Sorry for not updating this story for a while; I've been working on another fanfic as well as adding to an old one. But here's Chapter 6.


"Are you sure you're ready to tell us the rest of us your story Vonna?" Zirin asked unable to shake off the feeling that although Vonna had told Shiki and now Pashi her story, she might not be able to repeat it in order to tell the rest of them. Also, based on Pashi's mortified expression, Zirin was unsure if they would even want to hear it. As she wondered if it would be anything close to losing your entire family in 1 night, Tanni nodded with Zirin's statement "She's right, you can wait to tell us if you want to."

"Honestly darlings, I'm fine to tell it... well, as fine as you can get anyway." Vonna said.

"Let me ask this then." Fenang interjected with a raised hand in order to be able to speak her mind "How come you only told Shiki your true story until now?"

Vonna's pupils looked down as she spoke "Well, when Shiki told me her story, I realised how similar we were and I thought she could handle the truth."

Zirin, Tanni, Pashi and Fenang looked to one another. Once they stopped, Fenang asked "Similar how?"

"Both of us never knew our parents; they abandoned us as infants to the care of orphanages where we were treated as if we were freaks to the other orphans and never got adopted."

There was uncomfortable silence. Vonna allowed this to sink in as she knew they weren't expecting her to be an orphan. She once overheard Fenang and Pashi discussing that Vonna's posh accent meant she must've come from a rich family. But she didn't. All she knew about her parents was that her mother was a young teenager that didn't want her and her father's identity would remain a mystery, so they sold her to an orphanage. That's right, sold. Vonna couldn't believe that either, but compared to Shiki, her life as an orphan wasn't so bad. And being an orphan wasn't the only thing about Vonna that was going to mortify Zirin, Tanni and Fenang tonight.

"But the difference between us is my life as an orphan wasn't that bad. I had one friend in my orphanage; he later became my husband." While the girls tried to grip the truth mentally, Vonna recalled her husband when he was her boyfriend.


16 years ago:

The sun was rising and 15 year old Vonna eagerly awoke from her bumpy bed. Not just because the mattress gave her back a painful stiffness, but because she was thrilled that she would never have to sleep on it again. She quietly got dressed into a red sleeveless tunic with black hems and matching red pants and shoes. She then crouched down and pulled a large pink bag out from under her bed. She opened it up to check what was in it. After seeing the spare clothes, the small sack of coins, the snacks, hairbrush and firebending scrolls, Vonna grabbed the brush, then closed it up and went into the bathroom. She looked into the mirror to see her half shaved and half red-dyed hair that flowed downwards. She used the brush to bring her hair up and not look a mess. After finishing, she recalled when she first had her hair like this. At age 11, she was playing Truth or Dare with some other kids and she was dared to do something unexpected and crazy. The first thing that came into her mind was shaving the left side of her head and dying the right side a different colour opposed to her natural jet black colour. But after showing them what she did, they mocked her and laughed at her ever since. But she didn't care; she actually liked how it looked; as did one other person. He even said it made her look stunningly beautiful and that was when she and he had their first kiss. Vonna then exited the bathroom with a smile on her light tan-coloured face while putting the brush in the bag and left the girl's dormitory or good, completely unaware of the 3 other empty beds besides her own.

Vonna walked down a couple of corridors until she reached the entrance of the orphanage and there he was leaning against one of the door's beams; the boy who had been her only friend for the past 16 years and her boyfriend for the previous 5, the boy who loved her unique hairstyle, the boy who she had her first kiss with and the boy she was about to run away with.

Senko.

He was a boy older than her by around 8 months. Like Vonna, he too was abandoned as an infant by a teenage parent; the story he was told was that his mother abandoned him to his father and his father then abandoned him to here. He had light skin, light brown spiked up hair with blonde dye at the tips near the front and olive green eyes. He was dressed in a black vest-like top with a red stripe going diagonally right. On that stripe just below his shoulder was a black fire insignia. His light brown pants sadly didn't go with his top, but he didn't mind and nor did Vonna. Growing up, the 2 of them were close. Vonna at first thought it was a brother-sister bond they shared, but the truth was they both felt more than that, but thought it would be weird as they saw most orphans with sibling bonds and never romantic bonds. When they had their first kiss, it didn't feel weird as they had imagined; it felt right. After that kiss, he confessed something to her; the reason they were always transferred to the same orphanages and never separated was because he snuck into the head's office and made sure their names were on the same transfer sheets because he didn't want to be without her. Coming back into reality, he asked in a hushed voice "You ready?"

"I've been ready since last night." she replied before giving him a quick kiss on the lips to which he kissed back before opening the doors "Let's go."

But as they were about to step outside into the light, they saw what they percieved to be an ugly sight. Outside were the 3 girls who relentlessly bullied Vonna mainly because they liked Senko, but he turned them down in favour of a "Freak" as they so nicely referred to her as. Their names were Yanu, Laa and Kaalo. Each of the 3 girls played a role in the trio; Yanu was the brute, Kaalo was the insulter and Laa was the leader and the brains. They had matching red outfits, matching buns in their brunette hair and matching smiles that made them look like sociopaths. Vonna swore the 3 of them were non-identical triplets and their parents were criminals who were so violent that they weren't allowed to raise them, but apparently, the criminal ran through their blood. Kaalo stepped forward "Looks like I was right girls, I did overhear that Senko's running off with the freak."

Vonna's right hand was on the strap of the bag. She clenched it tighter in attempt to control her anger as Laa gave a "Ha Ha" laugh while Yanu's laugh was more "Huh Huh". She calmed herself further by reminding herself that she could easily beat the 3 of them in a fight as she was a firebender in training and the 3 of them were non-benders with no formal training whatsoever. All the fighting they had were Yanu's punches that didn't require firebending to be deflected.

"What are you 3 doing here?" Senko asked annoyed of their constant, what felt like to him, stalking.

"We could ask you the same!" Yanu said in attempt to retaliate like her friends did, only for Senko and Vonna to just stare at her with bored expressions. Vonna then said "Er, I'm more than positive your friend just said what we're doing here."

Kaalo turned her head to Yanu. Senko and Vonna couldn't see what she was doing, but they faintly heard her whisper harshly "Let me and Laa doing the talking!"

Yanu nodded her head slightly, possibly to seem like she wasn't nodding. Kaalo then turned her head back to the pair as Laa said "To answer your question Senko, we're here to stop you from making a big mistake."

Senko put a hand on his forehead and gave an "Ugh." Vonna understood why; they gave him a headache as they always flirted with him and wouldn't leave him alone. If he and Vonna ever got so much as 10 seconds alone, it would always be treasured as it was incredibly rare to get. Senko then sarcastically asked "And what mistake would that be?"

Laa looked stunned, but not on purpose."Um, running off with her, of course." she answered while gesturing her open left palm out to Vonna. Senko's voice remained as passive as usual; Vonna admired him for being able to do that as it would be impossible for her to talk to the trio in a civilised manner "I'm not making any mistakes; this could only be classed as a mistake if I was running off with one of you 3." he said gesturing to them with his head. Vonna found it hard to hold back a snort of derision as some of it escaped her mouth. Kaalo then said suspiciously calmly "You know what ladies, I think we should let them leave; we won't be able to stop them."

Laa and Yanu were taken back by this, but Vonna and Senko weren't fooled by this; they didn't say, but they both knew she was about to insult Vonna and they were right as Kaalo took a step forward to Vonna and said while softly resting a hand lightly on her left shoulder "Here's some last advice Vonna: you might want to get a new wig as the one you're currently wearing isn't helping to cover your ugly bald head."

Laughter burst from all 3 girls. Yanu was laughing so hard that she looked as if she would fall on her back and roll left to right laughing. Vonna longed to smash Kaalo's mouth to the point where the girl could never insult anyone ever again. She realised the girl's hand was still on her shoulder and couldn't control herself for any longer. Releasing the bag strap, she roughly pushed the girl by her collarbone so hard that she fell screaming into the other girls who joined her falling into a large mud puddle that was behind them. As the girls were ewwing at themselves and looking like babies going to the toilet in their diapers, Vonna and Senko smiled as they recalled the rain from last night that prevented them from leaving sooner. They weren't happy with the rain at first, but Senko raised his fists into the air and looked up to he sun as he shouted "THANK! YOU! RAIN!"

Vonna then panicked a little; though what he said was appropriate-sounding, it may have been loud enough to wake up the head of the orphanage. She grabbed Senko's right arm down and said "Let's go Senko!" in a hushed tone. The 2 of them leaped over the mud puddle the girls were still in and ran with Vonna still holding Senko's arm. They heard the distant commotion and refused to turn around and decrease their chances of getting to Harbour City undetected. They finally made it to a boat, were finally free and finally heading to start a new and happy life together.


"It seemed like we were never going to have anymore problems in life; I still find it hard to believe that that life with my husband existed. He proposed to me the moment we moved into our new home and we got married a week later." Vonna concluded with a sad smile while the girls couldn't believe that this happened in Vonna's past. Everything seemed to have a happy turnout; so how could she have ended up in a mental asylum? As Vonna looked up to see the girl's expressions, she knew what they were thinking "You're all wondering how those events could've happened in my life, right?"

Zirin, Tanni and Fenang nodded in union while Pashi and Shiki looked to the ground as they were trying to prevent tears from coming from their eyes. It worked even though they wanted to shed a few, but they couldn't. All they could do was feel heir throats clog up with the knowledge of how Vonna was committed. Fenang couldn't remain silent; she asked the question on everyone's mind "If you had wonderful memories like that and escaped a terrible life to be married to your soul mate, what did you do that got you locked up in a mental asylum?"

Vonna stared at the girls, dropping her posh accent and said in a voice the girls not only didn't recognise, but made the hairs on the back of their necks stand up "I killed the people who not only killed my husband... but also kidnapped... my infant daughter."