JSM - Edition Two

L ove I s T hicker T han B lood

Chapter One: Life as an Orphan Lily sat by the windowsill and stared out into the mystery called Russia. She wondered what the rest of the country was like, not just the part of the cheesecake factory that you could see from the high up window. Mrs Veral never let them out. Even though Lily was born in Russia, it was foreign to her. “Lily are you fantasising about the perfect life you’re going to have when your perfect parents come back and take you out of this torture zone!” whined one of the other girls who also lives at St. Stephen’s Orphanage for Girls. “Yeah L-i-l-y as soon as your parents get here they’ll take you home to their mansion with all of their servants doing whatever you please!” another girl sarcastically screamed in Lily’s ear. “They’ll be here, they promised they would!” Lily stammered back. Betty the eldest straddled one of the old wooden chairs, “You’re just like the rest of us, nothing special, just an orphan!” she hissed. “There are 153 million orphans in the world and I’m not one of them!!” With that, Lily threw herself onto her bed bug invested mattress, crossed her arms and closed her eyes dramatically and all the other girls followed her lead and eventually fell asleep. Footsteps replaced the sound of Betty’s loud snoring. Lily’s best friend Abbey tapped her softly. “Mrs Veral!” she whispered at Lily. Lily jumped out of bed and grabbed Abbey by her shoulder. “Abbey, get everyone out of bed ASAP,” Lily urged. They both turned around to find everyone awake and getting dressed in a rush. Lily and Abbey looked at each other, and threw their dresses on too. Lily put her golden hair up in a messy bun then stood straight at the end of her bed like everyone else. “Roll call!” Mrs Veral screamed, barging through the door. “Sam, Abbey, Betty, Olivia, Sara, Alana, Mia and Lily.” As she demanded the names, she pointed to each of them with a stern look on her face as they nodded in fear. She handed them each a bottle of soap, a sponge and an old cloth. Nobody said a word. “Well get to it, what are you waiting for!” snapped Mrs Veral as she stormed off. Lily waited until she couldn’t hear her footsteps anymore and pulled out her notebook and wrote the words: Silence is just another word for pain. Lily felt all the other girl’s eyes shoot down her back. She knew they were annoyed. She wasn’t helping, so she slammed her notebook shut and shoved it in her pocket. Memories of Lily’s past fog over as she scrubs the floor hard trying to erase her sadness. She feels like every day she loses herself a little bit more and soon she probably won’t even be Lily. She wouldn’t know who she was at all. She would curl up in a ball in one of the dusty corners for the rest of her life. That didn’t even seem that bad to Lily. It would probably be better than this life. Lily would drive herself ballistic thinking of all the things she could possibly do to get away. She got out onto the streets once. It was pretty simple, she just had to get past Mrs Veral then unlock the door. She ended up getting brought back by the police. Mrs Veral got so cross that she barricaded the door so even she

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JSM Edition Two