Second Chances

This story started off as a dream. I liked it so much I wanted to make it a story.

Please comment, like and vote! And if by any chance you catch grammar or spelling errors, feel free to leave me a note so I can fix it!

Happy Reading!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    I stared at the girl in the mirror. She was around 5’7. She had wavy black hair all the way to the middle of her back, a slim figure and pale skin that complimented her brown eyes. She had small ears, a small nose and perfectly shaped pale pink lips.

    This is me, I thought. Hailey TheNoBody. Why am I called ‘TheNoBody’? It’s rather simple. Legally I’m supposed to have a last name, Crawford is mine, but I don’t necessarily use it. See, my parents died the same day they were taking me home from the hospital after being born. I was told it was a car crash and I was lucky I even survived for being a few days old. Adding to my luck, my dad was an only child and my mother had only one brother who lived outside the country and wanted nothing to do with me. That’s how I came to live here, at St. Thomas Orphanage.

    I don’t even know anything about the Crawford’s last name because I knew nothing about my parents. The only memories I have of them is from the few pictures that were given to me from the social workers. Any money they left or anything they owned is in the hands of the government until I turn eighteen.

'Only a year and a half left and I’ll be kicked out of St. Thomas, thrown into the unknown world with whatever my parents left for me', I thought.

That’s why I resented the name Crawford, it really didn’t belong to me. I thought about my parents ocassionally, but it never changed the way I felt. They were just people who brought me to life. That was it.

    St. Thomas Orphanage was a rather big place. It was two main mansions located next to each other, one for the girls and one for the boys, with different shaped houses for the nuns and caretakers on the outsides. A huge church was also near, for Sunday services, where every orphan and staff was obligated to attend. The orphanage had a gym, basketball court and soccer field for hang out. Not that many of us got to ‘hang out’ much. Nevertheless, I always had a plan to have some fun.

    I had a reputation here, and it wasn’t a very good one. Since I had been living in the orphanage my entire life, I had grown bored of the daily routines, so I always found a new way of getting in trouble. I guess that was the main reason I was never taken to foster care or adopted. I wasn’t a well behaved girl. I didn’t mind though, because most of the orphans praised me and obeyed my orders. I needed to find a way to tolerate this place and being bad was the only time I was able to stand living in the orphanage.

    St. Thomas was located outside of Lawrence, Kansas. Even though we lived a couple miles outside of Lawrence, none of the orphans knew the place. We were never allowed outside of the orphan grounds. It was a jail for unfortunate people.

    To ease my boredom, many times I tried to steal a nun’s car and leave but I was always found before I had completely left the orphanage so I always got punished by having either two extra weeks of clean up duty, or cooking. The funny thing is, I had tried to steal so many cars that I taught my self how to drive.

    The girl in the mirror was definitely someone to watch out for.

    “Hailey!” I turned around to see my closest friend here, in her gray and plain uniform standing on my door. “Are you ready? Nun Mary is coming soon to gather us.” she said in a soft bored voice.  Sarah and I had this weird feeling whenever someone called the nuns "sisters", so one day we decided to call them "nun". The word "sister" was reserved for someone who actually fitted the meaning.

    Sarah was the only friend I could truly confide with. She knew everything about me and I knew everything about her. She had straight blonde hair and pale skin to go with her blue eyes, skinny as a stick, and smarter than anyone I knew. I never really understood how we ever became friends, but I guess sharing a bunk bed had something to do with it.

    “Almost.” I replied undoing an extra button on my white shirt and lifting my skirt an inch higher. I purposely made my clothes sexier than everyone else. This was the only day girls were allowed to ‘mingle’ with the boys from the other mansion and I never took it for granted.