"They say we are asleep until we fall in love
We are children of dust and ashes
But when we fall in love we wake up
And we are a god and angels weep
But if I die here tonight
I die in my sleep"
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"Ben!"
Benicia adjusted her glasses and glanced over at a few of the friends she made at Saint Agnes. "Ben?"
"I don't know." Caitlin, the ash blonde teen, shrugged her shoulders, "You mentioned not wanting us to call you Benny."
Benicia nodded her head and set the textbook down, "Yeah."
"Are you seriously studying?" Another one of the teen orphans at Saint Agnes, Lily, asked as she plopped down beside her, "Come on. We should go out and have some fun before finals."
Frankie, a fifteen year old in their friend group, snagged the text book from her, "We can study some other time."
"You should be studying for the SATs, mister-" Benicia wagged a pointed finger at him, which only caused Jaquelin to snort, "There's not much we can do... I just-School is the one thing that's keeping me sane."
"That's so sad."
Lily shoved Caitlin to the side, "Let her live."
"Uh, studying is not living."
"Benicia." All of the kids stopped what they were doing at the sound of Sister Grace's voice. She had her hands behind her back as she stared at all of them, "Benicia, come on, Father Latum would like to speak with you."
Benicia took her textbook back as she got up from the steps. She nervously followed behind Sister Grace, "Why does he want to see me?"
"Ask him when you get there."
"Maggie-" Benicia sighed loudly, which only made Sister Grace stop, "Sorry, Sister Grace." She corrected, "I'm not in trouble, am I?"
"No, Benicia. You're not in trouble." Maggie sighed and stopped her in the hall, "Someone's come today and asked for the kid with the highest grade point average."
"Okay?"
"They want to adopt you."
"Oh-" Benicia blinked her eyes a couple of times, "Really? I'm... I'm seventeen. I'm considered pretty old. It'll probably be better for them to get someone else."
Benicia rubbed the side of her head tiredly and looked up when there was a knock on the door of her office. She set her pen down and smiled at Ellison, "Hey."
"Hey." Ellison had a note for her, "Uh, you ever heard of-" He revealed the name on the paper.
Benicia squinted her eyes at the name, "Uh, yeah, he's a real estate developer. Actually, uh, his daughter-" She started to go through more of her files, "Is the mean one on the Heiress' of Manhattan. Not that I watch that kind of crap or anything."
"Of course not." Ellison chose to just glaze over what she said, "Anyone, he and his, uh, daughter were attacked outside a restaurant last night. He's uh, in a coma at a Riverbank hospital-" He set the note down on her desk, "I figured it'll be like some kind of kidnapping-"
