Orphans and Pickpocketing
Yuki' s POV
I was stupidly staring at the television in front of me, lucky no one was around to judge me. I looked down at my shoes, now having a few stains of dirt on the bottoms and sides. I turned around and saw the train had left awhile ago, I didn't want to go to an orphanage, I don't like having to communicate with other people that don't care about me, why would anyone even remotely care about my well being? I'm poor, for one thing, of course I wouldn't get any money from either of my parents, why would I. It's all likely going to my cousin. I sighed heavily and closed my eyes for a moment, I knew my situation wouldn't change, however, I gained enough confidence to push myself out of the station. That's when I realized somthing.
I'm a child, outside in the streets of Gotham, in night, without any seen protection. The likelihood of me getting anywhere without any trouble was quite low...crap... What am I going to do now! I'd already gotten far without anything major things happening but now I was sure to be seen. Around me where a few apartment buildings, one police station, a gas station, four cars in counting, and three people, two of which where chatting about somthing...scary? I can assume so becouse one of them made a small squeal.
I stepped up on my tip toes and put my head down. Maybe if I looked large enough I could get to the police station and explain a bit. Not even one step forward and I already got a look from the one alone stranger, we didn't lock eyes, for I was trying to stay away from him by keeping my back turned, just as I did this act, the other two looked at me and went into a small apartment. Now we where alone.
"Nice dress there, cutie!"
With a slight run I jumped in to the light of a street lamp with the stranger on my tail.
"What's wrong, you shy? Don't be, sweetie!"
With the use of 'sweetie' my arms got goosebumps. I now was trying not to gag.
"Oh come on, don't run away from me! I can be your friend. Why don't we talk for a bit?"
Not wanting any more conflict I tried to run over to the police station, dropping my stolen wallet. Just as soon, I felt arms around me, pulling me into a tight hug.
"What's your name sweetie"
"Yu- Uri."
"Well, Uri! I'd like to tell you that you have a mighty fine a-"
He was cut off by the fact that his arms no longer had a shivering Yuki in side of them, for I had slid out from his grasp.
With a fast turn, I bolted to the police station and opened the door. Inside of the room sat one police officer in an uncomfortable looking chair.
I turned around to see through the glass door, a silhouette was running the other way. The police officer let out a small cough to get my attention.
"Oh, I'm sorry about that, anyways, my parents...Well... I'm the daughter of Melinda and Jeffrey Ashwood..."
"You are hmmm..." She replied with a sceptical look, "if that's so, we will need to take the necessary blood tests, if you are to be their child. I'll check what you got from the will. I'm sorry for your loss."
Well don't be, I thought to myself. "Thank you."
"Name?"
"Yuki Ashwood."
"Born on?"
"December second."
"Happy birthday."
I took some surprise in this, I've never been told that before. No one had a reason to celebrate the day I was born. I always did wonder why people did, was it becouse they where happy they survived a year, or for no reason at all?
"Thank you"
"Your welcome. For now, I suppose you should be off to the nearby orphanage, I have my partner who is just coming back from a recent cr- never mind that, just, why don't I have him drive you over?"
"Yes please, that would be perfect."
As if on Que, a tall dark haired man opened the door to the station.
"Hey, Bernard! This girl needs a ride to the orphanage, take her there why don't you?"
"Ugh fine, but you'll owe me a nice 10 bucks, deal?"
"Yeah, Yeah, okay, just take her."
"Follow me, ya little brat." He muttered the words vary quietly and turned back around.
Not saying a word in reply, I stepped outside and a police cruiser was sitting in the parking lot of the station even though it was quite small, I could fit into it with ease, as supposed to, Bernhard, who had to bend down and crunch his head to the side just to enter the vehicle. A few more grumbles later, we both where on the rode.
"Don't touch anything."
"Yes sir."
Five minutes felt like 20 years. I was freaked out quite a lot. But maybe I'll make a friend or two...
Just as the car stopped I felt a cold sweat on my palms, forearms, and forehead. My breathing got jagged as we stepped out and into the light from the Windows that where next to the door. BRZZZ BRZZZ, Bernhard rang the door bell.
As the door slowly opened, a nice looking face could be seen on the other side, either she was taking her time on opening the door, or I was seeing everything in slow motion. "Hello, Mis. Lamia" the officer behind me said with a nice attitude.
"Hello officer, what seems to be the problem?"
"Oh, there is no problem specifically, just a...child."
"well thats absolutely wonderful- I mean- that's still too bad." "Would you like to come in?" She asked, looking down at me.
"Ack! Umm, yes please."
A few seconds went by as Bernhard and I stepped into the hallway. It had a musty smell to it and was quite different from the usual house I had, nevertheless, I loved it. It really put into place that I was done with being a punching bag and I finally was free of my wretched mother.
They both stepped upstairs into what looked to be an office to presumably get paperwork. Before the caretaker closed the door, she peeked her head out and suggested I introduce myself, than, she backed up and closed the it.
With a little breath in, I took my step onto the stairs and climbed up. I could hear quiet muffled chattering from outside two of the three doors, one of them, I knew to be the office. When I put my hand on the doorknob, I shook a little and questioned myself.
How would they react to me? Should I just barge in and say hey I'm Yuki, I'm going to live with you! Maybe I should knock, wait. Will there even be a bed for me to sleep in? What if it's full? I should just open the door before they all go to sleep...
KNOCK KNOCK. silence.
"Who was that?" "Shouldn't we all be in here?" "We are, look! It's probably Lamia." "Who's gonna open the door?" A chorus of voices sounded from the door, making me a little more nervous.
"Not it!" I heard a good amount of voices all say at once.
"Fine, I'll do it!" One high pitched sing song voice said.
I heard footsteps come from the other side of the door before it opened. My position of having my hands on my sides and pressing my feet together was becoming a lot more uncomfortable by the second but my thoughts where distracted by two Lilac eyes looking into my ruby ones.
"Who are you?" The squeaky voice asked.
"Ummm, I'm Yuki. Nice to meet you!" I said, somehow without any stuttering.
"And why are you at our room, Yuki?"
"Well, Mis. Lamia told me to introduce myself."
"So, you're an orphan?"
"Yes."
"Then come in."
She opened the door wide enough for me to go through by squeezing, but I slid by in an angle that allowed me to easily pass without any issues. When I looked around it was quite peculiar. A large room stood in front of me with a row of beds on the left and right walls. Thirteen girls from what look like to be eleven, to thirteen stared at me.
I walked up to the front of the room and cleared my throat.
"Hello, i'm Yuki."
"I'm Clara!" "I'm Rose!" "I'm Fia!" "I'm Solace" "I'm Ka-"
"Okay, we can all introduce ourselves tomorrow." The lilac eyed girl stated. "Louisiana is the name by the way."
"Can I sleep in the bed over there?" I said, pointing to the empty bed on the end of the left side.
"Why not."
I stepped to the bed when I saw a foot try to trip me. I hopped over it and looked at its owner. A Fox-like face looked back at me, she grinned and her orange hair seemed to puff up. Stepping away from the girl I knew as Rose, I sat down on the small bed and fit it perfectly. I opened the drawer and saw a pinkish gray nightgown. Nearby, I noticed a door that I presumed was the bathroom and stepped up. Turning to the door I could feel everyone's eyes on me. Trying to ignore it as best as I could I wobbled over to the door and pushed it open to see a cheep looking toilet and a messy sink. Even turning on the light, I still felt an odd feeling while being inside so I rushed. When I opened the door back, no one looked at me.
"You know someone died in there," Clara said blankly.
Died? People have died in this house before?
"Really? Is that why I felt weirded out?"
"Well how did it feel? An unknown girl with a pointy noes spoke.
"A little eerie, I felt somewhat weak."
"That's the ghost!" Clara yelled out.
"Why are you trying to scare her Clara?" The unknown girl said.
"Well, Jess! Maybe you should keep that large nose of yours, out of other people's business!"
"Oh shut it, both of you!" another girl said and turned over.
Just from this little fight, I knew that this place would be fun.
Time skip
I woke up to the sound of a less loud school bell.
"Up! Everyone up please!"
"Ugh, she's so mean!" A small voice said.
"She's not mean at all." I fought.
"She is too!" Louisiana looked up from her blankets.
"Well, she's not hurting us."
"Might as well be! She's been getting us up an hour early just to do chores!"
"That's still not necessarily bad."
"Fine than!"
I got up and made my bed, when looking at the others bed's, compared to mine, it looked like they all threw their blankets down and gave up. According to a girl with brown messy hair, we where all supposed to go to the showers in alphabetic order by our last names, which was always a good thing for me, having a last name that starts with A. Becouse of that factor, I got to go first. I grabbed a pair of navy blue tights and a white sweater.
Skipping to the creepy bathroom, I undressed and took a quick shower. I got dressed and put my hair up in high pigtails. When I stepped out of the steaming room in my new outfit, I opened the door to a full room of chatter and laughter. I couldn't help but smile, seeing all that happiness in a sad room.
Not much was said to me as I sat down on my bed and began to plan out my day. First, after breakfast I would likely take a blood test, after all of that, I didn't know what we would do so I turned to someone that was next to me dosing off.
"What do we normally do on Saturdays? I mean, we don't have schoo-"
"Well, normally we just do whatever. For one, we're aloud to go outside and we can at most go one mile away from here, unless you have an adult of course!"
"Oh, thank you."
"You likely won't last a week with that attitude."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, you are being too nice!"
"And how exactly will that go bad for me?"
"Loui"
"Louisiana?"
"Yeah. She takes a good person and rips them apart."
"Okay, I'll try to avoid acting like that, how do you know this?"
"My friend, Malcom. He told on Loui for calling a girl a name and later she did enough digging to humiliate him with blackmail."
"That's...insane"
"Ind-"
"Oh Judas! You need to get over here!"
"Bye Yuki."
"Goodbye"
She jumped up from the bed and hurried over to Louisiana who had just finished her shower. Her black hair shining from the water.
"Come on down to breakfast!" Lamia called out from downstairs so I stood up.
Suddenly I was trampled by the 13 girls trampling me in a rush to get breakfast. My mother never gave me any breakfast, or dinner for that matter, that's why I I'm only 4'9, the others towered over me by at least 3 inches or more. In only a few seconds, I was left in the room alone. I picked myself up and headed out the door. By the time i was on the first step I could hear a few steppes coming from downstairs. Soon I was down, across from the staircase stood a door where I could hear muffled chatting and forks scraping plates. I opened the door to four large round tables holding 26 kids, all of which where stuffing their faces.
"Hello Yuki, right now, introductions can't be done, but after we all eat everyone will say their names, okay?"
"Yes ma'am"
I've never been talked to that nicely before, it was a pleasant change for sure.
"Here, today we have pancakes."
She held out a frying pan of which one good sized pancake flopped out onto a plate that was slightly too small for it and handed my the plate along with a water bottle. The aroma of the area was heavenly.
I walked out to the kitchen area and sat down at one of the tables. Only one seat was clear, that being one of the tables filled with guys, only one other girl was in it and she was directly next to me. She had brown hair in a tight ponytail and wore a baseball shirt with shorts. I slowly started to nibble on the pancake when she tapped my shoulder.
"Du you wannah join mah sporz team?" She spoke with her mouth full.
I swallowed the pancake that was in my mouth and asked her, "what?"
"Do you wanna join my sports team?"
"Umm, I'm not really the type for sports, what's your name?"
"Kathie. Loui stopped me from saying my name last night. She likes to interrupt us."
"I've seen."
By the time I finished my breakfast, everyone else was long done and now they where all doing the dishes, I hopped over to the sink and cleaned up my plate, fork, and threw away my empty water bottle.
"Ah hem!" Lamia cleared her throat to get all of out attention. "We have a new friend, so let's all give a warm welcome and say our names aloud." "I'm Mis. Lamia."
"Rose!" The girl with poofy orange hair said first.
"Louisiana." The black haired girl said.
"Kathie, you know me!" The brown haired girl yelled out.
"Judas." A weak little girl, only a little taller than me stuttered.
"I'm Clara!" The girl with short white hair said.
"Fia." The quiet girl with a bowl cut said.
"I'm Jessie, call me Jess!" A tan girl with freckles and dark brown hair called.
"Yo, Solace." A yellow-blonde haired girl said with a deep voice.
"I'm Athy" a girl with pinkish brown hair said.
"I'm Yuui'" A girl with black hair in a side ponytail called out.
"Moni" A sour faced girl plainly said.
"I'm Suke" A short girl said turning around to face me.
"I'm Sasha." A sandy blonde girl spoke out.
That was all the names I could keep track of, and by the time the boys where done I could barely remember anyone's names.
"Now that that's done with we-" Mis. Lamia was cut off by the doorbell. I already knew that it was likely someone to take me to the doctors to get my blood checked.
Alas, I was correct and Officer Bernhard stood at the door, looking vary angry. He asked for me.
"Why yes of course, YUKI!"
I stood up with the sound of oooo's and took off for the exit.
"This nice officer need to take you to the doctor, okay?"
At this point I was kinda fed up with how nice this caretaker was being, but, who am I to blame? I stepped outside as the two continued to talk before Bernhard closed the door and turned to me.
"Neither of us wanna be here so just cooperate with me and it will go by fast, okay?" The police said sternly.
"Yes sir."
I stepped into the running vehicle and it started to go to the doctors office.
Time Skip!
Only about an hour later, the car was pulling into the parking lot. The ride to the place wasn't vary talkative, in fact, no one said a word the entire time.
"Out."
I stepped out of the cruiser and we walked up into the small building. When I stepped in I noticed an extremely high amount of people all sitting in the waiting room.
While the assistant was talking with the police officer I was having a nice conversation with myself in my mind.
I wonder why so many people are here today.
It's probably not important.
Yeah, I hear a cold is going around so this is inevitable.
How long do you think it will take for me to be seen?
You'll likely get seen soon becouse you where planning to go here since Friday.
You're right. Di-
"You! Come on!" Officer Bernhard was a few feet away from me and heading towards an empty area in the waiting room.
I sat down next to the wall on the seat and almost immediately, my name was called out and I stood up.
I stepped over to the door, where a doctor opened the door for me and I stepped inside.
It was a lonely room, only a small "bed" was on the wall and an even smaller sink was across from me. I sat down on the bed and the doctor lied her stuff next to me.
"This will only hurt for a second."
She grabbed my left hand and had me point out my pointer finger. When I did this action, she took out a few small wipes and prepared my finger with them, soon enough I felt a small sting in the middle of my finger and she stared to collect a good amount of blood, a lot of blood, by the time she filled the odd capsule I felt odd and a bit woozy.
Time Skip
After about an hour, the doctor came back with a few printed papers,
"We have gotten the news." "You are of Ashwood blood! I looked through all of the paperwork for the will but you didn't seem to get anything."
"I assumed so, you see, she didn't really like me all that much..."
"Well that's too bad..." She gave me a remorseful look before turning around and opening the door, "You may leave."
"Oh, okay. Thank you."
With that, I stepped out and wondered back into the waiting room, on the chair, Sat a vary bored looking Officer Bernhard on his phone.
"Let's go." He said looking up.
Another quiet hour passed and I was dropped back off at the orphanage. I didn't look back when I got out of the car and ran inside. No one was anywhere near and I could hear typing above me. I darted up the stairs and ran down the hall to what I knew as Lamia's office. Before I opened the door, I remembered what Judas told me earlier. "Well, normally we just do whatever. For one, we're aloud to go outside and we can at most go one mile away from here, unless you have an adult of course!" That means, every one was probably out. I backed away, not wanting to disturb Lamia and stepped down the stairs. Opening the door, I saw that a whole bunch of people where mingling outside. Between the orphanage, stood two apartment buildings and across the road, was a small shop called 'Burnie's DIY' that would a smart place to put a DIY store, if we orphans had any money...
Between the right Apartment and the Orphanage, a dark alley loomed. Now I was curious, it may seem a little stupid, in fact, it was vary stupid, but I couldn't help myself, I ran inside of it and wasn't too disappointed. Two teenagers where talking next to a large dumpster. I took a step forward and they saw me immediately. Behind me, stepped out another one from the dark, blocking my only exit.
"Gimmie your cash and we'll leave ya alone." Said the right one.
Unfortunately, I didn't have even a dime, for I dropped my stolen wallet while being chased by that freak.
"I...I don't have anything."
"Well, you've seen us here, so your body is going into that dumpster."
No way, these dudes wouldn't kill someone, wait, yeah they would. It's Gotham for crying out loud. "I... do have money. It's just at home!" I lied, trying to keep my composer.
"Well that's too bad, bash her head, Doug!"
I ducked down while looking up to see a bat go over me. Than, it swung down, after I rolled to the side.
"Ahh! Just stay still!" 'Doug' yelled at me while he lifted up his bat.
I could see that the exit was clear.
Behind me, I could hear breathing. I jumped up as far as my legs could take me and avoided both hits by a few feet. These guys where vary bad at aiming, lucky for me.
"J...just kill her you idiots!" Yelled the right one.
Now all three of them where cornering me.
Doug, stupidly jumped up, allowing me to easily glide under him and run towards the light.
I jumped out into the public and ran down the street. Once I was far enough away, I looked back to see nothing chasing me.
Beside me, an old man was selling really pretty ribbons , which apparently had odd capsules in the middles of them.
That would come in useful, but I still don't have any money. Maybe I could steal another wallet. I'm sneaky enough to, I just need to find the right person.
Looking around, I saw one man that had quite baggy pants, and a nice wallet. Easy catch. I ran up behind him, but not too close, now I needed a way to distract him... Lightbulb!
I ran fast, soon right beside him. Than I tripped on my own feet. Making him stop and stare.
"Take a picture, it'll last longer." I glared at him while slowly stepping up. Than I swiftly turned around, while grabbing his wallet of course. It was all part of the plan. I walked back to the old man and gave him the $25 it took to buy the bows. Than I opened up the middle part to see a small area, about the size of a quarter. Thinking for a bit, I put my pigtails down, and tied them back up with the bows. Now, I turned around, on my way back to the orphanage.