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f o u r

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"Rogue...wake up please,"

I slowly opened my eyes and saw Crystal next to my bed on the floor. I reached for my lamp and took a peek at my clock on the table.

7:27...

I looked at her. "Sorry to wake you. I've just been alone for so long, having someone my age I can talk to, it's great...may I talk to you? I just want to get to know you," I rubbed my green eyes and smiled. "Sure, it's ok. I understand," I went back to thinking about Ron. I wonder how he's doing with the boys.

"Are you ok? You look like something is on your mind. Do you mind me asking?" Good, she noticed. I don't have to bring it up somehow. "Well, actually, yes. There is something on my mind and no I don't mind you asking. Did you see me with anyone yesterday, by any chance?" She looked down at the floor and then she looked back up at me. "Um, do you mean that boy?" I nodded.

"Yes, that's my baby brother Ron. He loves me so much. He doesn't like being apart from me. It just got worse when our mother died yesterday. I'm worried about him with the other boys...and not with me," She nodded. "Really? What about your dad?" I just ignored the flashbacks that appeared, but I couldn't help the few tears though. "Oh, don't cry Rogue. It's ok, do you mind me asking?" I nodded no and wiped my face with my blanket. "No, it's fine. It's just my daddy...died from a fire when I was seven and when Ron was a child. He was the best daddy in the world,"

"Oh," She looked down. "Well, I never knew my parents...at all. I'm also an only child...and...I'm alone. I'm just saying to always love your brother, because you are not alone," That's true. I will always love Ron, why would I not? "Well, do you want to talk about something?" She looked back up at me. "Yes, of course, I just don't have anything to say. I just want to get to know you," I nodded. I understand. I just wonder how Ron is doing though. I'm sure he really wants to see me.

"Oh yea, that's totally ok with me. What time is it?" I looked back at my clock.

7:41...

I looked back up at Crystal. "What time do we get up?"

"Lady comes around at eight, knocking on doors yelling 'GET UP!' and 'WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR BREAKFAST?' Things like that," She giggled when she copied what Lady says. "I've always wanted to mimic her!" We both giggled. I found that interesting to get up an entire house like that. I'm sure each morning when I walk out through the arched doorway, Ron will run up to me and give me his biggest hug. Boys and girls can only go through their side only.

"I bet that will get on my nerves really fast. Anyways, I bet baby brother will be waiting for it every morning though. She'll wake up the younger ones first right?"

Crystal nodded. "Yes, she might have already woken him, I really don't know when she wakes them up. I just know before us," She went to looking at my hair and sat on my bed beside me. "I just really like your hair. I've never seen anyone's hair like yours before," I laughed. I grabbed my brush and pulled my hair back into a ponytail. "Thank you! It's my own style!" I put my brush away. Crystal had gotten her brush and was trying something with her hair. I laughed again. We sat there laughing at each other's hair. "Hey let's make funky hair styles!" We giggled and shook our hair and brushed it in odd ways. Crystal brought her mirror over and we held it up for each other. We just couldn't stop laughing! I made mine look like a longer Mohawk or close to it and used a deep voice to say, "Hey! You thurr!!" We laughed and laughed some more, harder and harder till I snorted. We stopped for like a second then laughed even harder. "What was that? Like a pig or something?" Crystal said in between laughs. "I don't know!" I took a deep breath. We looked at each other and went back to laughing. "My tummy hurts!"

When we finally got to where we could stop laughing, we played around more with our hair.

Knock! Knock!

8:01...

"Good morning ladies. I can here you all the way down the hall!" We both giggled. "Good morning Lady,"

"What do you want for breakfast?" She opened our door.

"Whoa! Someone's been having fun this morning! So we've got tweedle dumb and tweedle dee?" We all laughed. "Pancakes please,"

She nodded. "Ok. And for you Rogue?"

"Same," She nodded again and walked out the door.

We giggled once more. "Ok, time to get dressed I guess,"

"I agree," Every time we glanced at each other, we'd burst out laughing! I pulled on a purple half shirt that stopped above my bellybutton with half sleeves ending before my elbow. Then I pulled on a pair of blue jeans, the long boot cut kind. They were light blue colored. Then my tennis shoes and then I was ready. Crystal wore a plain white t-shirt with blue jean shorts and black flip-flops. "Ok, I'll show you the kitchen," We dashed out our door and into the hallway. There were other girls already walking to the archway and others opening and closing doors. Crystal and I played a hand slapping game down the hall dodging other girls on the way. Then we reached the pink archway leading to the blue one and the other door to the living room. Then I saw Ron playing with a few other boys and he hasn't seen me yet.

"Hold on Crystal, I'll be right back," I snuck up behind him. Got ready then yelled, "TACKLE!" I tackled him from behind and tickled him a little. "Hi Ron!"

He turned and his face brightened. "Rogue!"

"Nice tackle Rogue!" Crystal called from behind me and I laughed. "You having fun? Because if you're not then I'll have to fix that!"

"Nah, I'm not having fun..." He looked up at me with a small smile. "I'm...having...THE BEST TIME EVER!" We both laughed. "Great! Great!" I ran back over to Crystal. "Ok, now what?" I looked back over at Ron and he wasn't there.

"Come on Rogue! I want to show you the kitchen!" I shrugged it off and followed Crystal. There are so many children everywhere. "Come, I will show you where we pick up our orders,"

"We pick up our orders? That's neat!"

"Oh yea, if you think that's neat, then wait till lunch time!" I followed her through the square rooms and over to the window. Lady was there. "Ok, we have Crystal...and...Rogue..." She went to the back. Then she came back holding our pancakes in each hand. "Here you are ladies!"

"Now, I could get used to this!" We all laughed. "I'm already lost in here!"

"Thanks Lady, now follow me Rogue," She led me to a smaller room that branched off of the kitchen where the supplies were. "Strawberry syrup!" I poured some of that on my cakes. Crystal smiled. "Yep! It's a favorite in the house," She also put some on hers and then we grabbed things like forks and napkins. She leaned closer to me after grabbing a few extra napkins. "I'm a VERY messy eater!" We giggled and went out the door from that room to the dining room. Almost everyone was in there at this time. It wasn't as chaotic as I thought it would be. Crystal picked a table and we sat down. "Wow, it's actually not crazy in here!" I laughed. "Yea, the kids make it that way. Lady taught them how to be like that. But everywhere else...let me tell you girl! It's SUPER crazy!" We giggled.

I found Ron alone in one of the playing rooms. I walked over to him and sat down next to him on the beanbags. There were beanbags in every playroom. This room was red. He noticed me and looked surprised. "Oh...Rogue..."

"What's wrong Ron? Why aren't you playing? I thought you made some friends?" He looked back down at his feet. "Yea, well, they're playing stuff I didn't want to, it's alright Rogue. I'm fine...really," I wrapped my arms around him.

"Look, Ron," He looked up at me. "You can't hide anything from me. I know we've been through some hard times...but...I don't want you to change how you are. I want you to be you and know that I'm always going to be around here somewhere, ok? If you need me, you come looking for me, even if we're all in our rooms at night. You go get Lady and she will get me, can you do that for me?"

He nodded and smiled a little. "I know it may be hard, but I know you can make friends. You are a good boy. You got that? Now go play and I'll be with Crystal somewhere around here," I kissed him on the head and stood up. "Thanks Rogue," He gave me a big hug and ran off to the group of boys playing with blocks and monster trucks in the blue room to the right. I watched him for a minute. The boys accepted his request to play too and he looked back at me. I signaled him to go have fun and smiled at him. He smiled back and went to grab a truck. I left the room.

Crystal and I were sprawled out on the beanbag chairs in the children's library looking at silly books. This room was an orange color. It had pictures of books all over the walls in paint. We randomly giggled at a few of the more funny ones. "Oooo, now that's a fail...Crys look at this,"

"Oh, I like the nickname!" She peeked at the book. "Alas! That one always gets me!" We laughed.

"Ah, I'll think of a nickname for you too," She picked up another book. "You wanna color? There's coloring books EVERYWHERE in here," I nodded. "Yep, sounds fun," I looked everywhere for a blue crayon. "Man! Where are all the blue crayons?"

I looked some more. Then I just decided on a purple one. I colored the entire page, even the parts that were white. "You know..." I grabbed a white crayon. "White crayons are useless," Crystal laughed. "Well duh! What are you coloring?" She peeked at my book. "You colored the clouds purple?" I shrugged. "Hey! I couldn't find a blue crayon ok!"

"Well, it works!"

"What are you coloring?" She showed me her book. I looked real close. "AHA! You didn't color the eyes white on that tiger!!" I laughed. "Hey! Didn't you just say white crayons where useless?" I nodded. She pointed to her book. "And I rest my case," We laughed again.

"Hey...what can you say to a couple of bored girls, right?"

We went quiet for a moment.

"You're kidding..." I looked over.

"What?"

She showed me her black crayon. It was a nub. "This is the last black one!!" I threw up my hands. "That's what I said about the blue crayons! There isn't anymore!" I held up a purple crayon. "But! There's a solution!" Crystal looked at it. "You gotta point there,"

My eyes brightened. "You can use gray!" She looked down at her book. She gave the puppy dogface. "But...but...I already colored half of my pretty doggie black!" She showed it to me. "And it's a pretty doggie!"

I giggled. "Well, I guess it's gonna be two colored! So you dropped gray paint on it..." I thought for a minute and then gasped. "Awww! The poor doggie!" Then we both laughed. "Well, I guess that's enough coloring then. You can't color without blue! Or black!" I held up the purple crayon. "Here, I rest my case! Shame on you purple crayon!" We laughed, put the books away and went to another room.

Now it was time for lunch. It's time to see how lunch went. Crystal said I would love it! I saw all the younger kids running out the back door of the dining room. I followed them and I didn't believe what I saw past that door! There was a courtyard out here! And Lady had tables set up everywhere! It's a picnic! There was a fountain in the center with a circular vibe to it. There were circles of everything everywhere. There were trees in groups of circles. The fountain was inside a dip in the ground shaped like a circle. I spotted Crystal out there so I ran up to her. She held out her hands.

"So, what do you think? Pretty darn neat right?" I held out my hands too. "A courtyard? A COURTYARD? Are you pulling my leg? This is off the hook! I'm loving this!" Crystal laughed at me. "Well, I told you to wait till lunch," She smiled. "Come, I'll show you the works," I followed her to where Lady was doing the lunch making. "Hey Lady! You should have seen this here girl's reaction to this secret we have here!" Lady laughed. "Look! She's still flipping out!"

I laughed. "Hey, hey. This is AWESOME! I've never seen anything like this before. Lunch to me is sandwiches and soup then some other stuff you don't wanna know what!" I laughed. I walked over to them.

"So, Rogue, what would you like?" I looked at what there was and let me tell you, there sure was A LOT! "Wow!" I spotted what I wanted. "Hmm, I'll take some of that there potato salad and two of those there turkey sandwiches," I turned and saw Ron running up to me.

"Ron! There you are! Have you seen this awesomeness here? Isn't it great?" He nodded. "I know! Right! I've been looking for you Rogue!" I smiled and put my hands up. "Well, you've found me!" He grabbed my hand. Then I grabbed my plate with my other and Crystal led us to where she was sitting. My eyes widened when I saw that there tree emerge from out of nowhere. "Dude! A tree? A TREE? A huge tree! I dunno how I missed it, but I did. Everything just gets better!" We sat down there under the tree. We watched a bunch of kids play while we finished up.

"Hey! Let's go play Frisbee!" I jumped up and grabbed one that was lying there next to us. It was white and lime green. It made a spiral, so when it spun it made a design. Crystal and Ron jumped up too and followed me to an open part of the enormous field next to the big tree. The field was like a football field. There were flowers everywhere. A few smaller trees here and there. The home was in the distance. It was beautiful.

Tossing that Frisbee around was like a guessing game too. Who's gonna throw it to who? Are you gonna catch it? How hard are you gonna throw it? Is it too high or too low? These are the questions that run through my head as I play this game. As we played, more and more kids joined our circle. It became an oval it got so large. It was the best Frisbee game ever! It was a good thing another kid brought another Frisbee that looked like this one to keep the game goin'. There was a lime green Frisbee and a purple Frisbee flyin' around here...both with the spiral design. Back home, our game of Frisbee was never this good. Besides, our Frisbee was broken like the rest of the house.

After it got too dark to play, we all went inside. Lady was tidying up the kitchen and living room. She looked up. "Get ready for bath time and bed time!" Some kids went 'hurray!' a few went 'aww man!' and others went 'crap!' and I laughed at all the different reactions. I thought to myself, 'Where? I don't wanna step in it!' to the last comment there. Crystal walked up next to me. "Hey, we have our own bath time I like to call shower time! Lady gives the younger kids baths and us older ones take our own. Since we are the oldest ones, we use the upstairs bathrooms. Follow me,"

"Nice!" I followed her up the stairs in the pink side of the house. "The ones upstairs are the ones the oldest use,"

I slid off my tennis shoes and placed them next to the tub. Crystal went to the one across the hall. I've never had a chance to a nice warm shower like this.

Back home, when we bathed, we had to go out back and get water from a well. Then bring it back and heat it up on a stove. Then use the big silver tub we used to wash clothes in during the day in the kitchen. The tub sat outside on the back porch usually. We had to have someone else wash our backs with a long brush. Our house was so run down, we had no running water. We only had a master bedroom and one other bedroom. That's why I was in the attic. I wasn't used to this house at all. There was so much room and all the running water you wanted, my mind was blown away.

When I was in the shower, I felt pain in my chest. It must've been heartburn or something. Things like that just started after momma died. Oh well.

I stepped out of the tub with a towel. I felt super clean. I never was that clean before. I could get used to this. The bathroom was nice and colorful. The towels were white with rainbow designs on them. The tub was a slider shower with a small seat in one corner. The toilet was next to that on the left. The counter was a long as the entire wall opposite to the toilet. There were two sinks. The walls had rainbow designs to match the towels. I was amazed with the layout of this bathroom. I got dressed and put my hair up in the towel. I went down to room 15 and put on my fuzzy slippers and changed to my pajamas and my robe. I saved my slippers from when daddy got them for me one birthday. He got them large size so they would last a long time, so they still fit. I went back out, down the stairs and went to sit in the living room. I was the only one in there.

I turned to watch out the windows. Cars and trucks went by. It was hard to believe anything was happening outside this place...but there was. I looked out the window next to the front door. The sky was starry and dark.

It reminded me of one night daddy and I went camping...out in the back yard. We lived in the woods pretty much so we didn't leave the yard. We made smores and ate them under the starry sky like that one. Slept in a tent and I had melted marsh mellow all over my hands and chased daddy around the back yard yelling, 'FEAR ME! I AM THE MARSH MELLOW MONSTER! MWAHAHAHA!'

I stood there watching and listening for another five or so minutes.

"Hey," I turned. It was Crystal. "Oh, hey,"

"Where you thinking about your dad again?"

"How'd you guess?"

"Eh, it's just a hunch. Come, sit with me," I sat next to her on the beanbag chairs. She looked at me.

"So, what does pretty nights like this remind you of?"

I laughed. I told her the marsh mellow hand story out in the back yard. Then it went into the house and how I showered back at home. I laughed again, telling the time that I was remembering the day when daddy came home and we played with my fortress I had built with Lego's when I was five.

"Wow, he seems like a really good dad...I wish I remembered mine..." She looked up at me.

"My story goes like this...I moved a lot from foster parent to foster parent. Each one had at least one other child. I never had any real attention. I knew if I acted up any at all, I'd be going to another foster parent, possibly in another state. Moving around really hurts after a while. I never know who are my true friends. Then one time after my foster parent died, I was sent here. I came from half way across the state...then I met you," She smiled at me. "Yes, I was alone all my life. The first foster parent I ever had knew my parents before I was born. I found out I had an older brother that was a miscarriage. I found out my father was a mercenary from the war. I found out my mother made every mistake she possibly could. She never graduated from school. She never was married. She died from smoking and alcohol. My father...well he just died from unknown causes, probably from the war..." She started tearing up. I stood and sat with her on her beanbag and hugged her. "Wow, I'm sorry Crys...I mean, everyone has their story. It just depends how hard you've had it, the way you look at things," We cried on each other's shoulders, soaking up all that we can about each other.

"You should have seen how pale my daddy and mother were when I last saw them both on their death beds..." I said between sobs. "I thought it was the end of the world for me,"

We looked at the clock on the wall.

21:03...

"I guess we should go to bed, huh," We helped each other up and started to walk to the archway.

"Rogue..." I turned. It was Ron. "Ron! Have you come to say good night to me?"

"Those stories, were they true?" I nodded. "Yes, they were," I hugged him real tight. "Good night Ron. I love you,"

"Good night, Rogue...I love you too," I stood up. "Ok, time for bed. I'll see you tomorrow," I watched him leave the room. Then I followed Crystal and the other few girls to our rooms, up the stairs and through the archway.

"Good night Crys," I turned off my lamp after I brushed my hair out when it dried. "Good night Rogue," She turned off her lamp too.

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