I grinned. Across the rooms sat two exotic looking twins and their younger brother, they spoke in hushed tones I recognised a few words of Italian. An extra tick on the list, I'd always hated recruitment missions but it gave me a sense of satisfaction when I finally found some kids who fit the bill perfectly. Of course I felt sorry for the three of them; they can't have been having the time of their lives being in that place. I sat in the living room of the Central London Children's Home just across from the Perconti kids who were discussing something; all three of them were squeezed on to the low maintenance window seat.
One of the twins was definitely fitter than the other, I decided. The one on the left had on a short, ripped denim skirt, showing off her long tanned legs and a white low-cut vest top with a black cardigan draped over her shoulders, the long sleeves pushed up past her elbows. The other one seemed plainer, light skinny jeans and a dark green off the shoulder top. The not-so-fit one glanced toward me I winked at her; she rolled her eyes and turned back to her siblings. I was going to be out of the dump in the next few days I was really, really happy about that fact too. I put my legs up on the mug-ring marked, painted, chipped and gouged into coffee table; a little kid ducked under them and sprinted away giggling, I smiled at him then a stressed looking social worker pushed my legs off a second later, obviously chasing the runaway.
I turned off the TV, got up and walked slowly toward the Home's psychologist's office. Two hands around the banister railings were joined by a beaming little face, freckles dusted the girl's full cheeks and her tiny, wonky but white teeth were on full display.
"Brucey!" she squealed, blue eyes twinkling.
"Lucy-Goosey", I cried, reaching around and up the stairs to tickle the 6 year old on the ribs, she squealed and bit my hand. I pulled it back just being able to hold in the curse I was about to let out, actually surprised that she'd sunk her teeth into my palm, I inspected the ugly purple marks before looking up at her with a sad expression on my face.
"Bad Brucey! I'm not a goosey, I'm a lion! Raaaaaaawr!" she demonstrated her roar for me, she certainly looked like a lion with her wild mane of carrot orange hair, I pretended to look terrified.
"Okay, okay! Don't eat me Lucy-Lion!" I laughed along with Lucy; I was going to miss the little kid like hell when I left. "I need to talk to Sarah, I'll be right back", Lucy looked disappointed for a moment, then she turned and sprinted her way back up the stairs, her pudgy little hand gripping the banister tightly. I watched her disappear then turned a corner, finding myself standing right outside said therapist's office. I knocked twice, paused and knocked three more times, like she'd said.
"Come in Bruce", I heard her reply and opened the door; she sat behind her old wooden desk. Sarah looked tired as she looked up with a smile, crow's feet creased the edges of her eyes and her sandy coloured hair was pushed behind one ear with a presumably forgotten pencil. Her office was decorated with loads of drawings from the kids.
"Hey Sarah", I waved "Any news on when the Percontis are getting moved to Campus yet?"
"Yep, I was just off the phone to Mac. They'll be drugged at dinner, they'll be driven to Campus, we'll let them sleep till morning then we'll start the tests", I nodded, trying to conceal my excitement at the prospect of being back at CHERUB Campus. No squeaky, lumpy bed, no pimpley skinheads threatening to beat you up if you didn't give them your allowance, no being bored, no stupid school with stupid people in it and I'd have video games I grinned.
"How long do I have left here?" I asked enthusiastically, they couldn't keep me here for more than a week.
"If Adriana, Bianca and Lucas accept you'll leave when they come to pick up their things, if they don't you'll be collected at the same sort of time anyway. Probably sometime tomorrow, or the day after if not", I beamed.
"Thank you Sarah! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I clasped my hands together making her laugh.
"Well, you've only been here for a week you lucky bugger. We never would've gotten off that easily in my time", I was tempted to yawn and joke about ancient history but I held back, Sarah was such a nice person. I went back to my room then, thinking about the girl with the long bronze legs, I hoped she'd come to CHERUB. I think Sarah said she was the same age as me; I was going to ask her out if she decided to come to CHERUB, well if she was bothered with me that is. I drifted off into an early sleep for some reason I didn't know, I hadn't been tired but the warmth from the humming radiator seeped into me and made everything fuzzy.
Adriana and Bianca Perconti were the two 12 year old twins, they had mocha coloured skin, delicate pixie like features, they had large almond shaped dark eyes and long lashes and their thick black hair was naturally in loose curls. They were exceptionally good at science, so very advanced it was incredible. They were very athletic and Bruce had witnessed them doing amazingly well at short distance and long distance running, a little birdie had told him that they had taken kick boxing from a very early age and Bianca (the fit one) had apparently flipped a male teacher when he accidentally walked into their old school's Girl's changing room.
Lucas Perconti was an 8 year old kid who excelled in every subject, often getting bored in classes. He enjoyed sports far more than anything else and was exceedingly good at using both his hands to imitate his mother's (Isabella Perconti) writing, his father's (Aleksandr Perconti) and both his sisters', often doing homework's for sweets and small amounts of money.
They had only been placed there 4 days before after their parents had been killed in a massive avalanche in northern France on a skiing trip. Chelsea Chimps Foster Care was not their usual background; the Porcenti's were a highly wealthy family by right, their parents had both worked very hard to get to their positions. The family had not many friends in the country, all family on both sides were either in Italy or Russia (Both parents came from Italy, Aleksandr's Mother was Russian) Sarah looked over the just legible notes Bruce had scrawled on the trio and their basic public profiles, she shook her head and smiled, pushing the pieces of paper into a drawer on her desk, the lock on it clicked shut.
"They said they'd give us each 30 pounds of our Parent's money every week", Bianca said pointedly, jabbing her index finger into her palm for emphasis. We'd just finished dinner.
"But we won't get very far unless we save for about a year" I pointed out, Bianca glared at me.
"Adie, I don't think I can stand this place for much longer. You haven't thought about flying out to see Ol'Papa and Ol'Ma either." She huffed back at me, folding her arms.
"Well you haven't thought about the fact that Ol'Pa and Ol'Ma have no where near enough room for us and we can't exactly go see Na'ni and Pa'pi in Russia, we wouldn't survive two seconds out there." I argued, Bianca was such a spoiled brat.
"Well they would make room for us! That's what families do" she raised her voice to me, Lucas was looking on at us shaking his head. He was probably the wisest of all of us.
"Stop this now, my heads hurting" he said wearily.
"Be quiet Luca, this does not concern you" Bianca spat, Lucas just shrugged it off, but I was angry.
"This does concern him Bee, he is our flesh and blood. He can't stay here on his own, our decision is his decision" I said heatedly.
"Be QUIET Adriana." I felt like slapping her, she knew Mama was the only one who called me that, it stung like hell when she used my full name.
"You silly cow, don't listen then. Go off to Italy or wherever you want to, I don't give a crap" I was not worried about Lucas hearing me lightly swear, he'd known them words since preschool.
"Just fuck off then Adriana, back to your books" she said boldly, I turned and glared at her. If looks could kill.
"Don't be so immature as to use such language in front of Luca, even if he does know them words does not mean we can use them around him"
"Stop trying to be Mama!" she shouted at me furiously, a few kids glanced nervously at us, there were no care workers in sight.
"I'm not trying to be Mama!" I fumed back "I'm trying to be me for damn's sake." Bianca got up and shoved me, she caught me off balance and I fell back against the coffee table. My head hit something but I didn't feel anything, I opened my eyes and Bee was screaming then I saw the shocked face of the boy who had winked at me earlier. I felt heavy. So, so heavy.
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If you haven't read Robert Muchamore's CHERUB series, you have to read them. You have to, some of the best books I've ever read. Uh, the italics in Adriana's POV are in Italian.
R & R people, I'll be pretty disappointed if no one does :/ OCs (which are generally pretty rare) will be accepted. I'll be getting the next chapter up in a few days.
5kinnys (: