Jezzabel

Chapter 1 - Poppy-Sue

Date: 24th January 2011

Place: Canterbury, Kent

Weather: Sunny, Misty, Frosty

My name is Poppy, Poppy-Sue Ream. And today I am fifteen. I have been told that I have been here since I was less than two days old and that I was left on the door step, of this orphanage, in the middle of a thunder storm, and no body knows why. I also know that when I came here I was too young to stay, but Joey and Paula argued with the Social to let me stay, and I don’t know why.

Up until I was nearly 5 Joey was like my mother. She fed me, bathed me, and made sure I was okay. Then one day she just wasn’t there ant more. I was 5 and I cried for her, but no one told me where she had gone and why. I soon began to realise that people left all the time.

As soon as I could talk I made friends with Noah, he was nearly the same age as me, except I was two weeks older. We promised we’d be friends forever, and we’d walk around every where together holding hands. We’d help each other up and down the stairs when they were too high for us and we had to climb them, we’d each dinner opposite each other and play footsies under the table and sit there giggling to ourselves because we thought no one else could work out what we were doing, even though we were kicking everyone else while we were playing. When I woke up in July when I was about four, I looked over at Noah’s bed and I was empty. I was confused because neither of us got up before the big hand on the clock was at the 9 we weren’t allowed; it was nearly at the 7 so he was up too early. I got out of my bed and started walking around the house looking for him. When I got to the office, he was sitting outside wearing his favourite t-shirt and shorts and a coat, with all his clothes in a brown suitcase. I sat next to him on the bench.

“Where are you going Noah?” I asked him. He looked at me, and smiled just like he did when we were playing footsies at dinner.

“I'm moving.” He said. We’d heard big people say it on the TV; he said it like he was all grown up. I giggled.

“Where are you going? When are you coming back?” I asked him. He shrugged. We sat together in silence for what felt like forever, holding hands, when in reality it was less than ten minutes. Joey came out of the office, and when she saw me she lifted me on to her back and ran making aeroplane noises into the kitchen.

“Lets make you breakfast then!” she said, as she sat me on a stall. I crossed my arms. “What's wrong with Mrs Grumpy?” she asked in a funny voice.

“Where is Noah going?” I asked her. She looked at me, not sure of what to say. She bit her lip.

“Pop, do you know what happens in an orphanage?” I shook my head, “This is where kids are put when their parents can’t look after them; and if we know that they’re going to be here a while, we find them a new family to live with. And Noah’s parents died when he was very small, so he has no where else to go, so we’ve got him a new family.” I looked at her,

“Is he coming back?” I asked her. She shook her head,

“It’s not likely, honey.” She said to me. I cried, right there and then. When I could finally see through my tears a slipped off of my stall, and ran down the hall to the office. Noah wasn’t sitting outside it, so I opened to office door. There was three people in there I’d never seen before, two of them were sitting either side of Noah holding his hand. He looked lost. Paula looked at me,

“Is everything okay there deary?” she asked me smiling. I ran towards Noah and pulled myself on the bench next to him pushing the stranger lady out of my way. “Pops you shouldn’t be in here.” Paula said.