01. | tag, you're it.

DISCLAIMERS ~ strong language , angst

The clock hit 6AM, meaning it was time for the children to get up and out of bed, ready to begin their day.

"EVERYONE, WAKE UP! YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE FOR BREAKFAST!" Emma's voice echoed through the bedroom.

At 6 O'Clock sharp, the house begins it's day with the ringing of a bell.

And Emma's loud shouting.

Astoria sat up, her bed hair was all over the place. It looked like somebody had grabbed a balloon and rubbed it on her head.

I've been living here for ten years already now.

"COME BACK HERE, LANNION!" Thoma shouted to the onion-head who was racing through the bedroom.

"NO WAY!" He shouted back.

Astoria rolled her eyes in amusement as she tied her own laces before helping Alicia, who was struggling with hers.

I'm one of the eldest out of the 39 kids who currently live here.

"Morning, Astoria!" Don called out from the side room as she walked past.

Astoria gave him a smile, "morning, Don! You too, Conny!"

Conny gave her a smile, "Good morning, Astoria!"

I'm sorry about tonight, Con.

Astoria thought as she continued down the hall.

Our personalities, ages and the colours of our skin all differ. No one here is related by blood, but I love them all equally. Even if they do quite often annoy me.

"We made it!" Emma said, giggling as she came to stand next to Astoria.

Astoria smirked as she saw a familiar ravenhead, "Yep, and I'm going to start my day." She said, walking towards Ray, "Put your hair up, give the world a void of that forehead."

"Fuck off, Astoria." He mumbled as he carried the kettle.

Astoria couldn't stop the laugh that escaped her mouth as she heard his words.

"Morning, Norman." She said as Norman came in with trays of plates and cutlery.

Norman smiled, "Good morning! I hope you're not annoying Ray too much."

Ray rolled his eyes, "Of course she is, it's what she lives for, it's what she does and it makes her day just that little bit better."

"Ooh, he knows big boy words!" Astoria cheered teasingly, she spotted an apple and took it off the tray, "Thanks." She said, taking a bite into it.

Norman sighed fondly, "That's for breakfast, Stori." He told her.

Astoria shrugged, "I'm early. And so? It's something called being healthy, maybe you should try it, you wouldn't get ill so much." She replied, teasing him.

It was easier to tease Norman though because he didn't take everything to heart, whereas Ray did. But that made it funny.

"See why I think she's the spawn of satan?" Ray said, rolling his eyes.

Astoria smirked, "I know you're not talking looking as if you've just come out of Satan's asscrack." She replied, taking another bite out of her apple.

"I hate you."

"No you don't, you love me really." She teased, smirking.

"In you're fucking dreams." He spat in annoyance.

"Who would want to dream about you? That's the definition of a nightmare."

Norman sighed, "Anyway! Could one of you go lay the plates out please?" He asked, holding out a stack of plates.

Astoria and Ray looked at each other, she gave him a sly smile, "I'm eating."

Ray also grabbed an apple off the tray and began to chow down on it, "So am I, bitch." He responded.

Die.

She thought in annoyance as she took the stack of plates out of Norman's hands and began laying them down on the table.

"MOWNIN', RAY, STORI AND NOWAN!" Emma said as she walked in with Phil's hand in her mouth.

Oh!

Astoria thought, surprised by the sight but it made her laugh nonetheless.

"Morning, Em!" She greeted as she continued to lay the plates out.

"Morning, Emma!" Norman said, giving the girl a huge grin.

"Mownin' Emma." Ray said, making Astoria roll her eyes.

Everytime she heard the boy's voice, it made her want to gauge her fucking eyes out.

"Why are you so energetic? You haven't even had breakfast yet!" Norman exclaimed, laughing.

"Yeah, how old are you again, five?" Ray teased.

"Don't be talking with that haircut, It makes you look like a fucking emo." Astoria told him as she crossed her arms, walking over to the group.

Although, she definitely does have the mentality of a five year old. But I love it about her.

"I'M ELEVEN, THE SAME AGE AS YOU GUYS!" Emma yelled out as Phil got down off of her back and ran over to his own group of friends. "GOD, RAY! YOU'RE SO MEAN!"

"Someone agrees!" Astoria cheered, ruffling the Ravenhead's hair to piss him off.

"Perish."

"Okay, William Shakespeare, calm down." Astoria replied, walking away as she laughed.

Ray sighed, fixing his hair in annoyance. He truly hated her, he hated every single thing about her.

He hated how she got so excited over every single thing, he hated how she loved reading, he hated the way her hair moved every time she took a step, he hated how easily she was able to come up with any type of plan, he hated how she helped any of her siblings, he hated how much she cared.

But most of all, he hated that he couldn't hate her. No matter how hard he tried.

But he would never ever admit that. He knew it would damage his ego big time, and she would brag about it for years, if they manage to live to see it.

Astoria and the other children all sat down at the table, clasping their hands together in a prayer like they did every morning.

They were my family. This orphanage was my home.

Ray decided to kick Astoria, making her roll her eyes, "What are you, five? Playing footsies? grow up." She spat, angrily shoving a potato in her mouth.

I know, I'm immature inside. Get over it.

Everyone started chatting as they ate breakfast, Emma and Astoria engaged in a conversation, talking very loud shit about Ray, him hearing every word as he was sat right next to Astoria.

"Oh, we have tests after breakfast, right?" Lannion decided to shout, making Thoma groan as he threw his fork down on his plate.

"Somebody kill me." Thoma groaned, running his hands down his face.

Everything here was normal to us. No kids doubted that for over god knows how many years, this was our normal everyday life.

The children all took their seats at the testing tables. Astoria decided to tip his chair over just as Ray was about to sit on it. "Oopsies." She said, shrugging as she walked over to her test table, earning a very annoyed look from Ray as he got back up off of the floor.

A warm bed, delicious food, an all white uniform that got dirty incredibly easily, pissing Ray off, I.D. numbers on our necks, all ending in '94'. And last but not least...

A beeping was heard in the children's ears as the tests started.

Daily tests. "It's for the future. For yourselves."

Mom always said that these tests took the place of schools, apparently we lived in such a secluded area that we couldn't go to school.

𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊

Pants and sighs were heard throughout the room as the tests finally finished and the children all took their headphones off. "It's done."

"Phew, I'm so tired!"

"I think I got a least half!" Thoma yelled, pumping his fist into the air when a squeaking of the chair was heard as he stood up.

"That much?! Wow!" Mark said, his eyes lighting up in adoration.

Conny sighed, resting her head on the testing desk, "I'm jealous! I didn't get most of it, like always." She said.

Isabella stood at the front, a stack of paper in her hands as she smiled at the children. "I have the results, everybody!" She called out, instantly shutting the chatter up. She quickly skimmed through the papers. "Ray, Astoria, Norman and Emma, you all did an amazing job! 300 points again! Perfect scores!"

Emma happily got out of her chair and ran up to Isabella who laughed and hugged her.

To put it simply, I despised the tests. In fact, no. I hated everything test wise. But the best thing about it was that when we were finished, we could play for the rest of the day.

"Shoot, Norman is it?" Don asked, facepalming as he held his hand up in frustration.

Emma stretched as she looked over at Astoria and Ray who were currently arguing by the tree.

"It's not my fault you're too insecure to show your eye!"

"It's not my fault you're too insecure to show your fat fucking forehead!"

"Don't steal my insult, fuckface. That's copyright, I could get you sued for that!"

"Dream on, bozo."

Emma sighed, her lips forming a tight line. She decided to not even bother asking if they were going to join because she knew what the answer was going to be.

After around five minutes of back and fourth arguing, they grew bored so they just sat down and ignored each other. Everyone else was back now apart from one person.

Emma.

"WHAT THE HELL? HE GOT PRACTICALLY EVERYONE!" Don shouted upon seeing the large crowd of kids ahead of him.

Nat chuckled, "Well, this is what happens when Norman's it." He said, rubbing the back of his neck.

Astoria sat next to Emma on the grass, not wanting to be anywhere near Ray after their argument. She lay on the ground, staring up at the sky.

"HE CAUGHT ME AGAIN!" Emma whined, hitting the floor like a toddler throwing a tantrum.

This made Astoria laugh at her friend before Ray started speaking again, she rolled her eyes at the sound of his voice.

He really could ruin her day just by looking at her.

"But you survived alone for ten minutes. A new record." He told the ginger who still had her face in the grass.

Emma exhaled, "Why is it? Why is Norman so good at tag? I've never lost in a race against him, yet I just can't win in tag!" She complained, sighing as she looked up at her three friends.

Norman smiled at her.

"Em, I have a question." Astoria said, catching emma's attention, who tilted her head to the side as she looked at her, "What does Norman have that you don't?"

Emma's hand rested on her lip as she fell deep into thought, "There's too much..." She mumbled.

"Strategy." Ray said, a bored expression sitting on his face. "If it's about physical ability, you have that over him. But Norman has brains like no other, like Astoria." he said, cringing as he said her name, Astoria rolled her eyes at his dramatics. "You're playing tag. it's a game where you compete with strategy."

"Great explaining there, buddy." She said, rolling over onto her stomach, "What dickwad's trying to say is you need observe the situation carefully. Reading your enemy's moves and using it against them is necessary. Remember when we played chess with Mom?"

Emma nodded at her friend.

Astoria smiled, "Tag is like chess, but with your whole body, basically."

"But we're playing tag." She said, tilting her head to the side in confusion again.

Astoria's lips formed a thin line as she sighed before chuckling. "It's how Norman plays it."

Norman laughed, "That's what makes playing tag fun."

The ginger smiled, "Is that how you play it, Stori?"

"I haven't played it in a while." She said honestly, "So, I don't know."

"Ray and Stori have it too, this thing called 'strategy'. Not only that but both of them are way better tacticians than me." Norman said.

"Don't tell him that, you'll boost his ego." Astoria said.

"Fuck you." Ray replied, looking down at his book as he sighed. "Don't give us too much credit though."

Emma and Norman both giggled as the sun was shining bright on the four children.

It was making Ray's hair glow a colour that Astoria hadn't seen before. It made him look... not so emo.

𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊

"Those four are out of this world." Nat said, looking at the four best friends all sat up by the tree, minus Ray and Astoria since everyone knew their hatred for each other.

"They say the house has never had four kids at this level together before." Gilda told him as Phil looked up at them.

"No wonder Mom is so happy with them. She's so proud." Nat replied, scratching the back of his head as if he had nits.

Gilda was really started to wonder if there was something going on considering how much he scratched all the time.

"They're all extremely skilled in academics and athletics." Nat said.

Gilda nodded "Yeah, Norman is a genius who has, by far, the best brains out of all of us. Ray and Astoria are the only ones able to keep up with him. Ray is very knowledgeable and resourceful too." she said, smiling up at them.

Phil gripped onto Gilda's hand with a happy grin as she continued.

"Astoria is also incredibly smart, she can solve pretty much anything she's faced with. And Emma has outstanding motor skills, and her astounding learning ability allows her to follow the other three very closely."

Nat put his head in his hands in defeat as he let out a very loud sigh. "What could they be eating to be so great?!" He said, annoyance laced in his tone.

"We all eat the same thing, genius." Gilda responded, rolling her eyes, "Maybe their central nervous systems are made differently or something."

Don grabbed Nat by the scruff of the neck before pulling him into a headlock, But being careful not to actually hurt him, "Basically, they're just monsters. Monsters that this house created!" He yelled, "But ordinary people have ways to fight too! Just watch and learn, Kiddo!"

Gilda crossed her arms as he turned to look at the four children who were still sat near the tree, "Don, you've rematched him like three times, Just accept that you're not going to win and move on."

"NORMAN!" He shouted, catching the albino's attention, as well as the other three. "I WANT A REMATCH, THIS TIME, EVERYONE ELSE IS IT, EXCEPT FOR YOU!"

"THAT'S SO UNFAIR!" Gilda shouted in his ear, making him wince but he ignored her as he continued to shout.

"HOW ABOUT THAT?!" He said, pointing at him with a large grin.

Emma and Norman seemed pretty interested compared to Astoria and Ray who had bored/annoyed looks on their faces.

Moods.

Emma thought as she looked at them.

Norman smiled, "Sure, but I won't get caught." He replied to the boy who was still smirking and pointing.

How confident.

"IS THAT SO?! YOU'RE GOING TO REGRET IT, ALBINO!" Don yelled back, Astoria snickered at the nickname before Norman shot her a look, making her shut up.

Don turned to Conny, smiling as he ruffled her blonde hair, "We're going to catch him, Conny. This if your last game after all."

"It's Conny's last day here?" Emma asked Norman as they stood up.

Norman nodded, "Yep, another one gets to leave before us."

Our lives here didn't last forever, we get "assigned" foster homes and leave before we turn twelve.

Atleast that's what everyone thought.

💌

LOL

im so excited for this book now wtf

(the other half of the first chapter will be out at some point, no idea when because i need to write it up and i'm focusing on other books so just bare with me 🤓)