The Broken Orphan [Being Rewritten]

Nine- Orphanage

Luke

Grayson and I had finished our project for Evangeline, now we are on our way to the orphanage. We pull up and park in the driveway. It's an old building, the outside is not very well kept. What paint is left on the building is peeling and the wood is dry rotting. There are vines climbing the side of the building giving it a spooky look.

I knock on the door and a lady who could be in her mid thirties opens the door. Her makeup is done horribly, but I'm not one to judge.

"Hello." She says totally uninterested in us. Almost like we are being burdens to her.
"Hi, I'm here to adopt a child." I say with a smile. She huffs and moves out of the way of the door.
"Follow me." She says and motions for us to follow. We step in and the inside is much better kept than the outside. There are children running around playing. She leads us to an office and orders us to sit.
"What age range are you looking for?" She ask
"Um, preferably around fourteen." I say and look to Gray.

She looks to us with a displeased expression. "Are you two together?" She snarls. My eyes go wide and so do Grayson's.

"NO! No, we aren't." I say frantically, trying to make it clear we were not, even though we both fully supported the LGBTQ community.
"I'm just here as a friend." Grayson explains
She shrugs it off and shuffles through some papers on her desk. I huff, slightly angered by her expression of disapproval when she asked.

She ask for my information and I give it to her. Grayson sits quietly in his chair as we discuss everything. She perks up when she finds out I'm a doctor. She begins to try to flirt with me but I show no emotion to her. I simply pretend not to notice. Grayson snickers to himself at her failing flirtatious ways but says nothing. She finally catches on that I'm not interested and stops.

"If you find the child you want, then you are allowed to take them home with you today, but there will be a home check in two weeks." She says, I nod in understanding.

"We have fourteen kids in the range of 13 to 16 here."
Victoria says
"Okay." I say and nod
She gets up and walks out of the room. We hear her yell for all the kids ages thirteen to sixteen to come downstairs. We hear a rush of feet flying to the living room followed by voices and snickers. She tells us to come with her, so we do. There are kids lined up with bright smiles, trying to be on their best behavior. We scan their faces, but not finding the one I'm looking for. I hear soft footsteps coming from a hallway and look that way. The lady we met named Victoria instantly frowns and goes to the doorway blocking our view of the child.

"This does not pertain to you. Go back to your chores." She says rudely to them. I watch their shadow slump sadly and the child nods. Victoria waits until the child is out of our view to come back to us. I keep scanning the children's faces, hoping I just overlooked Evangeline's. I look to Grayson who is also confused by her absence.

"Do you see her?" I whisper to him
"No, but there are only thirteen kids lined up."Grayson points out. I count all the kids silently and he's right. There is one missing.
She comes back to us and waits for us to say something.
"Ms. Victoria, I thought you said there are fourteen children, I'm only counting thirteen." I say to her
"Oh, you don't need to worry about her. I assure you, there are better options of children than her." Victoria says and rolls her eyes at the thought of the child.
"Ms. Victoria, I would like to think that the child has just as fair chance as all the other children. Don't you think so, Grayson?" I say and turn to Gray for some help
"What, oh yes."he says and snaps out of his thoughts.

A small child, maybe eight at the oldest, comes up to Victoria and holds up an old shirt the has a rip in its sleeve.
"Ms. Victoria, where is Evangeline, my shirt ripped, so I need her to fix it." He says sweetly. My ears perk at the sound of Evangeline's name and Gray smacks my arm lightly.
"I know." I mouth to him

"Thomas, Evangeline is busy with her chores. I will have her fix your shirt as soon as she is finished. Now, run along, I'm busy at the moment." Victoria says with a fake happy attitude.

The boy runs off like she told him to with his shirt in hand. She turns back to us with a clearly fake smile.

"Ma'am if you don't mind me asking, how old is Evangeline?" I ask
Victoria's smile falls and she huffs. "Evangeline is 15, but she is a trouble child. Never listening and she never does her chores in a timely manner." Victoria says
"Is her last name King?" I ask. Victoria looks confused for a moment before nodding. I smile at this news, we found her.
"I would like to meet Evangeline. I think I may know her." I say smiling.
Victoria shrugs off her attitude and turns to us fully.
"Evangeline has a slight... fear of doctors and dentist, so she might be a bit uncomfortable with the whole situation." Victoria says smirking.

This lady knows what happened to her. I can tell she wants to see Evangeline upset. This lady is sick.

"I'm sure we will be able to handle it." I say glaring at her.
"Then I will go get her now." Victoria says and walks off.

We hear her heavy footsteps go down the hallway and soon the ladies mean voice.
"Evangeline, get up. There is an adopter here who wants to meet you. He claims to know you, and he's a doctor." Victoria says the last part with a sick laugh. We hear a small gasp and small sniffles.
"Quit your useless whining you annoying little brat!" Victoria says hatefully. Anger boils in me from her words. How can she be so mean to such a sweet child? Surely she would be scared too if she was abused by someone, and then told someone of the similar kind wanted to adopt her.

We hear a small yelp and then footsteps heading towards us. I look to Gray worriedly and he looks back to me with the same emotion.
Victoria has Evangeline tightly by the wrist, practically dragging her into the room.
"Children, you are dismissed." She says harshly to the other kids. They all run off hurriedly with snickers coming from them.
Shock comes over my face when I see Evangeline. Her clothes are wet and dirty. Her hair is messy and sticking to her face from water and sweat. Tears are rolling down her cheeks and sniffles come from her. She's clearly scared and doesn't want this to happen.

My heart breaks inside and I can tell Grayson is feeling it too. She looks up a tiny bit to us and starts full on sobbing.

"Ms. Victoria, I would like to adopt Evangeline. Can you please get me all the paperwork I need to sign?" I ask the retched lady
She throws away Evangeline's hand and storms off to the office. She slams the door which makes Evangeline jump. I walk up to her and bend down to her level. She has her arms wrapped around he body, so I can't take her hands in mine.

"Hey, hun." I say softly
She answers with her sobs.
"You're gonna come live with me, okay?" She squeezes her eyes shut and cries harder.
"Shh, it's okay, we aren't going to hurt you." I coo, and brush a piece of hair behind her ear so it isn't in her face anymore.
"We're gonna go home and eat dinner and do anything you want to do. Anything. That sound fun?" I ask
She doesn't say anything, but tries to stop crying. I wipe away some of the tears on her cheek with my thumb.
"Why don't you go get cleaned up and pack your stuff, then we can go home." I tell her. She doesn't reply, although I didn't really expect her too.

I standup and turn to Gray. He's just standing there not knowing what to do, watching us.
"Go help her pack while I get the paperwork done." I tell him. He nods and walks to Evangeline.
"Come on, Sweetheart." Gray says. He wraps his arm around he shoulders and she flinches away from his touch.

I give her a small smile and Grayson pats her shoulder. She turns and begins the walk to her room. I let out a sad sigh and go to Victoria office to finish her paperwork.