebony burst out of the house falling over each other and running out to my side, breathless. Ira must have tried to stop them but...
"Hi." they said in unison.
"That one's Mae," I pointed to her over my left shoulder "That one's Ebony," she waved "There's another in the house named Ira," She stuck a hand out the door "And I'm a random girl that doesn't have a name to give a stranger."
"Oh Sophie," I stared daggers at Ira as she came out "That's not nice."
"What ev." I stared back towards the house.
"So," Ira hooked me by the arm "What neighborhood are you looking for, Sophie here knows all of them by heart."
"I do not" I hissed "I barley know this one." All three elbowed me.
"Shut up!" Mae hissed back "We're going to set you up with this one and that's that."
"Hey random person," I said "What's your name?"
"I don't have a name," His face all serious "People just call me different names."
"Can we call him Luke?" Begged Ebony.
"No, no, Bruce!" Mae jumped up and down.
"How 'bout, Timmy." Ira put in.
I just stared at them. "Are you three nuts? He's a human being, not some random lost puppy. If he needs a name, he can name himself... or ask for help coming up with one. And also-"
"How 'bout you pick my name."
Awestruck, I just looked at him. "Why in God's name would you want me to do that?"
"No one argued against you, you have a logical reasoning, thus you'll pick a logical name." he put his fingers through his belt loops and leaned back slightly.
Hands on hips, I tried to get a better look at him. He had curly chin length brownish blackish hair, dusty jeans and burgundy t-shirt, nice natural tan, and muscles to spare. My little group was frantically whispering names and ideas all around, but I already had a name.
"How do you like 'Zack'?" I asked.
"Hmm, Zack." he sounded like he was tasting the word, "Zack, I like it."
"Zack it is," I looked at the three idiots I call friends "Happy?" I hissed.
"Very." Ebony answered for all.
"So," Mae started "Were you from?"
"A place." Zack said simply.
"What kind of place?" Ira asked.
"A place you live."
"Were did ya live?" Ebony kept the Q&A going.
"A place."
"Can we stop the question circle?" I turned to the house.
"No dice chicka." All three grabbed and spun me back around to face him.
"Okay," I said to Zack "Obliviously these three don't want me to leave and they want to set me up with you, so, can you please leave and spare us both the humiliation?"
He smiled crookedly, "Sure, it would be quite embarrassingfor you if your girl friends set you up with some random stranger on the street."
"Well,"I rocked back on my heels "Technically you're not a stranger in the not knowing you respect. I know your name, and you know mine, so in the reasonable thinking, you're not a total stranger.
He looked behind me, "Is she always like this?"
"Only in front of boys." Ebony snickered.
"Oh, and your all innocent, miss 'Can somebody please help me with this problem, I forgot what three plus one is.'"
Everyone, including Zack, started cracking up and I made a bolt for the door, and guess what? I made it!
I rushed up the stairs to my room, heart pounding, and looked to the window that over looked the front yard.
The girls were walking to the house and Zack was no where in sight. Whew.
Back in my spot with magazine in hand, they walked in.
"Think fast." energy drink comes out of left field from red head.
Catching it, I tipped it in thanks, "Where'd the new go?" I took a swig.
"Oh," Mae heaped herself on the bed, nearly missing Ebony who was flipping through an old picture book. "He bailed soon as he saw you'd gone."
"You know," Ira said between gulps "I think that one really likes you."
"Yeah right," I thumped the back of my head on the wall. "If you failed to notice, he was a hunk, I only attract nerds. He's not a nerd so-"
"Oh, just dream big for once." Ebony sighed in frustration, "Just hold on to the fact that he let you pick his name and not one of us."
"You know what he mumbled when he left?" Mae asked.
"What?"
"He said, 'Well, the pretty one's gone, no use in staying.'"
"Are you sure?" I was really skeptical, Plain Jane being awed over by cowboy charming.
"Do I have to paint a picture?" Ira rubbed her eyes "'Cause if I do, I'm going to make sure that Mae explains all the fundamentals of it."
Before I could say anything, someone knocked.
"Come in."
"Sophie," Jarrod and Jean walk in "We're here."
"Oh my gosh," I jumped up quickly "Do you have it?"
They nodded. Jean grabbed a small box from her pocket and handed it to me. "Happy 16 ½ Sophie!" she said.
I tried not to gasp as I open it. It looked nothing like the other girls.
It was better.
Gold finish, my I.D number that was engraved both in my mind and on the key, but the part that made it mine was a little green and brown vine no thicker than a piece of thread. Little leaves came out at random on it, and a single red rose in full bloom. I'd never seen one in real life, but I'd seen pictures and knew it was my favorite kind of flower.
"Thank you so much." I said slipping it on "It's better than I imaged."
"We have one more surprise," Jarrod said "But we'd prefer your friends to leave."
"See you." Ira made a B-line for the door, Mae and Ebony followed without a word and shut the door behind them.
I looked at the shut door, as if I could see through to them. What did they know that I didn't? Usually they protest until I yell at them to get lost.
"Sophie," Jean drew my attention back to the other surprise. "We'd like to introduce you to your new sister, Lynn.