Herobrine's Heir

Chapter 2 - School Day

I stretched and dazedly pulled the threadbare red blanket off as the morning bell clanged. Breakfast started in thirty minutes. I rubbed my eyes, yawned, and began to pull on my dark blue shirt and tan pants. My leather boots were too big and were worn from repetitive use. I wished they would give me something nice for once, but why would they waste their precious emeralds on a kid like me? They, by the way, are the orphanage proprietors. Yep, I'm an orphan, lucky me.

The floorboards beneath me groaned as I lumbered toward the hatch door, still in a sleep fog. The small room with a ceiling so short that I couldn't stand up straight was lit by the tiny window that revealed the excessively thick coating of dust on everything. I opened up the squeaky trap door and slowly made my way down the creaky ladder that led from the attic to the dorm hall. Yes, my room is in the attic. The other dorms were supposedly full, but I knew for a fact that Jessica had a whole room to herself. Of course, I was much too...how did they put it? Ah yes, different was their term for it...to be put in a dorm with another student. The dorms, and the orphanage itself, were actually pretty nice.

Smooth oak plank floors, clean brick walls, and the occasional painting hung about. It was a perfectly square building with evenly spaced windows and grand double doors that led to an especially nice foyer area, where future parents would meet the lineup of children waiting to be adopted. I was never allowed in that line. The orphanage had a neat, practical layout with about one hundred student dorms divided into girls' and boys' sections on the top floor of the building, the staff dorms and offices just below, and the kitchen and cafeteria at the bottom. It sat on a large grassy lawn just outside the village of Hanson and about fifty blocks from the bordering desert biome. It was a good place to be if you were an orphan, well, except for me.

I took a deep breath and then joined in the stream of chattery traffic heading towards the stairs. Instantly, an invisible bubble formed around me. Skinny girls, plump girls, tall girls, short girls, pretty girls, not-so-pretty girls, five-year-girls, and fifteen-year-old girls all shoving to avoid touching me, and screeching in disgust if they accidentally did. I slowed my pace as I neared the point where the girls' and boys' halls joined. This was where things got hectic. The girls doing all they could to stay away from me and the boys doing all they could to shove me to the ground in a crowd of two hundred hungry kids rushing to get to the cafeteria. Yeah, not fun. I dodged under an elbow and skipped over an outstretched foot, trying my best to stay upright. I waited until most of the kids had passed before continuing forward. The staircase entrance was just a block ahead of me now. I was almost home free. Then I felt something collide with my back, and I lost balance and toppled over. Just before my face hit the first stone step, I caught a glimpse of a six-year-old redhead with his chest puffed out and a proud smile on his face standing at the top of the stairs. Nowhere and no one was safe.

I finally hit the bottom stair, banging my eye on the hard edge. I gasped in pain, then stood up and straightened my clothes, wincing at my many bruises. Just for the record, I do not recommend rolling down three flights of hard stone stairs. It could have been worse I guess. The redhead boy came marching down the stairs behind me and strutted over to his group of friends, no doubt to show off. The crowd had thinned, and everyone had dispersed to their tables neatly arranged around the spacious room. Mine was in the corner, and guess what, no one else sat there. I tenderly caressed my swollen eye; I could barely see out of it. It would take a while for that to heal. A healing potion would have been wonderful, but all potions were locked away and banned from use after someone mixed up the labels as a prank and someone ended up getting poisoned. The delicious smell of bacon wafting from the kitchen made my mouth water, but we would have to wait until roll call was over to eat.

Ms. Laurels, a short, plump villager with grey hair and an even bigger nose than usual, waddled up to her spot in front of the waiting children. She was the head proprietor of the orphanage and made sure everything was spotless. Well, she didn't really care about my condition. She pulled out the neatly folded sheet of paper from her pocket, cleared her throat, and rehearsed her usual speech, "Good morning, everyone! I know you're hungry so I will make this as quick as possible. Allen?"