2 Weirdo
"Yes, it's definitely gonna be a new start." Saying that to myself, I pushed through the gate of the orphanage.
I looked around the place. It's a nice place with a small pathway till the office building. They have a school building and a dorm building. The pathway was neatly trimmed and decorated with flowers. They have a big playground where children are playing. They have new playing equipment that they didn't have at my time.
"Why is my Nay Nay? I want to go to her. Take me to her."
I remember my five years old self crying while sitting on that swing that they still have on the left corner of the playground.
FLASHBACK
"Look at this orphan. She wants to go back to her Nay Nay." Somebody laughed.
"What is an orphan?" I asked with swollen eyes and a runny nose. I looked at those bigger girls in confusion.
"Orphan is someone who is unwanted by everyone. Nobody loves them. Nobody wants them. That's why they leave the orphans here. And you are an orphan. Because your Nay Nay doesn't love you, that's why she left you here. In the orphanage, orphan." One of those girl's said harshly.
Five years old me flinched in horror.
"That's not true!" I shouted at them and started to cry loudly.
***
I guess that was true after all..
I don't have many memories with the orphanage to waste time at entrance by refreshing them. So, without wasting much time, I walked straight to the office to talk about my stay.
I guess Lydia has already requested my science teacher, Miss Illize, from back there to call here and let them know about my stay. My science teacher, Miss Illize, is an NGO worker and has some great connection around here to not have any problem.
I walked to the front desk lady, who is an young lady maybe at her late 20, Miss Liza, that's her name. I got to know that from her name tag. She was wearing a lot of makeup, had brown hair till her shoulder. The most important thing is I already dislike her as she was giving me vamp vibes, you know.
Still I tried to greet her with all the manners I have.
"Hello, Miss Liza. I am Grace."
"Grace? Grace, what?" She looked completely disinterested while doing something on her phone.
Yeah, I totally dislike her.
"Grace. Only Grace." I chewed the words out of my mouth.
"Ahh.. another orphan"
Remember when I said I dislike her, I am changing my statement. I officially hate her.
"Calm down, G! Calm down. Please try to not strangle her" I whispered at myself.
"Sorry, did you say something?" She asked while raising her perfectly plucked brows.
"Uhh.. No. I am Grace. I am here to stay. I guess, Miss Illize, already informed you about my stay." I said with a fake smile.
She rolled her eyes at me. Then muttered something under her breath that I couldn't catch but I was sure it was something unpleasant.
"Wait, let me check" I nodded and gave her a pure fake smile and she returned one, similar to mine. But her one was more bitchy.
I turned away from her desk to look around. It is a nice place. I don't remember it to be this polish. I guess they got some great donors.
"Nice place, huh?" I jumped a little as the voice caught me off guard.
"Sorry. I guess I scared you." I turned around to look at the source of the voice.
It's a boy. He's around 17 years old, I guess. He has nice dark brown hair neatly brushed almost similar to mine and beautiful grey eyes.. ALMOST similar to mine!! He is showing off his beautiful dimples while smiling at me. He is almost 5'11" while I am only 5'4". I can say that he has some solid muscles under his neat black shirt.
I looked at his face and I can say that he was also surprised seeing our similarities but he seemed to mask it very well.
"Back to earth, Miss..?"
Shit.. I was caught looking at him. That's so embarrassing. But I didn't answer his unasked question. I just turned my face away, ignoring him.
"Uhh.. well that's rude, little one, you know?" He asked in an amusing tone.
Little one?
"What happened to, 'Don't talk to strangers'?" I asked in irritation.
Yeah, that's right I tend to get irritated easily but only with strangers and annoying persons. Like him.
"Smart." He praised with a small chuckle. "But you need to tell me your name in order to stay here." He said with a smile.
Oh, maybe he was one of the staff from here? But so young? Must be a volunteer..
"Grace." I said without showing any emotion.
Something crossed his face. He stopped smiling. Looks like he even stopped breathing. He was looking at me like he saw some ghost. His eyes grew bigger and his jaw hanged a little. He was trying to form a sentence but was unable to do it. His behaviour was confusing me.
But there was something else that I felt in his presence. I can't describe this feeling or name it. It's like-..
"Grace, my child! I see you have arrived." Someone interrupted my discovery of that feeling.
I looked at my left to see a short, middle aged woman, in her fifties, maybe. She was wearing a nun gown. She was smiling at me brightly and kindly. It's so rare to find kindness nowadays.
"Hello, mother Susan." Mother Susan is a nun at the church and also a supervisor of the orphanage. She is a kind woman and used to teach us morals and values and many more things related to God. I remember her hugging me while I was sad, missing my Nay Nay. She is a beautiful lady with her kind brown eyes.
"My child! I am seeing you after almost 10 years. You have grown up so much. You turned out to be a beautiful lady." She gushed excitedly.
See! I told you! She is a kind woman! I really like her.
"Thank you mother Susan I missed you so much" I said politely with a smile and hugged her.
"What?! You know her from her childhood!" Someone exclaimed in shock.
Ohh.. I almost forgot about this guy standing behind me. Why was he so shocked? And how does it matter to him? He is weird.
"Ahh, Dylan! My child. How are you? I didn't know you were visiting today. And answer to your question, yeah, I know her from her childhood." Mother Susan said in her soft tone while caressing his face a little.
"Since when? Since when do you know her?" He was sounding frantic. I wonder why he was showing so much interest in knowing about myself. He was almost desperate. Most importantly, what was he still doing here?
I frowned at him. I was going to shout at him for poking his nose in my matter. But mother Susan beat me to it by answering his previous question.
"Since she was 5 years old, my child."
I frowned for the second time in 2 minutes. Why was she telling my matters to some stranger? I was going to protest when he stopped my non existing protests again by removing his phone out of his pocket and walking a little away from us while calling someone. He was still looking at me with his sharp grey eyes but this time those eyes were searching something from me.
Weirdo!
I looked away from him and concentrated back at mother Susan.
"Who is he, mother Susan? Why did you tell him about me?" I asked with a frown.
I looked from the corner of my eyes and I found him explaining something in a rush to the person he called.
"He is Dylan Winchester. You may have already noticed some great changes in the orphanage. It's because his family is one of the great donors of the orphanage." She said.
Bingo!
"He is the younger brother of the main donor. His family is the only reason that this orphanage was still running. Otherwise, the orphanage was at the peak of shutting down." She explained with a sigh.
That's great. They saved so many orphans from being homeless.
But still that doesn't explain his weird behaviour..
Me and mother Susan started to walk toward the dorm rooms. I still can feel his burning gaze creating holes at my back. I turned around to confirm it and ladies and gentlemen I was right! He was looking at me while frowning and talking to someone almost nervously.
Definitely a weirdo!
I could hear him a little but not very clearly. I was not even interested in his conversation. We were going to cross him to enter the corridor. That's when I heard him and I was not prepared to hear him which was very clear and loud. As if he wanted me to hear him.
"But, she could be our Grace!"
