Jade wakes up soon, but this time she's in a bed, clean and fresh with different clothes on. It makes her upset that someone changed her out of her own clothes and put these itchy clothes on her. It felt like she was in a book, and just getting into character – that none of this was real. She gets up and opens the bedroom door, letting a crack of light shine through. She looks around at her surroundings carefully, taking in the baby pink wallpaper and teddy bears in the corner, the crib that sits on the opposite side of the room. She moves cautiously around the room until she reaches the crib, then she peers in, wondering if there's a baby in there.
Jade climbs on one of the bars and soon she can look inside. The baby looks up at her with its big blue eyes and Jade calms. The baby's fine and she would be too. Right? Suddenly the baby stretches out and reaches for Jade's hand. Jade whips her hand back and the baby starts to scream. Jade looks round in horror, shushing the baby as best she can. She starts to panic and tries to climb down but her foot is stuck and she's trapped. The door starts to open more. Jade slowly turns to face it, hiding behind her hair, seeing the employee that walks in. She doesn't like the way he looks at her.
She doesn't like to remember the rest.
The next morning she's woken by the sound of the baby's cries, only this time she cowers under her covers until she really has to get up. She surveys herself in the mirror, looking at all her blue bruises forming, running her finger along the fresh cuts on her arms, gently prodding the welts left on her legs and dabbing her face tenderly with a tissue. She jumped out of her skin when she heard the door opening, darting to get back into bed. The lady who comes in laughs at her softly.
"It's okay, sweetheart. You won't get in trouble for getting up early. Up you get, time for breakfast." Jade nodded and started to get dressed, just because that's what she did at home. "Don't bother with that, my dear, just bring yourself."
At breakfast, she got acquainted with everybody. There was a girl about a year older, with brown hair and freckles scattered over her fair skin, and she had the prettiest brown eyes, glittering and sparkly. She said her name was Cyndi. Cyndi made it very clear that she wanted nothing to do with Jade.
The baby she shared a room with was named Ace, and he's only six months old. Jade decides that she'll be careful with Ace, and keep a watchful eye over his crib. He's only little, after all. There's another girl, but she's quite a lot littler than Jade. Only two or three, but she certainly made a lot of noise. Jade tried to console her when she couldn't find her mommy, but she just kept screaming. It gave Jade a headache and so she just left her, screaming and crying.
Jade sat in the corner on her own for a while, taking everything in. She drew her knees up to her chest, trying to block everyone out. It worked for a while and then she was told to get up and do something, or to go to her room. She couldn't bear to go back there until she absolutely had to, and the least she could do was colour, so colouring she did. She sat there, not paying much attention to anything. That was until she heard the door. Jade put her head down and drew, scribbling anything. She hoped so badly that it wasn't the horrible man again. She wanted to stay well away from him, whenever she possibly could. She drew in a sharp breath and looked up slowly, bracing herself for the worst. She sighed in relief as she saw a boy walk through the door. She looked at him carefully, and then finally decided that he must be one of the kids here too. Behind him was a girl. She stopped and stared as they walked in.
She found out he was named Toby. He had short brown hair and green eyes, and he was very tall. Six foot at least. He was friends with a girl, and she was draped all over him like, well, drapes. She had long fair hair and she had little rose buds in it, making her look very pretty. On her hip she was holding a baby, though Jade wasn't too sure if she was the mother. She was kissing the baby's face tenderly and stroking her soft pink cheeks, and when she saw Jade glancing over, she beckoned her to come and have a look.
Jade hopped off of her stool at the table and walked over cautiously, peeking into the baby's blanket. "What is her name?" Jade asked, carefully taking her the baby's sweet rosebud lips and button nose, and blonde wisps of hair curled under her tiny pink hat.
"Valentina," the girl says with such pride that Jade thinks she must be her mother, "it means strong."
"It's very…pretty," Jade decides, looking at the baby.
"Sit on my lap and you can hold her, if you like," Jade nods, and sits carefully on the girl's lap, gingerly holding her hands out. The girl places Valentina under Jade's arms, with her arms bound round both her and the baby. "My name's Madeline, by the way."
"Jade," Jade replies politely, not taking her eyes off of Valentina. "Madeline," Jade lisps "how long am I going to be here?" Madeline sighs.
"I don't know, sweetheart. I wish I knew, really." Madeline snuggled Jade close, bringing the three girls closer. They both stayed in each other's company for quite a while, content as they ever could be in this place full of grey and misery.