Fan Fiction ❯ Orphaned in Life ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

Orphaned In Life

Author: James the Lesser

 

Chapter 1

 

Shelly, a small brunette girl, is sitting in an office room with two adults, the Orphan Leader and the Orphan nurse. “Shelly this is a rule; you must take your clothes off so we can make sure you aren't carrying any contraband into the building!” It was a new rule, after a kid had gotten a knife in and stabbed another kid; they were having a no tolerance policy to all students. Especially with this new kid, she had been kicked out of her last orphanage for violently beating another child.

 

“NO! No one needs to see it, I ain't carrying nothing!” Shelly was backing away from the nurse who was approaching her. “Leave me alone!”

 

“Now Shelly this won't hurt, you don't even have to take everything off, just your shirt and pants, we can't allow children to be bringing in dangerous things.”

 

“NO!” The nurse grabs Shelly by her arm and drags her back to a chair.

 

“Now, shirt and pants don't make me make you.” Finally Shelly takes off her shirt revealing a sports bra.

 

“See? Nothing!”

 

“Pants?”

 

“But you don't need to see it!” Shelly had something she hated in her pants, it was hairy, it was long, and she shouldn't have it.

 

“We know about it already we don't want to see it we just need to make sure you aren't bringing any contraband into the Orphanage.” The Orphanage Leader taps her foot, crossing her arms, staring at Shelly. “The quicker you do this the quicker we can get this over with.” She wasn't going to let a kid get stabbed under her watch, that's why the last Orphanage Leader was fired.

 

“No, I swear I have nothing on me, please leave me alone!” The nurse decides it was getting annoying and tried to force Shelly's pants off. “Stop it! Stop!” Shelly starts to scream at the nurse, beating her with her hands. The nurse gets her pants to her knees before Shelly gets a blow on the nurses nose.

 

“Ah you little bitch.” The nurse grabs her nose trying to stop the bleeding while Shelly runs out of the office trying to pull her pants up at the same time. Opening the door she runs into someone who had been ease dropping on the new girl.

 

“Ow, what was that?” Shelly falls down, sees what, who, she ran into and puts her arms across her chest. “What are you looking at?!” But she did not cover something else.

 

“Whoa, dude, you got a tail!” Coming out from Shelly's tail bone was a tail, a furry, 42 inch, prehensile tail. Shelly cocks her arm back ready to punch the kid when he stops her with something she didn't expect. “Cool! And I guess you aren't a dude, a dudette, sorry.” The kid puts an arm across his eyes.

 

“What's going on out here?! James what were you doing?” The Orphanage Leader had chased after Shelly who was sitting on the ground after running into another orphan. “Get out of here James! Go, shoo.” She grabs Shelly, by her tail, causing Shelly to scream in pain.

 

“Stoooop! AAAA!!!!” She tries to get away but it causes the Orphanage Leader to pull on her tail sending even more pain to Shelly. James wants to stop this and gets up, going over to the Orphanage Leader, and kicking her in the shin.

 

“Catch me if you can!” He runs away, slowly, limping on his right leg being easily caught. But he had done what he wanted to, got Shelly to stop screaming.

 

“You, I don't have time for this!” The Orphanage Leader twists James's ear hard. “Get out of here! Shelly get back in my office, we need to finish your security check.” Shelly goes into the office to keep the Orphanage Leader from grabbing her tail.

 

A few minutes later a fully clothed, humiliated, and hurt Shelly leaves the office. Walking down the hall she gets around the corner and sees James sitting on the floor. “What do you want?”

 

“Oh hey there, you alright?” Instead of James getting up Shelly sits down.

 

“Yes, mostly, she grabbed me by the tail…” She shuts up, she hated her tail, it made her a freak. “You aren't going to make fun of me are you?”

 

“Of course not Monkey Butt.” James starts to laugh but stops when Shelly punches him, thankfully he blocks it with his head. “Gah you got a hell of a punch, I was kidding, sorry.”

 

“Don't call me that, I am not a monkey!”

 

“You're right you're an ape, a Great Ape, all humans are. It was just a joke but since you asked I won't call you monkey butt, good nickname though. You're lucky…”

 

“Lucky! I'm a freak, how can you call me lucky?!”

 

James rolls up his pant leg, grabs something on the other side of his leg that Shelly can't see, and then amazingly pops his leg off right above the knee. “You got something extra I'm missing something.” He hands the part of his leg to Shelly.

 

“Wow, it feels like, weird.” James laughs.

 

“Expect it to feel like plastic or rubber don't you? That's not all though.” James grabs his left hand, pushes something, and that comes off.

 

“What?” It is still moving in James's palm. “How did you get these?”

 

“My father was one crazy sonofabitch. Can I have my leg back?” Shelly hands it back to him so he can put it back on.

 

“Why are you showing me this?”

 

“I know about you so you should know about me, fair trade right?” After putting his leg back on he picks his hand up and puts it back on.

 

“Oh, wow, your father gave you those? You knew him?” Shelly had never known her parents; she was abandoned at the hospital.

 

“Wish I hadn't, trust me, he wasn't a nice guy.” He sticks his hand out. “I am James Joseph Hadley the Third, or Robot as my friends know me.”

 

“I'm Shelly, uh, they gave me Eden as my last name, I don't know what it really is.” She shakes it glad he wasn't using his left hand with the weird hand.

 

“Oh, well, I wish my parents had done that, but they didn't. Don't worry though we aren't the only freaks around here, you may be original, but alone you aren't Monkey Butt.” She punches James in the shoulder, not as hard as she had punched him before, but didn't want him to call her that. “Violent aren't we? Don't worry I give everyone a nickname, my friends Jumbo and Dove; you'll guess why I call them that when you see them.”

 

They both get up and start walking to the Main Room. “So you already know where everything is right?” Shelly nods, she was shown the different rooms when she first got there. “Well the Main Room is where we usually hang out during the day, you'll see Jumbo before anyone else, trust me.” James opens the door for Shelly and she sees who she assumes is Jumbo, a 6'10, 350 pound, 14 year old.

 

“Is that him?” She points to the kid stupidly, it had to be him, who else would be Jumbo?”

 

“Yep, he's a freak just like us, weird disease makes him grow and grow until he can say Fi Fei Fo Fum without looking out of place.” Not really, sooner or later the disease would kill him; a human heart can only pump so much blood before it fails. As they get closer Shelly sees a girl, so she thinks, the persons skin is covered in a weird pattern, like scales, or feathers… “Yo Dove, Jumbo, got the newbie here.”

 

“So what kind of freak is she?” Dove is looking over the new girl, her voice sounding like a girls' to Shelly.

 

“She's a normy, nothing wrong with her, unless you count being violent as a freak problem.”

 

“I'm not violent!” Shelly blushes, yelling that might fail to do its job. “Um, I'm Shelly, I guess you are Jumbo and Dove.” They laugh, both sticking their hands out.

 

“Nice to meet you Normy.” Shelly doesn't shake their hands. “Oh come on it's a joke, maybe you need to grow a funny bone, or borrow one, I got plenty of it.” Jumbo laughs raising his arm. “Just pick what you want and cut it off.”

 

“Oh leave her alone you two she just got here, where's the Queen and Darkie?” James looks around the room and sees neither.

 

“No idea, think the Queen went with her followers to the backyard, and who cares where Darkie went?” Dove leans in to James, whispers in his ear.

 

“Shut up! Just because Sesame Street took your son…”

 

“Big Bird is a girl! And she isn't our daughter Robot, just because the washing machine is mad at you for talking to the air conditioner doesn't man you can make fun of Big Bird.” Dove had been a huge fan of Big Bird when she was growing up; even now that she was older she still loved Big Bird.

 

“What?” Shelly was confused, these three seemed to know each other so well, they had inside jokes, she had nothing.

 

“I'll explain later, first of all to introduce you to the others, that person over there is Toad.” He points to a kid sitting in a corner, looks about seven years old. “He has webbed fingers and toes, that kid over there is Sam, he's a normy, and those three over there are Jesse, Jasmine, and Jessica, they are usually following the Queen, wonder where she could be.”

 

“Queen? And who's Darkie? That isn't a nice thing to call a black person.”

 

“Darkie isn't black he's blind, all he sees is dark, and all he wears are black clothes. How he knows they are black we don't know, but he traded and sold his other clothes to get all black clothes. I guess they change to match his personality, and the Queen is a supreme and total bitch.”

 

“Don't say that Robot, that's a bad word.” Jumbo didn't like bad words being said, at his first Orphanage kids would be beaten for using them and he never wanted that to happen to a friend, even if it didn't happen here.

 

“What Jumbo, she is, she acts like we should all worship her because she is supposed to be beautiful, but if you look past her looks she is uglier then Jumbo.” James elbows him in the side, they laugh.

 

“That's mean…”

 

“No it isn't, it's a joke, and you'll learn to get use to it Normy. I am the ugliest man in this place, but I got the best friends in this place.”

 

“Besides Normy, like Robot says, if you make fun of yourself what are others going to do?” Dove laughs, she had lived through hell until she met James, when he taught her that, to make fun of yourself when people make fun of you, it takes away the power from them and gives it to you. “People call me a bird, I say `What kind, Eagle, Pigeon, or Ostrich,' and what are they going to do? I made it so they can't make fun of me by taking away all of their material to make fun of me with.”

 

“Same with me Normy, people called me a giant, an ogre, so I go around saying Fi Fei Fo Fum and what are they going to do? They call me fat and I grab my belly and make it jiggle, the people around them laugh, and they stop because I made it so they couldn't make fun of me.”

 

“Wow, I uh, never thought of it that way.” She starts to bite on a fingernail, her tail twitching.

 

“What's that?” Dove noticed something was moving under Shelly's pants.

 

“Its nothing, um, nice to meet you, I hope we can become friends, but I need to go to the bathroom.” Shelly leaves the Main Room not sure what to think, James was nice, so were his friends, but they were all freaks, if she made friends with them others would think she was a freak, know she was a freak, could she deal with that?

 

Later that day, after dinner, Shelly is waiting for the other girls to get done with their showering before she goes in, she didn't want anyone to know she had a tail. When the last girl leaves she goes in to take a shower. Halfway through the door opens and someone comes in! Shelly turns around to face the person, making sure her tail isn't seen. “Oh hi Dove.”

 

“You? Why didn't you shower with everyone else Normy? Your old orphanage had fancy showers where you go to shower alone and not use to this?”

 

“No it was like this, I just, wanted to be alone.” Shelly shuffles around Dove making sure she doesn't see her tail. “Why are you waiting?” Dove chuckles a little then drops her towel showing that the strange pattern on her skin was everywhere. “I, I think that looks beautiful, like artwork or something.”

 

“It isn't, I am a freak, the others make fun of me for it, but you're right it is beautiful because it is part of me.” Shelly is almost to the door to go into the changing room when she slips and falls right on her tail. Her scream echoes in the showers, and not thinking about it she rolls over to take the pressure off her tail. “What the hell is that?” Dove had never seen anything like it, or heard a scream like that.

 

“It's nothing!” Shelly gets back up trying to move her tail behind her but Dove had already seen it.

 

“You're a freak! A freak! You're just like me, and Jumbo, and Robot, you're a freak! No wonder they sent you here, this place is a dumping grounds for freaks. I can't believe you made us think you were normal, you're a freak, or are you a shaved monkey?”

 

“I'm not a monkey!” Shelly walks over, careful not to slip, and pushes Dove. “I'm not a freak; it isn't my fault I have that thing coming out of me! If you tell anyone else I swear to God to put you in the hospital, like I did to the last person who made fun of me for my tail.” She pushes Dove into the wall, Shelly's tail always made her snap like this, she had no control over herself when it came to her tail, her blind fury would get her in trouble again.

 

“But what about Jumbo and Robot? We won't make fun of you I swear, please don't hurt me, please Shelly I swear I won't tell anyone who will make fun of you.” Dove was terrified, the last time she had been in this situation was when the Queen and her followers had surrounded her, told her to never be in the shower at the same time as them.

 

“James knows already, but don't tell Jumbo, I don't want or need people to know! If you think his size will protect him trust me, the kid I sent to the hospital was a lot bigger then me, he thought he could get away with it, he didn't.” Her eyes bore into Dove's, her hatred for herself and those who made fun of her burning in them, scaring Dove even more.

 

“I swear, please don't hurt me.” Dove cowers in fear, covering her head with her arms, turning away from Shelly so she can't see Shelly's eyes anymore. Shelly in her rage punches the wall hurting her hand, focusing on the pain she starts to calm down.

 

“Sorry Dove, don't tell anyone and you won't get hurt.” Shelly walks away, Dove gets off the floor glad Shelly had punched the wall and not her.

 

Shelly curls up in her bed; she was on a bottom bunk, trying not to cry. She nearly hurt Dove, someone who hadn't done anything to her, because of her tail. She hated it, and since it was attached to her she hated herself.