The Unwanted Ones - Book One

Chapter Five

We reach the orphanage and I take his bags so he can unlock the door.

When we go in the living room is as alive as it was the last time I was here, full of people.

"Is it always this busy here?" I ask Matt as kids run past us, laughing.

"Yep. Never a dull moment." he replies with a smile. He takes the bags from me and I follow him into a kitchen.

In the kitchen I see a girl around my age with short jet black hair with dark blue streaks. Her eyes are dark as well, almost to the point of being pitch black. She has an arm full of silver bangles and her ears are full of piercings.

"Hey Lena," Matt says to her.

"Hey Matt," she says. "And you must be Ella's sister."

"Yeah, I'm Alex. Nice to meet you," I tell her. She smiles at me, and I'm relieved that she doesn't seem mean like Gwen.

"She's so cute," Lena tells me grinning. She takes the bag of fruits from Matt and starts putting them away.

"Yeah, she's great. Do you know where she is?" I ask her.

"Napping with the other babies and toddlers. There are like five of them," Lena answers.

"Hey I'm gonna go fix that pipe in the third floor bathroom, " Matt says.

"Alright, I'll show Alex around," Lena says, coming over and hooking her arm into mine.

He nods and gives me one last smile, and then leaves out of the kitchen.

"So, have you gotten the grand tour?" Lena asks me. I'm still wondering what it was that Matt was going to tell me but I guess I'll find out later.

"Nope, this and the livingroom are the only two rooms I've seen," I tell her.

"Well we've gotta fix that," she tells me, pulling me out of the kitchen into another room.

"This is another room like the living room." she says. It's big and has tons of couches, most of which are occupied by teens and kids.

We go through the room to the next one, which has two long tables with tons of chairs.

"The dining room," she says as we walk in between the two tables to the staircase.

She showed me the rest of the house, all five floors of it. Afterwards we go back down to the first floor where we see Gwen.

"I see you've taken in a stray," Gwen says to Lena. Lena rolls her eyes.

"Alex, you've met Gwen right?" she says to me.

"Unfortunately," I say with a shrug.

Gwen glowers at me and then strides out of the kitchen.

"Don't mind her, she's just territorial. She'll warm up to you eventually," Lena says to me.

"I don't particularly care whether she does or doesn't, " I reply.

Lena laughs. "Nice."

Matt walks into the kitchen. He runs his hands through his touseled hair and I sigh to myself.

"So I fixed it," he says with a chuckle.

"Good for you," Lena replies, smiling sarcastically.

He rolls his eyes and laughs. His laugh is a rich, pure happy sound that I wouldn't mind hearing over and over again.

I take a seat on one of the stools at the counter. Lena sits on one side of me, and Matt comes and sits on the other side.

"Hey!" he says, snapping his fingers and looking at me.

"Yeah?" I say, confused.

"I did have something to tell you. But it'd be better if I show you," he says. He glances over at Lena and gives her a knowing look. She nods.

He stands and she does too.

"Okay, what are you going to show me?" I ask, completely confused.

"You'll see," he says ominously. He starts walking and Lena trails after him. I stand up and follow them up to the second floor, down a hall.

He pushes open a door and we go in. There are two bunk beds. On one lays Danny. He's reading a book, laying on his back. When we come in he looks up from it.

"Oh hey, are we having ourselves a party?" he says, smirking.

"No you dork," Lena says. Matt says nothing. He just goes to a desk and pulls out a drawer. He picks up a paper and comes over to me.

"This is a map," he says.

"Yes, I can see that," I say, looking at it. It's a map of the whole United Territories, including the one that we live in. I can spot our town immediately. "Why are you showing me this?"

"Because, I'm going here," he tells me, pointing at a spot on the map that's south of where we live. "Me, Lena and Danny. And Gwen."

"Why?" I ask, looking up at him.

"To join the resistance." he answers me.