Brothers? 2

Chapter 9 - More People

-Tommy's POV-

I've decided the new people that run the orphanage aren't so bad. I asked Will to tell Miss Stress to change the menu, because everyone knows that Will is really good at talking to people and convincing them to do things, but Will didn't want to. He seemed to not trust the fact that Iskall and Miss Stress would actually want input from the kids and was worried that if they thought he was trying to tell them what to do, they might not like him as much and he wants to keep his reputation pretty good in case he ever has to ask them for anything important.

Or maybe I'm just overanalyzing stuff. But either way, Wilbur didn't want to do it, and when someone won't do something for you, you have to do it yourself. Or give up. But big men don't give up, and I'm a big man. So I walked over to Miss Stress' office. Except I went into Iskall's on accident the first time.

"Hello there. What can I do for you?' Iskall asked. He's actually in here? That's even more embarrassing.

"Oh sorry, sir, I was trying to get to Miss Stress' office. It's the one across the hallway, right?"

"Yes, it is. And remember, you can call me Iskall. "Sir" makes me sound too fancy. And before you leave, what's your name? I'm trying to learn the names of everyone here, but there's a lot of you." Iskall replied. I was already halfway out the door by this point, since talking to adults is always awkward. Iskall isn't too bad, and fortunately he isn't asking me a million questions and trying to start a whole conversation when I clearly am busy, but still.

"I'm Tommy. Thank you for the directions!" Then I headed across the hall. Miss Stress' door was closed, and I heard talking inside. I decided to knock anyway.

"Come in!" Miss Stress calls. I open the door and see her talking to a man I hadn't seen before. He has dirty blonde hair, a red sweater similar to the yellow one Wilbur always wears (but red obviously), and looks very relaxed and casually dressed, not like he's here for business reasons. That last fact makes me feel a little bit more okay with interrupting them.

"Hello luv, this is my friend Grian!" Miss Stress introduces.

"Oh, uh, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too! What's your name?" Grian replies. He also has a British accent, though it's different than Miss Stress'.

"I'm Tommy. I was going to ask Miss Stress a question, but it looks like now's not a good time. I can come back later."

"Oh no, it's fine. I can step out and say hi to Iskall so I don't get in your way. Before I leave, Stress, Mumbo and Scar said that they're going to stop by tomorrow." Grian responded, and left the room. I then hear a muffled "Hello Grian!" from Iskall.

Stress closes the door and asks, "What did you want to ask?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare away your guest. I was just going to ask about the dinner menu(1)."

"No, don't worry about it. Grian will be coming by a lot probably, he lives and works nearby and is very good friends of Iskall's and mine. Tell me what your opinions are of the current menu, I'm planning on changing it but have no idea what changes to make. I'd love any feedback."

I told Miss Stress about the things I like and don't like, and she listened to what I said and suggested a few other food options to replace the ones I don't like.

After I talked to her, I told Wilbur about how nice Miss Stress was. I also told him about Grian, and Wilbur said that yesterday he saw a man with black hair, a metal prosthetic arm, and with the left half of his face covered with a black metal mask with red glass for his left eye to see through. He was talking to Iskall and had a deep voice, but Iskall and him seemed to be good friends. It seems that Iskall and Miss Stress will be having their friends over sometimes here just to hang out, which I guess makes sense since they are actually living here now and don't have another house to invite guests over to. So not only do we have two new people that run this orphanage that we don't know a whole lot about, but also there are going to be other adults that we don't know but who will be around? I'm not sure what to think of that. Hopefully they're nice too.

A/Ns:

1. I realize I've been using the word "menu" here. However, this isn't like a restaurant menu where each kid can choose what food they want. I'm more using this to mean which food is being served on which day.

Chapter Word Count: 775 (sorry this is a bit shorter than usual)

Total Word Count: 828