Awoken (Ilea, Book I) (COMPLETED)

Chapter 2

Ashley Greene - Johanna >>>

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When class had finished we walked back home, well, we walked back to the Orphan House together, none of us had ever really thought of it as our home, it was just somewhere we lived. We existed together in a big Orphan House with lots of other kids; it was where all the reject kids got put.

It wasn’t a bad place to grow up, many kids that lived there actually thought of it as their safe haven, where all their troubles seemed to melt away. It was a friendly Orphan House; big, with rich coloured carpets, even though they were growing slightly threadbare. The mothers that ran the place were large ladies with open arms for any child that needed them; always offering comfort and a sense of security that helped make the foundations of the kids that grew up there. It was probably the best Orphan House in all of Elmira, it just never seemed like a place that we could call our home, we didn’t really belong there; we were different from the other kids and you could tell.

Some people assumed that we were brother and sisters, very close triplets, and if anyone asked us if we were related, we wouldn’t have laughed much. We look so alike it’s uncanny; we have the same prominent cheekbones, the same shaped eyes and noses, we’re all thin and strong with pale skin.

Even though we looked alike, we weren’t related, at least not by blood. We were just three reject kids who came to the house on the same day, Johanna in the morning, Jacob at noon and me in the night. We were around same age and apparently got on together from being babes in cot; one cot for the three of us, the House’s funding was not high. We grew up together in the House, it was full of other kids, but we remained in our little group of three, no one came into our group and none of us ever wanted to leave it.

             Other kids said that we were ‘strange’ and I suppose we do seem strange to them as we keep to ourselves and are relatively quiet around other people; we talk to be polite. But when it’s just the three of us together, it’s totally different; we mess around like best friends and argue like siblings. I don’t know any other people that can relate to each other the way that we do.

            We were sitting alone in our room at night talking as usual and I heard some small child outside the door. The other boys that knew us well enough to know our relationship think that it’s abnormal that Jacob isn’t with either Johanna or I romantically. We both have blue eyes, dark hair and are of medium height with long legs and a willowy figure, hence the reason we’re often thought of as triplets. The easy way to tell us apart is our hair, Johanna’s is long and falls in waves down her back, whilst mine is cropped short like a pixie’s, Jacob says it’s because I’m the more mischievous one.

            The girls that know us, also ask Johanna and I why one of us is not with Jacob romantically, they don’t seem to understand how we can be so close to him all the time and only be friends. Some don’t believe us when we say that that’s all we are. Jacob is tall and very strong but his build is more lithe and flowing rather than bulky, he also has long, slightly messy dark hair that falls around his eyes which are a deep turquoise blue, like Johanna’s and mine put together.

*          *          *

            The next day we got up at the same time as usual and went down to get something to eat, just fruit for Johanna and I, Jacob had meat and bread, men are such carnivores. We walked to the academy as usual and all that lay ahead of use was another monotonous day of ‘learning.’