10

chapter 5

Xerope POV:

Xerope, along with the rest of the group, arrived at the orphanage at 10 am on Sunday morning. They all walked inside and headed towards the lobby, the receptionist stopped talking and stared at the people entering the building, they seemed to be all teenagers.

Vanderwood, Xander and Isaac approached the front desk. The receptionist turned to face them after noticing them approaching. She gave them a nervous smile and said "Hello, how may I help you today?"

"We're here to pick up our newest recruit," Vanderwood replies.

"Oh okay, you can head straight through the back hallway and she should be right there." the receptionist responds pointing to a room in the back.

"Thank you ma'am," Xander says politely.

"No problem. Please enjoy the facility. Have fun!" The receptionist exclaims.

"I will, thanks again" Xander replies before walking away and heading through the same doorway the receptionist just pointed at. They all follow Xander through the door he led them through and through a different hall, they pass several offices before they come across a large double door with a keypad next to it, Xander goes ahead to enter the code then unlocks the door.

They walk through and immediately see an older woman sitting in a chair next to another older woman. As the children approach the older woman stands up from her chair and starts to walk towards them. The old woman greets them excitedly.

"Hi, I'm Mrs. Walker, you must be the kids that came to pick up Elizabeth" Mrs. Walker says smiling.

"Yes ma'am, that's us," Xander replies returning the smile.

"Well then, come here Elizabeth"

Elizabeth approaches the three men standing at the side of her mother's office and they lead her into another room. They wait until Elizabeth is completely gone before turning and walking back to where they came from. They enter the small room where they saw Mr. Walker before.

"Did you find everything you needed?" Mr. Walker asks.

"Yea, that was easy." Xander replies.

Mr. Walker looks over at Isaac and Vanderwood and smiles.

Mrs. Walker turns to look at the twins, she points at Isaac, says, "This is Isaac, my oldest child, and this is Darius. Now, I know you're probably eager to get going but why don't we talk a little bit, maybe go over a little more of what we're gonna teach you today."

The boys nod their agreement. Mrs. Walker sits down in front of a laptop computer and begins typing, as they watch her fingers move across the keyboard, Isaac looks around the room and notices a painting of an elephant hanging on the wall opposite to the computer.

Isaac walks over to the wall and traces his fingertips over the elephant's cheek. He turns his gaze back towards the computer and continues tracing patterns on the elephants skin, he doesn't realize that Vanderwood has followed him from a distance. Isaac suddenly feels Vanderwood's finger brush against his, Isaac jumps from surprise and turns towards him, he sees that Vanderwood is looking at his drawing and is grinning.

"That's beautiful, what do you think?" Vanderwood asks pointing at the image.

Isaac blushes and looks away from Vanderwood, he knows that Vanderwood is only being nice because he was curious.

"Yea, it's pretty." Isaac says awkwardly looking down at his feet.

Vanderwood keeps observing Isaac's drawings and smiles, "You're good, do you paint a lot?"

Isaac hesitates to answer, he looks at Vanderwood with determination "Yea, I do"

"I think your art looks amazing, you have talent" Vanderwood tells Isaac sincerely.

Isaac feels the butterflies in his stomach again, he feels proud and embarrassed at the same time, Vanderwood is complimenting him, what does that mean?

"Thank you" Isaac says shyly still looking down at his feet.

The twins stand up from the ground and start to