Fireheart

Strange Relatives: Chapter 1

My name is Jess Fireheart. I am 5'6" with golden hair and orange eyes. My eyes are what scare most people away, because no one else has eyes like mine. My brother Jay, who is two years younger than me, he has strawberry golden hair, tan skin, and was way more attractive than me, but his eyes are a brilliant shade of green. My brother is the only family I know I have. We don't know who our parents are or where we came from. I grew up in an orphanage with my younger brother and no one knows anything about us other than our names and the fact that we showed up on the doorstep of Lost Angels orphanage with a note that said

Take care of my son and daughter one day we will return to find them. The girl's name Jessaphine Fireheart and was born 6/6/11. The boy's name is Jaylen Fireheart and was born 3/3/13. Keep them safe. Someone will be there when Jessaphine is 16. Tell them their mother loves them and is sorry I can't be there to watch them grow up.

The note hadn't lied. Someone had arrived a month before my 16th birthday. She came in wearing a long brown coat and a green hat. She was a large, but short woman whose brown, curly hair was wild. Her eyes were almost as strange as ours. They were as stormy grayish silver that reminded me of the clouds before a storm.

When she checked into the front desk she talked in a hushed whisper that I couldn't hear what she said. For me, that was strange because I have amazing hearing and senses, just like my brother. That is one of the reasons the kids at the orphanage learned to keep quiet very soon and never made fun of me or my brother when we were around. That and our eyes scared them. Most of the kids avoided our gaze. I heard one rumor that started that if you looked into our eyes too long that you would turn to ash.

I did have one friend who didn't seem at all scared when she walked up to us in the backyard of the orphanage. She came up to us and said, "Hey! My name is Alexa and I noticed that you guys don't have any friends and are lonely, so would you like to play with me. Wow! Look at your eyes. I wish I had eyes like those!"

With that, we became friends. One day we were playing wall ball against the wall of the orphanage when the ball hits the wall it bounces up onto the lower part of the roof. So I decide to run and climb to get the ball which isn't anything new because every night I climb on the roof and look at the stars. Apparently no one else knew that, because when I hoisted myself up using the grooves in the wall and the pipes everyone stared at me like I was crazy. I throw the ball down and my brother catches it, so I jump down. When I get on the ground, Alexa runs up and says, "I can't believe you just did that. That was like 10 feet high. You got up there so fast. How did you do that?"

"I don't know. It was easy to me. I do it all the time and so does Jay. We climb onto the roof every night." I exclaimed calmly. Gladly no one told the mistress about it.

Sadly, Alexa left not long after that. She was adopted by a nice family who lives a couple miles from the orphanage.

When the lady finished talking to the assistant at the front desk she walked into the Mistresses office. Not long after that we were called into the office after her. When we entered the office, the Mistress was seated behind a large desk and one wall of the room was covered in filing cabinets, no doubt containing all the records of the children here. The other lady had finally turned from her seat in front of the desks and stared at us with her silver eyes. The Mistress spoke first, "Congrats you two! Your relative has come as promised."

Me and my brother both shared glances then resumed looking at the woman in front of us until the Mistress spoke again, "This is Mrs. Gray. She is your aunt and will be taking care of you for now on. So go and retrieve your belongings. Once you have completed the task, you will meet us at the front desk."

We both took on last glance at Mrs. Gray, then exited the room to get our things which didn't take long. My belongings were two pairs of jeans, three shirts, socks, and the amulet that I wore around my neck. Jay also had a piece of jewelry that was left with us. His was a silver bracelet that had his first name on it. Once we had our things in the trunk we shared, we both headed down the steps to the lobby. On our way down Jay finally asked,  "what do you think she will be like?"

"I don't know little brother, but anywhere is better than here." I sighed. My brother and I don't talk much unless we are alone. When we finally made it to the lobby, we said goodbye to the mistress who avoided looking into our eyes for long then followed our aunt down the steps of the Lost Angels orphanage and onto the street. We followed Mrs. Gray all the way to her house, because she didn't have a car. When her house came into view, it is a two story house with an attic and a small backyard that was overgrown with plants and huge bushes. From the outside, the house is shabby and unkempt, but the inside was decent. It has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a good kitchen, and a dining and living room.

When we entered the house our Aunt turned to us and said the first thing since we met, "The only rules are you stay in the house or the backyard, don't mess with Jack, and don't go into the attic. Understand?"

"Who's Jack and why do we have to stay away?" Just as I said it a Black haired yellow eyed cat stalked into the room. He walked straight to us and sat down.

"Hello, my name is Jack Gray, nice to meet you niece and nephew." The cat just talked, and Mrs. Gray doesn't seem the least bit surprised by it.

"Kids this is Jack, my husband, who is now in deep trouble." she said glaring at him. "You kids weren't supposed to know about him yet, but he seems to have other plans."

Surprisingly it was Jay who spoke next, "Why is your husband a cat?"

"It is a long story for later, so let us just say he angered the wrong people, and he was turned into a cat." She exclaimed.

"Nice to meet you Jack my name is Jessaphine Fireheart, but you can call me Jess. This is my younger brother Jaylen." I said the only polite and more normal thing that seemed to pop into my head.

Jack just sat down and said with all the normalcy in the world, "I am glad to finally meet you. We have been waiting a very long time."

"Did you know our parents? We know nothing about them." Jay stated excitedly.

"Your mother was my sister. She had the same eyes as you Jay, and the same hair as both of you. That's her amulet around your neck Jess. I haven't seen her in years.  Maybe soon you will get to meet her. Jess, you have your father's eyes, but we don't speak of him." Jack whispered that last part. Why couldn't we speak of our dad and why couldn't we meet our mom now? I was about to voice these questions had Jack not said, "There are two bedrooms upstairs across the hall from each other those will be your rooms. Go unpack then meet us down here for dinner. No more talk of your parents for now. All in due time."

     We did as we were told and went upstairs. Our names were on post-it notes on the doors. When I walked into my room, it was a good size. The walls were a light gray and there was a small shelf of books along a wall. The floor was hardwood and there was a small desk along the right wall with paint, paper, and pencils. The bed was twin sized and had a cushy orange comforter on it. It had one large window with brown drapes. It was very nice. I opened the armoire and found it full of clothing in my size there were even two beautiful dresses inside. The bottom drawer had a pair of slippers, lace up boots, and a pair of tennis shoes.

Looking down at the clothes I had on, I decided to change. The boots I wore were hand me downs from one of the girls older than me and there was a hole in the heel already. So I pulled on some new jeans, a red loose shirt with an open back, and the new boots. It all fit. When I looked in the mirror beside the shelf, I didn't look half bad.  I picked up the brush that I found in the armoire, and brushed my wavy hair till it was free of tangles. After I was done, I left my room and went down the hall to the bathroom and took a washcloth and washed my face in the sink. It felt amazing to be clean. Back at the orphanage, we bathed twice a week, three times if we're lucky, and brushed our teeth every night.

Once I was satisfied and sure that I didn't look half bad, I went to my brother's room and knocked, in case he chose to change as well. When he yelled come in, I was surprised to find that he didn't look half bad, since he combed his hair and changed. He was wearing loose khakis and a blue button up shirt. He looked down at himself and said, "I think I am going to like it here, but don't you think it is kind of strange that they had all of our sizes and colors that we like."

"Yeah it is strange, but I am glad that we didn't end up like Jon." Jon was a 9 year old kid who was adopted by these mean people. Jon had only stayed with them a week when he was brought back to the orphanage covered in scrapes and bruises. He was terrified of most adults after that. He is thirteen now and still avoids most adults and refuses to get adopted. "Let's go down and eat. We don't want our cat uncle to come after us with his claws"