Orphanage on Main Street

Alice opened her eyes, yawning daintily. A smile crept over her face as she lifted her face to the sunlight.

"Allison!" the girl said, shaking her cousin, "Wake up. It's another glorious day today! Perhaps we will be adopt--"

Allison scoffed, and turned her back to Alice, curling up comfortably in the sheets, "And perhaps not. You should just get those silly notions about being adopted out of your head right this instant. Give up on those foolish little whims of yours."

"WAKE UP CALL!!" the woman dressed in black called throughout the halls.

"GET YOUR MANGY, LAZY BUTTS OUT OF BED!!!" she stopped to knock several times at the cousins' doors before finaly taking her leave, her squeaky nurse shoes thumping down the hall.

Alice hummed as she readied herself, then skipped to the door to wait on Allison.

Allison was taking her sweet time. "What?" she said, "Don't look at me like that. You can go now. I don't need you to make sure I get my shoes tied, okay?"


Alice sighed, and continued to stand at the door, while looking about the room.

Allison grunted, "I'm so sick of that woman. In fact, I hate this dump altogether. I've been thinking about it for a while, and I want out."

"Then we should get adopted together.."

"Oh shut up. What have I told you about adoption? No one wants the two of us."

"But if you want to leave, isn't that the only way...?"

"No, you twit! You're such a foolish child! There's other ways of getting out."

The old maid, somehow, popped her head in from the other way than when she had left.


Her eye looked about the room, then into Alice's.
"I'd be up and ready 'fer kitchen duty." she said, and shoved two pairs of gloves at her and a bucket,"You both know where the well is."

"Sc*** that." Allison muttered when the woman had left, "I'll be hanged if I clean anything in this dump once more. It's not like it helps anything."

Alice sighed, "Allison..."

But the girl was already crossing the wooden floor to the window, unlatching it.

"What are you doing?!" Alice gasped, looking around for signs of the headmistress.

"What does it look like, dipstick?" Allison said, climbing out, "I'm leaving. Now you can stand there gaping like a codfish out of water, or you can get your impudent little bottom over here and help me with this older than dirt window."

Alice opted for the second choice, and together, the girls had successfully dislodged the ancient window. Allison hiked her leg over and carefully made her way to the ground a few feet below. "Hurry up. I haven't all day."

Alice hesitated, but followed suit.

Then, together, the cousins began hastening through the crowd, lying low and keeping to the shadows.

The old maid walked back through the room.
"My mistake, I gave you the gloves with no holes.."

She looked throughout the empty room, only to see empty space.
"Well, there goes another one.." then made a checkmark in a notebook.

She looked out the window, but knew she'd never see them again.

Allison was dragging Alice through the streets of Castle Town.

"Allison! Where are we going?"

"Be quiet. I know what I'm doin-"

WHAP!

Allison fell backward onto her rear, and looked up to see what she had slammed into

[lol]

The black haired beauty leaned back on the fruit stand before retaining her 'poise'.
"Excuse you." she beamed down at the girls.

Alice smiled sweetly at the woman, "I'm terribly sorry for Allison. She wasn't looking where she was going."

"Only because I was looking after you," she snapped

"I apologize for her, truly...I'm Alice...what's your name?"

'This kids too peppy...' she thought.

"Uh...Gabbriella..." her eyes stared at her as though she was the strangest little child she'd ever seen. Which she might have been, after Fang that is.

Allison refused to make eye contact, merely stared straight ahead, no sign of emotion on her face.

She didn't sound angry most of the time...but her words bit, even with her apathetic tone.

After a while, she looked at Gabriella...not a normal look...a judgement. She evaluated her like a bug under a microscope. Allison has some scary smarts behind those dark blue eyes, and it was unnerving.

After a moment she spoke, "...Gabriella." she said, "...The pleasure is all yours, I assure you."

"Oh look, the little brat's got wits." she crossed her arms, "Just Lovely..."

"Now, Alice," she pointed to the nicer girl," what might be little miss Sunshines name over here?"

"Allison," Sunshine said herself, "As she kindly pointed out not two moments ago. Indeed I have wits; apparently more so than you."

"Ah, Yes indeed. Some people would find that sort of thing charming." she said with a fake smile and leaned down to the witted girl,"I'm not one of them, though."

"But it does strike me odd that two young girls such as yourselves would be wandering around town with no supervision. Why might that be?" she eyed the girls.

"Nothing charms me." Allison retorted.

Alice sighed, "Well, we're...we're just a little lost..." she said, lowering her eyes and scared to tell Gabriella the whole story

What if she took them back?

"I see. Well since you're lost, you must have had some idea of where you were wanting to go, am I correct?"

"...Um, no. Allow me to enlighten your obviously dull mind," Allison said calmly, "You see, being lost entails that you do not know where you are going."

[Gah, thing didn't type right..lol.]

Gabriella narrowed her eyes.
"Correction. It means you'd gotten lost on your way of going to a particular place."

"But now you've gained my interest. What place did you come from?"

"That qualifies as out business." Allison said calmly

However, at the exact moment, Alice offered, "The orphanage on Main Street."

If looks could kill, Allison would have her cousin dangling by a rope above a pit full of spikes.

Gabriella's pupils grew wide, then hastened to normal.
"You escaped from the orphanage?" she asked quietly, her head turned to the side slightly.

"Well, I was hoping that maybe, just maybe, someone would want to adopt us..." Alice said bashfully, rubbing the toe of her shoe in the dirt, and staring at the ground.

Allison said nothing.

Gabby looked around.
"Follow me." she said, leading the girls through the crowded streets to the front of one of the nicer Inn's in the town.

She ushered them inside to the lobby and walked off to the back corner to a small table.
"Sit." she pulled out her own chair across from the girls.

Alice complied, but Allison remained standing.

"I'd prefer this to sitting." the girl remarked.

"Whatever." she rose.

"So you were stuck in the orphanage as well, huh? That old, weird maid still running around?" she glanced down at them.

"Unfortunately, her old, gnarled, cooking-impaired hands have yet to grow stiff with rigor mortis." Allison said dryly.

Alice frowned, "She wasn't al that bad..."