Well hello everybody. Happy New Year. Here is the first chapter of the year- enjoy.

Thanks to Fanatic1234 for reviewing.

There is a risk I have called Maya Annie at some point. I have another story ("The little girl") with a girl named Annie and sometimes mixed it up and wrote it wrong.

He'll most likely never be in the story in person. But I've decided that Maya's dad- Nicholas Connally is portrayed by actor Joshua Jackson. And like before Maya is portrayed by Chloe East.

Mike POV

Whenever someone new arrived at the dumping ground, the first couple of days seemed a bit chaotic with all the paper work, who would them share room with, getting used to sharing, what chair by the kitchen table and everything else that came with every child and adult in the whole house to get to know the new child.

And when Maya arrived the whole story repeated itself. Except some of the children needed to learn not to stare at her whenever they were in the same room. Only because Maya didn't look like the others with all of those burn scars it was like everybody had forgotten that only staring 24/7 was not okay.

But then of course, things started going back to normal. The children's curiosity on how all of those scars looked when they came up close faded. Maya was sharing with Candi-Rose but was better friends with Jody and they also went to school together. Being friends with Jody she also made friends with Tyler quite a bit. And there was nobody in the house who seemed to simply dislike her. And that was always a problem if someone did with a new child.

Yet I couldn't let the feeling go that something was about to go very, very wrong. I seldom got feelings like this. But now I had it and it was driving me crazy. Maybe it was because Maya had been ill right when she arrived. Maybe it was because of all of those scars and how the children would react to it. But that feeling just wouldn't leave me alone.

Yet the clock kept on ticking like always. The days kept going by, the summer had turned into autumn and that constant raining. Not a day went by without at least one child coming from school looking like a drowned rat. And the children (and May-Li and I for that matter) were driving each other crazy from staying inside at all times.

Oh, and Jody joined the dance team in school.

Often she still tried to act like she didn't like it or wanted to spend time with all of those girls. But every single one of the two times a week she took her bag and went to the school gym I did notice a small hop in her steps that hadn't been there before.

So despite annoyed fights, children not wanting to do chores and our newest child being one of the most silent I had ever met. Well that was except for Milly who had been here years ago. The dumping ground was still… the dumping ground. And I wouldn't expect any big changes unless there came a new kid at some moment.

There weren't any new kids…

But one day in the beginning of the mid-term holidays there was a knock on the office door when I would have least expected it.

"Hello Archie." I couldn't help but smile when our youngest resident knocked on the door. I had expected him to smile back but he didn't. Instead he just looked nervous in a way that had me worried. "What's up buddy? Is there something you want to talk about?" Archie hesitated, then nodded barely noticeable. "In private?" He nodded again. "Well come in then. Close the door after you."

Archie tip-toed into the room and carefully closed the door after him. As if he did it too fast or two loud some monster would come and hear him doing it. Then he carefully tip-toed over to the couch and sat down.

"We talked about secrets at school the other day…" Archie refused to look at neither me nor May-Li, instead he looked to his hands which he was twisting towards each other in his lap. This wasn't like him, I hadn't seen him like this before. "…And Mrs. Tessa told us that sometimes, if someone tells us not to tell an adult about some things. Then that when we should do it the most. Because some of those things can hurt people and adults are there to help us and stop it from hurting."

Archie finally, nervously looked up on first May-Li, then me, then he looked down again. And I showed May-Li to be quiet. If we interrupted or startled him right now it might all be gone. And if it was worth keeping something secret then it was probably important.

"That night. When Maya first around here… When she was ill. I heard her go outside and followed her. She was standing in the shed. She was throwing up again. But what was weird was that she was holding her fingers in her mouth. It was like she was trying to catch it or stop it. Then when she gagged she just pushed her hand further into her mouth until she threw up. And she told me not to tell anyone. I have heard and seen her going outside at night more times. Then heard her coming back and heard her going to the bathroom to brush her teeth. But I don't know if she's been throwing up more times. She brushes her teeth a lot though."

Archie stopped talking. He could have said only half of what he just had. It wasn't hard to figure what was going on. Yet harder to figure what we were going to do now. Maya would need help- more than what we could give her here.

"I told her I wouldn't tell anyone. And I didn't for weeks. But today…. Well, like I said. We talked about secrets. So I figured maybe I should tell you… Do you think Maya is going to be angry with me now?"

"No Archie." May-Li had figured what to say first. "We'll talk to her. Mike, can you go and find Maya and take her here. I think we need to talk to her for a bit. And Archie." May-Li showed him to come up and look at her. "It was really, really good that you told us this. Because this is something that we need to help Maya with."

May-Li kept on talking to Archie. But I went to find Maya. Although when I found her in her and Candi-Rose's room. Reading a book and seeming far away from the now and actual world I was in. I suddenly feared.

If I chose any of the wrong words right now I would have just made it all a whole lot worse.

Fifth chapter finished in the project of trying to get all of my stories updated in the new year.

Random fact

The ending scene was actually the first scene I wrote to this chapter. Because it was actually the only part of the chapter I had planned out when I started writing the chapter.