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Chapter 14: A New Family

Alice drove us back to our house, and we got our belongings. (Skipper used one of Alice's bobby pins to pick the lock.) Afterwards, she drove us to the Manhattan Orphanage. It was a tall, wooden structure that looked pretty old. I questioned Alice about the age, and she said it was probably from the 1940s.

"I still don't know about this," Skipper said when we walked up to the front door.

Alice smiled. "Don't worry. These other little squirts ain't so bad." She opened the door and we walked in.. "I'll get your things. You two can mingle with the others." She cupped her hands around her mouth. "Kowalski! Rico! Come meet the newbies!" She went back to the car.

I looked around. The inside of the building wasn't the most fascinating thing I'd ever seen. There were wooden walls, and photographs and other forms of decor were hanging on them. There was a staircase nearby and a few rooms on the first floor.

I looked up at Skipper. He was looking around with a bored look on his face. He slowly shook his head.

"What is it, Skippa?" I asked.

He looked at me. "I just don't think this is a good idea. We should just turn around and-" He was interrupted by the sound of an explosion. "Holy Sand Creek Massacre!"

"It came from that way!" I told him, pointing down the hallway.

We ran towards the explosion and stopped dead when we saw a portion of the wall slide open. A boy about our age fell at our feet. "What the deuce just happened!?" Skipper exclaimed.

"Oh dear!" I was a bit more concerned about the boy on the floor in front of us. "Are you alright!?"

He stood up shakily. "Note to self," he said, obviously not listening to me, "never mix boron and lithium with diet root beer." He dusted himself off

He was tall and had blond hair and black-rimmed glasses and blue eyes. He was wearing a lab coat.

Skipper loudly cleared his throat, making the boy finally notice us. "Oh!" he said. "I did hear Alice say something about new recruits."

"Boom, boom! Boom, boom!" we heard.

We turned our heads and saw a boy-also around our age-run over to us. He had wild blue eyes and a small black mohawk. He looked at the blond boy with hopeful eyes. "Kaboom?"

"Sorry, Rico," the boy responded. "A solution can only explode once."

"Aww."

The blond returned his attention to me and Skipper. "I'm Kowalski," he introduced. He gestured to his friend. "This Spaniard over here is Rico. And, unlike most Spanish immigrants, he actually speaks English."

"Hola!" Rico greeted. "Nice to meet you!"

"You're from another country?" I asked, excited. "I'm from England!"

"Cool!"

"My name's Private, and this," I glanced at my sibling, "is my adopted brotha, Skippa."

"Right. Uh, Private," Skipper said, "can I talk to you?"

We walked out of the hallway. Alice put down what looked like the last of our belongings. "You boys can divide this stuff up, whenever. I'm gonna get out of my work clothes." She climbed up the stairs.

When we were alone, Skipper looked down at me. "I don't think-"

"Skippa," I interrupted, "why can't you just accept that this is probably a good place for us to live? Alice seems friendly, and K'walski and Rico seem nice."

My brother facepalmed. "Private, you need to learn that people are like that. They start out friendly and kind, but turn your back on them, and they'll change into some son of a b*tch with a bottle of beer in one hand and betrayal in the other!"

I blinked. Then a thought popped into my mind. "When you say 'people,' are you-by any chance-referring to your fatha?"

The annoyance in his eyes quickly shifted to sadness. He sighed. "I just don't want anything to happen to us. If something happened to me, you'd have no real family. If something happened to you..." He trailed off, and I saw tears in his eyes. He wiped them away and sighed again. "If something happened to you, I'd never forgive myself."

I smiled. "Skippa, nothing's going to happen. And even if something does happen, we've Alice and the otha orphans and all our friends. I'm not alone, brotha, and neither are you."

He smiled. "I suppose..."

"Excuse me." We jumped. We hadn't notice Kowalski and Rico walk up beside us. "In case you were at all curious about that secret door in the wall," Kowalski was saying, "a few months ago, I had accidently stumbled upon it. After tripping over," he glared at Rico, "a certain someone's Day of the Dead Skull-"

"Sorry," Rico apologized.

"-my hand brushed up against a portion of the wall and peeled it off, revealing some-sort-of-button. I pressed and a door opened up." Kowalski jumped up and down. "I found a secret laboratory behind it! Isn't that exciting!?" He squealed like a five year-old girl.

Skipper, Rico, and I stared at him until Skipper coughed "Nerd."

We all laughed, except for Kowalski, who rolling his eyes.

Stay tuned for the epilogue! Please review!