Chapter Two: My New Girlfriend

It’s been three years since I arrived at the orphanage. My lack of coordination just gets worse every day, I have no friends, and my nickname still stands. There’s this rumor going around though, a rumor that kids actually get taken from this place and put into a home. Must be a myth, because it’s never happened to me. However, I guess it would explain that mysterious invisible monster that keeps eating kids and spitting out new ones. Speaking of spitting out new kids, it spit out a new one today, a girl. She had baby blue eyes and medium long golden hair suspended from two buns, one on each side of her head. The ends of her hair curled up in a candy curl form. She was hugging a pink teddy bear to her chest. I noticed that she was sniffing. Carol ushered her into the room. She showed the little girl where everything was. I was surprised to see that when she was done showing her around, she brought her to me.

"Darien, I want you to meet Serena." She began. "Serena, this is Darien." The girl was still sniffing as she was introduced to me. "Darien, I want you to watch over Serena for me. I really trust you with her, because I know that out of all the kids here, you’re the kindest and the smartest." She said with a smile. All that was going through my mind at this moment was the fact that she thought I was smart...boy did she get her facts wrong. "Will you do that for me?" She asked.

"Uh-uh-huh." I replied. She smiled at me and left Serena and me alone. "H-h-hi." I said to her. I was afraid to talk to her in more words than one. I was afraid she would just laugh at me like everyone else.

"Hi." She said as she sat next to me on the floor and bowed her head. I could tell she was scared. That was exactly how I felt when I first arrived here, especially since no one talked to me. I felt so alone. It was at that moment that I suddenly realized why Carol put us two together. She probably figured that after what I’ve been through, that I may be a good influence on her. That of all the kids here, I wouldn’t ridicule her if she was with me. Maybe I needed her too, I needed a friend to talk to. I’ve been here three years and I haven’t talked to anyone, nor made friends with anyone and I so needed a friend. When I was with my mom, she was my only friend, and now I’m losing memory of her, I can’t even remember what she looks like. I took one deep breath and decided to start talking to her.

"W-w-wanna play a g-g-game?" I asked her slowly, being careful to speak the best proper English I could. She quickly jerked her head in my direction.

"You talk funny." She giggled and I quickly turned my head in shame. But then she did something I didn’t expect. "I’m sorree...I didn’t mean it." She apologized. No one had ever apologized to me before and that’s when I realized that she was truly sincere. "What game do you wanna play?"

"W-w-we can pay da cl-cl-cloud g-game." I said to her with a happiness of knowing she would not reject me.

"How do you play that?" She asked as she moved closer so that she was sitting right next to me. I noticed her sniffling began to slow down. Maybe the fact that I talked a little funny wasn’t so bad after all...it did get her to smile at me.

From that day forth Serena and me stuck to each other like Elmer’s glue on paper. Serena became an outcast because of me but she didn’t seem to care. She did teach me a few things though. Like when people laugh at you, just laugh with them and it won’t hurt as much. She taught me to save the crying for later when no one was looking, that way they wouldn’t laugh. You see Serena was teased just as much as I was, cause she had this habit of crying a lot when things hurt her. But she didn’t cry over every little thing, she was slightly braver than I...I think. She told me that her father had given her that advice about holding it in and crying later. I have to say that Serena didn’t hold much in, but for a girl her age...she was pretty brave. When I asked her what had happened to her parents, she said that a big car crash took them away from her...at least she was loved by both parents when she was taken to this place. Serena and me ended up suffering a lot of things together. We got picked on more than anyone else there, but it wasn’t as bad when you knew there was someone to back you up. I can remember a few times in particular when either of us was picked on...in fact I remember the first time that Serena was.

*~*

Serena had only gotten up from our favorite spot to get a toy off the shelf when who should approach her but my loathed enemy, Richard. Richard is a big antagonist in my life, and the bully of the orphanage. He takes enjoyment in picking on kids for no reason at all, and I could see that being that Serena was new, she was his object of attention. As soon as she selected the doll that she wanted he snatched it from within her grasp.

"Give it back!" She exclaimed.

"What are you going to do, cry?" He taunted. She stood up on her tiptoes in a failed effort to meet his height and tightened her fists at her sides.

"Give me my dolly back!" She said in a shaky voice.

"Oh look guys...Serena’s gonna cry!" He laughed. She reached up for her doll in an attempt to get it from him but he caught on to her quickly and kept a firm hold. "Oh no you don’t!" He exclaimed to her, however, she still hadn’t let go. You can basically guess what happened next. The doll was torn in two parts, the head in Richard’s hands, and the body in Serena’s. "Now see what you did?" He taunted her again. With all the fury she could muster, she pushed him...hard. He fell against the bookcase and immediately got upset as she began to storm away back to where I was. She was cut short however when a foot was lodged right in her path causing her to go flying forwards to where I lay. Immediately I began to comfort her as she began to cry. From that day forth she was bestowed the name fountain.

*~*

As time grew on, Serena and I would often lie awake at nights, either her talking about her parents, or me talking about my mother. We figured that the only way to not forget them was to keep talking about them. So every night we had a different story to tell. Of course, being awake at nights was not allowed, so we had to sneak out very often. We would sometimes cry together as we shared our stories and sometimes we would just sit there and not say a word. They say you know you have a good friend if you can just sit together in complete silence for a long time and still feel like you have just had the best conversation in the world. That was the case with Serena and me, we became really close. Sometimes Serena would sneak to my bed and sleep there because she was always having nightmares, I had no problems with that, and we would always make sure that she woke up before sunrise so that no one would catch her there. Unfortunately for us...one day we forgot. When I was ten and Serena was seven, we had awoken to that very situation.

*~*

I could feel Serena’s arms snaked around my neck as she stirred once more in her sleep.

"No don’t...don’t go." She mumbled in her sleep. I placed my arms around her and held her closer to me to calm her down...holding Serena was just a normal reaction for me and didn’t feel any different than hugging a teddy bear. I didn’t see anything wrong with it...however, the group of boys that began to surround us thought of this as the perfect time to strike. By now, even the girls from Serena’s room had gotten up and began to watch as the boys planned a devious scheme.

"Wake up Darien." I heard some boy say. I had opened my eyes and immediately wanted to close them, however it was too late...a huge bucket of cold water went sprawling all over the both of us, and we were drenched. Serena immediately jumped from the bed in fear and then saw the huge group that was watching us. Immediately the girls began chanting this annoying song.

" ‘Serena and Darien kissin in a tree

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

First comes love,

Then comes marriage,

Then comes the baby in a baby carriage’"

They chanted this song over and over again and the girls continued to tease Serena.

"Serena aren’t ya gonna kiss your BOYfriend?" They exclaimed.

"He’s not my boyfriend!" Serena said in her defense.

"Yes he is!" Another girl taunted.

"He is not!" She retorted. I could tell that the waterworks might start any moment now.

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"Darien...look, your girlfriend’s rejecting you!" One guy said to me.

"Sh-sh-she’s n-not my g-g-girlfriend!" I retorted.

"Of course she isn’t." Began another boy. "Because no one would ever want to be with you!" He chanted. Right at that moment Carol came in and demanded that everyone scatter.

"What’s going on here?" She demanded.

"Darien and Serena slept together!" One of the girls immediately said causing all the girls to giggle.

"What?" She immediately exclaimed and then looked at the two of us who were standing in the midst of the crowd, trying to look innocent and soaked to the bone.

"We didn’t do anything...honest!" Serena began to cry.

"Serena and Darien I want the two of you dressed, dry and in my office in 10 minutes!" She said sternly and then left the room. As soon as she was gone everyone immediately began to laugh at us.

*~*

We ended up getting pot duty in the kitchen for a week as punishment for what we had done. When Carol had taken us to her office, she explained to us that she knew we hadn’t done anything wrong, but that sleeping in the same bed was still not allowed and that she couldn’t let us get away without being punished. So we ended up in the kitchen every evening for a week. Of course, occasionally I would drop a pot on the floor because of my awkward gait and shaky hands, but since these pots weren’t made of glass and didn’t break the kitchen lady said it was ok. She was a nice lady actually, I'd never seen someone who took so much enjoyment in what she did before, especially since it was cleaning the kitchen. As that week went on, one thing stuck out in my mind...was it really a bad thing for Serena to be my girlfriend? I had thought about it all week as washing the pot every evening gave me a chance to do a lot of thinking. So on the last day of pot duty, I decided to approach Serena about it.

*~*

"Darien is there something wrong?" She asked me.

"H-huh?" I replied.

"You’ve been scrubbing that same pot for a long time...and I wanna get this over with so I can go to bed." She said to me with a yawn as she stretched her arms.

"Aw-uh-oh." I replied. "I’m f-fine."

"Are you sure?" She asked me again.

"Y-y-yeah." I replied. ‘Just go for it!’ My mind screamed at me. "I-I was just w-w-wondering." I began. ‘Here goes nothing.’ "D-do you...w-w-would y-you...d-do y-you th-th-think...are y-ou..." I kept on sputtering but couldn’t manage to finish the sentence.

"Spit it out Darien!" She said confused as to what I could possibly have to say. Then I did something that I had never ever done before. In fact I was so nervous that I had not even realized that I had done it until later when Serena pointed it out to me. I had spoken clearly.

"Do you wanna be my girlfriend?" I spat and then quickly looked down as an apparent blush crept up my face. Silence loomed in the air for what seemed like eternity to me. ‘Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! You should have known she would never agree! Why would she want to be your girlfriend? You’re just a clumsy little boy who...’ I didn’t get a chance to finish my degrading of myself as she had suddenly spoken.

"What does it mean?" She asked. "What do a girlfriend and boyfriend do?"

"Well...I...they...it means th-that...th-that w-w-we can sh-share our lu-lunch t-t-tog-gether...and I-I’ll g-get your t-toys f-for y-you off of da sh-shelf...and w-w-we always pl-ay t-to-gether...and-and I can g-get y-you pr-pretty fl-flowers." I finished nervously as I shut my eyes tight hoping that I would wake up any minute now and all of this would be a nightmare. ‘Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stu’ She interrupted my thoughts once more.

"Ok." She replied as she looked down on the floor. ‘I must not be hearing right. I know I’m not hearing right. She didn’t just say OK. She didn’t. In fact, she isn’t even standing here in front of me. In fact, when I open my eyes, she’ll be gone and then I’ll know that I imagined the whole thing. Right! If only I could manage to be brave enough to open my eyes. Maybe I’ll just open one eye. Yeah, that’s it...just one...oh my gosh she’s really standing there!’ I finished to myself as I finally managed enough courage to open my second eye. So I reached out to touch her to see if she was real, forgetting that my hands were wet and soapy. She immediately jerked her head up in my direction.

"W-w-what d-did y-you s-s-say?" I asked unbelievingly.

"I said yes...I’ll be your girlfriend." She said as she looked down once more and played with the edge of her skirt.

"O-uh-oh...o-k-kay." I replied. Then with a suddenly burst of courage that I didn’t understand, I leaned over and quickly pecked her on the cheek. I immediately turned to the pot that I had been washing before to hide my reddened face as she looked up to me in surprise.

"What was that for?" She asked me innocently.

"B-boy fr-friends d-do th-that too." I quickly tried to explain. "I-I’m s-s-sorry...if-if you don’t w-want me to d-do th-that...I w-won’t." I finished as I tried to pretend that I had suddenly found the pot more interesting than anything else.

"It’s OK." She replied. "I...I liked it." She finished with a smile and quickly bent her head down to hide her ever-growing blush. I had gone to bed feeling the best that I ever had since I arrived at this dreadful place.

*~*

Next: Chapter 3: From Revenge to Tears