I sat down in my room after I went in, and sat on a rickety, metal chair. It looked tattered and there for 30 years.  Mrs. Lee and an old man were watching the older rebellious teens. I envied them. In my room, there was another boy named Carl. He was a timid and traumatized 10-year-old, who always wore Nikes and sweatshirts to hide his arms from the cuts and bruises on his arms. He had messy, golden blonde hair and had a baseball cap nustled under his messy hair.

Carl always talked to Lily about their pasts and experiences being abused. I was a child who knew a lot of things at a young age, so I could sort of understand what they mentioned. "It's all just a mind game. I hate feeling like I'm beneath my father in a lot of things. My dad was sent to jail until I'm around 40. That bastard." Carl said one morning at breakfast. "Me too! Mom always just used-" I cut Lily off saying (with a lisp), "Prescription drugs?" 

Lily was shocked. Anyway, we went to the park a bunch of times. I met another boy named Connor there, who was only 2 years older than me. I was the youngest kid there, by the way. Connor had pale, white skin and brown hair and bangs, also being a pretty small child, around my height and build. He had ADHD, autism and down syndrome, so I was sort of his mental support girl who helped him in anything hard for him. Connor's story was told to me by a few adults a few years after I settled in, but here's his life. 

Connor also didn't walk or talk at all when he was 2. That made his single father decide to send him off near the orphanage. One day, in the cold, a man named Mr. Finks (the head manager of the orphanage) found Connor freezing in the cold, not dead, luckily. Connor had mild hypothermia and was greeted by everyone as the newbie in the orphanage.  

At the orphanage, the rooms were warm but foggy all of the time. There was a drawing station, where I met more children like me. A library, a baby's lounge, the big kid rooms I always sneaked inside to see what they did in there. One day, I was in the library, reading the newest copy of Winnie the Pooh available, when there was this girl. Her name was Veronica. She was 11, and one of the sweeter older kids. Veronica was a lanky girl with green eyes and dirty blonde hair. Her complexion was on the lighter side. Then again, this was a small PA town. Not a lot of black people here.  

When I met her, my whole world lit up, just like with Lily. I wished every day for about a year that I wouldn't be the new kid. Until, it happened