It is 5am on a Monday. The headmistress is shouting at me, in her high pitched voice, to get up and clean. Today there are a few couples scheduled to come choose a child or children to interview and potentially adopt. Of course there can be walk ins as well. But there are 3 scheduled appointments which apparently makes them priority.
"Skylar! If you don't have this blasted place spotless before they get here, you won't eat for another week!" She screeches at me from her office. "Yes ma'am.." I say just loud enough for her to hear before wasting no time on getting started quietly.
All the other children are still asleep. They will be getting up at 8am to eat breakfast and get ready. The first couple will be here at 10am. The second at noon. Lunch will be at 1pm. And the third couple will be here at 3pm. Then dinner is at 7pm and bedtime at 9pm.
The headmistress wants to make sure I finish cleaning before they get here so that I can be out of sight. She doesn't want them to pick me. She hates me, but wants to keep me around as her personal slave. She tells me everyday that it's my fault her sister died. My parents died in a car crash when I was just a year old, and her sister had been in the other car. I was the only survivor from that tragedy. 6yrs later here I am, cleaning a whole orphanage all alone.
I finish cleaning right at 8am. I quickly clean myself up the best I can in the bathroom sink. I find a old used hair tie and tie my shoulder length straight but choppy jet black hair back. The headmistress likes to humiliate me, so she chops up my hair every so often. I look in the mirror. I've managed to clean myself up enough to where you can just barely see my freckles under the dirt. I meet my own icy ocean blue eyes under my bangs in the mirror and sigh.
I take a few breaths before rushing to the kitchen to help prepare breakfast. We only have two cooks. I can't do much at my size but I can lend a helping hand. The cooks look at me with silent pity as they hand me plates and send me on my merry way to the dining room.
The other children pile in as I place the plates on the table, remaining invisible from all eyes. Even from the eyes of the children younger than me.
After the children finish breakfast, I start cleaning up the dining room. I help wash the dishes in the kitchen as well, ignoring my stomachs complaints. I'm on punishment for not cleaning everything on time last week. I finish cleaning and head up to my room.
10am rolls around and the first couple shows up. I stay in my room, so I don't see who they pick or if they adopted anyone.
After I know they are gone I head outside to the far side of the playground. I have time to spare since everything is cleaned and lunch isn't for a little while.
I sit on the rusted swing and lightly push myself. No one else uses this swing so I know I'm not in anyone's way. That doesn't stop some of the other kids from coming to me and being mean to me. The rest of the day goes by uneventfully. The usual cleaning up after everyone and hiding when the other couples and the few walk ins come in.
At the end of the day I see that a good handful of kids had been adopted. The place seems a bit emptier, though, to me it's just less mess to clean up.
I find myself back on that swing entertaining myself until it's time to go to bed as all the other children do the same, but away from me. It's dark now so they are playing under the yard light while I hide in the dark corner farthest away from the door of the orphanage.
It's summer break for the other children. School starts on August 25th. Today is July 15th. They have a month and 10 days. I'm not allowed to attend school though.
The children suddenly start to pile in through the door. It must be time for a movie before bed. It's the nighttime ritual for them. It helps the younger children wind down for bed. She won't let me watch the movies though. And the other older children are allowed to choose if they want to watch it or not.
Once all the other children are inside Zoe, another 7yr old girl here, comes skipping over with her minions Kiara and Macy, both just turned 7.
"Well look who it is. The little nobody." Zoe laughed, her minions mimicking her laughter almost immediately. I ignored them by staring at the ground around my feet. She stops laughing and holds her hand up, causing silence among the three.
"Hey little nobody, we are talking to you. It's rude to ignore us!" She walks behind me and suddenly pushes me off the swing. I land on the ground hard, barely managing to save my face from the dirt. I feel a sharp pain in my side, and then several more sharp pains as they start kicking me repeatedly causing me to groan and cry in pain while they laugh.
"HEY!" I hear someone shout from the other side of the fence. I hear a chain sound and a thud then heavy footsteps. "LEAVE HER ALONE! GET AWAY FROM HER!"
The girls stop laughing and run inside before yelling for the headmistress, who then comes out just in time to see the stranger picking me up. Putting one arm under my legs behind my knees, and putting his other arm behind my neck, he holds me safely, securely, and comfortably to his chest.
I struggle to breath through the pain in my side as I notice that there are suddenly 5 more strangers surrounding the stranger that's holding me. I can hear one talking on a phone, giving the orphanage's address to whoever on the other side of the line.
"Hey, it's alright sweetheart. You're going to be alright, love." a deep husky voice softly whispers to me, calmingly. Only then does it dawn on me that I'm shaking so horribly. But is it from pain or fear?
"S-sir! U-um.. I can t-take her from here!" the headmistress, who is obviously shocked that someone came to my rescue, sputters out in her annoyingly high pitched voice.
She looks like a deer caught in headlights. No one in this small town ever stands up for me. All of the people that show up here to adopt children are not from this town. This is barely even a town. It's got a couple small stores, a small school, and a small gas station, but if you want to go anywhere else you have to go to the big town a couple miles over.
People only ever come into this small town to visit the orphanage, sight see, or they are just joy riding. She knows she's screwed. Especially if that stranger that gave the orphanage address over the phone called an ambulance or the police. They'd be coming from the town a couple miles away. She's managed to hide her behavior from them because she knows she'd be in trouble. They don't really check on the orphanage very often either.
The stranger holding me starts walking toward the orphanage, not even gracing her with an answer. I meet the headmistresses eyes and quickly look away just before we pass her, shaking a bit worse than before. Fear. It's fear and pain, but mostly fear. I'm in so much trouble.
The stranger holding me seems to have noticed the headmistresses eyes meet mine and my reaction, because his hold my me tightens in a comforting way. They all look like they noticed her deer in headlights look and seem to already suspect something is going on. Especially since there isn't a hint of any real concern for me in her eyes.
When he gets me inside, he sits me down in a chair in the waiting room, right in front of her office, and tells one of the other strangers to go get water and a rag. I look up to see the headmistress glaring at me. She thought no one was watching. I look back down at the man who is now kneeling in front of me looking over what injuries, old and new, that he can see over the dirt with a concerned expression.
One of the four other strangers that is left in the room whispers something to the man and he suddenly looks up at the headmistress with a very mean, cold look. Like a warning of some sort. It scares me a bit so I look down at my legs silently. Come to think of it, he hasn't said one word to the headmistress. Weird.
The stranger that was sent for the rag and water comes back in with the items and a crowd. Great, the other children are here for the show. Not all of them are mean though. Some of them are nice. They are just too scared of punishment so they keep their distance from me. I don't have my hopes up that they'll tell the truth if questions are asked.
The man kneeling in front of me takes his phone out of his pocket.
"Alright love, I'm going to take some pictures to show the police before I clean you up the best I can with a rag and a little bit of water." He's talking about all the dirt on my skin. I just know he is.
He starts taking pictures of all my injuries and the dirt at different angles. After a couple minutes and what seems like hundreds of photos later he grabs the rag and dips it in the water. He looks at me, grabbing my chin gently, and starts gently dabbing the rag against the skin under my nose. Was there blood there? I didn't really notice.
I finally look up at his dark chocolate brown eyes. Unlike when he was looking at the headmistress, his eyes are now soft and caring, while still containing concern. He startles me when his eyes meet mine, so I quickly avert my eyes by looking over at the children that are being blocked off by the other strangers.
"What's your name, love?" I hear him ask. "I-it's Skylar, sir." I look down at my legs again as he moves the rag back to the water. He chuckles a little, softly.
"Please love, call me Johnny. How old are you?" I look at him again as he brings the rag to my cheek, cleaning the rest of my face off. "I'm 7, s-..." I almost said it again. He told me to call him Johnny, but I'm not use to using others names. I'm not use to talking much at all. "I'm 7." I repeat quietly.
He smiles softly and starts on my arms but says nothing else. After a few minutes the water is now so dark that you can't see the bottom of the bowl. I'm not completely clean of dirt and blood but he did the best he could like he said.
"Can you stand?" I look up at him then try to stand. I'm wobbly, but I manage. He takes my hand and leads me to another room, the headmistresses office, walking slowly so i can keep up. The headmistress tries to follow, but the man called Johnny told the 5 men with him to keep her out. He shuts the door.
"Have a seat, love." He gestures to a chair. I quickly sit down obediently.
He sits next to me and looks at me with concern again. "Skylar.." uh oh. He used my name instead of one of those little nicknames. "I-I'm sorry, sir.. I.." "Skylar." He interrupts me. "You're not in trouble, though, you will be if you call me "sir" again. So don't apologize. I want you to tell me about your injuries. Who is hurting you? And I want the truth." He says in a gentle yet stern tone, his eyes holding a serious gaze into mine.
I can already see there will be no lying to him.
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A/N: Hey, thanks so much for reading! Plz let me know of any mistakes so I can fix them! Also, plz share your thoughts on this story! Thanks! 💖🥰