Consider this chapter 8.1, and the next 8.2.


8 (8.1);

"My turn to wake you up." Riley was in Ellie's face as she lightly shook her shoulder. "We're gonna grab breakfast then you said we could head into town."

Ellie simply stared at girl in confusion as her mind struggled to wake up.

"…you're mad."

"I'm not mad, I-"

"It's fine. You were just trying to be nice yesterday and I was a total asshole and I'm sorry. I'll make it up to you. But for now you said we could go into town today."

"I did, didn't I?" She rubbed the sleep from her eyes while reopening only one of them. "Just let me wake up first."

"Well hurry. I need to get out of this place for a while."

"But you just got here."

"You know better than anyone how much I need to."

"…good point."

"I'll be out there."

She left Ellie half asleep and headed out into the far less populated eating area to take a seat at one of the tables. There didn't seem to be a similar waking schedule for the building as there was for the night. The food was already laid out in several trays in the same way as dinner. It was mostly basic items that could be found at a cheap hotel such as toast, butter, eggs, and some juices.

She grabbed some of each, a higher amount of eggs than the other options, and sat herself down. She watched in disinterest the other children sleepily filter in and grab their food before heading to random tables.

The TV was on and was switched to some cartoon channel that was loud and that she had no interest in. She tapped her foot impatiently as she watched the door to the bedroom for the freckled girl to walk through them.

Halfway through her plate she spotted her slowly shuffling her feet out of the room and over to the food line. She grabbed a plate and all the same items as Riley had and sat down across from her.

"Hey." Her groggy sounding voice was gone, but she was still clearly tired.

"Hey… again sorry about the whole thing."

"It's cool. Really." She clenched her eyes closed then back open. "I'm surprised you woke up before me. I figured you would've been exhausted from yesterday."

Riley shrugged it off trying to forget it. "So what did you have in mind for today?"

"Just what I normally do, I guess. Walk down the main street and check out all the shops lined along there. Maybe something else too."

"Okay… but I don't have any money."

"It's called window shopping. Ever heard of it?"

Riley's expression dropped, quickly followed by a smirk. "Yeah I've heard of it."

Riley finished her food first, downing the little juice they got with it in a few sips, and waited for Ellie to finish hers. Once she was done as well they stood up and dropped their plates into the bin. They went back to now half empty bedroom and up to their beds, both grabbing their light coats from the metal lockers and meeting up at the front door.

"Are we supposed to tell the old guy or something?"

"I somehow doubt you would even if you were supposed to."

"Sounds about right."

"And no, there's no attendance checking or anything."

Ellie pushed through the front door and let in a flood of daylight which caused Ellie to shield her eyes and Riley to squint. They walked out into morning air and down the pathway leading to the sidewalk. It was early and the sun was still low in the sky.

"Feels really weird."

Ellie stopped walking and turned back to see Riley swiveling her head around. "What?"

"I'm used to stepping out of the orphanage and seeing certain things. Now I don't know even where the hell I am. It's just… weird."

"You'll get there. Come on."

They reached the road and followed it east, the direction the van had initially arrived from with Riley. They crossed several main streets, with long stretches of sidewalks between each, before finally reaching what Ellie referred to as storefront street. It was true to its name, a street that was home to a long string of stores on both sides. A fair number of people were already making their rounds up and down its sidewalks, either simply exercising or checking out the recently opened stores.

They walked side by side while intermittently looking through the large glass displays as they passed them.

"So, how often do you come down here?"

"I try a couple times a week when school's not in session. I can't stand being held up inside the orphanage, the air is stagnant and just reeks of depression." She looked over at Riley who was busy glaring through the window of one store. "How was your other place before they… you know."

Riley turned away and kept walking. "It was, no offense, better than your place. It was bigger and there were actual bedrooms. Everyone wasn't crammed up into one room."

"Sounds better already."

"Yeah. I mean, there still wasn't complete privacy, but it was better than this place. It's awkward as hell changing in front of other people here."

"You get used to it."

"Yeah, maybe. Doesn't really matter though now, does it? I'd rather just forget about those assholes over there. You're better than most of them anyway and I've only known you for a couple of days."

"Says a lot about them doesn't it?"

Riley scoffed. "Yeah, no shit." She darted her eyes to the right after spotting something in the corner of her vision. "Look!"

She stopped and stared in one of the windows which displayed a selection of jeweled bracelets ranging from bright single colors to several of mixed. Riley had her forehead and hands pressed up against the glass and waved Ellie over.

"Isn't that gorgeous?"

She looked them over but none of them particularly stood out. "Which one?"

"What do you mean which one? The one on the right, the green and red one." She sighed. "Fuck I wish I wasn't broke. I'd get that in a second."

"Well, hate to break it to you, but we are. Not like we can just take it." As soon as she finished her sentence she watched as Riley's expression slowly changed from disappointment to optimistic. "…what? What did I say?"

"Why not?"

"Why not what?"

"Why can't we take it? It's a little item they'll never notice missing. Plus we're just a couple of orphan girls, they'd never know."

Ellie's mouth dropped slightly. "Seriously? You're crazy, not a chance." She turned her back and started to walk off when she heard the most pathetic voice she's ever heard.

"Pleeeease."

Ellie stopped in her tracks and turned around to see Riley's overly dramatic eyes looking back at her.

"You're begging me to help you steal. Really." She only received a pathetic nod in response which caused her own head to drop forward in defeat. "I can't believe I'm letting someone I just met talk me into this. What do you want me to do?"

"Yes!" Riley grabbed her by the shoulders. "You're awesome. Okay, we'll just go in there and browse and you'll start talking to the store keeper about anything. You just have to distract them for like… ten seconds. Tops. I'll grab the bracelet and then we get the hell out of there."

"Feeling better, huh?" Against her better judgment Ellie closed her eyes and sighed. "Alright, fine. But if we're caught I'm running and leaving you behind."

"Deal."

They casually strolled into the store, with Riley in the lead who greeted the cashier, and moved on to browse through the clothes. She grabbed one of the shirts from the rack and held it up to herself.

"What do you think?"

"I think you're messed up."

"Probably." She held it away from her. "Kind of ugly."

She hung it back up and walked over to where the jewelry was displayed. She nudged Ellie in the shoulder and motioned toward the cashier. She sighed in response and walked over to him with a knot in her stomach.

She moved around to his other side, making sure to drag his line of sight away from Riley.

"Excuse me. Um, I was wondering if you could tell me if you have a shirt in a different size."

Riley watched them carefully and, as soon as he was distracted, she turned back around slid the bracelet off of its display mount and into the pocket of her coat. She casually walked back over to Ellie who was clearly uncomfortable by this point.

"Erica, come on. We're going to be late if we don't get moving."

Ellie was stunned for a second but played into it. She nervously chuckled at the cashier. "I'm sorry, I guess I'll come later to check that shirt out. Thanks for your help though."

They both headed out the door at a quick pace. As soon as they were out of the sight of the store they both picked up speed and ran down the street, turning into an alley several store lengths down.

"Holy crap, I can't believe I just did that." Ellie spoke between her breaths. "How did I let you talk me into that again?"

"Oh come on, it was exciting. Admit it."

Ellie calmed her breathing as a smile slowly grew. "Alright, it was."

Riley laughed. "Good job by the way." She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out the bracelet and ripped off its tag. She slipped it on over her wrist and held it outwards to admire it. "How's it look?"

"Looks kind of stolen-y."

"I love it." She looked back at Ellie. "Thanks, Erica."

She rolled her eyes. "Come on, let's keep going. But we're only looking though, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. I guess we can just… window shop."