Plot questions? Check the first chapter, it's all explained in comments below. Review! Thanks-
KD
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It was Jessa’s birthday...her tenth at the orphanage.
“Do my bed, alright? Jimmy? I’m talking to you. Because I’m going to go check if Cook is making a special breakfast, because it’s my special birthday.” Jessa strode out of the room. But before she closed the door, she popped her head back in, adding, “And I’m eleven, one year older than you now! And five years older than little John!”
Jessa walked down the hallway, past other orphan rooms. Then she went down the creaky wooden stairs, and ran right into Ms. Emstein, the owner of Sunnybricks Orphanage.
“Happy birthday, Jessa!” Ms. Emstein, or Mama as most of the orphans called her, smiled down warmly at the young girl. “Give me a hug, dear.”
Jessa embraced her stiffly.
“Dear, we have a surprise for you! A special birthday present!”
Jessa looked up, interested. There was anxiousness in her eyes. A surprise. A special birthday present. Her heart performed a drum roll in her chest. What could it be? She held her breath. Would her father…
“We won’t show it to you yet, dear,” Mama said.
“’It’?” Jessa exclaimed, her heart plummeting rapidly in her chest. “’It’?”
Mama looked confused. “What were you expecting for a present? Oh…” Mama looked away in the other direction, out the window, watching the rain falling. “I’m sorry dear. No, that’s not it.”
“That’s all I want for my birthday,” Jessa said, scowling. “I don’t want anything else. Whatever it is, I don’t want it. I want my daddy.” She looked up at Mama expectantly, as if she had the power to bring her father to the orphanage, to make him bring her home.
Mama, like most of the others, doubted the survival of the girl’s father, and kindly whispered into her hair, “Dear, I wish I could help you, but I can't. Your father is gone from this life. We cannot help that.”
Jessa pushed the elderly woman away. “I don’t want the present! I only want my daddy! Go away! He's alive and I know it! And he's coming..."
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“Maybe Daddy will never come,” Jessa said.
Jessa was sitting on the swings outside. Sara, her only friend, was beside her.
“Of course he’s coming!” Sara exclaimed. She was one of the only ones who had faith in Jessa’s father’s return. “You know that.”
“I don’t,” Jessa said, sniffing. "I don't anymore." She gripped the rusting chains of the swing as Sara pushed her higher, towards the sky. “Don’t you see? Now it’s been ten years since I was dropped off here. Ten! When I was a baby. Don’t you think Daddy, if he was going to come at all, would have come by now?”
The chubby little girl stopped pushing her friend to think. Freckles seemed to have been scattered or tossed carelessly across her nose. Her reddish blond hair was tied up into two neat pigtails. She watched Jessa sadly with her overlarge blue eyes, her hands now behind her back. Jessa turned around to glare at her, daring her to contradict her.
Jessa looked around the dumpy yard of the orphanage. A part of the fence had fallen over sideways. The flowers had wilted. The whole yard looked as if someone had taken a picture and turned the color down a notch. Everything seemed so...so dreary.
“If Daddy really loved me, if Daddy really cared about me, he would pick me up and carry me away from this place!” Jessa shouted. “He must not love me! He doesn’t love me. He doesn’t…” Her voice died down to a whisper. “He doesn’t love me.” Tears streamed down her face. The other kids around her stared, shocked. Jessa never cried. Jessa yelled at them whenever they cried, so why would she herself start wailing?
Sara watched her nervously, sadly. She wrapped her arms around Jessa, who surprisingly didn’t pull away.
“Jessa, if he never is going to pick you up, he’s probably dead,” Sara whispered, concerned. "Mama is probably right."
Jessa started crying even louder.
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“Jessa, come down.”
“No!”
“Jessa, come down and eat.”
“I said no!”
“Jessa, come down right now.”
Ms. Emstein’s kind voice suddenly turned harsh. Feeling like she had no other choice, Jessa flung open the door, and stomped down the hallway, down the stairs and into the dining hall.
The kids, the Cook, and Ms. Emstein burst into a ‘Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Jessa, happy birthday to you!’ Jessa stood there, unmoving, untouched. After the song was finished, everyone clapped and cheered. The Cook, Daisy, Ms. Emstein, and a few other children hugged her. Jessa didn’t look one bit happier at all.
After a chicken dinner, Ms. Emstein presented Jessa with a medium sized present. It was wrapped in pink wrapping paper.
“It’s your surprise,” She whispered, smiling. “If we can’t get you your daddy, if you can’t meet him or see him, we can at least give you this.”
Jessa tore the wrapping paper apart…
And gasped.
I'm glad you liked it. Hopefully I can get the next chapter up soon.