2;
"Ellie! Come on, let's go! We're going to be late!"
Ellie's room wasn't decorated in a way typical of a teenage girl's. There were no cliché pink accents, magazine cut outs, or frilly rug. It was perpetually free of clutter and more closely resembled that of a hotel room complete with bland beige walls. Her bed was always made and even a few generic landscape pictures hung lazily from the walls. She had few of her own possessions placed around, but otherwise her room could be easily mistaken as vacant. She didn't quite understand the lifestyle, but was slowly accustoming herself with it.
She was standing in the bathroom and messing with her reddish-brown brown hair when she heard the muffled call from downstairs. She sighed before grabbing her shoes and then headed out of her room. She walked the long hallway and took a left at the stairs and hurried down, stopping at the open front door. Through the door's frame she could see the sun's last rays disappearing over the horizon. They colored the drizzling storm clouds overhead a painting-like combination of oranges and purples, leaving the sky blacker every second as it slowly dipped down.
"About time. The weather looks like it's going to get worse and your teachers aren't going to be happy if we show up late." She sighed as she observed the girl's neutral face. "You don't care do you?"
"Not a bit."
"Well I do. Here, let me look at you." Ellen leaned forward to get on an even level with Ellie. She reached forward and tucked some stray hairs behind the girl's ear with a smile. "Your freckles are adorable."
"Oh my god. Can we go now?"
"Okay, okay. Let's get in the car."
.~~~.
Ellie's birth parents, Anna her mother, father unknown, gave her up shortly after she was born. Before she came along they lived day to day in perpetual anxiety about where or even how they'd be able to get their next fix. They weren't bad people, but they made a series of poor choices that led to them being unfit to care themselves, let alone a new child.
The state held all of the records concerning Ellie's parents, of which were given in brief to her foster parents who agreed between themselves to not tell her. The decision suited Ellie fine since they weren't a part of her life and she had no interest in finding out why they gave her up. They could be living in a mansion, homeless addicts, or dead in a ditch off the side of the road for all she cared.
When the mother made the ultimate decision to drop her new daughter off at the nearest hospital, Ellie instantly became absorbed into the long list of faceless children belonging to the foster care system. For her entire early life she would live in an orphanage, the only place that she could even remotely call home.
The building itself was built in the late 1700s in a colonial architectural style. The entire exterior was built up from a bright red brick, which acted as insulation against the extremes of weather, and was accented with white decorative pieces that were clearly worn away from time. The interior was laid out on two floors. The first was the ground floor which housed the kids' beds, an office for the caretaker of the building, a sleeping quarter for a staff member, and the great room which served as an entertainment area and cafeteria for the orphans.
The second floor was the basement which mainly served as storage for the building. It housed the food supply as well as miscellaneous objects and repair items.
The sleeping quarters on the ground floor was laid out in a pattern not unlike what would be found in the overflow room at a prison. The bunk beds were lined up in a precise pattern of rows and columns in order to maximize the number of orphans capable of living in the building at any given time.
The orphanage itself was proudly named 'Gateway Orphanage' by its original caretaker in order to emphasize the idea that this was just a stepping stone to something greater. The irony, however, was not lost on the kids as they knew that by the time they turned eighteen they would be kicked out and most likely end up on the streets fending for themselves.
As the years went by, Ellie grew into a shy child, making friends hesitantly and cautiously whenever presented the rare opportunity. The idea of friendship was made worse due to the constantly possibility of being fostered out, for both her and potential friends, and suddenly being unable to see them again.
The staff at the orphanage was the closest thing she could consider her family. She always counted on seeing them every morning and every day without worry of disappearance, something that she used as a constant source of stability in her life. It also helped stave away the feeling of discouragement and hopelessness that frequently arose from her inability to be accepted.
She, seemingly to her, had countless interviews with different families all looking to either foster or adopt children from the orphanage. They were always courteous and polite to her, asking whatever questions they had, and then send her on her way so they could have the same conversations with other children. Initially she was hopeful and confident each time she left the room, but time wore heavily on her outlook. As the years went by she learned to not have any expectations, changing her from an optimist into a pessimist.
Many years later she turned thirteen, a teenager and a milestone for most children. Though at the orphanage, little resources were expended on deemed trivial occasions like birthdays. A couple members from the staff and a few children gathered around to sing the traditional happy birthday song and made her a small cake topped with a lit candle.
At the end of that month she had another meeting set up with a couple in their mid-thirties that was looking for someone older like herself. She prevented herself from feeling hopeful and went in to talk with them with a strained smile. It was the standard round of questions she's answered a hundred times before, was thanked for her time, and sent on her way.
However, this time was different and within a few months she was packing up her clothes and stuffing them into a travel bag. She zipped it up and walked through the front door she thought she'd never get the opportunity to permanently leave through.
With a mild form of an emotion she hadn't felt in a long time she hugged her new parents who were waiting just outside. Thomas, the husband, grabbed the bag from her and the three of them walked back to the car waiting nearby.
Ellen, the wife, was grinning from ear to ear the entire time. "I'm so excited to finally have a daughter. We're going to do so many things together. Just us girls."
Ellie was still caught up in the whirlwind and could only manage to return a faint smile.
All three got into the car, Thomas and Ellen in the front with Ellie in the back, and then shut their doors. Ellen turned the ignition and pulled out of the parking lot. Ellie turned around in her seat and watched through the back window as the building that had been her home for the last thirteen years, her entire life, slowly began to shrink into the distance.
"Happy to be leaving, Ellie?" He asked out of anticipation of an expected answer.
She didn't say anything, she couldn't. Watching the building that had left her so emotionally empty vanish into the distance left her speechless.
.~~~.
The three of them stood idly under the porch's awning with the door locked behind them. They prepared themselves against the drizzle the blanketing storm clouds were releasing, of which showed no signs of waning in any capacity.
"Ready?"
"Can't we just get the umbrella?"
"Too late, let's go!" Thomas laughed as he hit the unlock button for the car and ran towards it with his head down.
The other two were caught off guard and were soon, too, running toward it with their hands over their heads. They threw open the doors and jumped in, bringing their now irritated attitudes with them. The girls managed to simultaneously groan at the condition the rain left their hair.
Ellen tilted her head to the left and stuck out a hand behind her. "Give me the comb would you, Ellie? I might be able to salvage something here."
"Hold up, me first."
Ellen let her head hit the back of the seat with a sigh prompting Thomas to intervene in his own way.
"You both still look lovely, try not to worry about it so much for tonight."
"Says the man who doesn't even have to try."
He rolled his eyes and started up the car.
They were nearly halfway to their destination after ten minutes of driving and the storm clouds had noticeably picked up in strength. The streets became slick and the traffic was moving along at about half of its normal pace. The watery surface did, however, present itself stunningly by reflecting the city lights surrounding them.
Thomas grunted and put the wiper setting to nearly their highest level in hopes of gathering what little vision he could out of the windshield. "Thirty percent chance of rain my ass. Look at this, it's a damn storm."
Ellen agreed and turned around to face Ellie who was staring intently out the side window. "So... what can we expect to hear from your teachers tonight? How amazing, smart, and wonderful you are?" She mockingly grinned at her.
Ellie shook her head with her own smile. "I doubt that."
She wasn't sure what they would say, but she knew it wouldn't be about her grades as she was doing fine. And aside from personally not liking the other students nor most of her teachers, she never gave them any reason to dislike her.
A short time later the car pulled into the parking lot of Ellie's middle school, 'Mary Anning Academy,' and found a spot near the center. It was packed with the cars of other parents who were all in mixed states of mind. Some were anxious about their children's performance review, some excited, like Ellen, and others annoyed to be here on their own time.
Through the water streaming down their windows they could see a large white banner hanging above the main entryway into the school that read 'Parent-Teacher Conference Tonight.'
"We should've brought an umbrella." Thomas spoke out without thinking.
Ellen shot him a look of annoyance. "No shit."
"We'll be fine, we just have to move quickly."
"Again, says the man."
He groaned and leaned himself away from the seat. "Fine, you can use my coat to cover your precious hair if you want."
Ellen was about to retaliate when a voice from behind her cut her off. "What about me? What am I going to do?"
He turned around to look at Ellie and immediately smiled. "Do me a favor would ya? Reach behind your head and tell me what you find."
She looked confused but followed his order and quickly found the top of a hood from the jacket she was wearing. "Don't say it."
"Dork."
"Come on you two. We're late as it is."
Ellie pulled the hood over her head and tugged on its strings tightly. Thomas finished taking off the coat he was wearing and passed it to Ellen who promptly positioned it over her head with both hands. He peered out through the windshield again and spotted scattered groups of people still shuffling in through the main doors, no doubt made late by the weather as well.
He looked around at the two girls and opened up his door. "Alright, let's go."