Getting Comfortable.

They were banned too as the ones I had were kept at the front house.

Huge wonder how Nomen got in contact with them when they had no single contact with the outside world.

•

They were multiple rooms on all floors.... Except the 7th floor, there was only a single room and a bathroom, two doors at the two ends of the floor, one for climbing on, the other for climbing up.

And the room on the 7th floor was mine, it was very uncomfortable for me adjusting there, coping with the chimney, which made scuttling sounds every night.

Visiting hours was 2 pm sharp, not many people came for visiting though, the most that had visited in a day was twenty, and without mentioning, they were the families of the boarding children. Otherwise they called through the ancient telephone in the front house.

Classes and quality learning materials were only for the boarding kids, the 'found' kids were put in rooms, given old books and broken pencils, with a lazy teacher siting at her desk.

This place was....Not my style at all.

I was obviously part of the boarding children.

•••••

Soon after the morning meal, we were told to go to our various classes, I thought I would be finally free from Moriah's eyes but unfortunately, she made my stick with her through all classes, obviously she was mother Essyher's eyes watching my every move.

I groaned.

I then tried listening to teacher as he talked and talked about arithmetic and mathematics, explaining the solutions and methods of solving.

In a class of so many silent and listening children, I felt more singular and isolated than ever.

The bell suddenly rang, signalling break time for the children.

The teacher said good bye and left us to ourselves.

The children all arranged in a single file and walked out the door, towards the hall, for their lunches.

I only sat watching them as they moved while being acutely aware of the of the burning stare on my head which I was sure belonged to Moriah.

A few seats behind her stared with her cold and now calculating eyes.

...

I could barely process anything and I left the teachers provoked when asked questions.

They took me to the children's psychologist who said everything was ok with me, which she took as a problem.

I didn't even know being okay was a problem. She said it wasn't normal that I wasn't going through any post traumatic symptoms, whatever that meant.

Sometimes I felt like a robot built down to perfection, and yet had a dyslexic disorder and responding to every jeer and mock with a blind, unperceptive, involuntary violent retaliation.

Moriah has been frowning at me more lately, and I've trying my best to avoid her friends and hiding from her sights while with mine.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a rich-people-phobe, I enjoy certain luxuries but I don't like people whom insult others.

So yeah, yeah, in a week of a week, I'd gotten; 19 disapproving head shakings, 16 gasps, 4 time-outs, 10 'Miss Elliam, now just what do you think you're doing?!' And 4 detentions from nuns, monks and clergy women and men.

And I guess from people who acted like Christ's P.A. that was directly equivalent to being directly admonished by Jesus Christ!

And if you're wondering, it was for fighting with other kids, loitering around the halls past lights out and asking too much questions, yes there's a rule about asking too much questions.

In a week's time, I had become 'popular', an enfant terrible, as the school termed.

•••••

I was in the backyard, surprisingly the backyard was wide and opened into a small forest, it was nice and cool and had a pond and tall trees.

Ramone and the others were there too, I'm not a people person but they sat with me at every lunch so now I think we're all friends, although I'm pretty sure it because I fought with the kid who dumped food on my head, with the other one who pushed me into the pond on monday, accidentally poured the monk teacher car oil instead of honey because they look alike and what is car oil doing on the dinner table?! The cook should be investigated!

But I wasn't complaining, they were cool, kinda like outlaws.. Except they didn't break the law. They didn't talk too much but just picked a dumb and practically useless activity for all of us to do, like we are now, near the pond, dirtying ourselves and catching frogs.

They didn't ask me about why I wasn't hanging out with the 'important' kids, I didn't ask what was going on, the line keeping rich and poor was carefully left undiscussed.

I see kids do this sometimes and call them stupid, it's not fun being picked from your habitat and not even having to be at least used for human cuisines but I won't insult myself for doing this fun, dumb, dirty and tiring activity.

"I'm so glad the pond's finally open,"

Timon said excitedly.

"What, why?" I asked.

"Because most of the year is cold and the pond becomes frozen, it's no fun then, trying to skate on the ice might be fun but falling and drowning in the cold liquid definitely would not," Ramone said, shivering slightly.

I nodded.

While chasing the frogs, I decided to ask about the orphanage, suddenly remembered Moriah's shifty attitude when I asked her about the doors.

She was definitely lying, there was probably a weapon from the future locked in them, or aliens or worse as I expect from a creepy orphanage, they're using kids for experiments.

"Hey, while Moriah showed me around, there were some rooms she didn't show me and when I asked, she it was nothing, just some old stuff you guys weren't using anymore," I asked Moriah.

Ramone continued drawing in the sand. "Uh huh?"

" What's in there, really?" I asked.

When I asked that question, I noticed Timon shivering.

Ramone paused then replied

"It's..... It's just like she said, just some old stuff we don't use anymore...."

I narrowed my eyes at her, she was acting suspicious, they all were, obviously something not right was going on behind those doors.

Timon, turned and gave her an incredulous look and a 'what the heck?' gesture with his chubby hands, while Ramone responded with a 'don't you dare,' look.

Timon shook his head and was starting to say something when Ramone interrupted him.

"Come over here, Elliam, there's a whole family here!"

I continued eyeing her but stood nonetheless and ran to where she was. The others would have followed but Ramone gave them a scary look, they stayed put grudgingly.

"Where?" I asked excitedly. I knew she was trying to distract me but I gave in anyway....For frogs, I'd asked her later.

"Here, somewhere..."

We used our sticks to disturb the low water.

"They're pretty serious about discipline,"

I looked at her.

"Who?"

" The nuns and monks, they're very serious about obedience and having a holier-than-thou attitude,"