Whirlwind - Chapter 1 - (Long. )

by Aishah (Beanie) in my house, on here, writing. Like you!

CHAPTER ONE

A TREE BRANCH swept across the window of Claudia Miller’s room to the rhythm of the summer breeze, making an irritating rattling noise, which woke her up before Mrs. Sullivan’s voice could.  Mrs. Sullivan was a stern, no nonsense, bitter woman who ran the orphanage which Claudia lived in and hated. Mrs. Sullivan, or Martha Jones Sullivan, particularly enjoyed torturing Claudia and any other of the rather wimpy children in the orphanage with chores, nagging, and being just plain…horrid.

“EVERYONE UP! I WANT YOU ALL IN THE DINING HALL AT PRECISLEY 9 O’CLOCK! Bertha’s making her pancakes again for the little ones…”

At the word “pancakes” Claudia threw a pillow over her head to block the noise of the wee ones- clambering out of bed and raiding the bathrooms so they could be the first ones to get a taste of breakfast- or otherwise all the children 7 or under such as Annie and Little Sam, who Claudia were particularly fond of. After all, they were her only friends besides Nathan Jacky, who at 13 was one year older then Claudia. Nathan and Claudia had both been dropped off at the orphanage, which was called Berkshire Residential Orphan’s Institution, or just BROI. BROI was situated in, literally, the royal county of Berkshire in England. As the story goes, Nathan and Claudia were dropped off at the doorstep of BROI when they were just babies, Claudia being 6 months and Nathan being 18. Over time, the two easily became friends, both could relate to the fact that Mrs. Sullivan hated them, that the both had an obsession over books, and reading, and writing, easily spending time talking about those very subjects along with other things. They had been friends for a very, very long time, and were quite close. It was always reassuring for Claudia to know that as long as she had Nathan, she could get through anything. He was like a big brother to her, but now as they were growing older, she wondered if things could change for better or for worse.

Claudia slid off her bed and into her wardrobe, which wasn’t so full considering she didn’t have much money and everything but things like clothes, books, and unnecessary items weren’t covered by BROI. She glanced at the girl in her mirror, wearing a freezing nightgown, with large green eyes, brown hair that bounced down along her back in messy curls, a face which was pale and hollow. Claudia decided for a t shirt with a hot pink peace sign on it and a white background, her denim jacket, which went from being huge on her and was now a mini jacket due to her fast growth, and a pair of jeans, with her worn red converse, so worn the logos had faded and were now nothing but dirty white circles, topping it up by pulling her hair back in a headband the same color as the peace sign on her shirt. Simple, she thought. Claudia never dressed up much, didn’t use any make up, and most of her outfits were almost always the same- a shirt and jeans, or one of her prissy frocks that she absolutely hated for the fact that whenever she wore them, those “chicks” as she called them- or Jessica Rocky, Ashley Hanson, and Maud Siobhan- would call her names, or remark on her outfit by saying things like “ Who’s going to her 6th birthday?” followed by a few snickers supplied by Ashley and Maud, Jessica’s sidekicks who never spoke. Ironically, the three were also very good at sucking up to Mrs. Sullivan and were her favorites. But behind Mrs. Sullivan’s back, the three were vicious to all the wee ones, and Nathan and Claudia. Now, you must wonder why Nathan and Claudia get all the bad luck. They were, as you know, both abandoned anonymously, Nathan in a basket, Claudia in a cardboard box for science equipment, most likely beakers. All the others in the BROI at least knew their parents or had some family history to hold on to. But sadly, Nathan and Claudia had nothing. No info at all. And this is being something to tease them about? As you would know by know, Jessica was quite a heartless person. Adding up to it, her parents were famous movie stars, who had to dump her at BROI with nothing but loads, and LOADS of money since they had no time for her, leaving Jessica heartbroken, obviously. Even though Jessica seemed unbearably tough and mean, there was a place in her, somewhere, where this tragedy left a soft spot. But of course, being the person she is, she didn’t show it, and most of the time Jessica brags about how she has “totally inherited Mum’s looks and Daddy’s acting skills, and MONEY!” which was one of the irritating factors of Jessica that made Claudia and Nathan hate her.

Claudia bent down and patted her Sheepdog Sadie’s sleeping head. She finished brushing her hair, alarmed when she glanced at her radio alarm clock, which read 8:57. Claudia bit her lip as she ran out of her room and bounced down the stairs and raced through the hallway, bumping into Nathan, who caught her from tripping on his shoes and brushed the stray hair away from Claudia’s face, which had escaped from her headband during her speedy rush to the Dining Hall. “Thanks,” Claudia breathed, her face flushed as she sat down on the long dining table across from Nathan, Little Sam beside her. Claudia tickled Little Sam’s chin and tousled his hair, Sam replaying her with his usual and adorable six-year-old-no-front-teeth-smile that could light up all of BROI. As Sam got up from the table to gather his breakfast as the youngest went first, Claudia yawned and poked Nathan, who had dozed off, as usual since he stayed up all night reading.

“Nathan. Nathan!”

Nathan moaned. “Come ON Claudia, you know I need my snooze time.”

“Do you really want Martha Morbid Sullivan to pull you out of your breakfast, when last week while asleep you decided your face wanted to go on a trip in to the world of scrambled eggs?”

Nathan smiled, his eyes shut. Claudia sighed happily. She got up to peer out the window for some fresh air to escape from the hot smell of bacon and pancakes, with a hint of juice. She lazily brought her head out before being scolded by Mrs. Sullivan, and stopped while walking back to her seat to examine the scene before her: the “chicks” huddling over a few plates of food, gossiping widely, Annie on her tip toes, holding an empty plate and asking Bertha, the cook, for more pancakes, the majority of BROI talking loudly and eating madly, pieces of bacon on the floor and pancake crumbs everywhere, the little ones on one side and the older kids on the other, then the few teenagers who had stayed at BROI for a long time and had had a hard time being adopted and were all quite moody for this reason. Claudia knew she was a far cry from being adopted, she was just...weird. But she was always afraid she’d lose Nathan, who had been almost adopted many times, but had almost always been abandoned for one of the cuter, more obedient little ones. Little Sam and Annie were both new arrivals and Claudia knew that soon they to, would be gone.

Finally, Claudia received her breakfast- two flimsy, rubbery pieces of chicken bacon, a burnt pancake, a cup of banana yoghurt and some apple juice. She sat her tray down and got up to get Nathan’s too. Once she had each of their breakfasts ready, she patted Nathan’s cheek to wake him up.

“And here, is the start of a new, sometimes horrible, day at BROI. Ladies and Gentlemen, Nathan and Claudia, it is time for us, to DIG IN!” announced Claudia as she stuck a fork into her blackened pancake. At the same time, far away in the USA in NYC, a man opened a file cabinet in his high tech lab in a building named the New York Human Science Institute.  He pulled out a folder with a title clearly scrawled across its top surface: Claudia Miller 1998-?