Girl Number Eight

Chapter One

Chapter One

(copyright)

Have you ever been woken up from a really great dream? A perfect dream, that puts a smile on your face for no apparent reason. Well, I have. It was happening right now.

"Happy Birthday dear Bella. . . Happy birthday to you!" Violet sang to me. As I opened my eyes, I could see her sitting on the side of my bed, holding a small cupcake in her tiny hands, which was very badly decorated with blood red icing but it still put a smile on my face.

"Hey sweetie," I smiled while sitting up on my bed now, I lifted Violet's tiny body up onto my lap. My perfect dream long forgotten.

"Happy birthday, Bella. I made you a cupcake." Violet said and showed me the cupcake. "I added a little too much red food colouring, I was trying to make pink!"

"Thank you, Violet. I love cupcakes," I smiled when Violet grinned.

"Hey, Isabelle. Happy birthday but Ms Parks wants to see you as soon as possible," Amy had just opened my door and walked in but I didn't mind. There was no such thing as privacy in this place anyway. I sighed, Ms Parks was our minder. You could say she was kind of like our foster parent but on a larger scale.

Ms Parks ran this orphanage. I was an orphan, so was Violet and Amy and the twelve other children that were living in this place. Amy is ten, we think. She was found as a baby on the orphanage's doorsteps, we don't know her birthday so we just guessed. Violet, however, had a mother who was too young. Sixteen or seventeen, she was too scared to tell her parents so had the baby secretly then handed her over to Ms Parks.

Ms Parks isn't the only adult around this place. There's the cook and the cleaners and the nurses but Ms Parks is the only one that permanently lives here. So obviously things must get stressful for her. When Violet came, five years ago, two other babies and infants came. This was a very busy time for Ms Parks. I was ten at the time and would always love to look at the new babies trough the glass in the nursery. I was always amused by their giggles and pink faces. Violet used to cry a lot as a baby. No one knew how to end her hysterics except me. I once asked could I hold her, Ms Ennis the nurse let me because she was trying to feed Sam, another small baby. When I held Violet, she looked at me through her huge brown eyes and miraculously smiled. Ms Ennis was impressed, so she let me come to see Violet every day after school to feed her and put her to sleep. When I was thirteen, Ms Parks put me in charge of Violet who was now three. All the older orphans were always put in charge of younger orphans, to talk to them and help them with their problems. Most older orphans hated this job but I loved it. Violet was almost like my little sister, I loved her.

"Bella," Violet whispered then kissed my cheek, "What's wrong? Are you sad?" Her cute six year old voice was worried about me.

"Of course not, I'm never sad when your around!" I jumped off my bed and lifted Violet up and swung her around. "You are the best thing in my whole life!"

She giggled, "Bella!?"

I put her back on my bed and started to tickle her, "Yes madam!"

"Bella," She laughed and tried to squirm in my grip, I eventually stopped so she could continue to talk, "I love you too, you're the best big sister ever!"

"I know I am, Violet, you tell me every day!" I didn't bother to correct her when she said we were sisters, she knew all about the orphans and that we weren't related but insisted we were sisters anyway. We even looked a little alike. We both had dark brown eyes and brown hair and the same skin type, but Violet was hell of a lot cuter than me.

"What'll I wear today, Purple Plum?" I asked Violet. She giggled when I used her nickname, when I taught her the colours before she started school I told her that Violet was a colour like purple and ever since it kind of stuck.