Freak

8.

8.

It was a rainy day and Blue had already been scolded twice for being out in the rain and getting all wet. She couldn't see the problem, she loved the rain, sure it made her cold but other than that she couldn't see any downsides to it.

Now she sat in her tent, flaps open, and watched as it poured down. Every now and then someone would run past with various objects over their heads to protect them from the water. At one point Micha ran past her tent and slipped in the mud causing her to giggle out loud, to her horror he heard her and gave her an evil glare. Fortunately, he seemed to be too worried about getting out of the rain to stay and yell at her.

Micha had taken to growling at her recently, whenever they were somewhat alone he'd a growl out just to scare her. It was either that or he'd call her freak. He'd done it for the first time when he found her up in the tree and after that he just kept on doing it, but always when no one could hear. Other times he would bump into her when walking past her, she'd even fall over sometimes. She was scared of him and he knew it. There was a part of her that wanted to tell Arthur but the fear of making it worse kept her from doing so. And besides what was the difference between all those kids in the orphanage calling her that and Micha doing it? None, they were the same and Arthur says she shouldn't have listened to them, so that means she shouldn't listen to Micha either.

Even if she always told herself that she didn't care what he said or what they said, she did... she did care.

With all these thoughts spinning around in her head she hadn't noticed when the rain stopped. With slight disappointment she stood up and as best as she could avoiding any wet ground made her way over to the flaps and closed them, there was no use in keeping them open when there was nothing to see on the outside but mud...

She sat back down on her bed and picked up one of the books Hosea wanted her to read, he said she needed to learn how to read English properly. Fittingly he'd gotten her a copy of Robin Hood and his Merry men and she loved it. Her mama had read some Robin Hood stories to her form a big yellow book and it was one of the few things she was able to bring to the orphanage when her papa, or the 'man who made you' as Arthur referred to him, dropped her off.

That book had, however, sadly been confiscated by Miss Green since no one was allowed to have something the other kids couldn't have too. Which was weird since the other kids had things she didn't...

This book was smaller and green but Blue loved it, Hosea said it was hers now, that it was hers to keep forever and she intended to do so.

Laying down on her stomach she cuddled up in her blankets and read until it was too dark and she had to light the little lamp next to her bed. Eventually Arthur came and tucked her in for the night like he always did, with the added 'no more reading' and though she tried to sleep she just couldn't do it. It was as if the book was looking at her, wondering why she wasn't reading it. She really did try to ignore it but soon enough she gave up and lit the lamp again, continuing her adventures in the Sherwood forest.

***

It was well after dawn when Arthur started wondering where Blue was. Usually she was one of the first to wake but no one had seen her yet so he assumed her to be sleeping.

Making his way over to her tent he opened the flaps and sure enough there she was. She wasn't on her bed however. She was on the ground in a nest of blankets with her head resting on an open book, sleeping. He could see the slight rise and fall of her back as she breathed, she'd obviously kept on reading once he'd left and by the looks of it fallen forward form her sitting position and ended up falling asleep on the book itself.

He should probably scold her for not listening to him but the peaceful expression on her so often worried face forbid him to do so. Instead he decided to let it go for the time being, there were worse things she could of done, and she would most probably get tired earlier that night and realize it wasn't worth it.