Bellamy
He still remembers the day he came here. He was nine years old when his mother died in a terrible car accident. He was nine years old when he was left with no parents because he never met his father. He was nine when the police brought him here. The big house with the big 'ARK Orphanage' sign.
Of course he didn't like it. He had no friends and he wasn't looking forward to making new ones. He was a shy and quiet kid. Usually you would find him in the garden, reading a book or… reading a book. Since he can remember himself he always had a book to read. One day he told his mother that he wanted to be a teacher when he grows up. She never told him that he wouldn't.
He was the youngest boy in the house and that made his life harder. He was always the one who was doing the chores, mostly because the older boys threatened him that they will beat him. The second youngest boy was four years older than him. He didn't have a chance against them.
Soon he realized that the house keeper or Boss as they called him. He just didn't care anything about them. He owned the house and he had help from the cook, a twenty five years girl who ended up being the closest to friend he had there.
She was always kind and smiling at him. Well, he was the only boy that didn't throw the food on the floor or the walls… Maybe that's why she liked him. He started spending more time in the kitchen, talking with her and she would let him play the smart one. One day the Boss found them laughing and said 'The cook is not allowed to interact with the kids! Go to your job and you go to your bedroom now!' and he ran off to the boys room crying.
It was like the Boss didn't want them to be happy. A week later he found out that the Boss fired her and brought someone else. A much older woman with black hair and a large mole on the left side of her chin. He will always carry the guilt of Raven's release.
After that he was spending more and more time reading books in the garden. For him it was heaven. He was stuck in a large house with other kids he didn't like and he couldn't get away. But with reading book he felt like he wasn't really there. His favorite topic was… well every age before theirs. He hated technology.
One day he was the knight who saved the princess from the Kingdom's dragon and the next one he was the pour farmer who worked two different jobs to help his mother raise his little sister. If the book was good enough, he would finish reading it and then he would spend hours upon hours fantasize a different ending or add more character to the story to make it more complicated or interesting. All his stories had a happy ending.
The sad thing was that they didn't have a large collection of books. They had a few reference books. A dictionary and the rest of them were random books. The happiest moment of his life after his mother accident was when he found out they had Odyssey, his favorite book. He ran into the garden where he couldn't hear anyone or anything and started reading the first chapter. It wasn't more than a minute later that his eyes watered with tears. The last time he read this story he was sitting on his mother laps and she was reading it for him.
He thought he was strong enough not to cry again. But he wasn't. He spent all night silently crying curled up on his bed. That night he thought of something he will never forgive himself. That night he hated his mother. He hated that she left him alone in a terrible place without anyone to talk and if he knew he will end up here he would have gone with her. Even hell is a better place than here.
And the next morning, when he woke up with red eyes, he begged God to forgive him for thinking like that. He always loved him mother and that would never change. It was just a moment of weakness.
One day he found an unused note book and held it for himself. He didn't know what to do with it but he wanted to use it for something. Eventually he turned it into a calendar. It took him a day to write down every day till his 18th birthday. He found out that he was 3.067 days away from his freedom.
New children were coming and some of the old ones were adopted, it was a circle in Bellamy's head. Of course he wasn't the lucky one. He had to start reading again the same book because the Boss never went to a bookstore and a year went by just like that.
And then, one day everything changed.
Clarke
She was nine years old when she came to the house. She never met her real parent but her uncle Marcus was like a parent to her. Her father had been killed in the streets one night, a month after her mother found out she was plangent with her and her mother died giving birth to her. From that moment Marcus, her father's brother, took her and raised her as best as he could.
They weren't poor but they weren't rich either. He was working two jobs to pay the bills and their food but when she was nine his one boss fired him because of a mistake a co-worker had done. The money he was paid from his other job wasn't enough and one day two men came to their house and took her from him. That's the last time she saw him.
After that, one of the men told her that Marcus was going to jail and she would live in another house with more kids. She wasn't allowed to see him again. The next morning she found herself staring at a large closed door with the same two men at her side. She cried when she read the sign at the main gates; ARK Orphanage.
Then a tall and middle fat man opened the door and smiled at her. The three men talked for a minute, they gave him some papers and then he turned his eyes back to her. He took one hand of hers and after they stepped inside the house, he closed the door behind them. That's when she saw him.
An older boy, maybe one of two years older than her, with curly black hair and chocolate eyes, started walking the hallway in front of them and disappearing behind a door in the end of it. She didn't know if he saw her because the next moment her eyes were locked on the side of the book his was holding. She leaned her head to the side in order to read the title of the book but the boy was walking fast and she could only see a blur.
She took a step forward to go and follow him but the much taller and stronger man that was holding her had stopped her and instead he took her to every room of the house. She didn't say anything. All she could think about was how was she going to find that boy again and ask him where he found the book.
The tour took ten minutes mostly because it was a large house with a million of rooms and Clarke couldn't have been happier than when in the last place the tall man took her was the garden. The boy she was looking for was sitting there, leaning against a large oak tree and reading his book.
It was morning and the sun was singing in the sky, lighting his face. The man next to her was talking to her but she didn't listen to him. She was staring at the older boy on the other side of the garden and smiled when she noticed his freckle. Then he smiled too but not to her, the book he was reading must have been very good.
Then the man who was holding her, let go of her hand and he said that her clothes will be there soon. She just nodded and started walking towards the little boy.
He didn't see her coming and he only looked up when her feet stopped in front of him. The sun was blinding him and he brought a hand up to block the light and look at the girl. He closed the book on his lap and stared at her.
"Hi." he said.
"Hi." she said too.
"I haven't seen you around." he commented, "You must be the new girl the Boss told us about yesterday."
"I'm new here." she agreed, "Who is the Boss?"
"A tall and fat guy." he answered.
"The guy who brought me here? Why you call him Boss?"
"Because I don't like him." the boy just said and opened the book again.
She was staring at him again but he didn't bother to look back at her. She chose not to say anything and then, "You want something because-"
"What are you reading?" she cut him off and surprised him. For a moment he stared at her too, really looked in her eyes and then smiled.
"The Wizard of Oz." he answered.
"Is it good?"
"One of my favorite."
"You like reading?" she asked next.
"Reading is all I do here." he answered.
"I like reading too." she said sheepishly and he didn't answer. He turned his attention back to the book instead. "Can I read with you?"
For a moment he thought about it. He just wanted to be left alone in a silent place to read his book. He didn't want a younger kid, he could see she was younger, sitting next to him and probably asking him silly questions.
"You can stay." he said instead and he could she the happiness in the girl's face. Then she nodded and sat down next to him, leaning her back on the tree and at the same time leaning her shoulder to his so she can read too.
He realized that every time he turned the page, the girl next to him opened her mouth and then closed it again. Three pages later, he closed the book and turned to her, "Okay, why every time I turn the page you open your mouth?" there was a little bit of anger in his voice, "You want to say something?"
The girl leaned her head down and took a grass between her little finger, then looked back to him, "I didn't finished reading those pages." and immediately his face soften, "You read faster than me."
The boy smiled at her and a moment later he said, "Do you want to read out loud for both of us?"
"Only if you want to." she answered hesitantly even though she would love to read to herself. That's what Uncle Marcus always did for her when she was too tired to read.
The boy smiled and made himself comfortable against the tree again, then opened the book. "Where were we?" he asked and started flipping the pages.
"Page 34." the little girl whispered and the young boy turned the pages till he reached the page 34. "I'm Clarke by the way."
The boy turned to her and smiled, "I'm Bellamy." he said and both of them smiled.
A/N: Hello guys, how you doing? I'm very happy because of this first chapter! I know it's not much but I would like to hear from you. Are you interesting to this storyline? (Orphanage AU) I think I'm going to make it to 7-10 chapters but that depends on how much you like it read... If you want to read more please leave a Kundo and a comment. It really helps my inspiration to write more.