The Vanishing Stone

1

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ikoleta was in the bathroom putting on her typical dark makeup and clothes: dark eye shadow, dark lipstick, black tank top, ripped jeans, and Converse shoes. She was seventeen, average height, blue eyes, and long, dark-brown, curly hair. Like any day of school, she wasn't excited to go. School for her was torture. It was just another place where she had to keep looking out for people—and herself.

 She lived with twelve younger girls in the Tri-County Orphanage in Ninshaw, Rhode Island. It was an all girls orphanage ran by Helga, Misty and Mary. They took good care of everyone, no doubt, but at the same token, weren’t very motherly. She had been mostly ignored by them all of her life, either that or bossed around. She snuck out of her window almost every night to go to the beach and they never noticed. She hated it, though. She wished they would spend more time with her and at least act like they cared. She longed for a real family. Nikoleta didn’t know what happened to her parents. For all she knew, they were dead. They, apparently, dropped her off one night and took off. All of her life she wondered about them and what her life would be like if she had been raised by them.

 “Nikki! C'mon! I gotta go!” yelled little Carlita, pounding on the bathroom door. She was ten. “I'll be out in a minute, Carli!” Nikoleta answered back. Finally, she came out of the bathroom. “I don’t know why you take so long to put on that ugly make-up. It makes you look like a witch!" said Carlita, with a snarl. Opening the door, Nikoleta scared Carlita, “Maybe I am a witch, and maybe I’m going to cast a spell on you!” She reached down and tickled her and Carlita screamed and went into the bathroom and closed the door. The other girls annoyed Nikoleta to no end but she had a soft spot for them. After all, they were her only family. Family is not something you can choose, so she had to make do.

            Nikoleta came down to the first floor where Misty and Mary were cooking breakfast. She went to the kitchen and asked if she could help. "Yes, Nikoleta, go on and get the little ones and set the table. And make sure Jena isn’t hiding under her bed, she can’t be late for school again," Mary told Nikoleta. Mary was the oldest of the women who took care of them. She was also the most demanding. Nikoleta thought she must have had a tough life being that she was so cold sometimes.

            Nikoleta ran upstairs to find Jena. Lo and behold, she was under the bed as Mary said. Jena was one of the three seven-year- old’s. “Jena, why are you hiding under your bed again?” Nikoleta asked with a smile. “Because I don’t want to go to school. I'm not good at anything. I just want to stay here,” Jena answered. “What are you not good at?”

            “I am not good at ANYTHING!” came a replied yell from under the bed.

             “I don’t think that’s true," Nikoleta said in a reassuring voice.

             “Yes it is! My teacher said I am not good at coloring. I colored the pig brown and she said it’s supposed to be pink.”

            Nikoleta looked befuddled. “Well, apparently, she has never seen a brown pig! C'mon I will walk you to school and I will talk to your teacher for you.”

             “Okay, but she isn’t going to change her mind," Jena said.

             Oh yes she will, thought Nikoleta.

             Jena and Nikoleta walked down stairs to get breakfast and all there was left was toast and juice. They each grabbed a piece of toast and drank a small glass of orange juice and out the door they went after collecting their bags. Nikoleta walked Jena to school as promised and met her teacher, Miss Bean, at the front gate.