I find I have no comments at all to add here. Shocking, eh?
"Everyone go to sleep.Now." Mrs. Baker turned off the lights and left, closing the door to the bunk room behind her. Everyone lay perfectly still until her footsteps had faded. Then we all sat up and the room started buzzing. No one ever slept during thunderstorms. The little kids immediatly gathered around a girl named Chatter, who liked to tell stories. A few of the other older kids went with her to help keep the little ones calm and quiet. Snap and a bunch of the older kids started a game of poker. Three girls, known as Stitch, Lacey, and Buttons, met in a corner and started working on their embroidery. They were rarely seen without it. Willow and Shadow pulled out Willow's checker board and started looking for differnt colored objects to use to play with. A number of people gathered around to help and to watch once they started. Somehow, they always managed to make their games entertaining. I straightened my hat, grabbed my deck of cards, and started shuffling. Caroline and Rusty came over and I dealt. Caroline and I had grown to be pretty close. Rusty had short, rust colored hair that he liked to "style" so that it always looked like he just got out of bed. There was a rumble of thunder and Caroline jumped a little. Storms scared her. That's why we had started playing cards.
Three months ago, I experienced my first storm at the orphanege. Everyone did what they always did. My problem was that I didn't have an "always" yet. So I just sat there and shuffled my cards, which had become a habit. Caroline had come over, eyes wide. I dealt out some cards and as we played, she started to ignore the thunder more and more. So, every time there was a storm, we played cards. Not for money like Snap and them, just for the fun of it. Rusty started playing with us a few storms ago after getting tired of watching Willow and Shadow play checkers. He didn't really talk to us except for those nights. He had other friends that he met up with out on the street.
The storm was getting worse and the normal activities were losing the attention of some people. Chatter had stopped midway through Cinderella because most of the little kids were crying. The sewing circle had stopped because Stitch had jumped at a flash of lightning and pricked herself with her needle and was now crying. Willow and Shadow had stopped their game to search for a missing piece. One of the dark pieces turned out to be a beetle and had crawled away when Willow tried to jump it with a button. With each flash of lightning or rumble of thunder, there came squeals of fright. I tried to block them out. I wanted to hear the storm, and just the storm.
"Ivan!" I snapped back at the sound of Rusty's voice. "It's your turn." I looked down at my cards, but the only thing my mind recognized was the fact that I couldn't hear the rain on the roof over the noise in the room.
"I fold," I muttered, laying my cards down and standing.
"Are you cheating?" Rusty asked, looking from his cards to me, "I think you are. Caroline, make him stop cheating." I walked over to the window, opened it, and climbed out onto the fire escape. I shut the window most of the way and sat down with my back against the building. The only thing between me and the rain was the grey newsies hat Spud had given me. I only took it off on very rare occasions, and this wasn't one of them. I just sat and watched to rain water drip off the brim. I sat out there and watched the lightning dance and listened to the steady pounding of the rain and the wondreful low rumbles of thunder. I sat there and tried to pretend I was sitting in my house, somewhere that seemed very far away now. I had done this a few times before, so they didn't come out after me. No one understood why, but they knew I liked to sit alone in the rain sometimes. They probably thought I was crazy. Whatever the reason, life went on as usual inside. I could hear Chatter starting Cinderella again. It was the part where her fairy godmother came and made everything perfect so that she could go to the ball. Sometimes I wish I had a fairy godmother. Right now all I had was the storm. I hugged my knees to my chest and let the rain and thunder sing out a lullaby. To that I drifted to sleep.
I woke up the next morning and found myself still outside. I opened the window and went back inside as quietly as I could. Everyone else was still asleep. They had all learned to be heavy sleepers, while I was wide awake at the slightest sound. I grabbed some dry clothes and changed. Except the hat. I kept my hat on even though it was still pretty soggy. I sat down and started shuffling my cards. Gran had gotten her wish, I was a morning person. It must have been at least half an hour before anyone else woke up. Willow sat up, trying to tame her auburn hair that was always a mess in the mornings.
"G' mornin," she muttered, yawning.
"Morning." Willow was almost always up shortly after me. Once she'd been awake for about five minutes, she was fairly energetic.
"Wanna play checkers?"she asked after a little while, pulling the board out from under her bed. "I still have the pieces we used last night." I sat down on the floor across from her and we set up the game. It was rather funny to see what they'd collected to play with sometimes. Today there was a good deal of buttons-probably "borrowed" from Lacey's collection-as well as a couple pennies, a nickle, what looked like they may have been pieces of hard bread, and some other things. It was usually best not to ask. Lacey woke up about half way through the game and sat down on Willow's bed. She watched, looking quite amused, as Willow's half marble jumped over a stone, a shoelace tied into endless knots, and one of my buttons. I scratched my head through my still damp hat. I was terrible at this.
"Willow," Lacey said casually, "are those my buttons?" Willow's dark eyes flitted from Lacey, to the checkerboard, to me, and back to Lacey. She didn't say anything for a second. I think I may have been holding my breath.
"What buttons?" was what she finally said. I smacked myself on the forehead and almost laughed. Could she have been anymore obvious? Witha snort, Lacey reached forward and snatched each of the buttons.
"Hey! We're in the middle of a game!"
"I don't care. Everyone knows you're going to lose anyway." I stood and held out a hand.
"Just give 'em back. You can have them as soon as we're done, alright?" She pulled the handful of buttons further away.
"As soon as you're done? No, not alright! They're my buttons, I'm not negotiating anything here!" At the sound of her name being shouted, Buttons sat up a little, looking confused. I drew back a fist and Lacey squealed. "Don't you dare Ivan! You're not allowed to hit me, I'm a lady!"
"No you're not, ladies aren't over protective of their buttons!" Willow said from behind me. It would have been a pretty good argument, but she started giggling after she said it. I had to admit, it did sound pretty funny. A number of the others were sitting up as well. Everyone looked very confused. Lacey charged across the room to where Snap lay, still asleep, with me right behind her. She grabbed a pillow and held it above his face.
"I'll wake him. I swear it, I will. Go ahead, take another step toward me." I backed away with my hands up. Yes, Snap had been nice when I first got here, but I had quickly learned that he and his best friend Ace were in charge and I'd do well not to mess with them. Their advantage was that Mrs. Baker always saw them in their best light and thought they could do no wrong. In reality, they were very close to bullies. Ace was worse, but you didn't want to get on the bad side of either of them. And they were worse in the mornings. They were heavy sleepers and got very mad if woken, especially by a pillow in the face. Lacey dropped the weapon the the floor and strutted back to her bed, where she lovingly replaced the long lost members of her button collection. Those who had been woken, pelted me-the most obvious source of the disruption-with pillows or anything else they could grab.
"Same time tomorrow?" Willow asked sarcastically as I arrived back at my bed. I didn't answer, which was ok because she didn't expect me to. She finished gathering the remaining pieces and put everything back under the bed. "Have you talked to Spud recently? Ihaven't seen him in awhile." Everyone knew Willow had a huge crush on Spud. Whenever he came to visit me, she'd make sure she found a way to talk to him. Personally, I think they'd make a decent couple. He was only about a year older than her.
"I saw him yesterday, just fer a minute. He said he'd try an stop by today or tomorrow." Smiling, she turned to Shadow, who was stretching. Before she'd come here, Shadow had lived on the streets. Just before Mrs. Baker took her in, she stole some food and got into a fight with a policeman. Before she managed to slip away, she fell and was kicked in the left shoulder by his horse. Now she stretches every morning because it gets stiff when she sleeps. Sometimes I see her stretching during the day too, but not too much. I flopped back on my bed and grabbed my deck of cards.
"What was all that about?" Caroline sat next to me and playfully snatched the cards away. "You losers woke me up." I sat up.
"My deepest apologies madame." I took the cards back and Caroline laughed. "Me an Willow were playin checkers an Lacey realized we were usin her buttons so she took em back." She took the cards back, shuffled once, and dealt each of us seven cards. We hadn't even started when Mrs. Baker entered the bunk room. Everyone froze and nervously glanced at each other. She never came in there that early unless she had something important to say.
"Caroline, come with me please." She looked at me, eyes wide. "You may come too Ivan." We stood and followed her, Carolin looking like a convict walking to her execution. She took my hand and held it really tight. We were both expecting the worse. When we got to the lobby, however, her eyes lit up. A man and woman were standing by the desk, siutcases at their side. Caroline gave me a quick hug and ran forward into their waiting arms.
"Mama, Papa!" Her mother wiped tears from her eyes. She wasn't very tall, but she looked just like Carolin. Very slim, with brown hair and sparkling green eyes. The only difference was that her hair was slightly grey and her skin was darker, probably from being out in the western sun. Her father was a very large man with sand colored hair. He kissed the top of Caroline's head and said the words I'd been preparing myself for.
"Ready to go home poppet?"