Time || m.c. (on hold)

2:00

He bounded down the spiral stair case. He needed to get out of that stuffy room. He had already cleaned up the mess that one of the other boys had made all over the room, but it wasn't enough. Even ripping the note to shreds wasn't going to cure the fact that he was told to kill himself. He was told to just end it all and jump out of the third story window onto the cold, hard pavement

He turned a corner, forgetting what he was doing, and almost tripped as he passed the owner of the Home holding a fascinating girl with bright red hair that you could pull out of a crowd of a thousand people, by the wrist.. They both turned around to look at each other, enough time for him to get a good look at her perfectly proportioned nose that was showered in the perfect amount of little freckles.
______

He took a long drag as he sat on the porch steps thing about the strawberry haired girl, the colour matching similarly to his own.

He rubbed the ember on the concrete beside him, flicking the bud into the bush next to him, looking around, dusting himself off, and walking back inside as if nothing had ever happened.

When he walked into the cafeteria he immediately saw the girl, proving his thought right - he could pick her out of any crowd. He then noticed the empty seat next to her, then the ones all around her. He didn't fully understand why no one wanted to sit with her. She was beautiful, he thought. Usually whenever they get new arrivals they have their one day of fame then they fall into whatever category seems fit for their personality or looks.

Michael fit into the outcast category. Party of one. As he grabbed a tray and filled it with whatever slop was on the line up today, he stalked over to where the girl was sitting and sat two seats down from her.

She glanced up at him and he smiled, earning a small giggle from her. His confidence double at that moment, for he had never hd a girl even smile in his direction no matter what he did to humiliate himself.

He ate silently as he continuously noticed the fiery haired beauty glance at him through his peripheral vision. He shifted his weight to face her, giving the stranger his full attention (and that doesn't happen often).

The Girl followed suit, placing her hands in her lap after wiping them off with a napkin.

"So," the boy asked her, feeling all to awkward and self confidence lowering quickly.

"So." She replied. "I'm Opal. I just got here."

He noticed she talked quietly. He wondered what she thought of him. Did she think he was a bad guy? Did she think he would hurt her? He wouldn't know.

"Michael," he stated. "You were the girl on the stairs... yesterday."

"Yes, that was me. I still have a bruise from where that lady was dragging me by my wrist." Opal rubbed her hand and chuckled.

"She is kind of pushy," he agreed laughing with her.

"You know, you're the first person thats talked to me all day." Opal sighed and looked at her lap.

"That's weird. You're the first person to have a full conversation with me all month." Michael took a bite of the first thing he found with his fork.

Opal looked concerned for the boy in front of her now, for she deemed him her new, well only, friend was was determined to find out his life story and make it all up to him, as she never had a life to make up.

"What is this place?" Opal asked Michael as she looked around at all of the childeren here.

"An insane asylum," Michael explained. "But I believe the proper name is the Shady Oaks Foster Home or some that like that."