The Missing Parents Club

Adoption day

Oscar:

Have you ever heard the word Adversity? It means a difficult or unpleasant situation. My day was adversity. Let's start with how I woke up, the usual. Pots, pans, ice-cold water, and a very loud Nora.

"Wake up!~" shouted Nora and banged her pot and pan together "C' mon sleepyhead or else~" threatened Emerald getting a glass that was surely filled with icy water dangerously close to me. I bolted right up and jumped out of the bed "I'm up! I'm up!" I exclaimed. Emerald and Nora laughed. We have a running joke, whoever wakes up last will get cold water to their faces.

I looked around and saw that only Ruby was sleeping. Emerald chuckled evilly and-SPLASH! Ruby screamed and chased Emerald around the room until finally, they both calmed down. Ren and Nora had already gone down to breakfast and Mercury's prosthetics were gone so I guess he went with them. I got a towel from the bathroom and passed it to Ruby, she thanked me and Neo snapped her fingers to get our attention. We all looked at her as she started signing.

'Ready to go to Fire?' I raised an eyebrow confused, I had been improving on my sign language but I'm pretty sure Neo didn't want to jump into a fire pit. "What?" I asked Ruby and Emerald just shrugged. Neo rolled her eyes and did the movements again but slowly this time.

'Ready to go to Hell?' this time I understood "Oh-, Yeah that makes more sense," I admitted while Emerald and Ruby chuckled. We went down the stairs took some turns and finally reached the kitchen were Ren, as usual, was on a stool so he could reach the stove cooking, Nora, as usual, was eating the food before it even got served, and Mercury was fooling around. I went to help Ren and got a stool of my own while Ruby kept Nora away from our food and Emerald and Neo went to join Mercury.

"So where's Joe, Nancy, and Luke?" asked Ruby whilst sitting on the counter "They left a few minutes ago said they didn't want any breakfast and that they want to be in the courtyard early" answered Nora "They seriously believe this year will be any different?" asked Emerald "Yep," said Mercury poping the 'P'. The courtyard was where Adoption Day was held, we usually used it as playing grounds. I looked around and saw everyone's gloomy faces, adoption day was just false hope for us.

Neo signed 'Well it doesn't matter even if someone does come they won't choose a mute freak like me' we all looked at each other, Neo's dad had really broken her. Emerald and Ruby hugged her from the sides "Don't say that Neo, you're an amazing person" assured Ruby. Emerald nodded "Yeah! And besides what's the rush, we're only five we've got plenty of years to get adopted" I hopped off my stool just as Mercury joined the conversation "We should probably eat now" he suggested. "Gurd Ideea," said Nora with a mouth already full of bacon, we laughed and ate.

Soon enough we had to go outside everything looked like it looked every day, the tall green trees surrounding the orphanage were there along with the black metal fence but the main doors were open, something that only happened on Adoption day, or when the delivery truck came.

Joe, Nancy, and Luke were playing catch by one of the trees they were 5 years older than us, so ten. Joe was obviously the one trying to catch them, Joe had black short spiky hair and vibrant blue eyes. Nancy and Luke were running around trying to avoid getting caught. Nancy had red wavy hair and green eyes she was very pale with a lot of freckles. Finally Luke had blonde hair, blue eyes, and a scar across the face. He would never tell us how he got it.

(A/N: Not my art)

We approached them just in time to see Joe catch Luke and all of them fall on the floor.

"Hello!" chirped Ruby

"Hi!" Shouted Nora

"Hello" greeted Ren

"Sup," said Emerald and Mercury jaded

'Hello' signed Neo

"Nancy, Luke, Joe how are you?" I asked. Nancy and Luke answered "Fine" and Joe looked at us "Fine but today, Joane" I nodded. Joe/Joane had taught us that some people didn't like to stick to one gender and so some days we call Joe Joane or Joane Joe. Anyway, we had a bit of small talk but then parted ways and we went to our usual spot. A very big tree at the edge of the fence we liked to climb it but always only got 'till the half since we couldn't reach the next branches.

A few hours passed and we were still on the tree, Ruby and I were at the roots of the tree reading. Yes, we did know how to read Ms. Mellicaid taught us very young she said reading was an amazing thing to do and that books were one of the most powerful weapons alongside the knowledge they bring. "Ugh~ this is useless and so boring" complained Nora, she was lying on the highest tree branch we could reach (The third one) with Mercury. Ren was meditating on the lowest branch, Emerald was to my left playing with her yo-yo a birthday present from Ms. Mellicaid and she was actually pretty good with it. Lastly, Neo was playing with her umbrella to Ruby's right, the umbrella was the only thing she had brought with her when she ran away.

"Hey, look at the bright side, we don't have to do any chores or have school," said Mercury. Usually, we wake up, have breakfast, do two hours of chores, by then it's already nine, Ms. Mellicaid homeschools us 'till one, we have lunch, and then the rest of the afternoon free. We usually just play around the courtyard. That has been our schedule for as long as I can remember, and I'm not complaining I don't mind doing chores and being homeschooled is fun, Ms. Mellicaid is a very smart person. She was going to become a teacher but then decided to help her dad maintain his orphanage, he died a few years ago. I don't remember Ms. Mellicaid says Ruby and I were just babies when it happened.

As expected no one came by in Adoption Day, Ms. Mellicaid said she was sorry and promised us that next year will be different, she always did this. After that horrible morning, we played for the rest of the afternoon until it was dinner and then curfew. 

I like our schedule, it only changes on Adoption Day, Christmas, Halloween, and Easter holidays. It was the same routine every day and everything was 'normal' until one day when we were 7 we went exploring in the forest near the orphanage and that's where we found it.