Making another one of these. I don’t plan on doing anything today so might as well just get one of these out of the way. Not a lot of stuff happened between this one and the last. I was a baby for a good bit of that, after all, so it wouldn’t be the most exciting Considering recent events in my life, I might as well start a few months after my 10th birthday. It was a sunny day at the orphanage in V Corp… I had just gotten in another fight.

  The playground was a buzz. Looks like a fight was going down. It wasn’t known how the fight started, other than who was involved. One of the kids had been there since he was an infant; he was only about 10 years old, but fought like someone twice his age. The other had recently arrived just over a year ago; he had turned 11 just last week, and was keeping up with the younger kids frantic swinging, blocking his blows with both arms. The boy swinging his fists stood out from the other kids by his skin color, which was much darker than anyone else here. The staff theorized about his parents, suggested they might’ve been from U Corp or some neighboring district. He was a rebellious, rude child, rarely interacting with anyone, always responding to even friendly gestures with a rude standoffish response; he must’ve wanted to make an image for himself, or maybe it was some sort of inferiority complex that came with being an orphan for so long. While most of the kids there kept their hair short, his ink black hair was kept down to his shoulders. The Fixers who were assigned to bring him here gave him the name Emilio.

  The other, Calvin, was a slightly pudgy red haired boy, with his face covered in freckles. His twin sister, Elise, looked like a gender swapped version of her brother. Most of the kids steer cleared from them. Calvin was a boy who could use brute force to get what he wants and would bully kids who he deemed ‘in need of it.’ His sister was more subtle with her cruelty. The type to spread rumors about the school or play pranks that she knew she could get away with. Needless to say, they were likely not getting adopted any time soon.

  Yeah, word of warning to whoever I let read this. I was a piece of shit kid back then. Imagine the brattiest most obnoxious kid. The type who tries way too hard to act tough and has the tenacity to walk the walk; punching you for looking at him wrong, thinking that he was the toughest son of a bitch out there. That was me. If you want to give child me a slap at any point while listening to this story, yeah, don’t worry. I’d do the same… I’d slap myself. I’d also slap Calvin here, but I plan to do that in present day.

  The younger boy swung and swung, striking the older kid, who had his guard up. Kids who were watching were wondering where the hell the orphanage staff were. A few meters behind the older boy, a girl of similar age and appearance watched; she was the boy’s twin sister, always around him, no matter where they were, even fighting to stay in the same room together despite the gender divided dorm rooms. One good, unexpected punch went for Calvin’s face, roughly grazing his nose. His head tossed to the side, he grunted in pain. “The fuck?! You little shit!” He shouted, shoving Emilio, who fell flat on his ass. He wiped his nose, but scoffed when he realized that the attack didn’t even draw blood. “Is that it?”

  Emilio quickly got up, brushing some grass out of his hair, sneered at the older kid. Not one for words, he quickly swung his fist at Calvin. It shouldn’t be underestimated just how hard a child can punch. The strike hit Calvin in the stomach, causing the large boy to stumble back, coughing.

  Calvin responded with a few swings of his own. Aggressive and sloppy, there was a lot of bratty rage behind both of the kids swings. With tenacity to keep a fight going, the two of them just might end up as good Fixers, they just need the right amount of training.

  As Emilio got ready to retaliate, planning to tackle the boy to the ground and beat him again and again, pretend scenarios rushing through his head of how he’d stand triumphant, he was quickly grabbed from behind by someone yanking on the back of his shirt. It was Elise, Calvin’s twin sister who had been a silent observer this whole time.

  “Guess who~” She said in a sing song voice.

  The action distracted Emilio long enough that was he taken off guard by Calvin, who grabbed the boy by his long hair. “Thanks, sis!” He grinned, as he yanked Emilio’s head down, while bringing his knee up. Emilio’s face collided brutally with Calvin’s knee, his nose spurting blood. “You gonna stay down or what! Dark skinned freak.”

  Emilio collapsed to the ground, hissing in pain. Simmering with rage, he was on his hands and knees, staring at the ground, blood dripping from his nose, turning the grass red. More and more kids gathered around him, many of them wanting to get a good look at the violence; never before had another kid hurt another kid that badly here! That was when, finally, a voice shouted at the group of gathering children.

  “Stop! Now! Enough is enough! Get away from each other!” It was one of the staff at the orphanage; he was a tall man, wearing an apron with the logo for the orphanage on it, with a plain button up shirt underneath it. From his voice and expression, he was clearly enraged by the sight. It wasn’t the first time that Emilio or Calvin got in a fight, but never before had it escalated to this level. Never before had blood been drawn.

  “Oh hey, the teacher is here.” Calvin smirked, his sister hopping next to him with a smile. “Guess we’re gonna get in trouble, huh?”

  “To bed without supper, probably?” Elise laughed, “You were the one who kneed him in his big dumb face, you’re the one in trouble.”

  “Go!” The staff member shouted, pointing to the orphanage up the hill, staring down at the twins. “Both of you! Now! Deans office!” The twins, having lost interest in the whole commotion, walked off; Calvin took longer to do so, wanting to spit on Emilio while he sat there, but fought off the urge. The crowd of children had dispersed, all going off to their own devices; what a way to spend recess. Emilio stayed on the ground, blood still running form his nose, his brow furrowed. The three of them, Calvin, Elise, and Emilio, were referred to as the “permanent residents” of the orphanage. At the end of the day, the place wasn’t a boarding house for children. The point of it was to get the children adopted, off to loving families to later go on to be working residents of the Nest. But, all three of them acted as if they were trying hard to not get adopted. Emilio’s aggressive and hostile attitude, Calvin’s volatile temper and his sadism towards the small animals that occasionally crossed into the orphanage grounds, and Elise’s subtle mischievous personality while also being a package deal with her brother. The staff member walked up to Emilio, staring down at the boy. This would mark the 4th time the boy would be sent to the dean’s office for picking a fight. 10th time this month. 90 percent of the time, he was the defender, people willingly picking fights with him or nudging him enough to make him lash out at them. This made him an easy target to piss off, but one the antagonist would regret. The man sighed, “Just go.” It was pointless to try and get him to improve his personality. Maybe he would do better if he just got tossed to the Backstreets? …Maybe some Nest scientist would be willing to take him in for a mound of cash?

  There were rumors of course, passed around that not every kid was being sent to loving families; tales about scientists were adopting kids solely to use them as guinea pigs. Many of the children, the ones who had been there longer, gave advice to the younger kids about how to tell the difference between legit adoptive parents and ones who just wanted you for your organs. These were just rumors; so said the adults.

  Emilio stood up, wiping the drying blood from his face. “He started it.”

  “Yeah, I know. Every time you get in a fight, the other guy started it. I don’t care who started it… But, might as well ask… How did it start?”

  Emilio flicked his head over to a boy sitting on a tree stump just a few meters away. He was the only kid who didn’t disperse when the staff arrived. A lonely silver haired child, who was now idly playing with a flower in his hand, a smile on his face. The kid had a scuff mark on his face. Emilio continued his explanation. “They were bullying him.”

  “…You were protecting someone? That’s a first.”

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  “Fuck off.” Emilio growled, “I hated his wussy ass crying.”

  “Come now, Emilio. I’ve seen those Fixer books you read. You want to become one yourself.”

  “What’s it to ya?” Emilio said, starting to walk off, but stopped when he noticed the staff’s body language urge him to stay.

  “Emilio, before you go. Let me tell you this.” He pointed to the forest just a short walk away. “See those woods? You know what lies beyond that forest?”

  Emilio stayed quiet. He waited a few seconds, before realizing the annoying man wanted him to give an answer. “Fucking… I don’t fucking know. You want me to write you a fucking essay?”

  The man squeezed his eyes shut in annoyance, sick of putting up with the brat’s attitude. “It’s a fence. A large fence overlooking a cliff. You know what’s at the bottom of that cliff? The Backstreets. An inhospitable hell hole that people have to struggle to survive in. We want you kids to become good citizens, so you can all stay in the Nest. We’re doing this because it’s the right thing to do. So unless you want to rot in those Backstreets, why don’t you change your attitude!” The man held his hands to the side, barely holding back his anger. “Okay?!”

  “I’ll try to remember that.” Emilio started to walk off again, but was stopped once more, this time the staff member grabbed him by the sleeve of his shirt. “Hey, what the fuck? Let go of me, you fucking creep!”

  The man held him close, stiffing the air around him. He began to pat Emilio down; a technique he learned from his days as a border agent between the Nest and the Backstreets.

  “I said let go of me! Are you a pedo or something?!!”

  The pedo comment caused the man to let go of Emilio. “You’ve been smoking again! I knew it was you when the cigarettes disappeared from the lounge!” Yet, he didn’t find the cigarettes on him. Why did he smell like them?

  “Well, clearly I don’t have them! Can I fucking leave now!” Emilio protested.

  At his wits end, the man nodded, “Just go.” He said, as he walked off, leaving Emilio behind. He wasn’t going to send him to the Dean’s office. There was no point to it at this rate. Plus, speaking of smokes, he could use one himself.

  Hah… I really feel bad for that guy. I don’t think the two of us ever reconciled. From what I heard, he was actually a decent guy; but, a bratty kid can really leave anyone at wits end. Still… I don’t think you should ever grab a kid and pat them down, even if you think they’re smuggling cigarettes; which, for the record, I say this with a cigarette in hand to this day, he was right to suspect me.

  Emilio sighed and walked over to the boy sitting on the tree stump, hands in his pockets “Hey, you… You alright?”

  The boy looked up from the flower he was done playing with, a curious, innocent look in his eyes. He was about 2 years younger than Emilio; currently, he was the youngest child at the orphanage that wasn’t a toddler. “Mm?” He said, staring at him with that whimsical, almost stupid stare.

  “Are you slow or something? I asked you a question? I just saved your ass back there, at least give me a response.”

  The boy then grinned, “Heheh! I’m fine. Thank you for helping me.”

  Emilio nodded. The boy’s dopey grin cemented in his head that this boy was a bit on the weird side. “Right. No problem.” Just then, he began to ruffle through the boy’s pockets unexpectedly, and pulled out a pack of cigarettes; looks like that’s where Emilio hid them, on the person that the staff wouldn’t have checked. The silver haired boy only stared at him, slightly confused, but also interested. From there, Emilio wanted to walk off, go off to do some chores maybe, but this kid was far too interesting to take his eyes off of.

  The silver haired boy reached down to the grass and plucked two large strands of grass. “C’mere! Come on!”

  Emilio, raising a brow, came over, and sat down next to him.

  The silver haired boy pressed the two grass strands together and blew into them, creating a whistling noise, then laughed. “Cool, huh?”

  “I guess?” Emilio nodded, wondering why he was being shown such a thing. Humoring him, he kept nodding. “That’s a neat trick, I guess.”

  “Nature is amazing!” He said, just loving Emilio’s company. He held his hand out, “I’m Fionnlagh, by the way. What’s your name?”

  “Emilio.”

  Fionnlagh nodded, “Emilio… Such a nice name.”

  I sometimes wonder. If I never walked up to him that day. If I just let him be. Would things turn out different. Would they be the same? Fuck… It’s not something I can figure out anytime soon, but it’s something that still keeps me up to this day.

  Then came the night of the next day…

  Emilio looked into the main lobby of the orphanage; peaking through a crack in a door. All the children had gathered there, along with most of the staff, including the Dean; looks like they were gathering them all together for a choir. The orphanage frequently held little choirs and sing-a-longs with the children. It was said to boost happiness there. Something like that. Everyone was required to show up, but Emilio didn’t want any part of it. At this point, he had refused to take part in it so many times, that they wouldn’t be shocked if he didn’t show up.

  Getting ready to leave and hide somewhere else, Emilio felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning around, he saw the silver haired boy, Fionnlagh. Jolting, he snapped at the boy, speaking in a hush voice. “Hell… Don’t sneak up on me like that, stupid!”

  “Heheh, sorry.” Fionnlagh giggled. He always had that stupid grin on his face. Anyone who was this happy pissed Emilio off.

  Emilio walking away from the door, now that he knew they were gonna start the choir without him. “Go join them.”

  “Ah…” Fionnlagh pouted, “I wanted to play with you.”

  “Why?”

  “Eheheh,” He laughed. There it was. That stupid fucking laugh. “Because I wanna.”

  “Oi…” Emilio furrowed his brow. “Fuck off.” He said walking away, leaving Fionnlagh behind. He didn’t need that brainless laughing freak. Yet, as he turned around, he saw Fionnlagh following him. So, he picked up the pace, fast walking. Fast walking that turned into jogging. Jogging that turned into running. “Fuck off!” He said as he opened a window and hopped out of it; being on the first floor, it wasn’t much of a jump down. They weren’t allowed to be outside at this time, but he didn’t care, it wouldn’t be the first time he left past curfew. The sun had long since set and they were now underneath a starless night sky.

  “Come on!” Fionnlagh said, following him. “Let’s be friends!”

  “I don’t want to.” Emilio stopped in his tracks, turning around, gritting his teeth. “I don’t want any damn friends!”

  “Why not?” Fionnlagh asked.

  “Because I don’t want friends! That’s it! No other reason! Not even my parents wanted me, what makes you think that anyone else will want me?” Emilio yelled. Fionnlagh began to step closer, looking like he was about to hug him. Emilio responded with a sudden and strong backhand, striking the younger boy across the face, knocking him to the ground.

  “Ah!” Fionnlagh fell down, tumbling in the grass once more. “Oooow…” He said, tears welling up in his eyes. “Ow ow…” He continued to whine, as rubbed the side of his face.

  “…” Emilio looked at the boy on the ground. Shit… He really went out and hit a kid so much younger than him. The way he whine and repeated the word ow over and over. Emilio couldn’t help but feel a sense of pity; not that he felt bad for him, he just couldn’t stand seeing such a pathetic sight. He let out a sigh. “Hey, I’m sorry.” He knelt down in front of him.

  Fionnlagh looked up at him, teary eyed.

  “Yeah, I shouldn’t have hit you.” Emilio sat down beside him.

  “Thank you…” Fionnlagh nodded, rubbing the side of his face to sooth the pain.

  “…Why were those two bullying you yesterday?” Emilio asked, idly picking up two large strands of grass.

  “They were hurting a rat.”

  “A rat?”

  “Yeah,” Fionnlagh pointed to a shed across the field around the orphanage. “Over there.”

  Emilio narrowed his eyes, barely able to see it through the darkness. “Ah.” There he spotted the shed. It was rarely ever used; it was suppose to be for supplies, but because it was so far away and there was plenty of storage in the main building, no one ever went there. Now it was mostly a hangout spot for trouble makers looking to get away from the watchful eyes of the Dean.

  “I wanted them to stop and they started pushing me around.” Fionnlagh explained. “I ran away and they chased me.”

  “Yeah, I get it.” Emilio nodded, “So you ran away and that’s when I saw they ganging up on you. I’ll get him next time.”

  “Heheh, no, you don’t have to do that.”

  “Why not? That’s how Fixers do things. Someone does something bad to someone, they do something bad right back.”

  “Mmm,” Fionnlagh nodded, “That’s how they do it. But I don’t wanna do it like that. Can’t we just get along? If everyone can be friends we’ll be happier.”

  That was just silly, but Emilio humored him. “I guess. But that won’t work in the Backstreets. But… I guess making friends can be fun.” Taking the two strands of grass, he attempted to do the whistle thing that Fionnlagh showed him earlier. Nope, nothing… He grumbled and tossed the strands of grass to the side.

  To this day, I still don’t know how to do that. Heidi can do it perfectly. But nope, not me. I’m going to scream if Oliver can do it too.

  Fionnlagh giggled. “See? Having fun is fun!”

  “Yeah, whatever,” Emilio grumbled. The two sat there for about a minute, looking up at the night sky. The teachers, faculty, and the other children could be heard singing inside. Emilio breathed a sigh of relief, as he took the pack of cigarettes out from his pocket, only to realize that he got his lighter confiscated; so, he just tossed the cigarettes to the side, to fall into the dew coated grass. Besides, he didn’t need smoke to calm down right now. Under the night sky, with the cool air on his skin, and the only sound behind the muffled singing coming from behind him, he felt at ease. “Yeah… This is kind of fun, I guess…”

  After what was probably a good few minutes of just sitting there Fionnlagh got up, still wearing his stupid smile. He held his hand out to Emilio, offering to help him up.

  “Huh?” Emilio instinctively held out his hand.

  Fionnlagh grabbed a hold of his friends hand, looking down at him. “Come on, Emilio! Let’s go play in the forest!”