The Rule Breaker (YoungWritersShortStory Entry)

Part 1- Damn Community Service!

I curse while putting my hands in my pockets. I'm forced to do community service again. Dang!

I scowl as I stop in front of a small children's center.

Urgh! I hate kids.

I wish I just hadn't crashed my foster father's car into that cheap convenience store while I was drunk last night.

I unwillingly enter the building.

I notice right away that it is no ordinary children's center. There are ten children in the small one-room building and most of them are wearing face masks and tinted shades or holding walking sticks and crutches. Others are sitting on wheel chairs.

I sigh. Oh great! Disabled kids. They're more even more disturbing than the normal ones.

"Excuse me. Are you Miss Arden Orlens?" The only adult person in the center, an elderly woman, asks me.

"It's Arden Taylor, not Orlens," I irritatedly correct her.

I'm an adopted child. My real name is Arden Taylor, but now my papers say that I'm Arden Orlens. My biological parents died when I was ten due to a fire that only I escaped. I have no siblings. Since then, I started living with my foster parents, Jill and William Orlens. I don't call them 'Mom' or 'Dad'. I just find it uncomfortable. They treat me like their own child, but that is only because they can't have their own.

Well, who cares?

"Oh," the woman utters like she is still trying to understand. "Anyway, Miss Taylor, you will be joining me and the kids for a week. I hope you enjoy it here."

I just raise an eyebrow at her. Does she seriously think I will?