Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Claudine opened her eyes and groaned. The sunlight streaming in through the stained windows of the little room hurt her eyes as soon as she opened them. She automatically flipped an arm over her eyes and groaned again.

"Today's adoption day," giggled Annette.

Annette is one of the overly chirpy roommates that Claudine had been saddled with for the past six months in the orphanage home. There were so many mornings that Claudine wished she could hear just her mouth, and today was one of them.

Utterly oblivious to Claudine's thoughts, Annette continued eagerly to the two other girls who were with her.

"Miz Lucas says I'm going to be picked today." She bounced giddily on her toes as she proclaimed the girls who made suitable happy noises back at her.

Claudine climbed down from the bunk bed, plunking her feet firmly on the ground to distract them and keep them quiet even for a minute. She succeeded because they all paused in their conversation to spare her a glance. Annette hissed and sneered at her, encouraging the other girls to do the same.

"It can never be you, Claudine. You would just stay here, getting old and dirty, and finally, become another Miz Lucas to look after new orphans." The other girls nodded their heads readily in agreement.

"Well, good luck to you" –she nodded her head in Annette's direction—"and to your minions" —she nodded her head to the other girls.

Annette started to vibrate. "Who are you calling minions? Do you think you're better than everyone else around you? You're—"

But Claudine had shut the door firmly against them at this point and thankfully stopped the tirade. She didn't care one bit to hear what she was in Annette's opinion. If the people coming for adoption could take them all, she would be eternally grateful to fate for playing such a hand.

She quickly brushed her teeth and showered. She may not feel like lining up to be examined by a bunch of strangers, but she still had to show up and make herself presentable. When she returned to the room to dress up, she found the room quiet and empty.

Claudine sighed and sat down on her bed to reminisce about her life. If only she had grown up in a real home with her birth parents, she would not be here trading words with teenage girls with overinflated egos. She got up and walked over to her box, where she started rummaging through it for something suitable to wear.

A voice suddenly called her name from the landing.

"Claudine Gofflin! Come down here right this minute."

That had to be Miz Lucaz. No one else drawled her surname as she did by putting an emphasis right at the end of the surname. She did it in such a way that "Gofflin" sounded like "Goffleeen." Claudine sighed again and shut her box with a bang, after which she hurriedly dressed up.

"I'm coming," she called back as she made her way through the door to go down the stairs and into the hall.

Usually, on adoption days, both sexes line up in the hall, all the boys to the left and the girls to the right. The younger ones stood in the front line, and the older ones stood just behind them. Then the couple or family seeking to adopt any of the orphans would casually go around to inspect and screen till they found a spec visually. Today was no different.

A young girl of fifteen with sky-blue eyes and rich dark brown hair appeared at the bottom of the stairs. Her pink rosy lips parted, and her beautiful voice was heard all over the room.

"You called for me," she said primly to Miz Lucaz.

"Fall in line, girl," whispered Miz Lucaz quite fiercely.

Claudine did as she was told, whatever energy she heard was best conserved for standing and smiling at the strangers when they started to make their rounds. Annette caught her eyes and stuck her tongue at her, but Claudine completely ignored her.

A family of three had walked in then. A man in his fiftyish years with a thirtyish woman and their young daughter who looked like she could be in her early twenties. The woman's voice sounded sweet enough but sounded like something you could easily get tired of hearing quite quickly.

"Darling, we're adopting mostly for Arielle. You know how she has always wanted a sister, so it has to be a girl. And probably someone quite close to her in age."

"Okay, okay," replied the man, who appeared to be someone who quickly gave in to his wife and daughter's whims.

He had something Claudine called a bulldog posture in her mind's eye. When he had gotten closer to Claudine, she could see the tufts of hair coming out of his ears and from his nostrils. His skin looked like he could use more sun, but he appeared decent enough asides from that.

The woman called to the daughter, whose name was Ariella.

"Ariella, baby, come check out the beautiful girls here."

Upclose, Claudine thought she had a haughty carriage, almost certainly reminding her of Annette and her little clique. Or maybe it was all just in her mind due to her morning encounter with Annette earlier.

Claudine could see Annette preening as the girl called Ariella stood in front of her a little while longer than she had done the other girls she inspected. But she sailed past her after a while to end up in front of Claudine.

Ariella looked at the mousy girl in front of her, who had a certain kind of beauty but indeed was not as pretty as she was. Her parents always told her that she was the most beautiful girl on the planet, and that was a fact.

"Do you like her?" asked her mum.

"Yes, she will do quite nicely. I do pick her to be my foster sister." She smiled back at her mum.

Claudine, who had cast her eyes demurely downwards since the start of the inspection, raised them to meet Annette's. It was her turn to stick out her tongue at her, and she did so gladly.