I knocked on the door, but no one answered. I knocked again, and this time a young woman opened it.
"Parli inglese?" (do you speak English?) I asked.
"Yes." She smiled.
"Then may I please speak to Philip Johnson?"
She shook her head. "Sorry no one here by that name." My mouth dropped.
"Well, do you know where he is now?" I managed to get out.
She shook her head again. "No. Sorry." Then she closed the door.
Amy was tugging on my jacket.
"Ash, what are we gonna do now?"
I pondered this for a moment, and shrugged. "I guess we'll have to stay at an inexpensive hotel for a while. Maybe I can get a job. I mean, im fifteen, I bet someone will hire me.
We grabbed our bags and started walking. Things were starting to get more and more unfamiliar to me. I finally sighed. Ok, we were totally lost. I slumped against a brick wall, defeated. Amy sat down beside me.
"Are we lost, Ashley?"
I nodded. "Completely."
"Well, maybe I can help." A voice said from the shadows.
Amy and I both jumped. I looked in the shadows, straining my eyes to see anything. Nothing. "Who's there?" I kept my voice firm, trying not to show how scared I was.
A boy stepped out of the shadows, but I couldn't see his face. He wore a mask, with a long hooked bird beak. He looked about 16 or so, but it was hard to tell.
"What's with the mask?" I asked. He chuckled. "Sorry. I have to keep my face hidden in the daytime."
I looked around. "But it's dark." He shrugged. "True." He pulled the mask off. I sucked in my breath, he was seriously cute. Well from what I could see in the street light anyway.
Then my eyes narrowed. "Wait, what did you mean when you said you could 'help' us?"
He walked closer to me. I took a step back. "You don't have a place to stay, do you?" I hestitated, then shook my head. "I thought so." He knelt by Amy, and I held her tightly. "Would you like to come with me? I have a boy staying with me. He's about your age. And then there's Hornet, and Riccio, and Prosper. You'd have a lot of fun."
Amy looked at me. "Please, Ash. It does sound like fun!"
I studied the boy closely. "Who are you?" I asked
He put his mask back on. "I am the Thief Lord. Or Scipio. Whichever you prefer to call me."
…what have we got to lose? I thought, but a tiny voice in the back of my head said um, all your belongings! Duh! But then the bigger voice said shut up!. I sighed.
"Ok. We'll come. Where are we going anyways?"
He smiled, but didn't answer my question. He turned around and started walking in the other direction, which I guess was our cue to follow him. We grabbed our bags and tried to keep up. It was too dark to tell where we were going, but he seemed to know the way.
We stopped at a wooden doorway, and he knocked on it.
"Who's there?"
"It's Scip. Open up." And the door opened. He walked inside, but Amy and I just sort of stood there awkwardly. Then a boy came running up.
"Bo?" Amy asked, shocked. "Amy!" he yelled and they ran to each other.
I walked inside, looking at everything I could in the dim light. Was this a theater? It looked like one, but I couldn't be sure. "Amy wait for me…oh never mind." I sighed. I just hoped Bo would take care of her. I didn't think he'd let anything happen to her.
A girl walked up to me.
"Hi. I'm Hornet." She greeted me. I smiled at her.
"I'm Ashley. Could you please show me around?"
"Of course."
She showed me everything.
"So Hornet, who else lives here?"
"Well there's Riccio, and Mosca, and Prosper." Something clicked in my head.
"Prosper is Bo's big brother, right?" she looked surprised.
"Yeah. How did you know that? And as a matter of fact, your sister seemed to know Bo."
I grinned. "Yeah, you could say I ran into him earlier today."
"Oh. Well ok."
"So what is this place exactly?"
"It's an old theater called the Stella."
"How did you all get here?"
"Scip found each of us. We're all orphans here. Even Scip."
"So how do you take care of yourselves?"
"Well…see…we kind of have to steal…"
"Oooh, so that's why he calls himself the Thief Lord." She nodded.
Then there was a knock on the door, and Hornet went to let in 3 boys, all carrying heavy-looking bags.
"Ashley, this is Riccio." She introduced me to a boy with wild hair and bad teeth. He grinned at me and I smiled back. Then she introduced me to Mosca, a seemingly quiet boy with dark skin. "And last but not least, this is Prosper." She finished. Prosper looked a little like me, with dark hair and green eyes. I laughed.
"What?" he asked, confused.
I shook my head. "This is so weird. Your little brother looks just like my little sister, and now I look like you." He laughed.
I looked around at the Stella. "I think I'm going to like it here." I said.
