I felt a gentle shake on my shoulder. I opened up my tired eyes to see the boy who had been driving the Mini Cuba. He had short brownish blonde hair and blue eyes, his skin was so pale I wondered if he was a vampire. His light pink lips moved to say something as he took his hand off my shoulder.
"We're here at the care centre."
At his words I turned my head to look out the window. And saw a big bright sign saying 'Brighton Care Centre.' The building had white brick walls with three rows of windows, it looked very old and haunted, I was curious about how the inside looked like so I opened the car door and got out.
"Thanks."
I turned away from the door and walked towards the sliding doors. I took a deep breath and walked into a big hall-like room, the walls were plain white. I looked down and saw the stiff grey carpet, I walked towards a polished brown curved table that was pushed into the wall, leaving no gaps between the ends of the table and the wall. The only way to get in, was to go through a wooden brown door which was in the middle of the wall.
An old lady was sitting on a black chair with her back faced to me, talking on the phone, all I could see was her long black hair that reached up to the middle of her back.
Until the lady had finished talking on the phone, I decided to look around. There were no decorations. No awards. Nothing. The place seemed very boring and looked like you'd die of boredom if you stayed here long enough, at the thought, I hoped my new family would come and take me from here straight away. I saw a brown door at a corner of the room, it leaded to another similar hall. I was about to go through the door when I heard a loud croaky voice coming from the other side of the room.
"Can I help you young lady?"
I spun around to see the old lady looking directly at me with her dark brown eyes. I walked towards her.
"Uh, yes, I came from Brighton Police Station..."
She looked at me with a blank face and started pointing towards the brown door on the other side of the room.
"Okay, if you go through that door there, you'll find another hall similar to this one. Once you're in there, there will be wooden stairs. Go up the stairs and through the door that has a metal sign on its door saying 'Newbies.'
I nodded at every instruction she made and headed towards the other hall. It was the same boring design. Plain white walls with a stiff grey carpet. Don't they know how to decorate? I saw the wooden stairs, I also saw two more brown doors. I went up the stairs slowly. With every step I took the stairs would creek. Is this place even safe? What if my foot made a big hole in the stairs and I got stuck? I gulped and started to run up the stairs.
I felt like I'd been climbing the stairs since forever now, I was breathless and I couldn't go up any longer. I looked up and down from the rails to see the stairs going in a spiral shape, I only had a few more steps to go. The old lady could've at least warned me about the amount of stairs!
I finally reached the top of the stairs, breathless, I looked for the room that had the metal sign saying 'Newbies.' There was a long line of doors in the hallway and I felt like I was going to die. I walked through the hallway, checking every single door. I found an elevator aswell, seriously, why did I have to climb all those stairs when I could go in the elevator? Who would go through all those stairs anyway? I jumped when I saw the silver doors of the elevator open, there was a tall man with glasses, he had black hair and a beard that had little strands of grey in them. I realised I had been staring at him when he was walking away. I started walking again, looking and looking for the sign 'Newbies' until I finally found it. I let out a huge sigh and knocked on the door. I heard a man with a soft voice answer my knock.
"Come in."
I entered a small room, this time the room wasn't the same as the two halls downstairs. There was four light blue and dark blue walls with abstract paintings hanging on them, two small windows with closed white curtains and a white carpet. In the middle of the room, was a school table and two red chairs that were opposite each other. I looked at the man who was sitting on one of the chairs, he was gesturing for me to sit on the other.
"You're the newbie, right?"
I nodded my head and watched him as he got his black notebook and blue ink pen ready.
"I'm going to ask you some questions, you will have to give honest answers since they will be given to your new family if they come, so they know something about you."
I gulped. Does he know that I was in jail before arriving here? Does he know what I've done? What if he asked me what happened to my parents? He started asking the questions.
"What is your full name?"
"Isabelle Jenkins."
"What is your age?"
"16."
"What was the name of your parents?"
"Bradley and Lucy Jenkins."
He had been writing down my answers in rough handwriting, I could see it from here. I was fortunate he didn't ask what happened to my parents, but what about the other orphans? They'll be curious about what happened. How will I be able to tell them? He gave me a smile.
"Thanks you for all your honest answers, there is a member of staff waiting for you outside to take you to your room. Her name is Josie and she'll be the one looking after you, showing you around, telling you about the rules here, ect."
I nodded and got up, I smiled.
"What's your name?"
He looked shocked but then smiled back.
"Ronald, my name is Ronald."
I walked towards the door and saw a women with dark brown hair tied up in a neat bun, she was wearing a plain blue dress with black high heels. She turned around when the door shut. Her hazel eyes widened as she saw me.
"Goodness me child, you scared me!"
Her hand was on her chest. I gave her a smile.
"Sorry."
She smiled back.
"I'll take you to your room. Isabelle, right?
She started walking down the hall. I followed behind her.
"Yes, my name is Isabelle.
She went into another room with a similar brown door like the other 'Newbie' room had, when we went inside, I had expected it to be small aswell. But it wasn't. The walls were purple and there were no windows, there was another white door inside, which had another metal sign saying 'toilet.' I looked around the room and saw two beds. Two beds? Was I going to have a roommate?
"Sorry about the extra bed, that was when we didn't have enough room, I'll send someone to take it away for you. So don't worry you don't have a roommate."
It was as if she read my thoughts, I freaked out at the thought. She left the room giving me a little wave. I walked over to my bed to sit down, but I ended up lying down. I was so exhausted I felt like I could sleep for days. I lay there wondering about my new parents, how would they be like? How will they treat me? Will I have siblings? When are they going to come to get me? I slowly closed my eyes while questions buzzed through my head, and fell asleep.
