Girl Of Fire (ON HOLD)

Chapter 1 - The Escape

Lea

"Fix it." A piece of cheap plastic in the shape of a phone was shoved into my hands.

"FIX IT!" the brat screeched.

"Calm down Veronica, give me time to look at it. She stuck up her lip and stood there pouting. I examined the piece of plastic in my hands and quickly found the source of the problem. There was a sticker with flowers where a screen would be on a regular phone.

"I can fix it," I reply.

"You better," the bratty six year old retorted sassily.

I walked over to a drawer and pulled out White-Out. I neatly brushed it across the surface. I was no artist, but this was not a hard task. I was just about finished when I heard the click of high-heels and turned around to face my worst nightmare. The brat's parents.

"What do you think you're doing using White-Out on a children's toy?" I gulp. "That is toxic material. Imagine if my precious Veronica were to accidentally ingest some?" She looked pointedly at me. "Now go to your room. No dinner tonight. I'll see you tomorrow morning"

Rage boiled inside of me. I swear there was steam coming out of my ears.

"MOMMY! There's steam coming out of her ears!" the brat started sobbing.

"All I did was try to fix her," I point to the brat, "toy. The sticker came off and she told me to fix it so I was fixing it and-"

"Enough." The brat's mother hissed. My hand felt hot, representing the anger that burned through me. At their gasps, I looked down to see my hand on fire. But... I wasn't getting burnt. Strange.

"Room now. You go back to the orphanage tomorrow morning." I turn and walk out of the room, head held high. But as soon as I get to my room, I crumple. Maybe now would be a good time to explain my story so far.

When I was days old, I was put up for adoption and I lived in an orphanage in Texas until I was five.

A nice family from Virginia then adopted me and took me in to live with them and their two kids. They loved me as one of their own children. But about a month after I turned ten, the mother got pregnant so I was sent back to an orphanage so they could prepare for a baby. As a present, the family bought me a nice big backpack to hold all of my things in. It is still in good condition and I still use it.

For the past seven years, I have been in and out of foster homes. This was my twelfth. A big, expensive apartment in New York City and a snobby family to go with it. Four months and I had blown another chance at finding a family that would adopt me.

I pack up all of my things and prepare my backpack so I can sneak out tonight. No point in staying here any longer when I'm going to another orphanage tomorrow morning.

At about ten fifteen, there is a light knock on my door and the dad steps in, quietly closing the door behind him.

"Don't worry, they're asleep. Here," he tosses me a bag with two sandwiches, three water bottles, a decent sized bag of trail mix with dried fruit, and a chocolate bar. A good sized one. "I got you those so you don't starve. I'm sorry about them. She's just stressed these days. Good night." he smiles then closes the door behind him.

I tucked the new food into my backpack. Is it possible that he knew about my running away? I push the question to the side. I had more important things to focus on. Like the fact that I had five minutes until the alarm was turned on.

The window suddenly slid open and a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, as opposed to my dark brown hair and brown eyes, slipped into the room. She beckoned towards me and whispered, "Come, follow me, Percy is waiting outside." I must have looked beyond confused because, "I'll explain everything as we travel." she checked her watch, "Two minutes, make up your mind, with us or to the orphanage." I sit still, thinking for a minute. "Come on, are you going to come with us or not?" she asks. I shoulder my backpack and take her hand and follow her out the window, which she closes with seconds to spare.

Outside on the fire escape are two black winged horses and a boy with short dark brown hair and sea green eyes. He gets on one of the winged horses and I get on the other one behind the girl and they take off into the midnight blue sky.