Risty: Yeah!

Kurama: What?

Risty: I don't know but last chapter, I got a soda/pulls out soda/ Thank you sakurasango-san!

NarratorDude: So who got it?

Risty: Got what?

NarratorDude: The contest! Who got it right?

Risty: Oh! Well, sakurasango-san got three, Numb, Hallaback Girl, and Redneck Woman, and bookworm0492-san got Redneck Woman.

Kurama: You do understand you named that one, right?

Risty: Yep, but that means they bothered to read all the stupid stuff.

NarratorDude: Anything else before we all sit around eating donuts?

Risty: Yes! In a review of a previous chapter sakurasango-san brought up a few points. 1: I write these things almost three chapters in advance so I can update quickly and 2: I've been developing these OCs for about two years so I've had plenty of time to work on their personalities and backgrounds

NarratorDude: I'm really hungry.

Risty: Silence! It is summer so things will be a lot more hectic as far as updating is conserned. I apologize in advance for any long waits between chapters. I'll be stuck sharing the computer with my brother and cousin all summer. For updates on where I am with things, I'll try to keep updating my profile if I don't get to write the chapters.

NarratorDude: Now enough rambling!

Hiei: Or I'll sick my dragon on you.

Risty: Meep. /hides in corner/

NarratorDude: Does anyone know what this should be classified as? We're sick and tired of 'General' please include it in your review.

Kurama: The chapter.

Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it can't kill you. – Alone in the Dark
Chapter 10: Madeline Betoux

Last Time:

"We're leaving soon anyway, Ris. Then she'll realize how stupid she's being." Rogue whispered. "Your birthday's next week. Right, Kurama?"

"Well," He started. Risty head shot around.

"Well, what?"

"I can't go."

"What!" The two girls stared at him in disbelief.

"My mother's been sick, and she's getting worse. I can't leave her now."

"I understand." Risty moved over to comfort her friend. "I'll stay too."

"Me three." Rogue came over and sat in the little group.

This Time:

"So what are we gonna do now?" The nine-year-old girl looked at her two friends.

"What do you mean?" Another girl was swinging on the only swing that wasn't broken or rusted.

"I mean," Rogue stood up and started pacing. "What are we going to do when Arwen throws us out?"

"You aren't going anywhere." Risty stopped her swing. "I won't let her throw you out. We'll just have to hang out around the house less."

"And how," The red haired boy came down the slide and stopped Rogue's pacing. "Do you plan on keeping her in the house?"

"I," She held her head up. "I don't know exactly. But, but I will find a way." She started tearing up. "I promise I will not let her throw you out Rogue."

"Hey," Kurama walked towards her. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…" He was interrupted by a girl running through the trees.

"S'il vous plaît, vous avez besoin de m'aider! Vous ne parlez pas le français?" The girl cleared her throat. "I'm sorry. I keep forgetting where I am. You have to help me. My family left me here, and I keep feeling this presence following me."

"What is it?" Rogue glanced nervously around the clearing.

"I don't know." She started crying; "I feel things all the time. And, I know what people are thinking. Like, I knew my parents were planning on leaving me three days ago."

"So you have no idea what's going on?" Risty looked skeptically at the girl. She had long, dirty blond hair, and beautiful hazel eyes. "Never mind. What kind of things do you feel?"

"Well," The girl started pacing. "I, I feel things that are, unnatural. That's how I found this place. I felt the three of you while I was walking down the street, and then I felt an ominous presence and I started running and…" She stopped and started at Kurama. "You! You're the one I sensed!"

"Kurama? Don't worry, he's a good guy." Risty tried hard not to laugh at the strange girl. She's our age. She slowly realized.

"It's not the boy, Kurama, himself. I sense something, else, something inside him. Like those creatures that hide under your bed. I believe they're, demons?" She squeaked out the last word like you would the name of the person who killed your entire family, and then you were forced to go through the rest of your life knowing they could be right behind you and when you finally run into them, you squeak their name because you're too scared to say it out loud for fear that you would have to realize it wasn't just a bad dream.

"He's not bad." Risty emphasized each word. "He's just, Kurama."

"But the presence."

"That's just Youko." Rogue relaxed after learning the 'ominous presence' was Kurama. "He's not hurting anyone."

"Oh." She looked down, embarrassed. "Oh! I'm so sorry! My name is Madeline Betoux. I'm French."

"I sort of got that when you ran into the clearing speaking French." Risty muttered rudely.

"Be nice." Kurama scolded and turned to Madeline. "Do you mind if we just call you Maddie?"

"Hm? Oh, no. That's what everyone at home calls me."

"Why did your family leave you here?" Rogue could obviously sympathize with being abandoned by your family.

"Well, it was because of what I told you about earlier."

"Did anyone want you around?"

"No, my parents fought because Dad said I wasn't his, and my brother hated that I was different. So, one day they just decided to go on vacation and leave me. They could say something happened to me while we were gone and no one would know any better."

"That's sad." Risty finally sympathized with the girl. "So, you have no where to stay?" Maddie slowly shook her head. "Well, you will just stay with us."

"Ris, you know how Arwen will react."

"Not necessarily, maybe we can find a way to use this to our advantage, you just do exactly what I tell you." And with that, Risty unfolded her plan.

At the house.

"Risty," The woman began. "I am not taking in any more of these freaks."

"But Ar, her entire family abandoned herin a foreign country. Do you really want to throw her out?"

"Oh you poor thing!" Arwen rushed over to Maddie's side. "They really left you here?"

"Oh yes." Maddie put on a heavy French accent and made a big show of stumbling over her words. "My father denied me as… as his, so my mother, she…she, disliked me for being… a, how you say, 'freak.' My older brother, he did not like me, … I was the um, 'special' one. He was mad that our… parents, our parents argued because of me. He was happy to… to… to leave me." She then started crying.

"Oh, oh dearie, I would have to a cold hearted person to throw you out." Arwen then started crying with Maddie and telling her everything would be fine, never noticing that Maddie wasn't shedding a single tear. "Oh, Rogue, sweetie, I couldn't throw you out either, you not having any family, and Kurama," She turned her head and smiled at the boy. "Your mother's still sick, I couldn't throw you out. This place is like a second home to you." She then took both of the children in her arms and cried her heart out.

While settling Maddie into her room.

"That was amazing! How did you come up with something like that?" Maddie was tucking the pink sheets onto her bed and staring at Risty with a mix of awe and gratitude.

"Don't say that too much." Kurama laughed. Rogue threw a pillow on the bed.

"Yeah, it'll all go to her head." The four kids laughed like they hadn't laughed in days.

"This place is turning into a boarding home." Rogue announced.

"No, not a boarding home, but not an orphanage either." Risty mused.

"It's just a home." Kurama decided. "The only home most of us have."

"I'm sure," Maddie started. "Your mother will get better. If you really care about her, somehow, she'll pull through."

"Thanks Maddie."

"That's it!" Risty yelled.

"What's it?" Rogue sat down on Maddie's bed.

"We need to call this place something. I mean, buildings are like ships, it's bad luck not to name them."

"I never knew that."

"Well you can't know everything, Kurama. We'll name it the Home for Abandoned Psychics."

"Some of us aren't psychics. You know, like you and me?"

"Oh. Well how about the Home for Abandoned Demons and Psychics."

"But," Maddie pointed out. "What if someone isn't abandoned. What if they run away, because of, say abuse?"

"Of course, because why else would someone want to run away from a perfectly nice home?" Rogue started. "Unless they were ungrateful, but they wouldn't be looking for a new place to live."

"Alright, alright. By the power vested in me by the people of this room, I name this building, The Home for Abandoned and Abused Demons and Psychics. But for convinience, and to lower suspicion, we shall simply call it, the Home."

And with that the Home received its name, and it was opened to any who were thrown from their families, or forced to go, because of things they could not control.

Risty: There you have it. Chapter 10.

Kurama: I like it.

Risty: Thank you. NarratorDude, would you do the honors?

NarratorDude: I never knew these were 'honors'. Please review. Come back for the next chapter to find out what Koenma wants with Kurama, and why Rogue and Risty went with. Also coming soon, Kurama, Risty, Rogue, and Maddie's first drink, and then, how Brianna came to Home. I feel like a stinking infomercial. And remember kids; never take candy from clowns.

Risty: Later!