Scarlett

Part 28

After a short excursion on the facilities, where Scarlett was going to spend her next days or at least tonight because she understood that Mr. Cronsky wasn't eager to let her see Natasha or even call he. The girl decided to keep calm and let the situation unravel. A boy of approximately her age showed the cantina, living room and boys' and girls' dormitories. There was also a hall for grand events such as concerts. The rooms for staff, who were 24 hours monitoring the kids, a playground outside, a play room for children inside and several study rooms.

"Dinner will be in an hour. So, you better go to the girl's dormitory until they pull your things apart. I heard Fiona's back with your stuff." He said apologetically looking at the girl who was really new to everything that was going on here.

"Thanks, John. See you later, I suppose." She replied and headed to the bedroom.

The dormitory was a room with twelve two-tire beds and two huge wardrobes where, as Scarlett assumed, girls' clothes were stocked. The white colors of walls and IKEA bed sheets didn't make it any more comfortable taking into consideration that the amount of beds were for 24 people. So, there should be at least one shelf for each girl in the wardrobe. No matter how huge they were, one shelf was not enough to put everything on it. As John predicted older girls were all over her stuff already and smaller ones just stared to see what was in there.

"And her mother packed the bag. There's nothing here except her filthy clothes, shoes and this stupid cat. No money, even candies!" said a blonde girl in her thirteen or fourteens.

"I like those jeans. I think I'll take them," said a curly haired black girl of Scarlett's complexion maybe a little bit more meat on her bones when on Scarlett.

"Put my kitten down!" Natasha always told her that it was inappropriate to go through somebody's private things. She has never done it herself and taught Scarlett not to do that. So, the child felt anger building within her small frame.

"Or you do what, ugly face? Even your mom wants to get rid of you." The blonde girl said venomously trying to insult the younger one.

"As you wish, the best defense is offence. Kneecap, solar plexus and carotid artery," the child enumerated.

"What?" The older girl didn't understand. In a flash she was kicked in her kneecap, hit with one hand in solar plexus which made her bend and the elbow to her neck made her fall unconscious on the floor.

The curly head dropped the jeans she clutched in her hands and looked scared at Scarlett who observed the other ten girls present.

"Does anybody else have a problem?" Scarlett took her toy cat with the healthy hand.

At that moment she heard some girl crying her lungs out in the hall that a newbie killed Veronica. Scarlett just rolled her eyes.

Ms. Grange came to the dormitory ASAP. The girls tried to help the blonde one but mostly didn't know what to do and stood there staring at the unconscious body while Scarlett was putting her things back into the bag.

"What happened here?" Ms. Grange kneeled beside Veronica to check teen's pulse.

"Don't worry. She'll come round in a minute. I've just explained to her that I don't like when somebody goes through my things." The girl zipped the bag back again.

"What? You can't come and beat everyone here! Did your mother teach to beat other kids?" The woman asked with a horrifying look on her face.

"Listen! You took me from two last lessons today nobody knows where. You don't let me talk to my mom! You interrogated me like I'm a criminal and brought me to this place instead of my own room! These girls were going through my stuff and calling me names and offending my mother! I'm also a human being! I'm not a thing to treat me as if I don't exist!" It was the first time in her not so long life when Scarlett shouted at the adult out of rage.

"It doesn't give you a reason to beat others!" The woman snapped back. She helped Veronica to stand up slowly. The girl came over as Scarlett predicted. "Lisa, get her to the doctor. You come with me!" Ms. Grange dragged Scarlett out of the room but the child took her kitten with her not wanting any sticky fingers on her precious toy.

At this very moment Natasha and Clint were going through a myriad of family lawyers when they heard those girls talking and then everything that happened after.

"The best defense is offence, huh?" Clint repeated and watched Natasha's reaction.

"Yeah, I need to talk about that when she's back home."

She always thought of Scarlett as of a very balanced, shy and somehow timid girl who couldn't say 'boo' to a goose. She proved her wrong by helping the agent out at that prison break but Nat would never have thought that Scarlett would be violent to other kids. Still the girl did everything Natasha taught her, she enumerated the movements she was going to do as Black Widow taught her at their martial art lessons. It was a warning in a way. Of course, that teen whoever she was, didn't see a threat in Scarlett's subtle form.

"Hey, I was joking. She did the right thing. If they were touching my things, I would teach them a lesson or two." Clint tried to relieve the tension.

"I don't know, Clint. I'm afraid she goes into her other self. That would be a disaster. There can really be victims. We know where she is, but if I rescue her I blow up our cover. So, we'll be on the run again." She told really upset by everything that happened because of her for sure as she was the only one who trained the kid until she dropped exhausted on her bed before the prison break.

"Calm down. Scarlett is a smart child. I think you told her how to behave if you are not around. Everything's going to be fine." He assured her when they heard teens' voices in the dormitory discussing their impressions on the newbie and Scarlett's voice who was definitely talking to the cat.

"Nice room, Cheshire. A lot of broken furniture, dust and some buckets with white paint," the child noticed. "How do you think, we're here for long? I hope mom is looking for us or that blonde was right and she doesn't want me anymore. Why then have they been asking all day long if she did me any harm?" As all the furniture in the hall closet was broken and put into a messy pile inside, Scarlett sat down on the floor when the lights suddenly went off. "Great! They think I'm afraid of darkness. Suckers!"

The last comment coming from the speaker made Romanoff raise one eyebrow, as she didn't know that Scarlett used such words before. Probably it was just school influence.

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So much bureaucracy drove Romanoff crazy. Three days have passed since they took Scarlett into the foster system but she has already spoken to more people when she had had since she came to live here. There were school principal, psychologists, the foster care workers, lawyers, doctors and who not. She didn't talk only to Scarlett's classmates who noticed marks on girl's body in the changing room but her lawyer persuaded her not to because it would be illegal. Within these days she heard some not very inspiring dialogues from kids at the orphanage. It seemed that the other girl took Scarlett's jeans and the bug was still there but nobody dared to get the cat which went everywhere Scarlett went. The child didn't want to leave the toy and spotted some places to hide it, when she couldn't take Cheshire with her. The girl didn't have any news from Natasha and the more she was among these kids, who strongly detested her from the very first day, the more lonesome and abandoned she felt. She had some more fights with other children and the supervisors put her into unruly squad of kids, who were always rebellious because others offended or neglected them. In general, she has made up her mind about the place and the picture of it wasn't bright and miraculous.

The third night she went to bed as usual. Today she set this blonde girl Veronica up because the latter bullied everyone around. It was Veronica's round to sit in the hall closet without lights. Scarlett was sleeping tight in her bed when four girls approached her bed and threw a blanket over her head. One sat on her legs to make her still, others three started to punch her hard through the blanket. It was surprising and unexpected especially when a child was sleeping. That's why Scarlett's inner creature reacted immediately. She cut the blanket into two with her claws roaring as a wild animal. Her yellow eyes gleamed in the moonlight that shined through the window. With one punch she pushed the girl, who was sitting on her legs, to the floor. She used her sore hand to clench on the neck of the teen, who was hitting her with her fists and made the girl fly away and crash down on the opposite bed. Others, who were still sleeping, woke up and stared with horror at Scarlett. Little ones started to weep hysterically calling for mommy. Instead of waiting for the chaos to settle down, the creature grabbed clothes and sneakers, took the cat, opened the window and jumped out not paying attention that the girl's dormitory was on the second floor. She landed quite cozily on her feet and hands, hissing as one limb still hurt, swiftly crossed the yard and got over the fence. When one of the supervisors came Scarlett was gone. Only the wind aerated the room.

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Even though her lawyer managed to agree on a meeting with supervisors in the orphanage, Romanoff forgot about it the minute she checked the audio recording from the night. She also heard some mild curses in Latin and breathing as if somebody was running later on. Then the woman tracked the flower bug on the cat that was still pinned to the cat-toy and saw the distance Scarlett managed to cover while she was sleeping calmly in her bed.

"OK, little one. I'm coming." Romanoff thought to herself.

She put on a top and some jeans, took her car keys and was on the road in two minutes. She left the car somewhere on the road side about 26 miles away from her house. Romanoff should praise the child for her ability to follow directions. Scarlett might have learned the road by which they brought her to the orphanage. Black Widow followed her smart watch that traced girl's location and the girl was going home not in any other direction.

"Scarlett! Scarlett! Don't hide from me, please! I know that you are 300 feet away!" She called for the child.

In some seconds she heard some branches shuffle as if somebody was climbing up but it was the girl who climbed down. Natasha ran to that tree in an instant to help the child down and into her arms.

"Gosh! How are you? I missed you so much!" The woman kissed every inch of girls face with tears streaming down her face. "I'm so sorry. I couldn't come because of this stupid foster system and bureaucracy and those stupid laws!"

"Mom, I'm fine!" Scarlett finally made Nat put some space between them. "How did you find me?"

"A flower pin on Cheshire. It's a bug. They didn't want me to know your location. So, I bugged your clothes. Did they hurt you?" She examined the child upside down to see the bruises. "I heard them beating you."

"I think I scared the hell out of them." She smirked then looking at Nat's upset look apologized about that.

"Those girls are mean. So, no need to apologize." She took child's hand in hers. "Let's go home. You'll eat some home-made breakfast and go to sleep. You've done a lot of walking this night."

"Do I have to go back to that place? I didn't tell them anything about our mission or your friends."

"I know. You are a very smart child. But now I'll have to make them pay legally as they always hide behind the language of law." The woman said and her eyes sparkled.

To be continued…