To Owen, morning was a disgusting time of day which he had the deepest regret waking up to every day of his miserable existence…that was until Crow tempted him with the promise of delicious foods and hot caffeinated drinks.
The secret word though to get him up and moving in a jig was quite simply, but extremely powerful:
“Bacon.”
“WHAT? When? Where?!” Owen sprang out of bed, his sense of smell causing him to inhale the scent of coffee…and greasy foods.
“FOOOOOOOOD!!! Onward my peasant!” Owen ran out of bed, pretty much almost falling on his face, but somehow managed to run out of the door without breaking any internal organs.
Crow rolled her eyes but smiled, following her crazed friend out of the doorway.
Mathias met them both along the stairwell. Well, more like pummelled to the side and landing flat on his face to the wrath of the hungry food beast that was Owen. Matt lifted up his hand without even needing to look up and hooked his hand around Owen’s ankle, bringing the raging ball of hunger to a halt by making him smack his face against the wooden stairs.
“Whatever Crow told you Owen, there is no bacon,” Mathias grumbled as he lifted himself up and brushed his clothes off. And he was going to make a point looking clean before his friend pretty much mentally scarred the new person.
Then again, the person already had mental problems. Nah, Owen would make them commit kamikaze then or something. He wouldn’t put it past the brunette to make it happen.
Crow stepped over the back of her friend, as if he was her very own red carpet to the kitchen, where the other inhabitants of the orphanage had already gathered.
When the three entered, the held their breaths, waiting to look upon the face of the new arrival. Just by looking at them, they could have distinguished their personality or a few traits about them. They’ve had a lot of practice with all the new people that came along over the years.
But to their deep disappointment, there was no new face.
But there was-
“FOOOOD!”
Owen ran toward his fellow orphans and hopped on the table, jumping over people and jam jars and plates, sprinting toward the plate of buttered toast just as Thomas was about to reach for the last piece. Owen held up with warm bread in his hand, as if a trophy of his breakfast victory.
“Owen, could you please stop contaminating the air around the food I painstakingly made for everyone and GET OFF THE TABLE?” Aaron yelled at his charge from the doorway. Owen actually flinched at the severity of his voice.
Aaron was never irritable in the morning. He always had his cups of coffee and lovely other caffeine beverages to keep him pretty much full of the happy eagerness.
A few people actually stopped what they were doing to look at Aaron, but soon put it away from their minds as the scent of hot porridge and pancakes filled their nostrils. Owen slowly got down from the table, looking away from Aaron.
This was different. Sure, he got scolded. But the look on Aaron’s face was really worrisome.
Crow and Mathias had a pretty clear idea why he was like that. But why was it affecting him like this?
Aaron sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, as if he was gaining a migraine. He went to the head of the kitchen and everyone’s eyes followed him as he did so. He had their attention.
“Everyone, there’s a new orphan now here. I hope you will make them feel welcome, just like you have done for everyone else, okay?”
The children nodded. A few people verbally said, “Yes.” The older three stared at him. This wasn’t a surprise, as they others were murmuring among themselves in excited whispers.
“Artemis, could you please come and meet everyone else?” Aaron asked to the air. Everyone’s heads swivelled toward the doorway, as a figure stepped in the light streaming from the windows.
Everyone either gasped, stared or sort of…well, everyone just gaped the abnormity of the person.
It was a tall, lean girl. She had a regular sort of face, clear skin. The shape of the body was normal, the face was normal…it was the hair. It was a fiery red with a long streak of silver over her right eye, which both of her pupils were crimson. The hair was cropped short though, but further more, to make the girl more bizarre made Owen laugh so hard he nearly peed his pants – and he didn’t even know why.
It was the cowboy hat.
A strange surge of thoughts went through his head that suddenly made him think that she needed a handlebar moustache, bad hygiene, a pistol and a stinky mule.
Artemis’s head slowly turned to his direction, her cold gaze having no effect on the boy at all. Crow was starting to sense the danger for her friend.
And he was the only one laughing as well, which made the situation not only more awkward, but worse. Fortunately for them, unfortunately for him, there was a convenient screen door behind him. In the blink of a wink, Mathias went behind him, pushed the door open and kicked him outside, once again resuming the peaceful quiet before the Hurricane Owen blasted through the room.
Deciding to do something, anything, to break the awkwardness of it all, crow stepped forward and offered her hand. “Hi, I’m Crow. Nice to meet you.”
Artemis looked down at her hand, as if Crow had suddenly become a disease. “Not really.”
Crow bit her lip and brushed her hand along her pyjama pants, laughing nervously. “Yeah, I guess…” Inside, she was freaking out. Perhaps she should have been kicked out as well to save her from it all.
Following her lead, the others started to introduce themselves, but were very wary of her. They didn’t want to be on the receiving end of one of her glares like Owen was.
Speaking of which, as soon as all the introductions were made and normality was once again kicking into the kitchen, a freaking garden gnome suddenly smashed through the window hitting Mathias in the head.
“OW! What the f-” he stopped himself as all the young ones turned toward him. “…fire trucks…”
Crow snickered. “Nice save there Matt.”
“Did you not see that? He threw a FREAKING GARDEN GNOME AT ME! Like, what the hell?” Mathias fumed, rubbing the back of his head. Picking up the lawn ornament, and with half a mind to shove this where the sun don’t shine when he saw Owen again, he noticed that there was a note attached to the chubby man’s hat. Crow leaned over from her buttered pancakes to look. “What’s that?” she asked.
Mathias shrugged as he unrolled the paper, to find the familiar messy script that belonged to Owen. In the back of his mind he wondered where he had gotten the pen and paper…or the garden gnome for that matter? They didn’t have one at the orphanage…
Trying not to think too much as to what Owen did in his free time, Mathias concentrated on the words written.
“Look at the window…?” he read out loud. They heard a knocking at the kitchen window above the sink, right behind where they were seated. The two slowly turned to look at the squished face of the green-eyed brunette, who was waving frantically with a shit-eating grin.
They both rolled their eyes. “What now?” Crow mumbled. She wanted to eat her pancakes dammit! Owen usually ate them in giant gulps when she went to go reach for the syrup every time and she was feeling a little pancake deprived as of late.
So he could just stay out there for now until she was done.
“Hey, isn’t that your friend there?” a voice asked. Mathias and Crow looked up into the face of Artemis who was staring out the window. Jackie looked up from her food across from them and blushed at the boy’s name. Then her eyes grew wide as she stared through the glass pane.
“Oh my god! He’s being attacked by a rabid cat!”
Mathias’s eyes widened. Why was he so surprised now? Random and weird stuff happened to this kid as if it were the fleas. Why was now any different?
Crow took immediate action and went to open the door outside, but Artemis was already out there, walking quickly toward the attacking feline.
“Ow! OW! Get it off! Ge ‘I orf mee!” came Owen’s muffled voice as the cat was now clawing at his face, raking its claws over his face.
Artemis calmly walked toward the squirming boy, screaming bloody murder as the cat continued to scratch at his face mercilessly, hissing and meowing. All the children piled out into the yard, watching to see what would happen. The air was weaved with random rabid cat roars and anticipation. Owen was too busy screaming his face off, leaving advantage to the cat to attack in his open mouth, making him sputter out cat hair.
The vibrant redhead stood before him, grabbed his shoulders, making him come a halt. Immediately, Artemis yanked the cat off his face (along with clumps of his hair, which he screamed loudly at) and gently put the cat onto the ground.
The children watched in awe.
Owen inhaled deeply. “AIR! I love you air! I love you Artemis! THANK YOU!” He ended up glomping his saviour, making them fall on top of the poor cat. Jackie was fuming in a rage. Crow eyebrow quirked as she looked at the scene and Mathias wasn’t all too sure what to think. The children started cheering and running toward the two.
“Free the cat you idiot! Get off of me!” Artemis yelled at him. Owen screamed in an excessively high pitch and got off, fearing for his life at the ferocity of her voice. She probably cared more for that cat than him!If one thing was for sure, this Artemis child freaked him out…and that was saying something, considering him.