4 minutes till noon

1

My friend Rowan woke me up once again in the orphanage. It was around 10 am, as it said the clock hung on the wall. The paint on it was cracking due to humidity. So I got out of bed, my friend told me to hurry up because we would miss breakfast, so I quickly got up. I didn't bother switching clothes because I didn't have more, the other ones I had were in the laundry.
So we went to the kitchen. All the kids were there. Me and Rowan thought we were the last ones to come sit, but then his cousin Noah appeared. He was around 9 years old. He asked Rowan '¿Where have you been? I've been looking for you!' my friend rolled his eyes. His cousin was very clingy to him, meaning he wasn't surprised.
So then, we heard the principal demanding us to sit, so we sat in the big tables they had for us kids.
The food they gave us was a glass of milk, and a few cookies. I refused to drink nor eat, because the food had weird stuff. And it didn't smell good.
Noah ate like he hadn't done so in days, while Rowan was slowly taking small bites. He didn't seem to enjoy the food. He said: 'im so sick of this everyday' to which I agreed. his cousin didn't seem to care as long as he had food.
But then one girl came up to us. I looked at her up and down, because she seemed familiar. I soon remembered her name, Elizabeth. She asked if she could eat my food, and I said yes, because she looked a bit malnourished. She ate it really fast, she had hiccups soon. She said the lunch lady forgor to give her food. But then, she asked us if we wanted to do something fun, We asked what she meant by that, to which she replied: 'don't y'all think we deserve better than this?' 'elaborate' I said. 'let's get out of here'
I immediately agreed, but Rowan and Noah were like, no way, what if someone finds out? to which Elizabeth replied: 'let's do it this night, don't y'all think it would be fun to see the outside world?
Noah smiled brightly and said 'Yes!' But Rowan didn't agree. He said he would think about it. 'You have til noon to decide'. When Elizabeth said that, she went skipping to the table where she was before. Noah and me said to the unison 'come with us!' Rowan didn't reply. He looked down at his food with an annoyed expression as he ate it. When he finished his food (which took a long time) the principal told us to go back to our rooms. So us and the other kids in the lunchroom got up and rushed down the halls to our rooms. I was halfway through the hall, when I started feeling really sleepy. My head was spinning a bit, so I slowed down my steps. When Rowan turned around, he saw me really far from him and his cousin. So he walked up to me and asked what was wrong. I tried to say something, but I was too dizzy to even think about a coherent sentence. Then my vision got all blurry and I passed out.
I woke up a few minutes later in the nurse's office. The smell of latex filled the room. I didn't see her tho. I looked at the clock and it marked '11:58' My mind raced with thoughts. "What if the principal yells at me for not tidying my bed? what if someone goes through my stuff while in not in my room?" As I kept overthinking, the nurse, Rowan and Noah walked in the room.
My friend gave a sigh of relief when he saw I was awake. The nurse told me I had fainted because I hadn't eaten anything all morning. She gave me a glass of water and told me to drink it. I quickly drank it. My throat was really dry this morning, so it was a bit comforting to have something to make it feel better.
I was just about to say something, when Rowan said 'don't worry about your bed, I tidied it'.
I was a bit relieved when he said that, as I now wouldn't get yelled at, or maybe hit, who knows in what mood was the principal today.
The nurse soon told me I could go to my room, since I wasn't showing any signs of being ill. Her expression seemed sincere, so I trusted her. She always used to take care of me when I was a child, even when I was crying when I missed my parents. So I got up, my legs trembled a little, so Noah tried holding me. He was much younger and smaller than me, so he couldn't do it quite well, but I appreciated the gesture.
When I could finally stand well, we all walked back to our rooms. We went separate ways, because we slept in different rooms because of our gender. So I waved at them goodbye, to which they did the same.
I watched from the doorframe of my room. The wall was still cracking a bit. The smell of humidity filled my nostrils. A girl there was making doodles on the wall, poor thing, would have to face the consequences of her actions sooner or later.
I was just about to enter the room, when I saw three girls giggling at something. I immediately recognized them, they were Mary, Ashley and Juliet. I saw my things spread out in my bed, while the girls were holding something. I rushed inside and saw that they were reading my diary. I frantically took it away from Mary, which was the one holding it reading it out loud, while they kept laughing at me. Oh, how I wished they hadn't seen all the messed up stuff in there..
Mary said mockingly: ' how's your father doing?' which made me tear up a bit. Me and my father used to do a lot of fun stuff when I was little. But he passed away when I was 4. Even though I'm 14, it still hurts to remember that.
I replied to her by hitting her in the nose, wich have her a nosebleed. she ran to the bathroom, trying not to stain her clothes too much with the blood. The Juliet and Ashley just went away to do something. They didn't even care about her friend mary.
So I picked up my things from my bed and put them in my drawer. I layed down in my bed, just to see the dusty clock. '12:27'. 'I wished time could go faster' I said to myself. Days were usually like this, so slow and boring. At least I had Rowan and Noah.
But then, I remembered what Elizabeth said about us escaping. Would it really be a good idea? I started wondering if I should go or not. But I remembered, when I first came here, I couldn't stop crying, and the principal got really mad. She just hit me 'til my tears were over. It took so long, the pain was too much for 4 year old me. I didn't want to get hit again. at least not by principal. So I brushed away the thoughts about escaping not being a good idea, and closed my eyes for a nap.
When I woke up, I felt even worse than before. I was really disoriented, felt that weird, sweet flavor of bacteria in my mouth, which only made it worse. I opened my eyes, even though it was hard, and looked at the clock '2:37'.I realized everyone was asleep right now. And I had a bit of drool on my mouth, so I quickly wiped it away... So I sat In my bed and wondered what I could do for now. I decided to draw, so I grabbed a sheet of paper and the few pencils I had. I had to put a lot of pressure on the paper because the colors weren't showing up at all. The pencils weren't good quality, but at least I had some. I finished my drawing and stored it in my drawer. I remembered, if I had to escape, I would have to bring at least something with me. I wondered what it could be, and I realized my clothes were still dirty, so I got up and sneakily made my way to the basket in the corner of the room, on wich they were my clothes. I grabbed them and sneakily ran off. I went to the bathroom and washed them in the sink. There was a small blood puddle on the granite of the sink. I rinsed and scrubbed my clothes really hard, because I had no soap to wash them with. Just then I heard a girl come out from the bathroom stall. It was Elizabeth. She asked me if my friend had decided or not to come with us. I said no, because I hadn't seen him yet to ask him. She asked in which room he was, because she wanted to ask him herself. I said 'in the boys second room'. To which Elizabeth didn't reply and just left, skipping. Probably going to where I told her Rowan was. I kept washing my clothes, and brought them to my room and hung them near the window. So once again, I layed in my bed. I looked at the clock and it said '3:29' 'damn, I probably spent an hour drawing' I said to myself, while looking at the wall. it was full of doodles from the little girl. she didn't draw quite well but from what I could see, she tried to draw a girl in a house.
I realized my stomach was growling a bit from hunger. So I frantically searched if I had something to eat in my pockets. I pulled out a lollipop, and shoved it in my mouth. It was blueberry flavored. It didn't cure my hunger at all, but at least I could chew on it and pretend it was food. I tried to eat it slowly, but I just kept chewing it. To distract myself, I looked out the window. There, I saw a stray cat standing on the window frame (which was odd because we were on a second floor). I started petting it but it scratched me. 'damn' I said. I annoyingly went to my bed and tried to sleep. It was hard because I had slept many hours already. But I closed my eyes and get asleep. I had various dreams. I remember one where we were escaping the orphanage, but in trying to do so, the principal caught us and hit us till we bled.
I woke up from that nightmare, still panting and sweating a bit. I soon realized I was awake, and looked at the clock. '3:60' 'hell nah, it's not working correctly'. It probably was around 4 or 5, so I got up from my bed. I realized there was no one around the room, they were probably having the afternoon meal. I ran throughout the halls to go to the lunchroom, and just as I expected, I saw everybody there. I soon spotted Rowan and Noah and sat with them. Weirdly, Elizabeth was with them. They seemed happy. Soon Rowan told me he was escaping with us. it was a relief. Elizabeth told us she had something planned to escape (obviously). She said we would meet up at the lunchroom at 1:00 a.m, open a window and escape. We had to be really quiet, as the halls echoed with each step.