Anthony's P.O.V~
Another day plays out, then another, and another and another. It halts when the adults appear but until then it's autopilot. Wake up, get ready, breakfast, bedroom, lunch, park, bedroom, YouTube, tea, sleep and repeat. By now I'm used to it, by now I'm sick of it, by now I've accepted it. I'm never going to be adopted as no one wants the weird kid in the corner. The outcast. There are over thirty of us in this adoption centre and money is tight, this leads to the inability to afford education for us. Any form of technology we want has to be bought by us, usually the older ones will go out and work all day for money to buy things for those too young to work. I'm now one of the older kids, therefore my autopilot has changed. Wake up, get ready, breakfast, work, lunch, work, tea, work, bedroom, YouTube, sleep and repeat. My two hours of YouTube is the only thing keeping me going now, I'm working towards buying tickets to the latest Area 11 concert and buying a flux buddies hoodie.
I sit on the floor cross-legged surfing YouTube on my computer for new videos, I used to do this with my younger sister Ella but she got adopted. She didn't want to leave me but I told her that I'd visit her on my days off, I just didn't want her to waste the rest of her life in this dump as she was only four - she's turning eight tomorrow. We used to share this room but now I have to share with this bitch called Lucy, I take the top bunk and she goes bottom. We have two sides to the room too. Me and Ella painted the room black and always had some form of rock music blasting, Lucy has painted her half of the room pastel-pink like some form of beauty guru on Tumblr. She has a white makeup desk thing set up with a massive mirror, it has pictures of famous boys around the frame which she claims she loves but they change all the time; it's just a generic teen crush. She has pop group posters (such as Little Mix, One Direction and O2L) littering the wall and a swirly, hot-pink flower rug, her wardrobe is pristinely white and is filled to the brim with the latest fashion. She can afford the high end clothes as she has spoilt friends with loaded parents who give her the money. They make me sick. Lucy herself has wavy pastel-pink hair reaching her shoulders, tanned skin, freckles dusting her cheeks and she always has her talon-like nails done. Her makeup often consists of extending her eyelashes, pastel-blue eyeshadow and light pink lipstick - I should know as I'm subjected to her applying it most days. My half of the room is all black, keeping the original dark blue carpet, with a red plastic table from the colouring room and my computer set up; Yogscast and Kerrang posters coat my wall alongside a red wooden ladder to climb up to the top bunk. I have the standard white bedcovers and Lucy has white bedcovers with a frilly pastel-pink pillow, honestly my eyes bleed at how much pink there is.
My phone pings so I sluggishly roll across the floor to retrieve, holding the device above my face I read the screen: 1 new notification: YOGSCAST Lewis & Simon uploaded a video: XEMADIA ADOPTING OMG - Vlog
I'm surprised at first about the name of the video as Lewis and Hannah never refer to themselves as Xemadia, but that's soon explained. The video has Turps shoving the camera in their faces and pressing on the adoption topic until they burst out laughing and give in explaining the details, it honestly wouldn't surprise me if Turps named the video. They say that they gonna be adopting at my centre . . . holy shit. My heart races, even if I'm not adopted I will get to meet two actual members of the Yogscast! I thunder downstairs - passing two of the six social workers - as everyone gets called down by the dude who runs this place, he's a really nice guy who's up to date with all the latest trends and somehow knows exactly what everyone wants. I don't know his last name but we all call him Joey. He's quite a skinny, tall man with peach skin, messy brown hair which has a quiff at the front, sparkling green eyes and thick-rimmed black glasses. He also has freckles across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. Today he's wearing denim jeans, a white button-up shirt (with the top two buttons open) and neon red jacket. Anyway, we all gather in front of him in the lounge; he's sitting on the floor with his back to the TV and we dominate the couches in front of him.
"Right guys, have I got some news for you!" he announces sassily, honestly he sounds a lot like Tyler Oakley. We all giggle at his silly behaviour, all except Lucy and her two lackeys (Jessica and Lindsay) who just sigh and Lucy kisses her teeth. Rude, "So we've got a few couples coming in tomorrow afternoon and a trio coming in a few hours to see you and it will run as usual, they'll come and meet you in your rooms to chat and then they'll move on yada yada yada."
"Wait, trio?" I ask, Joey chuckles.
"Yup, there's three men who are looking to adopt. I've stalk-er-checked their profiles and nothing seems dodgey about them so yeah. Cool beans," he grins at me and stands up, "If any of you have anymore questions you can ask now," he moves his arms in sweeping motions to gesture to us, no one speaks up so he smiles, "Right then, all the children under twelve can hop off to bed now. The trio are looking for an older child, so Lucy, Lindsay, Jess, Ant, Peter and Marvin hang back for a minute," he informs us as the younger children left for their rooms, "Goodnight my lovelies!" he calls after them, "You guys stay here, I'll just make sure they're all sorted and then we can discuss the adoption," we all nod and Joey disappears up the stairs.
Once he leaves everyone starts chatting in their groups, the girls in one with Peter and Marvin in the other. I just pull out my phone and go to look at HAT films's channel, to my dismay the latest video was just a Monster Cocks video from three hours ago. It would be a coincidence if they turned up here when Hannah and Lewis were adopting too, never mind.
"Hey shitbag, what are you looking at?" Jessica sneers, I look her dead in the eyes.
"Fifteen layers of fake tan and twenty layers of lipgloss I believe," I retort with a smirk, I hear the lads 'oh'-ing behind me. Just to put it out there: Marvin and Peter are 17, Lucy is 16, me and Jessica are 15 and Lindsay is 14. Jessica scoffs at me and rolls her eyes.
"Oh my, I guess the kid who failed his maths test really can count higher than ten," Lindsay smirks.
"OOOOOHHHH!!!" holler the lads, this time I roll my eyes.
"Oh, unless I'm quite mistaken Barbie, I got a higher score than all of you three on our yearly test from the children's agency and you three have had private tutoring. I've only had the odd lesson or two from Joey." "WAAAAYYYYYYY!!!" the lads yell throwing their arms up, this caused the girls to get flustered and really angry.
"Well you know what!? I'm gonna-" and Lucy is cut off by Joey reappearing.
"What's all this commotion about, ay?" he questions, "I could hear you yelling on the other side of the orphanage," he scolds sternly, we all mutter an apology. All except Lucy, she dives forward clinging onto Joey's waist.
"I'm so sorry Joey, Anthony provoked me and the lads were encouraging him. He was insulting me and called me stupid," she then starts to fake cry, Lindsay and Jessica side-eye me and grin. I just shake my head disapprovingly and return my gaze back to Joey, once Lucy has 'calmed down' he speaks up.
"From what I could hear, you were all as bad as each other," we all stare at him bewildered, "You forget that there's a baby monitor in the corner of the room. From what I could gather: Jess offended Ant, the girls ganged up on him and Pete and Marv were a bit immature and encouraged both sides of the dispute," he winks at the girls' faces, they look horrified whereas I try so hard not to laugh.
"Bickering aside, I called you all here to explain that the trio want an older child to adopt as they 'need fresh blood in the group'," he emphasises with air quotations, "This means you're gonna get to stay up later than your usual lights out, is that good with you lot?" We all nod frantically, "Good, then off you pop. They should be here at 11 and it's quarter-to now," he finishes, checking his watch. We all chime a thank you and scamper off to our rooms: Peter and Marvin go off laughing and joking; Lindsay and Jessica go off gossiping and cackling; and me and Lucy walk in silence. We arrive at our room and I hold the door open for her, since we were last out Joey is behind us and he sees her rudely push me out of the way. I just look at him and shrug before walking in and shutting the door behind me, I boot up my computer - the same one which I bought second-hand for around £400 only the other day with my savings - and fling open my wardrobe to find something to change into as I'm still wearing my barista uniform. I pull out my new 'Monster Cocks' t-shirt and a pair of black skinny jeans, getting dressed behind my little dressing wall thingy, and stick my Area 11 SnapBack on before sitting in front of the computer and loading up GTA5. It's a rare occasion that this Friday the Chilluminati livestream went down and so instead of being from 5-8 it was from 9-12, this means I have a chance of racing with Simon, Tom, Sjin and Barry as I'm a member of the Chilluminati crew.
Loading up the twitch stream in another tab, I wait for them to start another group; surprisingly I manage to get into the race and the fifteen minutes we have fly by. I'm halfway through a race when there's a knock at the door and Joey pokes his head through, "Just a lil heads up, they're five minutes away. A tad bit of traffic is all."
"Thanks Joey," I chirp.
"Thank you Joey," Lucy says sweetly, pfff already putting on her 'adopt me' attitude I see. I check the time when the is was over and Joey was right, they're ten minutes late. But that's okay; more time for me to spend with the Yogs. I manage to get into another race and actually win it this time! I quickly donate some money to the stream and leave them a message saying 'Hi guys it's me, _Area11_Shitlord_, and I just wanted to tell ya that I'm a 14 yr old orphan called Anthony. You guys have helped me through so much, I can't thank you enough, but I've got to go now 'cause there's some people here who are looking to adopt kk love ya BYEEEE' my message is read out and Tom says, "Wow, his grammar is amazing, very literate," 'very literate' was said in his posh accent and Simon screeches "AWWWWWW! Isn't that cute, welp. Best o' luck man with the adoptions, gg on that race too like how the fuck did you manage to get past that clusterfuck of cars!? But anyway, we'll see ya later shitlord! Or should I say Area 11 underscore shitlord?" he adds laughing and they wave at the camera, I feel the urge to wave back and Lucy chortles at me.
"You really are that dumb, aren't you? Waving at the screen like they care about you. Hah!" I just ignore her and bathe in my moment of recognition, that is shortly interrupted by a knock at the door.
Joey pushes open the door.
"And these two are Lucy and Anthony," he turns to us, "Guys, these three are Ross, Alex and Chris. I'll leave you five alone now," and he walks off to God knows where, honestly I couldn't care. The HAT Films lads are standing in my room. Ohmyfuckinggod, first the livestream. And then this. Then Ross is here. And Trott. And Smith. Like the Ross Hornby. The Chris Trott. The Alex Smith. Holy shit, they're actually here. In my room. Here. In. My. Room. Like not on the screen. Physically here. I think I'm going to have a heart attack; what if I say something stupid? What if I can't speak? Am I mute? Will this make me mute for the rest of my life? I can't go mute. Can I? Oh fuck. Oh shit, oh fuck, oh shit.
"Ahem," Trott clears his throat and waves his hand in front of my face, "Trott to Ant, do you copy?" I nod slowly with a stupid grin slowly spreading across my face.
"You three are HAT films aren't you," I whisper, they chuckle and nod.
"You're a fan I guess?" Smith pushes, with my right hand I gesture to my shrine of posters behind me and my left hand emphasising that I'm wearing a Monster Cocks t-shirt.
"Go on then. Who's your favourite? And nice shirt by the way," Ross adds the last bit as an afterthought.
"Smiffy," I declared, Smith gave a triumphant look towards the other two and they glare back at him, "and thanks, I bought it from these people called the Yogscast." I joke, they chuckle at this and that's when Lucy's presence is finally acknowledged. They turn to look at the right side of the room where she stands, I lean over to turn off the livestream as Simon keeps screeching and you can faintly hear it through my headphones that are discarded on the floor. Lucy has her hands clasped in front of her and she's wearing a white tank-top with faded-blue ripped skinny jeans and white ankle socks, did I mention that I'm wearing pink bunny slippers? She also has her usual 4-layer-cake of makeup with a pearl necklace and matching bracelet. Her usually wild hair is straightened. She flutters her eyelashes at the lads and smiles which they return.
"I see you've met my friend Anthony," I choke on my glass of water but wave off their brief concern. To get more comfortable I sit cross-legged on the floor; Smith and Trott are sat on the bed and Ross is slouched on my red beanbag chair, "I'm Lucy, as you heard, and it's nice to meet you boys."
"Pleasure to meet ya love, I'm Chris Trott."
"Why hello there Lucy, I'm the one known as Alex Smith." he jokes in a posh accent with a hand on his heart.
"Sup Lucy, I'm Ross Hornby." he does a small wave but keeps his butt firmly planted on my beanbag chair, not that I mind considering the Ross Hornby is sat on my beanbag chair.
After about half an hour of talking they are ready to go meet the lads as they'd already met the girls, as soon as we finished Joey magically appeared outside the door - has he been outside listening the whole time?
"Bye boys!" Lucy chirps and hugs each one as they said their goodbyes, however I notice Smith looks really uncomfortable when she grasps him . . . how could I forget! He absolutely hates hugs; the image of him walking around the meet & greet a few years ago with a 'no hugs' sign round his neck pops up in my head making me smile. I say my goodbyes with a bro hug, know the grab-hands-pull-close-to-each-other-pat-on-the-back bro hug. When I get to Alex I stick my hand out and say, "See ya mate," and we shake hands, I can see the look of gratitude in his eyes. Once the hatters went into Peter and Martin's room, Joey turns on his heels and grins at us.
"It sounded like it went very well with you two." he purrs before stalking off again, I wonder what that means . . . bang! Even though the door is open Lindsay pushes it so hard it hits the wall.
"OhMyGod gurl, how did it go?"
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So I've just come back to read this and completely forgot how bad it actually was, ewwwwwwww. So I've edited a few bits and pieces here and there and tried to give it a more coherent story, plus I've tried to give Lucy more of a personality too xD I'm probably gonna edit one more chapter before I pack it in for the day 'cause honestly I don't think I can handle the cringe of editing the whole story in one go xD
Anthony~
Word count: 2811
Originally written: 3rd March 2017
Edited: 30th March 2019