Krystal Chapter 04 – Exploration By Harrod200 Copyright © 2006 by Harrod200 of Orbital One. All rights reserved.				Email Codey’s World
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I woke up at 7am the next day after a dreamless night. I vaguely remembered some shouting and banging the night before but nothing specific. When I looked around the twins were both getting dressed identically in the exact same t-shirts and jeans.

“Morning Kris, are you ok?” Greg asked when he noticed me moving about.

“Yea, what happened last night? I heard noises and banging but can’t remember anything else.”

“It was so cool! Mike, Simon and Shawn were all arrested. They found a stash of cocaine hidden in Mike’s pillow. There were three police cars and a load of cops.” Sam replied enthusiastically.

As I idly glanced around the room for some reason my eyes focused on the doorknob and I suddenly remembered the events of the night before.

“What happened…” I began to ask but trailed off.

“We came up to bed and when we opened the door you were huddled up against my bed. When I came up to you, you started crying and saying something about being hurt. Adam had to give you a shot to knock you out.” Greg answered the question I didn’t manage to ask.

I couldn’t reply. I could remember what happened in the flashback but I still couldn’t remember it or put a date or place on it. It was starting to frustrate me that it seemed everyone knew more about me than I did. What upset me more was the sort of people I could see I was going to be attracting-thugs, druggies and criminals. Why did it have to be me to go through all this? What did I do to deserve being dropped into this life? I don’t want to be known as the sort of person involved with that scene. I don’t know what I want to do in life, I don’t even know what my interests are but I do know they don’t lie with the likes of Mike and his cronies.

“We’re going for breakfast, seeya soon.” Sam said as they left the room.

I decided that a little breakfast wouldn’t be a bad idea for myself either so I climbed out of bed and grabbing a towel and my shower things headed to the bathroom.

I had a little trouble remembering which door it was but I soon heard the sound of a shower running and someone singing a very off-key version of what I recognised to be an old Stevie Wonder song, Superstition. After a few moments and a final few butchered notes the shower stopped and I heard wet footsteps on the lino floor. After just a moment the door flew open and a boy a little younger than myself came out wearing nothing but a towel-on his head. He simply glanced at me, said “Hi” then walked casually to his room. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. It took me a moment to recover, and after I came to my senses I caught sight of Maggie chuckling and shaking her head as she went into the office. Picking up my things I quickly stepped into the steamy bathroom and closed the bolt. When I started the shower it was already a good temperature so I stepped in and started cleaning off.

When I came to my body I slowly traced the scar that dominated my chest with my finger thoughtfully, trying to remember how I could have gotten it.

I was broken out of my trance by a hammering on the door and a new voice shouting that “Other people have got to get ready too”. I quickly finished showering and wrapping the towel around my waist opened the door. The boy outside, who I guessed was a little older than me at first wore an angry expression which flashed through surprise, shock and fear before finally resting on apprehension.

“Oh ah, hi Krystal.” He said and quickly disappeared into the bathroom.

After drying myself off I pulled on an old pair of black jeans and a plain black shirt and headed to the dining room. It was noisy like at dinner but boys were coming and going all the time so it wasn’t so rushed. I got myself a bowl and a small box of cereal from the counter and sat at the same table as the day before with Sam and Greg who were nattering away with each other about the night before’s events. I was amazed at how they could talk about nothing so much when they were both there, but talk they did. Just as I sat down the boy who I had seen leaving the bathroom walked in. He was maybe an inch or two shorter than me and had long brown hair reaching about half way down his upper arms.

“Who is that?” I asked the twins as he was getting his breakfast from the counter.

“Who? Oh, that’s Davey. He’s been here about six months.” Greg said as he glanced over towards him.

“Hehe, did you have a ‘run in’ with him coming out of the bathroom? He doesn’t care who sees him, his hair is his pride and joy, nothing else matters to him. He spends ages in the shower every day then it takes him even longer to get it dried.” Sam added. I swear these two know what I’m going to say or ask before I do.

“How’re you feeling today?” Maggie’s voice asked from behind me just as I was finishing up.

“I’m fine, just a little freaked out that these two seem to know what I’m gonna say before I do.” I replied, giving them a small smile which didn’t go unnoticed by Maggie.

“Ok, think you’re up to seeing Dr. Sierra today?” I nodded. I needed to be able to talk to someone who might be able to help. I was slowly getting eaten by the doubts and worries I’d gained since I arrived. “Good, she’ll be here about 10. Hey we never did have that tour, how about I show you around once all this rabble’s gone to school?”

“Sure.”

“Alright, some of the others are in the TV room just the other side of the common room, why don’t you go and meet some of them?”

I was trying to think of an excuse when Sam spoke up; “We’ll go with you and introduce you to some of the others.”

At least if someone else was doing the introductions it’d be a little less difficult to get to know people.

The TV room was surprisingly nice, the rest of the home was fairly run down looking but this room was pretty up to date. It looked like it had been freshly decorated a few months ago; there was a wood effect floor and a large number of sofas surrounding a wall-mounted widescreen TV. There were 5 boys ranging from about 9 to 15 in the room, two battling on a PlayStation 2 and 3 more just slobbing around. After whistling to get everyone’s attention Sam started to introduce everyone.

“Hey guys! This is Kris, he’s our new roommate.”

It was one of the younger kids that either recognised me or couldn’t control his curiosity;

“Hey you’re that kid that beat up a load of those druggie guys ain’t ya?”

“Spike! Remember what Adam said yesterday…” Sam warned the young blonde-haired boy before I could respond. “Kris this mouthy little thing is Spike Handerson…”

Immediately beginning a speech that was obviously designed for potential foster parents Spike interrupted Sam’s interruption; “I’m Spike, I’m 8 and three-quarters and I’ve never known my real parents.” He ended in a well-practiced depressed pout that only showed to be false when it immediately vanished into a big grin showing his pride at his acting.

“…and he’s a gobby little sod.” Sam added, dodging a blonde streak that suddenly lunged at him before going back to his introductions. “The goth sat in the corner is Andy…”

“Shadow Raven!” The entirely black-laden figure sat cross legged in the floor interrupted,

“…Snide, he can be pretty cool when he’s not being like this. He can be pretty creepy sometimes when he’s like this. The two on the PlayStation are George, he likes to be called GG and Adrian. They knew each other before they came here, both their parents were killed coming back from something and they had nobody else who could take them in.” The two kept playing whatever game they had on, totally ignoring everything that was being said. “The one asleep on the sofa is Ty, Tyler Righter. After Mike and his cronies he’s the oldest here. He’s pretty cool but he’s a bit moody sometimes.” Tyler was lay snoring slightly on the 3-seater sofa. He looked like he had naturally brown hair but it was dyed an electric blue colour. His cheap NHS glasses were barely hanging on his face as he slumbered away.

I watched as Spike snuck up on him with a glass of iced water and dumped it over his head. In a flash Ty was up and chasing the rapidly retreating Spike out of the patio door into the garden yelling the evil punishments he would subject Spike to when he caught him.

After a few minutes Spike raced back through the door and straight into Maggie who had just stepped into the TV room. She sniggered slightly when the soaked Tyler appeared at the door.

“Ok boys, get your school things ready, the van’ll be here in 5 minutes. Tyler, go and change that wet shirt. Honestly, you’d think by your age you’d be able to drink a glass of water without needing a bib.” She ended with a wink and knowing glance at Spike, who instantly took off up to his room. Ty shot Maggie a mild scowl then raced off after him.

“GG, Ade.” She called when she noticed they were both still engrossed in their game. Finally she gave up and walked over to flick the TV off. “School. Go. Now.” They stared reluctantly at the blank screen then got up and slowly made their way out of the room looking depressed.

“We’ve gotta go, we’ll seeya later Kris” Sam said as he and Greg vanished out of the room.

“Doctor Sierra’s due at about 11 o’clock, how about after I’ve seen the other boys off to school I give you that tour and then you can do whatever you like until she arrives?” Maggie more stated than asked as she left the room.

Figuring I’d got a while I started exploring the room a bit more closely. The back wall was mostly a set of floor-to-ceiling windows with a set of doors in the middle. The four 3-seater sofas sat in a crescent around the wall-mounted TV, and the PlayStation was bolted into place in what looked to be a very heavy lockable metal cabinet containing numerous games.

I flicked on the TV just as a news program came on, I really wasn’t interested and let my mind drift off until Maggie reappeared.

“Terrible, isn’t it?” She stated, looking at the screen which was showing images of another African refugee camp.

“Huh? Oh, yeah.” I replied as I snapped out of my trance.

“Well, how about we start this tour in here eh? This is the TV room, usually it’s only open in the mornings and after 5 o’clock in the week and eleven at weekends so you can all get your homework done without distraction. The first one here chooses what’s on and no arguing. If there’s trouble then everyone involved is barred from the room for a week. If you want to use the PlayStation you’ll have to ask either Adam or myself to unlock the cabinet.” She motioned me to follow her into the common room and I followed as she continued; “This is where you’ll usually find us hanging around when we’re not in the kitchen or busy. The payphone can be used by anyone but it only makes outgoing calls. If someone wants to ring you they’ll have to ring through the office and someone will get you. We occasionally have small parties or events and they’re usually in here. The office is off-limits unless you’re taking a phone call or escorted by a carer. Whenever you leave the home you’ll have to sign out then back in when you get back with whoever is in the office. You know the dining room is through there.” She pointed out the door, “The kitchen is through there,” a door close to the dining room one, “Same story as the office, off limits unless you’re with a carer. The door by the stairs is the cleaning room. Every Saturday everyone has to do their bit to help clean the home, that’s the only time that the door will be unlocked. This door…” She said unlocking a door near to the other staircase, “Is the garage. Any bikes, skateboards, footballs and things are in here. Everything has to be signed in and out, even if it’s your own and you have to ask one of us to open it for you. None of the things are to be used indoors, if you do they’ll get locked straight back up.” Inside were several racks of bicycles, some shelves with all kinds of balls secured on, a few other sports things, small football goal posts, cricket stumps and bats etc but what caught my eye was a small set of old dusty looking weights. I felt an odd urge to give them a try but was brought back to ground by Maggie calling me back out. “Interested in the old bench hmm?” She asked as we left the garage.

“I don’t know, could I give it a try some time?”

“I don’t see why not, it hasn’t been used in a long time but I’m sure something could be arranged. It looks like you’ve done a bit in the past, maybe it could help you remember if you did something familiar. Come on, there’s not much left now.” Unlocking another door she led me into a small room lined with bookshelves and with a single computer in the corner. “This is our little library. It’s not much but it usually serves if you need to find anything for your homework. The computer’s the same, it’s not great but it works fine for typing up anything you need to or doing anything like that. It does have internet access but you will have to ask for it to be turned on, it is filtered and will be monitored while you use it.” Moving back into the common room she pointed out three doors, one on each side of the upper walkway. “Those are the bathrooms. Each one has a bath, shower, toilet and sink. In the day you can use any you want but in mornings only the three rooms on that side can use each one.” She motioned me over to the sofas and sat down. “It’s not a bad place, there’s the odd bad egg like Mike but all in all it’s one of the better homes I’ve worked at. You think you’ll be happy here?”

I nodded and mumbled a distracted ‘I think so’, for some reason I just couldn’t get that bench out of my mind, it was like it was calling to me.

“Doctor Sierra will be here in a couple of hours. Is there anything you’d like to do until she arrives?” She asked, then smiled when I glanced over to the garage door. “Not yet. It’s far too dirty and I couldn’t watch over you, I’ve got too much to do. Besides, you don’t want to be all hot and sweaty for the Doc do you?” Can everyone here read my mind?

“Ok.” I replied in a dejected voice, “Could I take a look at some of the books in the library?” I asked.

“Sure, let’s go and get one then you can read it out here.”

I looked through the rather dusty collection of books before coming across one on psychiatric problems. Maggie looked intrigued when I asked her about it but signed a pad by the door and led me back outside. She went into the office and left me alone. Sitting down I started reading through some passages relating to memory loss and after what seemed to be just a couple of minutes found the grandmotherly woman sitting down next to me.