I am so sorry I started this story and then just fell off the face of the earth. Oh well, here is the second chapter and I hope you all like it. Honestly I haven't got much for an idea but… we'll see how it goes. It's still told from Mike's POV.
It took most of me to get myself out of that half-conscious state. And still in it. I looked to Sarah who seemed as chocked as I was by this young lad who had suddenly barged into the dumping ground- and our lives with his rude ways and clothes still dripping wet.
"Ehrm… you…" At last I walked into the room and snatched the remote from his hand. "…Floss was watching… I think we should let her and we could go into the kitchen and… ehrm… Milly… you come too. We'll go… we'll go to the office and… and you can… you can introduce yourselves yeah?" I shook my head, not realizing what I had said and quite the meaning of it. "Actually you… need to come alone so you… you come first."
The boy that had kept glaring at me since I got the remote from his hand was still only glaring up at me without a word. Then as I slowly backed the first few steps towards the door, and as I saw the boy pushing himself up and getting onto his feet to follow Sarah and me into the office I turned around and walked forward. Until in the office and I made sure the door was completely closed behind us.
"So…" In the split second it took for me to move from the door to my desk chair I forced myself to go back into my normal state so I would at all be able to talk. "…Not ask about your name." I gave a slight, nervous smile at the boy sitting in the sofa. Still glaring at me in that cold way that made me feel like he was seeing everything there was in me. "Would there be something we can call you?... Ehrm, how old are you? What do you like doing? Anything you could think that we'd like to know about you."
"I'm eleven." The boy's voice was low and callous and made shivers go through my spine. "I guess I'll try to come up with an alright name… Look! I have this backpack." He held up the backpack he had come with. "It's got a pair of pyjama pants, a necklace, a Rubik's cube and a stuffed bee. The only clothes I've got are the ones I'm wearing, so I guess either you will have something I can borrow. Or I will keep on making wet stains wherever I go,"
I glanced the boy up and down and couldn't understand how I had missed it. His clothes were dripping wet leaving soaked stains on the sofa and the floor, his short, dark hair was dripping just as well and the sneakers making spongy sounds when he stood up and took the few steps to the window to look outside, he raised his hand to push the blinders and there and then I could see he had a necklace chain pulled several laps around his wrist, and as he opened his hand a gold cross fell, but stopped as the chain straightened.
"I like your…" I had to make a pause to swallow and looked to Sarah. Apparently this kid was making her slightly uncomfortable too. "…cross." The boy turned again and then held up his hand. Then without another word he unstrapped it from his hand and pulled it around his neck. "So… is there anything else you'd like to tell us about yourself? What food do you like, don't like? Or are you allergic to anything?"
"No."
"Is there nothing you like or don't like?"
"I guess not."
"So… is there anything else you'd like to tell us?"
"No."
"Not your name neither?"
"No."
"Well then I guess… I'll handle the sorting out rooms and everything. You can do whatever you'd like- do not change the channel though. You're gonna get the chance to watch whatever you want but right now is Floss's program." I sighed trying to find the right words. "You can come here if you'd like to ask something, do not go outside- at least not just yet. If you're hungry you can go to the kitchen. Grab whatever you like from the cupboards. And ehrm… I think that's it then." The boy gave a slight nod and stood up. Then, finally taking his eyes of me turned and walked out the room. "It would be great if you could ask Milly to come in here."
The boy looked back at me again and with his eyes meeting mine I almost wished I had gone to get Milly myself. His eyes made him seem so cold- but so broken and once again shivers went through my spine.
I had worked in care for so very long and worked with Lord knows how many children. I knew so many of them would seem impossible to have anything to do with from the start. Yet I had never met anything like this boy before. I had never met anyone that made me scared. And I had a good feeling that while all of the children came from broken backgrounds- I had never met anyone so broken before.
What on earth were we going to do about this kid?
Jody POV
"What is it with that boy?" I whispered to Tyler when the new boy came into the room, told Milly to go to the office and then just stood there glaring around him while Milly got up and Carmen with her to show her to the office. "Why does he keep glaring?"
"I don't know." Tyler whispered back a bit too loud. "He's kind of creepy." The boy looked to Tyler- but it was kind of impossible to tell if he had heard what Tyler said or not as he had been glaring already before Tyler had said anything. "Poor thing that has to share a room with him." I only nodded agreeing. "Ten bucks Mike won't be able to help this one."
"Mike usually helps." I answered- I wasn't so sure about this one. "Ten bucks and three packs of chocolates- or bacon crisps if you win." I shook hands with Tyler. I looked back to the boy who was still glaring around him and took a deep breath. "Can I help you with something?" The boy just shrugged, and looking him up and down again I noticed he was dripping wet. "Do you want to borrow some clothes? I can show you to the laundry room. No one will mind if you borrow something."
"Actually…" The boy looked down on his clothes. "That would be nice. She looks like she would mind." He looked to Carmen who had just come back into the room. "Don't worry princess. I don't want to borrow your clothes neither. Boys don't wear pink."
"Yes they do." Tyler looked down on his own pink T shirt. "That's only sexist! But I get what you mean about Carmen's clothes."
The boy didn't answer- he seemed not to do that when he had to realize he was wrong- and sure boys could wear pink (or clothes like Carmen's) at any time they wanted. But whatever he thought himself, and I stood from the couch to show him into the laundry room where loads with laundry waiting to be folded and put into wardrobes laid on top of the laundry machines.
"Here you go." I waved towards the biggest pile. "You just choose all you want. Do you want me to show you around later on?" The boy started digging through the clothes and I kept on talking. "So what is your name?"
"None of your business."
"How old are you then?"
"Thirteen."
"Really? You look younger."
"I'm thirteen."
"I'm thirteen too, but almost fourteen."
"Mhm. What's that?"
At the question I quickly looked in the direction the boy was, and I saw him move and point. But I couldn't see anything except for what was normal and turned back to the boy that had found a pair of Harry's jeans.
"What?"
"Nothing, I just thought I saw something. Do you think I could borrow this?" he said pulling out one green hoodie of mine and checked the size. "Is this yours?" I nodded. "Is it okay?"
"Yes." I forced a smile- maybe if I was nice to this boy it would help me to win mine and Tyler's bet. "Of course it is. Unless you mind wearing girls' clothes- or second hand because that's where I usually get my clothes."
The boy gave a very slight smile. But he didn't say anything, but with my hoodie and Harry's jeans thrown over one arm, and a pair of socks in the other hand he looked to me and I showed him to the bathroom.
"You can give me those wet clothes when you've got the new ones on." I told him outside the door to the bathroom. "I'll just take them down to the laundry room." The boy just nodded and then disappeared through the door and I heard it lock. I frowned as he was out of sight and then sunk down towards the wall to wait for him to come out again.
I didn't care whatever it took- I was so winning this bet against Tyler. I didn't even care about those money or chocolate biscuits but I was not giving up my pride. So if it took following that zombie around to show him around or make sure he got some warm and dry clothes on. Then I guess I would just get on with it.
"That's it then." When he came out again he was holding a towel in one hand and the wet clothes in the other. "Here." He gave me it all. "Can I wait here?" I nodded to him and then sprinted down the stairs, threw the laundry into the laundry room and then pointed out the bedroom doors. On the way I could see Floss moving her stuff into what would be hers and Toni and Billie's room and then the pointing out only continued- even though from the beginning he would probably remember like one, or none at all. And so we came to the last door.
"So who lives in there?"
"That's the attic." I answered him with a slight smile. "Nobody has got their room there. We just store old things there. Sometimes people go here for a hiding place when they need some time on their own. Getting a place like that can be quite hard in a place like this. As you probably can understand."
"Yeah." The boy gave a slight smirk and ruffled in his hair. "How many are there here?"
"Ehrm…" I counted. "Fourteen… sixteen now when you and Milly are here." The boy nodded and we slowly continued through the hallway. "So... is there anything else about you." The boy shrugged and fingered with the cross around his neck. "Do you believe in God? Do you like going to church? Do you always wear that necklace?"
"Yes, yes and yes."
"Nobody likes going to church." I said, before I had the time to hesitate. "You go there if someone makes you. It's never fun to sit and listen to a priest go on and on and on about things you don't even understand." I stopped talking when I realized what I was saying- there are more than seven billion people in the world. Even I could understand that somebody has to like church. For a moment I was afraid that the boy might be angry, but he just shrugged and kept on talking in that monotone tone.
"Some people like it- I do."
I would have liked to ask him more questions about it. I didn't believe in God myself- but religion was one of my best subjects at school, it was just so fascinating. And just because I didn't believe in God now wouldn't have to mean I couldn't change my mind. But suddenly I could hear the front door open and close and May-Li's voice sounded loud through Ashdene Ridge.
"Hello everyone. Dinner- I brought pizza."
"Yes." I boxed in the air. "Pizza's my favorite- except for chocolate biscuits. That was May-Li. The other care worker except for Mike. Come and meet her." I grabbed the boy by the hand and pulled him with me down the stairs and into the kitchen. "May-Li this is…" I looked back at the boy and once again realized he hadn't told us a name of his.
"Hi. I'm the new kid." Before I had the time to come up with anything else to say Milly had kind of saved the day. "My name's Milly- Milly Halls. I came here just a little while ago. He did too…" She nodded to the boy behind me. "But we aren't siblings and he won't tell us no name of his. I take it you are May-Li. Mike told me about you."
Milly who I had noticed seemed very polite earlier seemed a bit more relaxed now and kept on chattering to May-Li while everyone at the same time tried to grab each slice of pizza. I sat down next to Floss and then showed the boy to sit down on my other side, but he looked to the food seeming kind of uncomfortable at first until he opened his mouth to speak.
"Isn't there anything vegetarian?"
"Not right now." May-Li told him. "Are you a vegetarian?"
"Yes."
"Oh…" Mike moaned. "Why didn't you tell us about that?" he sounded annoyed. But knowing Mike he was just stressed and he sighed deeply before looking back at the boy. Even Mike who had seemed very nervous in the company of this boy was starting to become normal. Even if he seemed kind of tense when the boy looked at him.
"Well… you need to eat something…" May-Li said before anyone else- including Mike had had the time to say anything. "But if you want to eat with the others there's no time for cooking. Is there anything you can think of that you like?"
"Do you have any Weetabix? And strawberry jam?"
"Yeah I think so." May-Li stood up and went to the cupboards and soon the boy had what we had asked for. "And no Floss. You need to have some real food. You can have some of that for dessert later on if you want."
"Not fair."
For a moment I could see this place through the eyes of someone who was new here, in this case Milly and (especially) the boy. All the noise, the countless doors to countless rooms, all the talking and all of people's different wills (currently Floss wanting Weetabix instead of pizza) and I couldn't help but smile and look back at the boy.
But his monotone staring around him as he poured milk over the Weetabix was just the same as it had been before. And it made me wonder what on earth could have happened to break him so to this point.
Once Floss had eaten half a slice of pizza she could have Weetabix with strawberry jam for dessert and so the life in the dumping ground just continued. I made countless tries to get the boy into what we were doing. But he didn't seem to mind and just sat in the living room watching TV or riffling in a magazine. Towards the end of the day the boy sat down in the hallway on the stairs. Without a book or anything else to do, he just sat there and silently glared at everybody who walked by. I would have asked what he was doing and why he was doing it- but I was a bit afr… no. I wasn't afraid! I was Jody Jackson and I'm never afraid.
The boy just seemed so very weird and impossible to talk to
Boy POV
Where I sat on the small stairs in the hallway when the younger children were getting ready for bed they would pass me one by one, most of them passing me more than once and then Floss, and then the twins and they all looked at me walking by me as far away from me as possible as if they thought that if they came too close I'd eat them up in one bite or something.
I actually didn't in any way enjoy treating all the people around me rudely. But I knew I had to, I couldn't let any of these people come close to me.
Because if they would come close the things I was doing my best to hide would be revealed. And if they were to be revealed…
Well, let's just say that would mean trouble- loads of trouble
I'm sorry. I know this chapter is super boring. But I need this and possibly a chapter or two more to introduce everything and everyone before things starts happening. So I hope you can stick to it until things starts happening.
As another note, I said it before but I'm saying it again. Christian beliefs will have a part of this story. The boy's beliefs will be based on my own. I will NEVER try and shove down these beliefs down anybody else's throat. But if you would feel insulted for people talking about other beliefs and religions then your own or just don't like reading about people believing- you do not have to read the story.
Random fact
Parts of this chapter is actually based of a roleplay I have with x snow-pony x to make more ideas for this story. I have more ideas for the future of the story. So while this chapter is quite boring, I can promise you things will get very much more dramatic in the future and I can't wait to show you my ideas.
