The Girl With No Name

Mist

Catherine watched Carolina leave the room. She smiled to herself. This morning was starting out really well, and she had a very happy feeling inside of her, and she didn’t know why. Maybe it was because she had wormed a story out of Carolina. It was hard to get much out of Carolina, so when she did, she was lucky. She knew something was up, but she couldn’t put her finger on it and she was sure that Carolina had something to do with it. How, she was not sure, but somehow she was.
   She hurriedly wrote down everything Carolina had told her in her secret notebook that she stores in a secret drawer she found in the bunk bed. Once she was done, she put it back and got dressed. She didn’t feel the need to go to the bathroom to dress up; there was no one here anyway. As she was about to leave the room to go to the ‘dining room’ (which is what they called where they ate, but it was more of a cafeteria), Joe, the no-good troublemaker, came in carrying a bunch of food in his arms and stuffed in his mouth. He almost dropped everything when he saw Catherine. She tried my hardest not to laugh.
  As he hurried to his bed and stored the food he said, “You won’t tell anyone, will you?” He looked hilarious with everywhere around his mouth covered in food, his eyes wide.
  “No, it’s okay,” Catherine laughed. “On one condition though…”
   His eyes went wider, but he nodded.
   “You have to share it with me,” she smiled.
   He nodded and stashed it away in his own little secret place.
   “Well, I’d better be heading to breakfast! See ya, Joe!” She said walking out the door.
   Looking back on her life in the future, she probably should have stayed and had breakfast with Joe. But she really didn’t think it would have made much difference, seeing that what was about to happen would have happened anyway. But you just never know.
   Sort of fast walking while skipping, she made her way down the stairs toward the dining room. As she walked into the ‘dining room’, she saw James and Catherine, sitting in the usual place they always sat in and waved at them. Weaving her way around the tables and people, she made her way towards them.
   “Hey guys!” she said as she sat down. Her breakfast was already ready, waiting for her to come and eat.
   “Hey, Catherine, what took you so long?” James asked.
   “Nothin’,” she answered, hiding a smile as she started to eat her eggs.
   James looked at her suspiciously, but Catherine just continued to eat, unperturbed. James looked at Carolina, searching for an answer, but she just shrugged, but also smiled, which made him all the more suspicious. But he gave up, knowing there was no winning, and asked, “You know what we’re doing today?”
   Catherine shruged and continued to eat her food while Carolina said, “I’m actually not really sure. I think it’s going to be one of those free days.”
   Catherine and James look at each other and said, “Sweet!” with a high five. Carolina just shoke her head and laughed.
   “What?” James asked with a laugh.
   “You guys are such kids!” Carolina laughed.
   “Uh, what do you expect? I’m thirteen,” James said.
   “And I’m twelve!” Catherine added.
   “Yeah! Not every twelve and thirteen year old is a boring old stick in the mud!” James said, accusing Carolina.
   “I’m not a boring stick in the mud! It just may seem like that to YOU because you’re a just plain stupid kid who likes to try and do crazy things and almost killing yourself!” Carolina retorted with a teasing nature.
   “Hey! I’m not stupid! And I don’t do that!” James snaped, with a laugh.
   “Uh, yes you do! Didn’t just last week-” Carolina started, but Catherine cut in; “Okay, guys, we understand! Carolina isn’t a boring stick in the mud, and James isn’t a complete no-brainer!” It took her all her might not to laugh while saying that, but she couldn’t help not having a straight face, and once she finished her sentence, she couldn’t help laughing, and it was quite loud. James and Carolina joined after a moment.
    Suddenly, something happened then that would change their lives forever. Their laughing stopped abruptly as they heard other kids scream.
   “Fire!” One of them screamed. For, it was true; some kind of fog-mist was building up in the ‘dining room’. Although, to Catherine, it didn’t seem like the smoke of fire.
   After that, things went havoc. Kids, some running around crazily, scared half out of their wits, others trying to help the keepers of the orphanage, trying to get things in order, getting all the kids out, the babies. But this didn’t happen for too long, for after fifteen seconds, people were falling over, fainting. Through this, she didn't notice she wasn't with Carolina and James. ‘I have to do something!’ Catherine thought frantically. But what? She knew one thing for sure, this wasn’t a fire. It was something else. Catherine would have called the police, but to get to the phone, she would have to walk through the smoke. Then, without warning, just as she decided she would try to drag them outside (which, luckily, wasn’t the side the smoke was coming from), someone rammed into her, driving her outside. The person was yelling something at her as they thrust her outside. They toppled down the three stairs you have to walk up to get in the orphanage, landing in a mess of arms and legs on the floor.
   She untangled herself to find that James had been the one who had pushed her out the door so roughly. She dusted herself off, then shot James a dirty look as he was about to say something and tried to run back into the building.
   “What do you think you’re doing?” He asked as he pulled her back.
   “What do you think YOU’RE doing?” Catherine said harshly, as she quickly pulled her arm away and tried to run back into the orphanage again. James grabbed both her arms this time and forced her to face him.
   “I save you from there, and you try to go back in?” He asked, as Catherine struggled to get released from his grip.
   “There are kids in there! We have to save them!” She screamed in frustration. ‘Why can’t he understand?’ she thought furiously.
   “No, it doesn’t matter! We have to get you away from here!” He said, continuing to try to hold on to her.
   “But they’re innocent kids! We have to save them! They’re the same as you and me! We have to go before it’s too late!” She yelled, she was getting so frustrated and angry, heat waves seemed to initiate from her, her whole body shaking as she struggled to get away.
   “Calm down! Calm down,” he whispered. She stopped shaking, but didn’t stop trying to escape.
    “How am I supposed to calm down!?! People are dying in there, and you’re just standing there like it doesn’t matter!” She choked back tears. Her whole life, all the people she cared about were in there, burn-no, she wouldn’t dare think about it.
   “Listen to me, Catherine! They’re just fine! It’s not a fire, okay? I’ll explain it to you later, but you have to come with me! It’s you they want, and if we don’t leave right now and go find Carolina, we’re just putting them in more danger!” He explained.
   Catherine stopped struggling, puzzled. She let him drag her off, to where Carolina was, she bet. But she couldn’t really be bothered, because her mind kept shooting a gazillion different questions at her at a time. The one thing that bothered her the most was that she had a feeling that James had been hiding something from her. Something big. Yet she thought she knew everything about James. She guessed that he had more secrets than he let on.