Rainbow Eyes

Aurora

“Aurora, you only talked to this guy for, like, five minutes in class and you’re getting ice cream with him after school today?” Rephaim asked me dubiously, raising his eyebrows.

“Yeah…?” I replied.

“I don’t know…,” he sighed.

“Please? It’s been such a long time since we got real ice cream,” I begged. The ice cream we got at the orphanage was frozen, icy milk that was churned with sugar added, and that was only on special occasions.

Rephaim caved. “Fine, but we have to be back by five to do our chores and assembly.”

“I know that,” I grinned at him. “Thanks.”

*~*

Ian met me by my locker, and we went to get Rephaim. After the guys introducing themselves, we all walked down the pier to a place called I scream; ice cream. It sounded like a pretty cheesy name, but the ice cream was the bomb! It was so awesome. Probably even better since Rephaim and I hadn’t had real ice cream in years.

“This is so good,” I told Ian.

He grinned. “Yeah, I know.”

Ian and I were in a deep conversation, he was telling me the pros and cons on all the teachers. He’d been here since September, whereas I had only joined today.

“Aurora,” Rephaim nudged me.

“Yeah?” I turned back to him, feeling bad that we’d been ignoring him.

“Its 4:50,” he motioned to his watch.

“Oh, ok. Let’s go,” I told him, turning back to Ian.

“Well, thanks for showing us this awesome ice cream place! We got to go,” I flashed a smile at Ian while pulling some crumpled bills out of my pocket.

“Wait, wait. I pay,” he smiled back at me.

“No, its fine—” I tried to cut in, but he placed his hand on mine. His warm hand on top of my icy cold one.

“Really, I’ll pay,” he said. I was going to protest, but I was caught off-guard by his warm, reassuring smile and hazel eyes.

“Alright, let’s go. Nice talking to you, Ian,” Rephaim mumbled as he grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the shop. Ian flashed me another smile, but this one more sympathetic.

We rushed home; assembly started at 5:30. We got home around 5:20, and sat in the living room with all the little kids, who were crowded around our one, small, old TV that needed it’s antennas adjusted every five minutes so we could continue watching the show. They were watching a crackly version of SpongeBob SquarePants.

I sighed, jumping up and adjusting the antennas so the vision was more clear, and then flopped back onto the coffee-stained couch next to Rephaim.

“You don’t like Ian,” I accused immediately.

Rephaim sighed. “Look, Aurora, it’s not that I don’t like him, it’s just that I don’t trust him. There’s something off about him. He knew you for about five minutes before asking you out. Nothing good can come of that, trust me. And while you two were talking, I saw him check out every single girl our age that walked in.”

I felt a pang of hurt. I wondered why Ian had asked me to come to get ice cream, out of all the pretty girls in the classroom. I was nothing but just another to him.

“You’re right,” I mumbled. How stupid I was to think that maybe I was something special to him!
Sensing my disappointment, Rephaim suddenly reached out and touched my cheek. “I didn’t mean to make you feel bad. I’m just trying to keep you from getting hurt.”

His hand was still on my cheek, so I took it and pressed the back of his hand against my cheek, leaning my head on it. His hands were surprisingly warm, making me think of Ian. “I know,” I replied. I dropped his hand as Ms. Chaley called over the bullhorn for assembly.

We all fell into line. Ms. Chaley walked in, gripping a girl’s shoulder with her bony fingers. “We have a new girl with us today. Her name is Hanna,” Ms. Chaley said with a fake, tight smile.
I gave Hanna an once-over. She had dirty-blond, perfectly straight hair that fell to her upper back. Medium length. She was skinny and maybe a couple inches shorter than me. But I immediately noticed the way she carried herself, so fragilely and delicately, as if she was a glass ball that would break with one false move. I wondered how she would survive with Ms. Chaley breaking her to bits. She caught me staring, and winked. Her blue eyes pierced into me.

“Hello, Hanna,” we all chorused, knowing the drill. Ms. Chaley thought saying that in unison would give the person the impression that we were well-behaved. I just thought it made us sound plain creepy.

“Fall into line at the end,” Ms. Chaley commanded, but there was a sickly-sweet hint in her voice.

Hanna walked slowly toward me, tilting her head up and walking so delicately.

Ms. Chaley started down the line, holding her rolling pin by her side. She slapped Zach straight across the face and shoved Carissa to the floor. She skipped down everyone else and then came to a halt at me. Hanna’s eyes looked like they were going to pop out of her head. Ms. Chaley had a devious smile on her face, and then grabbed my wrist, twisting it until it made a popping sound. She smiled deviously and whispered, “Whore,” in my ear.

Rephaim stiffened next to me, and when she had given Hanna a menacing stare and disappeared into the kitchen, he gently touched the wrist she’d popped. “You okay?” he whispered, his brown eyes filled with concern.

“Yeah, I’m fine. She just popped it a little. She didn’t twist it or break it or anything,” I answered back.

Rephaim was about to say something, but then Hanna nudged me. “Is she always so abusive?”

“Yeah. Most times its worse,” I answered back. Hanna’s eyes did that weird buggy thing again. I wasn’t trying to scare her, but she had to face reality.

Rephaim smirked at her expression, and I elbowed him. Not enough to hurt, but subtly so he would get the hint.

The bullhorn sounded again, making me flinch. “Assembly is over. You may be dismissed.”
We all scampered away. It was time for our jobs. Ms. Chaley had forgotten to assign Hanna a job, so she was hanging around Rephaim and I as we did ours.

Our job was to give the younger kids baths. Girls bathed girls younger than four, and Boys bathed boys younger than four. Other people had jobs much worse, so Rephaim and I got off easy. I don’t know why I got off easy, since Ms. Chaley hates me.

As I scrubbed shampoo into a three-year old named Andrea’s hair, Hanna asked me a question. “So how long have you been here?” she asked me.

“Umm, since I was five,” I replied.

“Oh, that sucks,” she tossed her blond hair and leaned closer, propping her chin up on her hands. “Well, my parents just died in a car crash last year. I got shipped off to my aunts and uncle’s house, and then they kicked me out and sent me here ‘cuz I was such a bitch.” She rolled her eyes for emphasis.

“Anyway, I’m just here for a year as punishment. Then they’ll come to get me,” she finished up.
Rephaim said what I was thinking. “That’s impossible. Once you’re here, you’re here to stay until someone adopts you. That’s the rule.”

“God, do you guys live on rules or what? Do something wild for once in your life!” She smacked Rephaim’s shoulder. He gave me a look and rolled his eyes toward Hanna. She took in our glances toward each other and smiled. “Ohh, have you guys done it yet?” she asked.

I was surprised. “Umm, no. We’re not dating,” I answered her.

“Oh. Could’ve fooled me.” And with a shrug and flip of her hair, she left the room.

“Ouch! You’re hurting me!” Andrea shouted as I combed the tangles out of her wet, curly hair. Most girls who had this job didn’t bother to dress the girls or do their hair. But I did. The little ones were people too.

“Sorry,” I touched her cheek and then continued. When her hair was combed, she glanced up at me. “Can you do pigtails?” she asked me.

“Sure,” I braided her hair into two little braids, pulling two ponytail holders off my wrists and tying her hair.

“Thank you!” she beamed at me and left the room. I caught Rephaim smiling at me.

“What?” I demanded.

He shook his head. “Nothing. It’s just that you’re so good with kids.”

“Yeah, I guess,” I shrugged.

My phone, in my pocket buzzed. It was a text from Ian. I didn’t even remember giving him my number.

wanna meet up somewhere?

Rephaim craned his neck, peering over at my phone. “Who’s it from?”

“No one. Some advertisement,” I murmured, snapping my phone shut and shoving it in my pocket.

“Okay,” he shrugged, turning back to washing a little boy’s hair.

All I could wonder about was if he was right about Ian.