The Orphans Series Vol. 1: The Orphans Read Free Page A

program, sir."
                  Ellie jumped in before her teacher could ask by cupping her hand up by her mouth to keep it secret from everyone else and whispered. "Sir, I got harassed by a bunch of boys, and I kicked a kid in the testicles very, very hard. I'm not sure why I'm here, though. I actually thought Mr. Peterson was checking into the school harassment code but he hasn't gotten back to me."
                  Mr. Smith stared speechless at both of them. "Uh huh. Go ahead and find a seat. Oh, and try not to hurt anyone, please."
                  Ellie turned on her heel. "We can't promise miracles, sir."
                  Shaun looked around and pointed at a few seats in the middle of the room. "Hey, let's sit in the middle. The kids in the back are here too often, and earning detention while in detention is just stupid."
                  Ellie picked out a seat next to an older boy named Greg Thompson. He was five-foot-seven, easy on the eyes with his flowing black hair, and had natural muscles unlike the boys who made the weight room their lives. He was also one of the bigger trouble makers. He didn't seem to look for trouble but it always had its way of finding him. Shaun put it down to there being some kind of a curse with the children of cops.
                  He took his desk and looked at Greg, instantly regretting his seating choice. He was pretty sure Ellie sat there because of him. Shaun looked at who was sitting next to Greg and realized it was Lucas' sister, Tina. He shrank down in his seat a little.
                  Tina, unlike her brother, had been blessed with blonde hair and a slim, curvy body. She also wore the tightest jeans a teenage girl could buy. She was staring Ellie down with a cat-like expression. It was obvious the story of the day was the fight, and all the details had probably been exaggerated throughout the final periods.
                  She stared directly at Ellie whom she felt had no business sitting next to Greg, then looked around the room taking it in one more time. Tina, being a cocky sophomore, finally spat out. "Hey! Why the hell'd you kick my brother in the balls?"
                  Shaun's face went a little red thinking Ellie's chances of earning additional detention were increasing greatly by the moment. He was baffled by her seat choice and thought she really couldn't have chosen anywhere worse. Ellie barely missed a beat, smiled widely and replied. "Well, your asshole of a brother tried to assault me in the hallway between class and Shaun beat up two of his friends. I kicked him in the balls because I couldn't let the stud here have all the fun!" Shaun went even redder.
                  Tina sat back, not expecting such an honest answer. "He's such a loser.... I can only assume he got off because he's in football."
                  Shaun looked at Tina and Greg awkwardly, instantly embarrassed, and smiled weakly. "Well, it was kind of a misunderstanding, but they got what was coming to them."
                  Greg smirked. "A misunderstanding, huh?"
                  Shaun didn't know Greg at all other than hearing the rumors about him, and was fairly confident he really hadn't stabbed a teacher with a fork last year. Nonetheless, he had a tendency to not trust anyone who wasn't a fellow freshman. All upperclassmen seemed to think that they had the right to pick on the underclassmen. So Shaun decided it safest to sit to the side of Ellie exactly where he could keep Greg in his peripheral vision. Ellie leaned over and whispered. "We're kind of like rock stars at this point.... How many kids get to serve detention in two separate places in one day, and then tell their story to the victim's sister?"
                  "Who needs Christmas after today?" he managed.
                  Ellie looked behind her trying not to