Once in a Lifetime

2 | It Isn't That Bad After All

"C'mon dear, better go now," Maggie said, smiling kindly at Azalea. "You probably would like to get ready and all."

And so, with Maggie gently leading her, Azalea walked into the beautiful Victorian house, otherwise known as her new home.

"So here is our mud room. We try to keep our house clean so please do take off your shoes and put on one of these house shoes, dear. You can keep your bags here - I'll get one of the boys to bring it up to your room. Louis!" Maggie called up the stairs.

A few moments later, after the sound of someone running down the stairs, came a boy. He had feathery brown hair that he ruffled gently. When he looked up, his turquoise eyes captured Azalea's pale blue ones. She broke the gaze first, shyly looking to the ground.

"Yes Maggie? You called." His British accent sent a little surprise to Azalea.

"Could you be a dear and bring Azalea's bags up to her room? She's with Stacy, Teagan, and Jacelyn - Room 4."

"Of course Mag. Hope to be seeing you around more, Azalea." And with one last smile, Louis disappeared up the stairs, just the way he came.

"So now, we have the living room here." What met Azalea's eyes was an artful masterpiece. Although the walls were white, the energetic greens and blues on the furniture balanced the look. The one person sofa was a green and white print while the bigger sofa was just plain white, accompanied by two pillows - one green and the other blue. A coffee table sat at the middle of the room; small, plain, and wooden. On it sat a little bowl and some books - all neatly placed, books stacked. On the wall behind the plain white sofa was actually a series of windows in an arched shape. On either side of this were two bookcases, white in color and filled with knick knacks in every shelf. Under the windows was a window seat, a series of them actually, all connected with pillows all around.

Maggie led Azalea through the living room and into another room. There was a long wooden table at the center of the room with many wooden chairs around. It reminded Azalea of the Great Hall at Hogwarts, with such a long table and so many chairs.

"And here is our dining room. This is the official one though. Since we have so many children, we have to eat here - to be able to fit everyone of course."

After the dining room was the kitchen and the other dining room - the unofficial one. There were blue tiles all lining the kitchen and everything was either blue or white - and that exact same shade of blue. The dining table itself was rather small; built to fit only four people, and a very squishy meal it would be indeed if placed so. The chairs were white, modern and very chic with the table.

"And back this way, in the other direction, is the stairs. Let's go up them now, shall we? All the bedrooms are on this floor. We have quite a few children here. My own bedroom is the first here so, if you need anything dear, I'll likely be here, if not around the house. All the rooms are connected to a bathroom. Each room has from one child to five children - all depending on the room size and child concerns and whatnot. The next few rooms, 1-3, has the younger children. Your room is 4. Room five has five boys. And that's all. Do you have any questions dear?"

Azalea shook her head, unable to think of anything that she wanted to ask Maggie.

"Alright. I'll leave you to get ready dear. Would you like me to walk you to the room?"

Hesitantly, Azalea shook her head and Maggie bid her bye until later.

Taking a deep breath, Azalea walked over to Room 4. After a brief pause, she raised her hand and gave two swift knocks on the door. Almost immediately, the door swung open, revealing a girl with brown hair pulled back into a messy ponytail. Her greenish-hazelish eyes brightened.

"Hi," she said with a friendly smile. "I'm Jacelyn Shea, but if you ever call me that I'll have to kill you, even if I don't know you, " she said, looking sincerely sad about that fact. "You can call me Jace, Jacey, or Lynn. Nothing else. Anyway, I'm one of your three roommates. Louis brought your bags up earlier. If you want, any of the girls or I could help you put your belongings away. But beside that point, welcome to your new home. This orphanage is actually nothing like in the stories. It's a wonderful home with a cool caretaker and pretty much everything contrary to the stories of horrible orphanages with awful caretakers and stuff. " She moved back into the room to let Azalea in.

On one of the beds lay a girl who immediately sat up upon seeing Azalea. She had curly blue hair, darker at the top and lighter at the bottom, ombred to be so. Her dark blueish-greenish eyes looked over Azalea once, but you could tell that it wasn't in a very judging way.

"Hey. I'm Teagan Sutter and, name wise, I'm exactly the opposite of Jacelyn. As in, if you call me anything other than Teagan, I'll have to kill you. Nothing that you can come up with and definitely not Tea. So ya."

From the door on the side of the room (Azalea assumed it was the bathroom), came yet another girl, probably her last roommate. Her hair caught Azalea's attention first, as the girl was swishing it. It was long, naturally blackish-brown at the top whist the bottom was ombred purple. It was wavy, with curls at the bottom. Her sapphire colored eyes sparkled with excitement.

"Oh! New roommate? At last we meet. I'm Stacy Parris and don't be fooled by the cheerleaderish name. My parents chose it, not me. Cause I'm definitely not the perky, blonde cheerleader stereotype that you'd imagine. First, I'm not perky. Second, I'm not blonde! Back to the point, nice to meet ya and I'm sure we'd love to help you settle in and stuff."

"Thanks, that'll be really nice," Azalea said quietly, studying her shoes.

"You know, you don't have to be so quiet. Or shy. We don't bite," Stacy said.

"Oh shush Stace. Maybe she needs time to adjust. You can't expect her to be normal after such a day like today," Jace said.

Azalea paused, looking around the room and taking in her surroundings. The walls were split into four different colors; each color over a certain amount of space, and each space was over a bed. On her left side closest to her the wall was painted pink, a rather mild, nice pink. Right next to it was an area of wall that was left unpainted, white. Across from the plain wall was a black wall, and next to the black wall was a royal purple. The beds were all the same; a wooden twin bed. Each bed, however, had each girls' personal touches to it - except for one that was left all alone by the white wall.

The floor was wooden, the kind that looked as if it had been installed not that long ago, but it wasn't that recent either. The room was spacious; each girl had her own personal space, but there wasn't too much to feel as if they were territorial. The door to the bathroom was next to the plain wall's area.

With her three roommates watching her, Azalea walked over to the plain wall's bed and asked quietly, "Is this my bed?"

"Yes. We didn't customize anything; we thought you'd like to do that. To make it more personal, you know," Jace said, her tone giving away her worried feelings.

"Thank you," Azalea said with a growing smile. "That was nice of you three to do this. Maggie told me what you did - and I really appreciate it."

Azalea looked up at the three girls, who collectively let out a relieved sigh.

"That's good. We were worried - this is our first time doing this type of a thing," Stacy explained.

"Oh," Azalea said, with a distant tone in her voice.

"Well, you can start unpacking now - if you'd like. You can start before the dinner bell rings - " Teagan never finished because right then the dinner bell rung.

"Well, you can unpack after dinner. You don't want to miss dinner. Cook Martha makes the best food. She's Maggie's sister. You'll see, c'mon," Jacey said, with a beckoning hand.

Azalea smiled, realizing that maybe, life at the orphanage wouldn't be that bad after all.