Chapter 2: Struggle
Sr Ann went to Alicia room and knocked on the door, she called out to her.
"Alli, it's me Sr Ann"
(silent)
"Alli, please open up"
"*sob* I don't want to"
"Alli, don't feel sad, I want to tell you something so please open the door"
Alicia stood up and opened the door then Sr Ann came in with a small box. Alicia immediately hugged Sr Ann and started crying, Sr Ann consoled her and they sat on her bed then Sr Ann brought out the box.
"Sr Ann what is that?"
"It's about your father"
"but I thought my father was dead"
"he wasn't, he gave us to you because of some reason "
"so he didn't abandon me"
"he actually saved you from the cold hands of death when you were a baby"
Sr Ann brought out a pocket watch from the box and gave Alicia. Alicia opened the watch and saw a picture of her family, her father, mother and two brothers, she immediately started crying when she it , the thought of her having a family sent mixed emotions to her head was she to feel happy, sad or angry, it was just so surprising. Sr Ann consoled her again until she became calm then she left and went back to her room.
Alicia still didn't know how to react to the news of her parents being alive and her having two older siblings, she felt angry at first because they didn't even come to visit her and she felt a bit sad that no one ever told her about it and also happy at the same time that she found out that she had a family. She gathered her self together and went down for supper.
In the dinning hall nobody wanted to sit with her because of the rumor about her being the cause of them being homeless. Alicia ate her food and went upstairs, she removed the idea of helping these orphanage children because they weren't going to be grateful at the end, she decided to live for herself and the only way to survive was to use her brains so she started reading books with more complex words burning the midnight candle sometimes she would become I'll and Sr Ann would wonder what made her sick, at such a tender age she already finished a William Shakespeare book, Othello.
After three days the letter from the bishop arrived and ordered the vacating of the children to be postponed until they can fully pay the debt. The sisters and children were very happy but Ruthford and some other people weren't happy with this decision. A few days passed and some people started talking to and she began making friends but she didn't put all their trust in them because they would backstab her.
Two weeks later, a young man and his wife came into the orphanage they were rich and powerful people from an influential family, they came to adopt a child for his wife couldn't conceive, they met Sr Janet who was in charge of children adoption and registration, the couples requested to see all the children. The news of a rich family had come to the orphanage excited the children especially Matilda, she always dreamt of being a rich girl but she knew she had no chance of getting adopted because anyone would love Alicia at the very first sight, she had to get rid of the competition so she called her friends and they planned to lock Alicia when she would be dressing up.
Sr Janet went inside and told the children to dress neatly as they were dressing all the children soon left the room and Matilda signaled her friend and they ran out and locked Alicia inside. Alicia didn't notice that she was locked and when she was about to leave she tried turning the door knob but it wouldn't open, she banged and shouted for someone to help her but no one did.
She knew it was the work of Matilda and had to get out by all means. she went back into the changing room and heard a noise coming from the closet, it was the sound of someone crying . she opened the closet and saw a boy around her age crying.
"Help me *sob* I don't like being locked up"
"Okay , I'll open the closet "
She opened the closet and the boy came down , she asked him how he got locked up.
"I wanted to leave but Matilda locked the door , so ran into the closet because I was afraid and got locked in"
"don't worry you are safe now but we have to get out of here"
"I know of a way"
"if you knew the way out why didn't you leave"
"I was scared"
"show me , it wouldn't be that bad"
The boy pointed to the window, she knew what he meant was to climb down, she grabbed blankets drawer and tied them together and threw it over the window, she tied the end to a chair and started climbing down and the boy followed after, her dress got stuck on a branch and she tried to pull it out but it was heard and she might fall if she pulls harder so she tore tore that part of her dress when she was about to hold onto the blanket when she lost her grip and hard on the ground luckily she was a little bit above the ground so she only scrapped her knee , the boy climbed down and asked if she was alright but she didn't respond but stood up dusted herself and ran to the front door of the orphanage but when she came it was already too late, the couples had already adopted Matilda and was to sign the adoption papers.
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