Short Stories From English Class

Where I Belong

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Wait... There's actually none... Wow... It won't last.

A girl sat alone on a train. She watched as parents hugged their children and friends met up with each other. The train station was filled with tearful goodbyes. It seemed as if she was the only one who didn't have a family to say goodbye to; her father and brother had said goodbye before she left for the train station.

She spared a glance at her watch. 10:48, it read. 12 more minutes she groaned internally.

She watched the families through the window for another few minutes before something, or rather someone, caught her eye.

A mop of black hair had just entered the platform. Now, it is important to note that there were other black haired children on the platform, but one thing separated him the rest; he came parentless.

She watched, interested, as he slipped passed families and onto the train, out of her sight.

She settled back into seat deciding that it was too much of a hassle to actually go looking for the mysterious boy.

A few minutes later she heard a knock at the door of the train compartment she resided in. The door opened to reveal the boy she saw earlier.

"Can I sit here?" he asked, British accent heavy. "I don't want to have to search any longer for an empty compartment." Now that he was closer, she could better look at him. The first thing that she noticed was the same mop of black hair that she saw earlier. The second was his eyes. His eyes. Wow. His eyes were a vibrant emerald green unlike anything she had ever seen before. His eyes were wide and innocent, but one look into them betrayed a painful past. He looked around her age, but he was obviously short for his age, giving the impression that he was nine rather than 11. His suitcase had bronze letters that she couldn't make out; most likely his initials. "I won't bother you again. I promise." he said, pulling her out of her thoughts and making her painfully aware of how long she'd been looking without saying anything.

"Oh no. It's fine. No problem." she said, rambling a little. "My name's Malaina, by the way. But my friends call me Mal."

"Thanks. My name's Harry." Mal could tell that he was about to say to say his last name, but decide against it because she didn't. Malaina knew, better than most, that last names were just a hassle that could cause problems. She could only guess that it was more so here.

The train pulled out of the station with kids and teens leaning out of the windows to wave at their families. She watched, eyes full of jealousy, knowing her father wouldn't approve of her doing that, as it wasn't befitting of a proper young lady.

Minutes passed in silence before she finally asked the million-dollar question: "I noticed your parents weren't with you on the station?"

"My parents died when I was one, and my relatives would most definitely not come to see me off." He responded. "What about you? I didn't see you waving to anybody when the train pulled out from the station."

"My mom died when I was a baby." Mal said by means of an explanation. "And my dad and brother said good-bye to me before I left for the station. My dad's a very busy man and my brother started school a few days ago."

An awkward silence dominated their compartment for what Mal felt was hours, but was probably only a few minutes. Neither dared to speak, not knowing what to say from the heavy reveal.

Finally, the silence was broken by a woman with a cart full of snacks and candies. Both were hesitant, not knowing how the other would react to the all too much money they each had with them. That is, of course, until their stomachs growled in sync, and they relented to their hunger, laughing. The heavy air cleared as they each bought at least one of everything on the cart.

As they ate, they played and joked and got to know each other. A silent agreement between the two had them steering away from personal questions; they'd had enough of those for a while.

The mood in the compartment stayed light as they laughed, and truly enjoyed themselves. They laughed and laughed for minutes on end. Minutes turned to hours, and before they knew it, the train was pulling into the station. As she packed what was left over of her snacks and got ready to leave the train, one last thought crossed her mind: Maybe I've finally found a place where I belong.

She couldn't know it, but her new friend was thinking almost the same exact thing.

~~~~~~A/N~~~~~~

Hello lovelies! Would you look at that: a happy ending. This will probably be the first and last one in this book. This was written freshman year of high school, before I forgot how to write happy endings. So prompt. There was not a prompt, it was just "write a short story between three and five pages long." I kind of just wrote a fan fiction for the final project in ninth grade English class... I think my teacher noticed (at least I hope so. She loves Harry Potter) but she did not comment on it. So yeah! Also the OC is the same OC as my book Nightshade. She is the daughter of Bruce Wayne and Nyx. Wow. I am just realizing how trashy this is... Oh whale! -_-

Write to you later my kittens!

~KittyDitzyDance