Chapter 2: The Orphans

After Mr. Enigma was gone Mistress Mallory went back into the gymnasium and cleared her throat and the kids slowly stopped what they were doing and came over. They knew it couldn't be anything good when she did that. "What did I tell you about knives, Jeff?" She said to the eldest boy in the group, who shrugged his shoulders and put it away.

"Knives ain't for chil'ren." Jeff said in an accent that the headmistress was certain he was making worse just to spite her attempts to teach him the proper way to speak. "I ain't a 'chil'ren.' I already killed a deer, which means I'm a man."

"Aren't. Not 'Ain't.' 'I am not'. Not 'I ain't'. There is no such word as 'Ain't'." Mistress Mallory said firmly, she had decided to take his education into a proper speaker slowly. "I already said you could keep your father's knife. I said it wasn't for children, and that means you are not to take it out in front of the children. If I catch you using it around any of the others again, I will confiscate it. Have I made myself clear?"

"Yep." Jeff said as he raised a single eyebrow and crossed his arms defiantly.

"'Yes ma'am'." Mistress Mallory said even more firmly while she considered washing his mouth out with soap to get the point across. "Not 'yep'." After this she turned towards Jimmy. "You'll be happy to know that you've made quite the impression on Mr. Enigma. He was so impressed with you that he finally figured out why he was here."

"What I do?" Jimmy asked in surprise as he leapt up, his usual smile growing even broader.

"You were just you Jimmy, and it worked." Kyle said as he patted Jimmy on the shoulder in congratulations.

"Gonna miss ya squirt!" Jeff said as he grabbed Jimmy in a head lock and began to rub his fist in circles on Jimmy's head.

"OW!" Jimmy cried in protest and Jeff released him while laughing. Jeff's mirth lasted only until Mistress Mallory boxed Jeff's ear. Jeff protested in pain for a moment as the other children, including Jimmy, got a laugh at his expense.

"Ow. I was jus' playin'." Jeff protested as he stopped rubbing his ear. The headmistress snorted in contentment and then turned to walk out of the room.

"Mistress?" Jaeger asked, stepping forwards to the surprise of the headmistress. "It's great that Jimmy got adopted...I mean...," she said as she looked at Jimmy, who looked confused about why Jaeger wasn't happy for him. "I'll miss him...but..." By then the headmistress saw where this was probably going. Not more than a minute ago they had learned Jimmy would have to leave behind everyone at the orphanage for a man he'd just met.

"Don't worry about Mr. Enigma. He is a well respected gentleman from the Kingdom of Argus. I had my doubts about him too, but I feel that he'll be a good parent. You should be happy that Jimmy will be going to a better home," The headmistress explained as if she had memorized the speech to the point it had lost all of its meaning. "Besides, he'll still be here for at least a few more days. You have plenty of time to say good-bye." And with that she turned to leave again.

"That's not what I wanted to talk to you about. I wanted to know why you didn't let Nick out of his room to meet Mr. Enigma." Jaeger said stubbornly as she planted her hands on her hips.

Mistress Mallory stopped dead in her tracks. She had completely forgotten that she had placed Nick in time out.

"I hadn't thought about him," She said as she took out her key ring and selected the key to Nick's room. "I suppose I should let him out."

No matter how much a child misbehaved, Mistress Mallory was not the type of person that would have kept a child from being able to find a good home. Already the thought that she had denied Nick the same chance every child deserved haunted her. Her only comfort was the fact that the gentlemen would not have picked any of the children except for Jimmy...then again Nick and Jimmy had the most in common with one another...

She finally arrived at Nick's room and she unlocked and opened it to find that Nick's small room had become a disaster area and her mouth dropped in shock and disgust. Nick had made a fort out of his mattress and pillows on one side of the room, and the green and white sheets were sprayed about on the floor and Nick appeared to have placed several of Jeff's carved monsters and toys on the sheets. Nick himself was waving around one of the carvings as if he was fighting off something invisible. The only things still orderly in Nick's room were his small collection of books that were still on his shelf.

"DIE!" Nick cried in what was obviously supposed to be an evil sounding voice, but was just a lower pitch of Nick's usually high pitched squell. "DON'T WANNA!" Nick responded in his own voice, only louder than usual, as he threw the piece onto the ground and then started jumping on it.

As Nick destroyed Jeff's toy, Mistress Mallory entered the room, which caused Nick to gasp.

"No! You fool!" Nick bellowed in his game voice. "You can't come in here! The Hexonians might get away!"

Nick suddenly rushed past all the toys and pushed Mistress Mallory out of the room forcibly and much more roughly than a person her age should be handled. Nick slammed the door and she heard the distinct sound of the door lock. The headmistress just stared for a few moments at the door and then shook her head. The boy had turned time-out into a game he didn't want interrupted.

Ordinarily she would have gone in there and demanded that he clean his room that instant, but not this time. As the headmistress turned around to check on the younger children, she was unaware that she didn't feel as guilty about not giving Nick the opportunity to meet Mr. Enigma anymore. She had the feeling he could be just as happy if he lived in a cave in the wilderness as if he were to live in the Crystal Palace itself.