Anna Leto ~ Discontinued

Chapter 9

My heart pounds and my hands feel clammy as I sneak down the halls of St.Vincents children's home.

My destination: the banned forest at the back of St.Vinnys.

Why? To see my best and only friend, Serene.

Check left. Check right.

The coast is clear.
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Once I successfully made it to the forest, I found Ree sat on a log in a little clearing, her back facing me.

Deciding to make another attempt at scaring her, I tiptoe up to her, trying not to make a sound on the branches and the crinkled, fallen, autumn leaves.

"I know you're there, Ann." She giggled.

"How'd you know I was there?" I sigh in disbelief, moving to sit beside her, "How do you always know I'm there? Do you have eyes in the back of your head?"

We laugh whilst I jokingly check the back of her head for another set of eyes.

"I checked, I don't think you do, unless they're invisible. Are they invisible?" I pondered.

"No silly. I just know. Ok? I'm special like that." Serene laughed.

"I don't believe it!" I state.

"Aaa," she gasps dramatically, placing her hand on her heart, "so you're saying I'm not special? How dare you!"

I laugh again, "No you beautiful ginger banana, I meant that I don't believe that..."

"What's that?" Ree jumps up in a stance ready to fight.

"I don't know, but if it's Matron I don't think that we're going to be beautiful bananas anymore, we'd be more like squished yucky browny bananas." I grimace, following Serene in standing up and getting ready to defend myself if needed.

"Anna, I really don't think now is the time for jokes, and I swear if it's Matron, I'm dead." She scolded me.

Oops.

But all that hassle was for nothing as a little, caramel-coloured mouse comes scuttling out of the bushes, a small berry in its hands, nibbling away merrily.

"Aww, he's sooo cute!" I squeal quietly trying not to startle the little mouse, but failing miserably.

The small mouse jumps from fright and looks up at me.

"Aww indeed! But how do you know if it's a he? And don't frighten the poor little guy!" Ree put forth.

"Says the one who literally just called the poor mouse a little guy, and aren't there more genders than just those two?" I reply sarcastically, but Serene knew that I was joking as she lets out a soft laugh as well as nodding in order to answer my question. That is before I slowly reach my hand out to pet the little mouse, who accepts and eventually climbs on my palm of my hand and continues its nibbling.

"Awww, can I keep it as a pet?" I plead.

"Well you could, if you want to I mean, and if the mousey doesn't mind." She responds.

At that the little mouse looks up at me again, but this time from its place in my cupped hands and a small smile etched on its gorgeous, little, squishy face.

"I think it doesn't mind, in fact, judging by that smile it just gave me, it'd quite like that." I smiled.

Wow, there's a lot of smiles today. I wish it'd stay that way forever.

"Then it's your pet. But what are you going to name it? Aaaaand, most importantly how are we supposed to know if it's a boy or a girl ooor part of the lgbtq+ community? We can't just keep calling it 'it'." Serene sits back down on the log and sighs contently, "Oh, I forgot to say hi to you, I missed you a lot Ann. That half ish of a year was probably, no, most definitely my worst lot of days I've ever had to experience."

"I know, I missed you lots too, Ree. I hated it too, I was numb most of the time, other times I was bored out of my mind without you, if I had been locked up there for any longer I would have died without you. And back to the nicer conversation we were having earlier, I have an idea." I finally responded after sitting in silent thought for a couple seconds.

"What idea? For what?" she asked me, "Wait, what were we talking about?"

I swear she has the worst memory ever sometimes.

"You'll see, and Ree, you have a brain, use it, or you'll lose it."

"Huh? I'm really confused now."

"Well, there's no need to be confused, Berry and I have decided that the best way to find out it's gender is to see which colour it likes best, pink or blue ooor maybe even rainbow!" I exclaim extaticly, to which I get shushed by Serene.

"Berry? Who's Berry? Wait. Is that the little mouse's name now?" Ree came to the conclusion of.

"Aha, and Berry seems to like it very much, plus I decided on it since the first thing we saw the little one do is nibble on it's berry in it's hands, aaand it's a name that can suit any gender!" I say, clearly proud of my decision.

"I like it!" She agrees.
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Only minutes after naming my new pet, we wander deeper into the forest, Berry perched on my left shoulder.

"It should be here somewhere." Ree tells me.

"Can you just tell me what the surprise is already? I don't even know what to look for." I plead.

"Aha, here it is!" she jumps.

Turning around to face her, I gasp.

"You made a den? For us?"

"No, I made Matron make it for your mean roommate." Serene replies sarcastically.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I laugh, unable to hold my excitement in and entering the den made of tree branches and foliage, "Oo, I love it."

"Glad you do, I was scared that you wouldn't like it." She confessed.

"Oh don't be silly, I could never hate any of your surprises."

We lay in the den for the next few hours, just talking about whatever comes to mind, till it started to get darker.

"As nice as this really is, we should really start to head back now; it's getting too dark and I'm sure that Matron'll be checking the rooms soon." I interrupt Ree's rambling.

Looking out of the den, to check that it really is getting dark, Serene says "Oh, that's a shame, can't we just sleep here for this one night?"

"As much as I'd love to, this is my first night not chained to my room in ages, and I'm almost 100% sure that Matron'll be checking my room first, the last thing I'd like is to be chained again."

And with that we headed off, promising each other that we'd come back and one-day spend a night there too.
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