Chasing Charlie

Chapter Two | Meeting Him

The cashier girl placed a tray of food onto the counter and said, "Here's your food, hope you have a lovely day."

Yeah it totally would be a lovely day, I thought to myself and rolled my eyes. It would be the day that I would find out where we were going to go. Many places have run through my mind, some of which awful scenarios came with.

I grabbed the tray, carefully walking towards the nearest table, then placing the tray down. Olivia sat down opposite me, whilst Miss Reed sat down next to Olivia on the table to my right. I took my mcmuffin, hash brown and my orange juice, while Olivia took her pancakes and orange juice. Miss Reed sipped her coffee slowly whilst scrolling through her phone.

I was half-way through eating my hash brown, when I noticed Olivia struggling to cut her pancakes.

"Olivia, do you want help?"

"Yes please," She answered, sliding the Styrofoam container with the pancakes inside across the small, two-seater table.

I cut the pancakes into small pieces with the plastic cutlery and gave it back to her.

"Thank you Charlie," She thanked me, with a mouth-full of pancake.

My lips turned up a bit, into a tiny smile before it disappeared as soon as it had arrived. I went back to eating my food, with a frown on my face.

Olivia started talking to Miss Reed whilst I zoned out, into my own little world. In this world, my family and I were just how we were a week ago, enjoying the summer vacation without a worry in the world. Just two days ago, we were enjoying a lovely picnic together in the nearby park, sun shining, kids playing and parents chatting. It was weird to think that in just a day my life would change forever. No more parents, new home, new school and new friends.

I came back into reality when Olivia hit me in the shoulder causing me to hiss in pain.

"We're going to our new home now Charlie. Isn't it exciting?" Olivia was bouncing up and down with enthusiasm.

I looked down at the ground with a frown. Seeing Olivia happy about a new home did make me upset, but she was only six years old so she wouldn't know any better.

"Right," Miss Reed said all of a sudden, "We better get going if we want to get to the orphanage before midday."

I stood up slowly, the tray of rubbish in my hands, before walking over to the nearest rubbish bin and dumping the rubbish on the tray in.

Orphanage. I let those words sink in. That would mean lots of kids would be there. Would it be clean there or would it be like the movies portray orphanages, dirty clothes, no showers and filth everywhere you look? Would the kids be nice, or would they be mean, nasty or greedy? Would there be kids my age or would they be the younger and I would have to look after them? Many questions danced through my mind and before long we were nearly at Miss Reed's car, awaiting the two hour journey to the orphanage.

I slowly climbed into the car, buckling up quickly before I buckled up Olivia and we were on our way. A few tears ran down my cheeks, my eyes were very sore and in a moment I fell asleep with millions of thoughts on my mind.

As I opened my eyes, I saw that the car was slowly pulling to a stop in front of a large building that had a large sign saying 'Miss Lancy's Orphanage'. I sighed at the sight of the house. It was a pretty, large house but I would rather my old house. The house that held all the memories, all my childhood, the pictures of my parents. I felt as if I left everything behind in that house, even my soul. I knew I shouldn't have been complaining as I still had Olivia with me, but the feeling was still there.