Annie

So, broadwaybabewa and I have come up with this idea. Basically the concept of Annie, but instead of Annie, the main character is April Rhodes… crazy right. The people who find her is the imaginary family we have created for Will Schuester. This is the family we use in our other stories. And you're never gonna believe who portrays Ms. Hannigan!

PREVIOUSLY

I feel so bad for her. She's been through way too much, and no one's really taken care of her. she probably gets sick a lot because they didn't take care of her. I want her know she doesn't have to take care of herself when she's sick like she used to. She's so tired she could barely keep her eyes open when she was talking to me.

I sit with her until she falls asleep and quietly leave her room, with the door cracked. I think when she's feeling better I'm gonna take her to get some things to redecorate the room, that way it'll help her feel more like she belongs.

DEBBIE & GREG'S APARTMENT

Debbie's POV

I walk back into the living room and thankfully Greg is sitting on the couch reading. "I need you to do me a favor.." I tell him.

"what is it?" he asks.

"April's getting a little sick. Think you could go pick up some medicine for her?" I ask him.

"sure" he says, putting his book down on the coffee table.

"oh, and I think she'd like a stuffed animal too. She's been sucking her thumb a little, I think she needs something to hold onto." I tell him, she has absolutely nothing. Except the tattered clothes she's wearing.

"okay.."

"we both know she had nothing at that orphanage. I'm just glad she's with us now and those other girls are gonna get taken care of better" I reply.

"yeah.." he says, grabbing his wallet, shoes and keys.

"maybe pick up some cough drops too. Her cough is getting pretty deep" I suggest, I might take her to a doctor. She's probably never really been and I wanna make sure everything's okay.

"okay. I'll go find some" he says, heading towards the door.

"alright. She's sleepin now, but I want her to take the medicine soon" I tell him.

"okay. I'll go buy it and the stuffed animal." he replies.

"I think a lot of this has to do with her being out in the snow so long"

"yeah probably.." he says.

"and she's so tired. I have a feeling that lady probably overworked them" I reply, I could just see the exhaustion on her face when she went to bed last night.

"I think she did" he says, shaking his head, there's at least ten more innocent girls there that are just as tired as her but don't have nice warm beds to sleep in. Or clothes that are appropriate for the weather.

"I'm gonna try to talk to her when she's feelin better.." I need to know what things were like there so I can help Kim fix the place up.

"okay…" he replies. Knowing that the more we know the better we can help those girls get what they need.

"did she have anything with her when you found her?" I ask, even though I kinda already know the answer.

"not really" he replies, I can tell he's not happy with the condition of the orphanage.

"That's another thing I'm gonna do when she's feelin better, take her shopping" I tell him, even though he gets a little angry when I take Kim's girls shopping since I tend to spend a little more money than I should.

"she needs it, she doesn't have anything." He says. She doesn't even have a coat, so it'll be hard getting her out in the cold, since she was shivering so much when he brought her in.

"and it's almost Christmas. Please tell me we're keeping her through the holidays" I ask him. I don't want her to go back before then, she needs to have at least one good Christmas at some point when she's a kid.

"yeah we are." He replies, smiling. We weren't gonna do much for Christmas this year, but now that we have her I wanna make it really special.

"okay. It's almost like she's scared of the orphanage" I tell him. She's still curled up in bed, and I think she's afraid to get up because she probably thinks she won't be able to lay in bed again.

"I think she is. She asked me not to take her back when I found her" he tells me. I want to do whatever it takes to keep her, and maybe adopt her. she's so sweet, she just needs to be in the right environment and I think she'll be fine.

"I'm worried about the other girls there. But I'm sure the police are gonna get it taken care of" I say, if they're anything like April, they're probably really scared, and lonely. I wish we could take in one more girl, but it would be a lot.

"yeah.. they should be doing something soon." He says. I haven't been to the orphanage, but from what he told me, it's not in good condition. Maybe there's something I can do to help those girls.

"Okay. I want her to have the medicine when she wakes up, so you should probably go ahead and get it" I tell him.

"yeah.." he says, putting on his coat.

"thanks. I'm gonna start working on Christmas plans since we have her…"

"okay" he says, walking out of the apartment.

He returns about an hour later with some medicine and a teddy bear for her.

I take the bear from him and walk into her room. She's still curled up under the covers and sleeping. I gently put the bear by her on the bed and she reaches for it and starts to wake up, "wha…" she mumbles.

I rub her back, "shhh, honey. It's okay"

She's quiet and grabs the teddy bear.

"Can you sit up for me so you can take some medicine?" I ask her.

She slowly sits up, her blond hair is matted and really needs to be brushed. It's just gonna take a while to get it healthy again.

"how're you feelin sweetie?" I ask her. She looks a little better, but I can still tell she's tired.

"okay.." she says. She's just not used to people trying to take care of her, so she doesn't know what to say. I think I'm gonna have to work with her a little and see where she is academically, and just with everything.

"How's your throat feelin?"

"it hurts a little" she says.

I'm just gonna have to help her put the pieces together. She just doesn't know what to say. I show her the cup of purple medicine and she just looks at it.

"it's okay if you take this sweetie, it's gonna help you feel better" I explain. She's probably never really had medicine before.

She hesitantly sips the medicine and makes a face. I know it doesn't taste good, but it'll help her, and I just wanna make sure it doesn't turn into more than a little cold.

"are you still feeling sleepy?" I ask her.

"yeah" she says, yawning. This makes me worry if she's ever slept through the night.

"when was the last time you got a good nights sleep honey?"

"uhm.." she mumbles, trying to think.

I gently squeeze her shoulder, "it's okay sweetie. You can stay in bed today"

"mmk…" she yawns. I wish those other girls were at homes where they'd be taken care of. But I know if we let Kim take over, she'd take really good care of the girls and get them the structure and attention that they need.

"are you feeling like eating anything?" I'm sure she's hungry, she didn't eat much last night and the last thing she had was at IHOP with Greg.

"yeah.." she says, happy that I've offered that option to her.

"what can I get you?" She may not know what everything is since they really weren't fed, so I think she's gonna be pretty willing to eat almost anything.

"uhm…" she mumbles again. I can tell she's thinking, but the words just aren't there. I think if I showed her a few things she'd start to understand more of what's going on.

"wanna come see if there's anything you wanna eat?" I suggest, I'm sure she'll want to try new things.

She nods, and I help her up from the bed. When I open the refrigerator she looks into it with wide eyes and isn't really sure what she can eat. Her eyes settle on the pasta that I'd made last night for her that she didn't really eat much of. She hesitantly points to it, and then tries to reach it off the shelf but can't.

"do you want the pasta sweetheart?" I ask her.

"yeah.." she mumbles, reaching for it again, but looks frustrated when she can't get to it.

"okay. I'll get it honey…" I say, taking the bowl out of the refrigerator. She tries to smile, and then reaches for it.

"I'm gonna warm it up okay sweetie. It'll be ready in a few seconds.." I explain. This makes me wonder if they had to fight each other for food, when they did get it since there probably wasn't enough to feed all of them.

She just looks at me and sits at the table. I'm not really sure how I'm gonna see where she is academically. She should be in either 4th or 5th grade, but she may be too far behind for me to enroll her right away.

I bring her the pasta after it finishes heating up and she smiles, and starts eating right away. "have you ever been to school sweetie?" I ask her.

"I don't remember the last time I went. I think it was before I went to that scary place" she tells me, taking a sip of the juice.

"would you like to go back to school?" I ask, maybe they could test her and see where she is developmentally.

She looks at me and gives me a tiny smile, "yeah.."

"okay. It's winter break right now but when school starts again you can go.." I explain to her. This gives me some time to work with her and try to get her caught up. We may have to hold her back a year, and she probably has some developmental delays and is probably gonna struggle a lot.

"mmk.. we never got to go to school… but I think we were supposed to" she says, struggling a little to say all the words correctly.

"I'm gonna talk to one of my friends that works at the school, and get you signed up. It'll be okay.." I tell her. She's probably gonna have to go through some testing and maybe a little speech therapy, but I think she should be fine.

"kay.." she mumbles and continues to eat. I'm glad she told me this because now I know that those other girls are probably struggling academically as well and we need to get them caught up.

There's gonna be so many things we have to work on with each girl, but it'll be so much better for them in the long run. I want to talk to Greg and see if we can adopt her, she'd be much better off if we kept her so she could have some consistency while she's catching up to where she needs to be.

A/N: Sorry it's been so long. School is kicking my butt and other stories are occupying me. I've got some great ideas for this story, and since my major is speech pathology and special education, I will be throwing a lot of that kind of information in here, since it kinda has to do with the girls at the orphanage. I hope you enjoy this chapter and this story! Please review if you have any ideas.