no place for me

.

Dick dragged his feet to his room while his fellow orphans ran around the building. There were toddlers and older kids running up and down hallways, sliding and climbing railings, and throwing toys at each other. Though, Dick wasn't into this. He got to his door and stood in front of it.

"Hey Richard!"

A girl with bright orange hair ran up to him, flashing a smile. She obviously lacked teeth, but she didn't seem to mind it.

"Y'know, you can call me Dick." He spoke, his eyes slowly meeting with hers.

The girl nodded and made a even bigger smile. "Yeah! I know! I just like callin' you Richard. It's a cute name!"

Dick smiled. "Gotcha."

"So, how did you do today?" The young girl asked while rocking on her heels. Dick shook his head and looked down.

"Nobody! I even made like...a perfect recreation of the Mona Lisa! Even Bobby got adopted today too! Bobby!" He burst out, throwing his arms out to his sides in exasperation. The girl giggled.

"You'll be adopted by someone. You just gotta wait a bit longer," She smiled, putting her hand on his chest. "Your heart will tell you when it's time."

Dick looked confused. What did she mean? His heart jumped all the time! Maybe he just wasn't listening hard enough...or something deep like that. He looked at the girl with a raised eyebrow. She noticed and giggled again while she removed her hand off her friend.

"Don't worry. You'll get it! She told him. The girl then skipped merrily along down the hallway off to do who-knows-what. Dick blinked, still not sure what she really meant. He pondered upon it as he opened the door to his room. Dick went in and closed the door, a creaking echoing. The orphan waltzed in to the small-ish room and headed straight for the square shaped window. He looked through the semi-dirty glass and took in the sight of outside the building. He was just a few floors above ground level, so he could take in Gotham in nearly all it's glory. It was growing late that day. The sun was starting to set behind all the buildings and lights on the street started to buzz to life. Yet, the people of Gotham didn't decrease in numbers on the street. Crowds upon crowds walked below on the sidewalks, most of them on their phones or talking to other pedestrians. Dick heaved a sigh when he saw a tall man and a small boy walking across the street. The man was holding the young boy's hand, both of them smiling.

'Why can't I have something like that?'

Dick's shoulders shivered, tears pricking the corners of his eyes. He sniffled and took his glasses off, using his sleeve to wipe the tears away.

"No Dick! No crying! Nobody likes a crybaby!" He told himself, flapping his sleeve dry and putting his glasses back on his face. He took another shaky sigh to calm himself down before turning around and going over to his bed. Dick shared the room with four other kids, so naturally the room consisted of two bunk beds. Dick had the bottom bunk of one of them. He threw himself onto the mattress, making it groan under his weight.

"Gosh...maybe tomorrow will be the day. There's ought to be someone at the Gala in need of a kid!" He mused to himself. He was excited for tomorrow...though excited would be a understatement. He was estatic. The orphans were scheduled to be the entertainment at the Winter Gala the next day, and Dick had practiced for what felt like centuries for it. He knew it was his moment to shine, and he was going to take it with open arms.

"I don't know if I'll be even able to sleep...I'm just so excited!" He yipped, kicking his legs a bit to get the energy out of his small body. The boy then let his arms fall on the sides of bed, smiling. He turned his head to look at the wall, checking to see if his pictures that he put up for himself were still there. On his small area of wall he had, he had taped up pictures of Batman and Bruce Wayne. Batman was his favorite super hero of all time. He had always strived to be a version of Batman, but he didn't think he was brave enough to do all the stuff that Batman did. He thought it would be better if he left it to the professionals after all. Bruce Wayne, however, was his favorite orphan of all time. He knew Bruce's story word by word. How he lost his parents, how he got a rich, everything! Dick claimed himself to be his number one fan, having even went to the lengths of purchasing magazines his role model posed in. He surely got weird looks when buying such magazines but he didn't care. These pictures of Batman and Bruce Wayne always kept him in check. It always gave him hope that there was a better life out there for him. He snuggled up in his bed and smiled.

Tomorrow was gonna be great.