Adopted. (A Joshleen story)

Chloe Lorenzo

Chloe Lorenzo was the most peculiar of the girls at the Central Nevada Girls' Orphanage. She read books while the other girls played. Books like Harry Potter. She didn't get along with the others very well. They didn't like her because she always liked to read instead of play. They thought she was weird. So Chloe just read by herself everyday in her bedroom. The only times she would leave was during meals or if one of the caretakers made her.

Chloe's POV
I just finished Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows. What am I supposed to do now? I guess I'll have to make another trip to the library. I'm told I'm very smart for my age. I'm only three years old, but I have something called a "seventh grade reading level". I don't really know what that means, but it sounds like a good thing. My favorite caretaker is a pretty lady named Ms. Lacy. She told me I'm a thing called a "child prodigy". I don't know the exact definition, but I know it means I'm really smart.

I've been at this orphanage a long time. Almost six months. When people come, they never want me. They always want the outspoken girls. I'm not shy, but I'm not loud and obnoxious either. Anyway, I remember my family a little bit. My mom was very pretty. 5'5.Dark brown curly hair and eyes the color of the ocean. Just like me. Well, except the 5'5 part. I'm about 3'2. She never had to curl her hair. It always looked like she'd spent hours on it even if she just brushed it out. I have that too. My dad was bald and about 5'10. I had a brother too. He was 5 when they died.

We were driving to some place my daddy called "the better place". He drove really fast. My mom looked really scared on the way there. Maybe "the better place" was scary to her. I still wonder what that place was. I was already three when that happened. On the way there, my daddy accidentally drove off the side of a bridge. It was a really high bridge over water. I quickly opened my window (I wasn't wearing a seatbelt or car seat of any kind) and jumped out. I had swimming lessons before so I knew how to swim. I swam to the shore and ran into some cop guys. My dad always called those guys "the bad guys" so I was scared of them at first. And then they brought me here.

I asked Ms. Lacy what "the better place" was and told her the story. She just lost all the color in her face and hugged me real tight. She never told me what it was though.