Chapter 2

Matt woke up as the great bell chimed.

It was 7:00am, time for the daily prayers.

He was an orphan in the St. Paul's Orphanage. A fat Nun was in charge of all the kids that were there but Matt could tell she wasn't too happy with her life as she organized things and handled the children in a rather cruel manner.

Their morning routine was to wake up at seven, pray on your own, freshen up, then head out to sell cookies for charity before returning back to the orphanage for their breakfast. The Nun Willow made it a rule that their food portions would be assigned to them according to the sales they made on the particular day they went out hawking.

No sales meant no food.

Small sales, and one got a small portion of food.

Even for those that managed to sell all their cookies, they still got their potions rationed.

They all attended the St Paul Crescent's Academy. It was a public school. Most of the stuffs they needed were donated but then only the essential things were given to them, like pens, books and a few pencils and rulers.

Even they had to manage their bags with a few patches. Their bags were only changed when it was way too old to be carried.

The older kids were rarely ever adopted; it was mostly the kids from the age three downwards that were always readily adopted.

Matt hurriedly muttered his prayers to Jesus.

Though the prayer time was forced, his prayers were always sincere. And even though he was ten years old, he still believed that his parents would come for him some day.

"Dear Jesus. It's me, Matt. Thanks for letting me eat well yesterday because that nice man tipped me handsomely on my cookies. I'm not sure if I'll sell today though, you know I'm not that good with people. Anyway, that aside, I do hope Will is doing well with his new parents..."

A sad, longing look entered Matt's eyes.

He and Will had been like brothers from different mothers. Matt was the book worm; the one who loved to read, while Will was the sporty kind of guy, but they had hit it off greatly.

The previous year, Will had been adopted by a childless couple. The man that was going to become Will's father was also a sports person and he had loved Will instantly and that had been it.

Matt sighed again. Will had been his one and only friend; the other kids just jeered at him anytime they saw him reading his books. They also used to make fun of him, hence he didn't like them at all. Will had always been the one who stood up for him against the nasty bullies.

But now that he was gone, the bullies were back and meaner than ever.

Matt sighed wistfully again and resumed his prayers, " Jesus, I miss him an awful lot, you know and I just know that he misses me too. I do hope that we'll meet again someday when I'm of age and I leave this place."

He frowned a bit.

"You know what, Jesus? I don't want to wait until I'm 18 before I leave this place. I want to leave to-day! This morning, if possible. I'm sick and tired of this place!"

He sobbed. "I hate them all. I just want to go away. Jesus please let my parents come and pick me up! I don't think I can survive it here anymore...they just taint your image here and--"

A harsh yell brought his prayers to a halt.

"Get off the floor you nitwits! May the good Lord have mercy on you all!"

That was the annoying Nun. Matt huffed as he got up from his kneeling position. If anyone needs mercy, it's her. He thought.

He joined the other grumbling children as they made their way to get the freshly baked cookies for their morning sale.

They dared not eat any of the cookies as the punishment that followed if one cookie was missing and the money wasn't presented would be extremely severe.

Matt sighed and grabbed a cookie box.

It was time to hustle.

Again.

~~~

"Goodness dear, thought we have a spot for a waiter open but the owner of this place is extremely choosy and very rude," The woman behind the counter said pitifully.

"In fact," she lowered her voice to a whisper.

"Even I myself will soon resign. It's really hard to put up with the man."

Lucy pursed her lips. She had just clocked seventeen that year and getting that job was all her life depended on. She had nowhere else to go as she had run away from home since she was fourteen years old.

Her family was......well...not what you could write home about.

Her mother had long died and her dad was an alcoholic. It didn't help that they lived in an awful neighborhood, deep in the slums where ill-bred children were raised and most of the adults that called themselves parents, were irresponsible.

Since most gangsters lived around the neighborhood, crime rate around that area increased and not too long after the cops started raiding the place. At first they were only after the gangsters but when they realized that a lot of children weren't being taken care of, they did a clean sweep of the whole area again.

This time they started carting off kids below eighteen to the various orphanages in better neighborhoods.

This had happened when she was fourteen years old and she had run away from her home.

Lucy, ever since she was small, had always learnt to be independent. She hated the very thought of living in an orphanage so at the first chance she got, she made a run for it, as far away as she could go.

Luckily she stumbled upon a nice, old lady who had a sweet shop.

She stayed with the woman and helped her a lot with her shop until the business folded up and the woman's spoilt child came to relocate the mother to another place, turning a deaf ear to the mother's plea of taking Lucy with them.

Lucy's brown eyes glanced around again. It was just some minutes past seven. The small breakfast café was just opening and a few customers were already seated.

"Please ma'am," Lucy insisted. "Can I just at least speak with him?" she begged with a serious heartbeat.

Her getting a job at the establishment was the only way for her to survive. She had planned on sleeping in the shop when they closed and packing up quickly before they opened but she couldn't do all that if she wasn't an employee there.

The previous night that she had spent under the bridge had been a terrible experience for her and she had vowed never to repeat it again.

She had scouted round the small shop in the early hours of the day and had seen that there was a really small abandoned storage space she could store her things inside.

And the added bonus was that the cash she made could be saved up and used to rent a small flat at least.

"Please ma'am..." Lucy continued to beg her desperately.

She reasons that she would also get a few, free, well-cooked meals if she was lucky enough to land the job.

The lady sighed in resignation. "Look honey, our boss comes in at 7:20am, maybe you could say a few words to him then," she said.

Lucy's eyes lit up.

"Thank you! Thank you so much ma'am!" she replied with glee. The woman just shook her head pitifully and pointed at a nearby table where Lucy could await the arrival of her boss.

Lucy tapped her hands softly on the table a bit eagerly.

She was running through her mind all what she would say to the boss when she saw him. But she wasn't going to add the part-time sleeping in the night part though.

He sounded like a sour-faced person from his employee's description and mentioning it might make him go nuts.

She sighed.

How I wish I had a parent to look after me like all those fortunate kids. She thought inwardly.

~~~

"I beg your pardon sir," Reece said in a polite voice as he ran into a man.

The man huffed as he dusted himself. "Watch where you're going kid!" he said in an annoyed tone and continued walking on the busy street.

He hated the fact that a street urchin had slammed right into him just when he got his new outfits.

He searched around for his wallet.

It was gone!

He turned around swiftly and shooters, "Hey! Stop! Thief!"  He could see Reece making a quick getaway. He lost the black-haired boy in the sea of rushing people.

Reece chuckled as he made his way away from the man.

He knew the streets like the back of his palms. He leaned against an uncompleted building and checked through the man's wallet.

Here in the street it was either steal or starve.

He scoffed as he closed the wallet. The money's not as much as I've hoped but.... the day's just starting anyway. He thought to himself and slid the wallet into his back pocket.

He was out on the street again looking for a new prey.

"Hey! Stop!"

A young teenage girl's screams made him turn in her direction. Another street person like him was getting away with her purse.

"Please stop him! That's all the money I've got!" she sobbed as she ran up to Reece.

Reece followed the guy.

He knew where he was headed, and in no time, he cornered him.

"Give it back, man," Reece said coolly. The guy looked a year younger than him. Reece stretched out his arm to collect the purse.

"No way....I... I need the money," the younger-looking guy stammered.

"Then go beg on the roadside or something!" Reece said a bit distastefully.

"Please..." fresh tears spilled from the kid's eyes.

Reece sighed, a bit annoyed. Who'd have known he'd just be a little wimp. He thought.

"I'm hungry," the younger-looking guy stated. "I've not eaten for three days now...I'm desperate..." He sobbed some more.

"Fine, fine," Reece rolled his eyes. "Here, you can have this, just give that back." He gave him all the cash he had got from the wallet he had snatched earlier from the man.

"Really?" The guy's eyes brightened up. "Thanks a lot man!" He quickly snatched the money and tossed the girl's purse at Reece. 

"I'll not forget your help!" He promised as he ran off.

Reece rolled his eyes again and started to look for the girl. He finally found her seated on a small, general bench all red eyed. Some people had circled her, offering their murmurs of sympathy.

Someone had called a nearby cop.

Reece hesitated when he saw the familiar face of the police officer.

Reece took in a deep breath before he approached the girl.

"Little dudette is this yours?" He managed to beam a smile at her when all he felt was nervousness due to the nearness of the cop.

Her eyes went wide immediately.

"Yes! Yes! Thanks so much!" she said readily as a smile broke out on her puffy face.

A hand was placed on his shoulder. He froze and looked up. It was the police officer.

Reece chuckled nervously.

"I... I was just returning this..."

"That's the thief!" someone hollered.

"Look how guilty he looks..." another snickered.

"Forget guilt! Look at the rags he's wearing! He's obviously hungry!" a third person interjected.

People nearby started saying to one another. Reece shook his head in a hurry.

"Honestly I wasn't..." he started to say to the police man.

"You don't mind me searching you now, do you Reece?" The cop asked as he narrowed his eyes at him.

"You don't need to search him!" The girl defended as she stared at the policeman. "All my stuffs are complete."

The policeman still carried on the search anyway. He was used to Reece stealing around. This wasn't the first time he would have done such. In fact, all the officers who patrolled around that area knew him well.

The policeman found the other man's wallet on Reece.

"Oh bother!" Reece scowled.

"This isn't yours," The cop stated, starring at Reece as he raised the empty wallet up to him.

 "Would you believe if I said he gave that to me?" Reece asked hopefully.

The police gave him a hard look.

"You've spent all the money in here too," he observed as he looked at Reece knowingly.

"Alright, your hands out, let's go." The police cuffed Reece and started leading him to the nearby station.

"It's okay," Reece told the girl who was looking worriedly at him as he got a mild shove from the police man.

Reece sighed again.

This is why I hate doing anything nice. He thought as he got jeered at by his fellow street mates.

"C'mon Reece, you're better than that!" A black-skinned boy said in a sneering tone.

"Stealing is bad." The guy went on.

"Beat it, Tobi!" Reece snarled as the officer kept him in check. Tobi cheekily disappeared into the other street.

"Like he doesn't steal," Reece scoffed.

"He just got out yesterday," the cop added.

 "C'mon officer...I'm your favorite kid, you know? I promise on my grand-ma I didn't steal,” Reece said.

"Move it, Reece. You know the procedure," the police replied.

Reece shrugged as the police station came into view. "Eh, my grand-ma's dead anyway."

"I bet she'll be real disappointed in you," the cop said.

Reece shrugged again. "Whatever...I don't care. I never met the old dudette anyway."

"It's lady, not dudette,” the officer corrected.

"Sure thing ol' dude, whatever you say," Reece said, his tone laced with humor.

The officer chuckled inwardly. Reece was just so...Reece.