You Didn't See That Coming? ~Hawksilver~ #Wattys2015

Orphans Part II

Pietro's POV

"Dante, wake up," a boy's voice said, "Look. Newcomers."

"What?"

"Guys, go back to sleep."

"No, but there's new kids in the two middle beds! Charlie, come here! You have to see this!"

"What is it, Daniel?" A tired, half-asleep older boy asked, footsteps coming towards mine and Wanda's beds.

"There's new kids in the vacant beds, Charlie! And one of them's a girl!"

"A girl? No way."

"Yes way! They weren't here last night. It's like they appeared out of nowhere!"

"I wonder if they snuck in at night," a younger boy said, "Maybe they were wanted for something bad! Like stealing!"

"Or murder," the first boy said.

"Wait a sec, Daniel, that kid's wearing my old t-shirt. A hand-me down. They must have joined the orphanage recently. Don't crowd around the poor kids, it's six am, get your butts back to sleep!"

"Yes, Charlie," the two younger boys said, and there was the sound of rustling of covers and blankets in the air, interrupting my sleep completely and waking me up. My eyes shot open, and I turned on my other side in frustration. I was sleeping well, too. No nightmares, no cold, no worries for mine and Wanda's safety.

"Psst," a voice said, and Wanda sat up groggily.

"Pietro? What is it?"

"I didn't say anything," I said, barely audible.

"At your midnight," the older boy's voice from before said, and I narrowed my eyebrows in confusion, looming around for who spoke. "Behind the paper wall. Walk around it, I'm going to meet you in the halls to the right."

Us?" I asked quietly.

"Yes, you! Come on!" Wanda and I looked at each other, and quietly stepped out of our beds and walked slowly out to the halls to find a boy, about seventeen years old, standing in front of us."Sorry to wake you, but I could tell you were already awake," he said, looking at me. My name's Charlie Goth, I'm the second-oldest one here."

"I'm Pietro, and this is my sister Wanda," I said.

"Nice to meet you, kids. Brother and sister...I assumed as much, when we found the two of you in adjacent beds, in the boy's side of the room. It happens on an extremely rare occasion, last time it happened I was eight. Well, only a few others would remember that. Welcome to hell on earth, kids. Though it seems nice...the ladies who run it seem nice, anyways...it's nothing at all the way you'd think it would be. I would know, I lived here since I was two years old. My parents died in a car crash."

"I'm sorry," Wanda said sadly.

"Don't be," Charlie sId, "It's sad, but I never knew them. Wow...Pietro and Wanda. We don't have any of those. We have a 'Peter" spelled P-i-o-t-r, and we have a lot of Winifreds, but no Wandas or Pietros. I knew several Pietros in the past, though. Let me ask you something kids, are you teenagers yet?"

"We're eleven," I said.

"Excellent. You're almost past the usual, but not quite-"

"The usual? What do you mean?" Wanda asked.

"The usual age of being adopted,"he said simply.

"Adopted? Do we have a chance of being adopted?" I asked, dreadingly. I certainly hope not! Orphanage...maybe we should have remembered coming into this that we could get adopted at an orphanage. "I don't want new parents. Wanda and I already had our share of parents, let other children get adopted-"