Wild Life

School, No school

The next day ,after doing hours of homework at the orphanage, I walked to school on my own. I always walk on my own. There's no one else to walk with. I've got no other friends. Anyway, when I got to school, there was a big riot outside the gate. The gate was closed, and there was a sign on it saying, ''no school today! A letter will be sent home to your parents! "
The swarms of school kids left one by one after reading this notification.

I groaned. No school meant that I'd have to play a 'group game' with the rest of the orphans. That always happened when there was no school.
The school does this kind of thing quite a lot. I minded more than the other kids. They go hang out with their friends, but when it's no school for me I have to go back to the orphanage to 'have fun'.

Slowly I made my way back across the road to the orphanage. I knocked on the big wooden doors and waited for someone to come and answer. A few minutes later, Kelly one of the orphanage leaders answered and let me in.
"I didn't expect you back!" She said.
"No. Neither did I" I said back. She took my boring brown coat off and put it in the coat hanger.
"They always do that don't they! Close school," she said while she took my bags from me. I grunted. Kelly is nice -the nicest leader here at the orphanage! But I am a grumpy teen-ager who needs space, and Kelly doesn't quite understand that.

When I walked into the lounge, the rest of the orphans were waiting for me to come. They were all sitting on cushions on the floor and I immediately realised what 'game' we were playing. The game where you spill out your hopes dreams and feelings. Everyone has to share with us. If you don't, then you are 'isolated' for the rest of the day. It is completely ridiculous.

The game started by Paula telling her dreams and feelings.
"I want to become a pony pwincess and ride to meet Pwesident Obama!" She squeeked in her 4 year old voice.
Melissa (another leader) nodded and moved on to the next person.
"I want to become a fireman and save all the people who are about to die in fires!" Said Alex gruffly. His parents died in a fire and he was the only one to escape. He only had to come to the orphanage because he had literally no other relatives. Melissa went through all of the other kids and they poured out all of their hopeless ideas which are unrealistic until it got to me.
"So what are your hopes, dreams and feelings Mandy?" Asked Melissa.
I looked at her blankly for a moment. I didn't really want to tell the other kids how I felt right then. So I just made it up on the spot. Well, I made most of it up!
"I'm really lucky to be in this orphanage. The kids at school are really nice. One day I want to leave here and go live somewhere quiet in the countryside. Somewhere where there's no one to tease me. Someone to love me. Somewhere to get away from normal life." As I said this, Melissa started at me intensely.
"That was a big speech for you!" She said cheerfully once I'd finished. I scratched my head. It was I suppose.
Then it carried on.
Davey wants to be an orphanage leader when he's older. Mikey wants to 'drive cars into the horizon'. Becka wants to be a hairdresser. Amy is apparently flying with her relationships. George said that he was sleeping well on his spider man bed.

Finally the game was over. We all had dinner, baked beans on toast, and then went up to bed. We have to share rooms at the orphanage. I share one with a girl called Lila. She is way younger than me and sometimes in the night she needs to wee, so I have to take her to the bathroom.

I'm the oldest in the orphanage. Except for Sam. He's 3 months older than me and he's quiet. He barely says anything at all and he's even grumpier than me at times. He never says anything during the 'feelings' games however hard the leaders try to make him. Not that he cares about being isolated. He is pretty much isolated already.

So I went up to bed with Lila and tried to enjoy dreaming before the next horrific day at school