I felt the warmth of the suns rays on my face, and slowly opened my eyelids. I looked around at all the girls around me sound asleep. I got up and looked over the balconey at the lower section of the dorm and saw the younger sleeping girls.
Why did they choose me? What made me so special? Or was that all a dream?
I looked over at the four other girls that they could have picked. Jenny was a sweet nine year old girl who loved to read books, especially mysteries and was very obedient and smart. She had shoulder length chestnut brown hair that was a lot like my own, except in was very curly and had black glasses on her night table. She was blind without them. Ashley was a short dirty blonde girl who was very strong and competitive, and loved all sports. She was always trying to prove that girls could play sports too. She was ten and had her long hair that went down to her hips in a ponytail at all times. Claire was a very hyper nine year old that had a passion for drama and music. She would sit on her bed and listen to Ms. Crockett's wind-up radio and the walkman that she had found in the park recently. She had reddish brown hair, that was frizzy and she wore it in pigtail braids, kind of like Anne of green gables. She had green ribbons too. Sometime Ms. Crockett would arrange a play and she always had a huge role. She also liked to jump rope. And last but not least, Abby. She had straight sandy brown hair that barely hit her shoulders. She could cheer up anyone, and she had a really good sense of humour. She always had a smile on her face. She was a trouble maker as well. She pulled pranks on everybody, and has snuck out over a million times. The couple last night didn't pick any of them.They picked me. A nine year old girl named Steph that's very quiet and scared of meeting new people. I expressed how I was feeling with a sketch pad. A girl who wasn't the smartest person and was a klutz. A girl who cried herself to sleep every night. A girl with brown hair down to her shoulders that hadn't been brushed in years. Apart from the other girls, I had no self esteem. I sighed and walked over to my bed. I sat down, and almost instantly the light in the room was turned on.
"Girls! Wake up! I have an announcement to make!" Ms. Crockett said. There were many moans and groans but they all eventually woke up got dressed, and when down for breakfast. All of us crowded into the Mess Hall, where we ate everyday. I walked in and Abby patted the seat next to her and motioned me to come over. I started to walk over to the seat when I tripped on my shoelace and fell onto the floor. The Mess Hall erupted with laughter. I got up, my face as red as a tomato, and sat down beside Abby.
"Nice going, klutz." Abby said. I shrugged and a plate was put in front of me. On my last day they were serving cold porridge. This sucked. I was hungry so I ate it anyway. Ashley finished it in a matter of seconds and started shooting hoops in the rec room. Jenny was currently buried in 'To Kill A Mockingbird' and hadn't touched her food. Claire was singing along to an ABBA song she was playing on her walkman and Abby was flinging porridge at the teenage girls and boys. We were an all girls orphanage, but we shared a Mess Hall and rec room with the all boys orphanage beside us.
"Jen, are you going to eat that?" Abby said. Jenny shook her head without taking her eyes off her book. I handed the leftovers of my porridge to Abby, and I sat and watched Abby throw the food.
"FOOD FIGHT!" Abby screamed but it was drowned out by the sound of Ms. Crockett's voice echoing through the megaphone.
"Girls and Boys. Today we are saying goodbye to a girl who has been with us for almost a decade. She has been adopted by a couple and I'm afraid she is leaving with them today. Steph," she hollered and motioned for me to come over. Ashley stopped shooting baskets and came to see, Claire stopped singing, Jenny actually put down her book, and Abby gagged on her banana. I got up and stood beside Ms. Crockett.
"This is Steph. She is leaving today, and I would like you all to drop by her dorm and say 'bye', alright?" She said. After that was said, the hall was filled with chatter.
"You should start to pack now." Ms. Crockett said. "I know I should have told you earlier, but I like surprises." I walked down the isle between the tables. I passed my friends and they all looked hurt. Even Abby was upset. I walked out of the Mess Hall and into my dorm. I climbed the spiral staircase to the balcony dorm. I got out a suitcase from under my bed and packed everything I had. I found some stuff I thought I lost forever. I found this strange teddy bear from when I was born. I was sandy brown with one eye replaced by a button, and had patches. It had a necklace that had a heart on it, and the other side read 'Frank'. My birth mother had supposedly hand made it, so nobody had a bear like mine. I finished packing when my friends walked in.
"Please don't leave, Stephy Whefy!" my four friends screamed and ran and hugged me.
"I'm sorry, but I gotta go. I have no choice." I said. The girls nodded. I opened my bag and handed them my sketchbook.
"Here, you guys should keep this. A goodbye gift from me." I said. The looked at the pages filled with sketches. They looked at me with shock.
"But, Steph. bThis/b is your life!" Abby said, shaking the book in front of my face. "You can't give this away!" I smiled and looked at my feet. I wasn't used to all the attention I was getting.
"I know. I just wanted to leave something behind." I said. I sat down on my bed deep in thought. Ashley ran to her bed and brought a mini football that was all cut up by a bunch of bullies in the park two years ago. She handed it to me.
"Since you gave us something, I thought I should give you this. Something to take with you in your new life. I taught you how to throw a football with this." Ash said. I smiled and put it in my bag.
"Wait, I have something for you!" Jenny said. She came in with a book in her hand and we all sighed.
"This is my favourite book. I found it in the rec room when I was five and I remember you and I asked one of the older kids to read it to us. 'Bridge To Teribithia', remember? I want you to have it. I have a million books as it is." I looked a the semi torn off cover, and the picture of a boy swinging across the river on a rope and a girl watching. I looked inside and it had our names written in it from when we were five. I placed the book on my bed to find Claire behind me. Se gave me a record(yes the big black ones) which wore a cover that read 'Lean On Me'. I held this in my hands and remembered me and Claire in the bathroom, crying, where we found a record player. We put on 'Lean On Me' and ever since that day, when ever we were upset we would go to that washroom and play it. Claire would skip, and I would draw, and that was that.
"You should take it. I won't be needing it anymore." Claire said. I saw her give me a lopsided smile and I gave her one back. Then Abby placed a small box in my hand. I opened it up and found a little halloween charm bracelet that Abby had made with me for her because we both had an obsession with Halloween, partly because of the candy costumes and it was my birthday
"I know what your about to say. I do love this bracelet. But we made it together so I think you should have it. You always stole it and wore it more than I did myself. Take good care of it though. I don't want you to go breaking it or losing it behind my back." Abby said. We all laughed at that. After we all caught our breaths, Ms. Crockett walked in.
"Stephanie! Your parents are here early. You might as well go with them now. I nodded and felt tears well up in my eyes.
"Guys. I will never forget you. You guys are my best friends. You helped me through rough times, and I will never find better friends then you guys. I love you all. You are family to me. I have to go now. But I wish I could stay here forever with all of you." I said. We all hugged and I lugged my half-filled suitcase down the spiral stairs and out of the dorm.
"Okay, follow me." Ms. Crockett said. I looked back at my four friends and mouthed them a goodbye and walked off. I wiped the tears from my face and tried to look happy for the fact I had a family. We entered a room, I have never been in, and I was told to sit down in one of the chairs.
This was a pretty big orphanage. Orphans from across the globe come here. I only knew and recognized the people in our dorm, and the boys that shared the section of the place with us. There were three other girls sitting in the waiting room, but I didn't recognize them because they must be on a different floor. Our orphanage was a 13 story building and each floor had a certain number of orphans. We were on the ground level, and I have never been anywhere else in the place except the basement. That's where the babies are kept. The babies are always in and out. But not for me and Abby. We had grown up together in this place since we were babies. We were loud babies too, so no parent wanted us. My birth parents were young, wild and drunk hippies that didn't want me, since they were too young, so they put me up for adoption. I came here when I was one month old. Abby's mom commit suicide from post par tome depression and her father left her, when she was 1 month old in the middle of the desert in Texas, where a farmer found her and brought her here. Ashley's parents died in a car crash when she was 6. Jenny was found in a dumpster a couple days after she was born. Last but the most terrible, Claire. They have no record that her parents even existed. All they know is that she was born in France and was raised by some tobacco farmer in Georgia until she was taken by the government at three and was brought to this orphanage.
"Come here, Steph." Ms. Crockett said. I walked through a door and across a long, narrow hallway. We went into a room on the left and I sat down in a chair beside a woman. She had shiny, straight long hair that reached to her mid back. She smiled at me and shook my hand.
"Hi Steph. I am going to be your new mommy. My name is Natalie and this is Max, your new dad." The woman said. The man beside her took his arm off her shoulders and shook my hand.
"It's nice to meet you." Max said. I smiled. Ms. Crockett got up from her chair.
"I think you have signed the final paperwork and you can now take Steph home, Mr. and Mrs. DeLonge."
"Thank you so much for doing it on such short notice!" Natalie said. We got up and I quickly when and gave Ms. Crockett a hug.
"Bye Ms. Crockett. Please be nice to my friends. Tell them I will write them letters every month." I said. She nodded and motioned me to catch up with my parents at the revolving doors. We exited the building, and made our way towards their car. I hopped in. I had never been in a car before. I had been in a bus but I was new to a car. I peered out the window of the back seat and looked out at the orphanage as we drove away from the building that was my home for ten years. I felt tears come to my eyes as the orphanage disappeared from my sight. I sighed as we approached Pearson Airport.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"We are flying to San Diego. That's where we live." Natalie said.
"Oh, you mean San Diego in the US?" I said.
"Yep." Max said. We dropped of the rental car and we got into the airport. After getting the tickets we waited to board.
"Flight 3917 is now boarding. Max and Natalie got up and I grabbed Natalie's hand. We boarded the plane and I got the window seat. I thought to myself about my friends. I would never see them again. I felt tears come to my eyes again.
You will always be in my heart, Ashley, Jenny, Abby and Claire. You're the best friends any girl could wish for.
I closed my eyes and felt myself dozing off.
