Children of the Fair Folk

[CamlinSkitt]

Ironwall Children’s Home was faced with wooden slats, painted light blue, the doors and windows trimmed with white. The roof was tiled in gray slate. Overall, the three-story building had a sort of cozy, even friendly look, despite the cold, rainy evening. Except that the grass in front was dead, and a sign stood in that dead grass, reminding the world exactly what that building was—an orphanage.


That was what Gabe observed as the taxi pulled up to big blue building. Grumbling about asking to be paid extra for the weather, the driver got out and went to the trunk, gathering Gabe’s measly belongings and quickly carting them up to the orphanage door. The social worker, Mrs. Hunter, beckoned for Gabe to follow her.


The small group were met in a little lobby (very well-lit and warm, particularly after the damp weather outside) by another woman. She was plump with stringy brown hair, but her brown eyes were as warm as the room. “Welcome, welcome! You must be Gabriel. Thank you, Carrie,” she said, addressing the social worker now, “I’ll take it from here.” Mrs. Hunter nodded, hesitated just long enough to give her temporary charge a hasty good-bye, and then hurried out the door to the taxi. The other woman handed the cab driver some bills, and then he was gone just as quick.


“My name is Tess,” the woman said then, turning her attention to the dripping teenager again. She handed the boy one of the towels she’d been holding. “I run this place. Here, dry off.” Tess smiled at him again—it was definitely a face inclined towards smiling—and glanced at the black clock on the wall. "We have another new boy arriving any minute now. Why don't you wait for him, and then you can both join the other children for dinner?"


"Yes ma'am," Gabe replied, shrugging. As a foster kid shuffled from home to home throughout all fifteen years of his life, he was pretty used to playing the new-kid routine.


"Oh no, please, call me Tess," the woman corrected him, another smile crinkling the corners of her eyes. "Treat me like you would any other foster parent, just one with a much larger family to look after."


Just then, the door to the rest of the building opened and a girl around Gabe's age popper her head out. "Tess? Miss Tyler is asking for you. Darren's...well..."


Tess sighed. "I can guess what Darren's up to. Thank you, Elina. Here," the woman said briskly, offering the towel, "take this, and stay here with Gabriel. If the other boy shows up before I get back, give him this and tell them I'll be back in a minute. Oh, and tell the driver he'll be paid for the wait time, of course."


The girl stepped all the way through the door to take the towel, nodding at the instructions. "Okay. Miss Tyler asked you to hurry."


Tess muttered something Gabe couldn't quite hear and rushed off, leaving the teenagers in awkward silence.


- - -


"Um, hi. I'm Elina," the girl offered, looking for a way to break the silence. The boy had shockingly white hair that shone silvery in the light. Platinum blond, she thought, and wondered if he had bleached it.


"Hullo. I'm Gabe." The boy deliberately did not meet her eyes, which did not help the awkward tension.


"Well, nice to meet you. You know, it's not so bad here, if that's what you're worried about," she offered kindly. "It's sort of like boarding school, except we're all bused off to public school each day."


The boy finally rewarded Elina's efforts by actually looking at her, and he was just opening his mouth to say something when his eyes met Elina’s.


Burnished gold eyes (Gold! Were those colored contacts?) met glowing green ones, and two jaws went slack in surprise.


Elina had never thought she would meet another pair of eyes like hers. Well, they were actually totally different, the boy’s being that strange gold color and Elina’s being green. But there was something about the intensity of those almost-glowing eyes that reminded her of what she saw in the mirror every day. No, those certainly weren’t contacts, and she didn't think that hair was bleached. Her eyes started travelling as his did, taking in each other’s appearances. The boy was lean but well-built, and he was tall. He had a strong chin and nose, but they looked good on his face. His skin was rather pale, but there weren’t any stray pimples or freckles that she could see. His white hair was cut short, about two inches all around. The new boy was undeniably handsome, Elina decided coolly, and the coloring lent him an exotic flair.


- - -


Gabe was likewise examining the green-eyed girl. Thick, dark brown hair, almost black, but with lighter highlights that gave it dimension. Not that it needed any more dimension. The thick, shiny hair flowed all the way down to the girl’s waist. Which was very slim, particularly in comparison to her curves. He quickly jerked his eyes back up to her face. It was a very pretty face, with soft features, ivory skin, full lips, and those intense green eyes staring back at him. She was beautiful and totally sexy. He slowly began to smile.


Just then, there was a knock at the door, and both of them looked toward the sound, the moment passed. Elina hurried to open the door for the newcomer, already smiling in welcome.

 

[Kitty On Rails]

There was an uncomfortable silence in the police car as it ran through the evening rain. The setting sun on the west was obscured by the dark rain clouds, blanketing the entire area in a gloomy sorrowful mood although letting down only a few drops of water. Whenever he could afford to, Officer Moore would glance toward the boy on his passenger seat. It's always like this whenever he had to escort him. The boy would just stared at the road ahead with a blank look, seemingly uninterested at the world. Frankly it creeped him out.


"Hey, Jack, you okay there little guy?" Moore cracked up a somewhat pathetic attempt to start a conversation. The boy didn't respond, as expected. However, a small mew could be heard from the black cat sleeping atop the boy's lap, curled up like a ball. Ah, always that cat. It seems that this had been a habit whenever he got the honor to escort this boy. Always the three of them: himself, the boy, and that cat.


"Look. I know you're not a bad kid. You made troubles, but that's normal. Heck, I made troubles when I'm your age. But you need to stop. If you want a stable life, you need to behave, got it, kid?"


The boy, Jack, didn't give any form of response, merely staring at the road ahead. Moore sighed. This kid. He's actually not bad in appearance. He has a pair of bright blue eyes and short blonde hair, with a look that would surely made girls head over heels for him when he's older. Also, unlike those problem kids he'd got the honor of escorting, the boy at the least was not averse to be dressed neatly. That might explain why many family gave it a try to take him, considering his history of changing foster parents every couple months.


The uncomfortable silence returned yet again. It continued that way until Jack broke it out of nowhere.


"It wasn't my fault," he whispered with a tinged of resignation.


Moore raised an eyebrow at his remark. Broken furnitures. Sliced-up wallpapers. Physical harm toward foster parents. Among many charges he had accumulated, there were also attempted suicide. Slicing his arm. Not a pretty sight. Although to be fair, none of these charges were given to him directly because even the foster parents couldn't say for sure that the boy did it. It was just situational evidence. Everything started when the boy entered their house. It was always like that for the past four years.


"...Are you saying that you are cursed or something, Jack?" Moore replied half-heartedly. Yeah, curse. As if something like that exists in this modern age of internet and space exploration. The boy either got the worst luck of the century, or a rapid offender who's really really good at concealing damning evidence.


"...perhaps."


That reply creeped Moore even more.


===============================


It was almost dark when they finally reached the building. Jack's former orphanage had given up on taking care of him, and so he got transferred to Ironwall Children's Home. A change of place might help him calming down, they said. Bullshit. Moore knew better than that. They just wanted to pass over their "problem child" to someone else.


As his car pulled up to the orphanage, a taxi slipped past his side to the opposite direction. Perhaps it was a visitor? Or maybe another escort who've just finished their job. "Seems like you're not the only newcomer today, boy," Moore remarked. He pulled out an umbrella from below the seat as the evening refused to go away. Before he could open it, though, Jack had walked out from the car and casually walked to the front door, rain be damned.


"Oi!" Moore frantically ran up to him while struggling to open the automatic umbrella. Whose great idea is it to make something as simple as umbrella this complicated? When he managed to open it, it was already too late. He and the Jack was already soaked from the rain, although the cat perching atop Jack's head somehow looked dry enough. When did that cat got up there? Actually, the better question would be whether this orphanage allowed a cat...his train of thoughts got interrupted when Jack firmly knocked at the door. "Goddamnit kid, that's my job! Can you maybe wait for few seconds or something..."


The door suddenly opened, the bright light beaming from inside momentarily blinding both the boy and the officer. When their eyes could focus again, there stood a dark-haired girl sporting a pair of green eyes.


==================================


"Ah, good evening, young lady. I'm Officer Moore, SAPD," he took out his badge, then quickly realized what a disastrous introduction that was. "Err, no no, I'm not here because of trouble or something. Well, technically it's about a trouble, this guy to be exact," he pointed at Jack, who replied with a glare.


Moore glanced around the lobby, but found only the girl and another boy standing a bit far from them, who had a silvery white hair. Was that bleach? He might have to give him a stern lecture about bleaching his hair...oh wait that's not the most important thing right now. "Basically, this guy is transferring here today. Mrs. Reynolds said the transfer had been approved. Err...think I could speak with the person in charge here? Procedural stuff, I need to get signature..."


Jack didn't pay attention to Moore's rambling, instead he took in the entire lobby as he looked around. It wasn't big, but it was well-lit and looked homely. Not too different from his previous orphanage. What took his interest the most were the two in the lobby. A girl with green eyes, and a boy with hair the color of...silver? What...no, not only that. The boy's eyes looked yellow...no, gold. Gold eyes. Green eyes and gold eyes, were that even possible genetically? Were they wearing contacts? He had previously decided to act like rebel and refuse to pay attention to anything, but these sudden weird occurrences genuinely piqued his interest.


The black cat atop his head also looked up toward the two, particularly toward the silver-haired boy. Maybe it was like the saying that cats like shiny things? It quickly leaped down and sprinted toward the silver-haired boy, purring while rubbing its cheek on his legs.

 

[CamlinSkitt]

Elina opened the door to find Ironwall's second newcomer and...a police officer? Unlike Gabe, who'd been brought in by a social worker, this boy had a police escort. That meant problem kid. Except that the neatly-dressed transfer looked nothing like the usual sort of trouble. Gabe and his bleached-looking hair seemed the more likely of the two to require a police escort, just going off appearances. Then Elina blinked. There was a cat sitting on the new boy's head. "Um, sorry, sir. Tess--I mean, Mrs. Daniels had to see to an emergency. She said she'll be right back. Um..." she glanced between the officer and the strange cat-boy, trying to decide who to hand the single remaining towel to. Fortunately, her confusion was interrupted by the cat, which jumped down to gift Gabe with its attention.


"Woah! Hey there, little fella," Gabe said to the creature currently cozying up to his legs. He bent to one knee to scratch the cat behind its ears. "Does this mean we're allowed pets?"


"Not usually," came Elina's answer, "but there have been special exceptions in the past. A shrink can give approval if they think separating a kid from their pet would cause psychological problems." She looked back to the new boy, finally meeting his bright blue eyes, and gulped. It couldn't be. Not two in the same night, when she'd never seen a pair of eyes like that before. She was forced to recollect her scattered thoughts before she could speak again, and was was about to introduce herself when Tess burst through the other door.


"So sorry," she said when she saw their visitors. "I was hoping I'd be back before you arrived. There was a small emergency that required my attention. I'm Theresa Daniels, Director of Ironwall Children's Home. Elina, give the towel to the officer and fetch another, please. Thank you for bringing Jack, Officer...?" the woman trailed off, letting the policeman finish for her.