Faking Robin

Chapter 1 - Stolen Apples

Chapter 1 - Stolen Apples

 Edited by lostindreamz (thank you very much!) 

 "Hey, you two! Get back here!" an old man screamed at the top of his lungs, his face red with rage and if there were steam coming out of his ears I wouldn't be surprised. 

He tried to pass through the crowd as people looked at him in curiosity. The crowd was a great help, we both kept holding each other's hands while securing something in our hoodies. When we saw him looking around, losing us from his sight, we both let out a relieved sigh.  

"He lost us!" Leo looked over the crowd; he was way taller than me, so he could look over the crowd and see the funny face the old guy was probably making, still searching for us. How I wished I could see it, must be amusing. 

We both ran down an alley, which was a shortcut to a less packed neighbourhood. We both stopped when we knew we were safe for sure. Leo looked at me, catching his breath as his eyes met mine, and soon both of us were laughing. 

"That was great! We got a lot today," Leo smiled at me, taking out an apple from his hoodie, where a lot more were kept. I looked at my hoodie. People would definitely know we were carrying something inside, but thankfully there weren't many people around.  

"These apples..." I took an apple from his hoodie and then took a bite of it. "Should have been for us!"

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I closed the door slowly, not wanting to wake anyone up. The door let out a creepy, screeching sound that I hated. "We should get that fixed soon," Leo commented as we walked into the very packed room that we called our dining room slash kitchen. It had a small table with no chairs and both of us emptied the contents of our hoodies onto the table.

"Nine... Ten... Eleven... Twelve." I put all the apples I had. I don't even know how all those fit into my hoodie, but oh well, I'm glad they did. "I've got fifteen here, but you ate one, so fourteen," Leo put out all his; satisfied that he got more than I did. 

"How long do you think this will last?" I asked him, looking at the red apples on the table.  

"Maybe a week? I don't know. If the refrigerator is actually working, that is," he replied, looking at the broken refrigerator that should have been the place for these apples to be stored for the following week. 

Sometimes it doesn't feel right to 'steal' these apples from that old man but when I remember that it isn’t really his apples, all those feelings wash off, especially during this kind of moment, when the reason why we did this appeared, in sleepy eyes. 

"Leo, Robin?" someone called us.  

"Hey, Andy. Why are you awake? " I greeted the small boy. He walked slowly toward us, hugging my leg. "It's okay. I wanted to go to the bathroom," he reasoned.  

His eyes then met the apples on the table, glowing at the sight of it. "Apples!" he shouted. Leo and I smiled at how happy he was. Yes, he is one of the reasons of why we both are doing this. He is one of the eight other kids at this house, who are still in their growing stage and obviously, need a lot of healthy food. 

"That's for tomorrow, kid. C'mon, we're taking you to bed," Leo picked him up like he was a father. Andy was soon asleep in his arms. Leo took him to the room where he stayed with the boys. 

We bid each other good night and I headed to see if my girls were doing fine. I could see the three girls sleeping peacefully, so close to each other, as if they were all afraid of losing themselves.

Angelic faces, innocent minds. I caressed their cheeks, smiling at the sight. I took my blanket and laid my body on the bed beside theirs and looked at the ceiling, deep in thought. 

I couldn't keep doing what we were doing. 

The reason why Leo and I were 'stealing' apples was to give these kids some food. We were actually kids who used to be under the care of an old lady back in a small village. Leo and I both had something in common, we had no parent figures. The old Lady, Aunt Anne, was the one taking care of us. All us kids came from many backgrounds and sometimes problems arose because of that, but she fought for us. She was our hero.  

She had a big farm back then. Fruit farm. All of us lived as a family of 11: 10 kids, including me and Leo, with Aunt Anne. There were lots of us, but food was never a problem. We had plenty. We might not have been bathing in luxury, but we knew we only needed each other, even when there weren’t any blood-ties. 

That was until this old man, with his money and power, put us in big trouble. He took away our house and the farm. That is what led us to be here, in a run-down house in the city. 

That old guy was the guy who put us in this situation. He happens to have this fruit store where he sells all the fruits he gets from the farm that was actually ours. So that is why I thought, the fruits were supposed to be ours.  

But I was just lucky that I wasn't caught and well, he isn’t that rich to buy a CCTV (or he just doesn’t want to spend his money) so I guess he thought losing twenty something apples was fine? His angry face was sure entertaining, though. 

I let out a sigh. Leo and I were the oldest here. We feel that we are now in charge, as Aunt Anne isn't in her best condition anymore. Being over 50 and having to take care of 8 kids isn’t easy, even with our help. She doesn’t know we 'steal' apples, and she shouldn't know. What she knows is that we get them for free after working some hours at a part-time job and that's that. While in reality, our boss isn’t the best person out there. He is kind of evil, actually.

I need to find a way. I can’t keep 'stealing'. I looked at my three angles once again. All the kids here, Leo, and Aunt Anne are my family.  

I would do anything to make them happy....

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Author's note : 01/03/14 - When I am writing this I had just published chapter 12, which happened to be 7 pages long (and I just realised it o_o) So if you're reading this, I hope you would continue. I am learning a lot while writing this and also the length of my story increased as well :) I hope you'd give this a chance :D