A World in the Shadows

Chapter 3, Lyra

CHAPTER 3

LYRA

I stood in line, glancing at the row of laughing boys and girls stretched out in front of me. It was going to take forever to get food. I was more than a little offended that it had been failed to mention that we would be having dinner at the orphanage; I had cooked for an hour for nothing. I shuffled my feet. I had regained my balance quickly after being pushed, but I was not going to give, whoever it was, the satisfaction of turning around. There was a massive assortment of teenagers here, from what I would guess to be aged from 10 and onwards. I didn’t particularly want to be here, as I hadn’t even started any of my essays. Apart from that, I honestly couldn’t be bothered spending my evening in an orphanage. I could have easily ended up here. Life has been rough for me, but I didn’t know if I would prefer to be living here, through a mass of kids when there was constantly barely enough room, or if I would rather the life I’d had, constantly told I wasn’t wanted and moving around to live with all sorts of people. You can hear whispers from far away, but it’s easy to tell a threatening whisper from a conversational one.

“What the hell was that?” I heard a course, dry voice from behind me. I tried to move less, listening to the voice. “Who the hell do you think you are!?” the voice continued. Okay. Maybe it was time to intervene. I stepped out of line and faced the voice, stepping towards the voice, who was a burly young adult that stretched around eight foot, talking to a guy that was obscured. I stepped towards them, so I was directly in front of them. My mouth practically dropped to the floor. The guy arguing with burly-guy was stranger-boy Ethan. He was an orphan? My eyes widened as I took them in. They hadn’t seen me yet. I took a deep breath and stepped forwards, standing between them.

“I really don’t think you guys want to start a scene right now” I said, gesturing around me. I felt extraordinarily short standing between them. I was 5 foot 6, shorter than most girls and practically looking like a dwarf standing in between two guys who cleared six foot. I didn’t let it faze me though, and smiled, as kindly as I could. “It would be a really bad idea” I added. Ethan’s eyes bulged a little before a smile crept along his face when he saw me, but it was almost as if he expected to see me. He had probably seen me before. Burly-guy narrowed his eyes and looked at me.

“You should move along girl. This guy deserves what’s coming” he snarled.

“Well I’m not leaving so if you plan to hit a girl, go ahead” I smiled and held my arms out, gesturing for him to try. He grunted and rolled his eyes, and then turned back to the line. I flicked my head towards Ethan.

“You’re welcome” I said, shifting into line in front of him.

“Thanks” he said. I looked down at my feet and continued to lean against the counter. “You should smile more often” I heard him say from behind me. “It suits you” I looked back at him.

He grinned, looking at my face for a reaction. I didn’t understand why he was being so nice. I hadn’t exactly been sunny and welcoming towards him. “So it’s Jenna then?” he asked, breaking me out of my thoughts. I realized I had been absent mindedly staring at his eyes for the last minute. They were a very pale, very glassy blue.

“It’s not Jenna” I said.

“Oh. So it’s Harry then?” he asked. I rolled my eyes and smiled exasperatedly.

“Fine. My name is Lyra” I said. He smiled.

“Nice name” he said. The line moved forwards very quickly all of a sudden. I glanced up and realized two teenagers had joined the kitchen staff to help serve the kids, with grimaces on their faces. The line was now moving at double the pace and I was quickly served my food, as was Ethan. Two teenage boys from behind him smiled and one of them stepped forwards.

“I’m Jacob” he said, grinning and holding out his hand. I sighed and reluctantly shook it. There was nowhere to walk off to this time.

“I’m Lyra” I said. Ethan groaned and looked at me.

“That easy? It took me ages for you to even introduce yourself!” he said. I smiled.

“Well maybe it’s because I’m not telling him ways to improve the shade of his hair.” I said. The other boy that hadn’t spoken yet snorted.

“Ethan, you have so much to learn about girls” he said. I tried not to laugh and looked around. I couldn’t see Jenna anywhere.

“Would you like to sit with us? I’m Matt by the way” he said. I shook his hand and smiled faintly. I couldn’t really say no now anyway.

“Sure” I said. I followed the boys to a table at the back of the hall and sat down on a chair next to Matt, while Jacob and Ethan sat on the other side of the table.

“You know Lyra, Ethan has about as much smoothness as a jar of crunchy peanut butter. I on the other hand, happen to love your hair.” Jacob said, grinning sheepishly. I snorted.

“Shut up Jacob” Ethan said, beginning to eat.

“So you two know each other? Ethan why haven’t we been told about this lovely lady?” Matt asked, eating slowly and looking between Ethan and I.

“We met this morning” I said. “For about five minutes. And I’m not a lady” I said.

“Oh you’ve got the tough girl thing down pat but it’s easy to see that you’ve got a sweet side” Jacob said, grinning at me.

“Is that so?” I said, raising my eyebrows and continuing to eat the spaghetti Bolognese in front of me.

“Yeah” Jacob said. “Secret poet, painter, writer, singer? You’ve got a creative streak” I looked back at him and shrugged.

“If you say so” I said.

“Guys stop terrorizing the first new girl you’ve seen in months” Ethan said, avoiding my eyes and going back to stirring his pasta.

“So why purple?” Jacob asked.

“I don’t know. When I was 14 I knocked over a shelf and a bottle of bleach fell on the back of my hair and burst open. I had to cut most of it off because it was so damaged and I wanted a colour that was different so I wouldn’t miss my old hair” I finished, spooning more pasta in to my mouth as they all looked at me with wide eyes.

“Didn’t you get really bad chemical burns?” Jacob asked.

“Yeah” I said “I was in my bathers so I still have scars down my back” I flinched. Maybe this was something I shouldn’t have shared. They all still looked at me wide-eyed but I focused all my attention on going back to eating.

“So are those other kids your brother and sister?” Ethan asked. He was sitting directly across from me and smiled slowly. I had a feeling he was changing the subject on purpose.

“No. Just normal foster kids. Harry’s only been there a week. Jenna’s been there a few months.” I said. All my attention was on my pasta now, I was pretty sure all three of them were looking at me.

“What happened to your parents?” Ethan asked. I looked up. It wasn’t something that I talk about, that no one in my situation talks about. But as I looked back at him, I realized he was asking because he was an orphan. We were two of a kind. Sort of.

“Nothing” I said. Looking at Ethan. I could tell Matt and Jacob were looking at me but I only really felt comfortable looking at Ethan. “When I was a baby I was left in a parking lot. I’m pretty sure my parents are still alive” I finished speaking and kept looking at Ethan.

“Lyra…” he said softly. I stood up and grabbed my empty bowl of pasta.

“I’m going to give this to the kitchen” I said, awkwardly turning away and leaving the table.