Chapter 1: Chloe

Chapter 1:                              Chloe

“Everyone needs to get out!” Dozens of eyes turn to look at me. “NOW!” That gets them moving. Everyone starts heading for exit. I start to make my way towards the door in which HE would be waiting behind, only to find someone standing in my way

“You should wait until the police get here” Mr Smith says, blocking my way.

“What so innocent people can get hurt, no thanks”

“Your only 11”

“That doesn’t matter when a dangerous man is about to charge through those doors and hurt a lot of people!”

“No one is going to get hurt” I glare at him. I cannot believe he just said that.

“Didn’t you just hear me; people ARE going to get hurt if you don’t move out of my way”

“Fine then”

“Fine then” I copy childishly. He moves out of my way and heads for the same doors that the last few people are taking.

“Make sure no one can get in”

“Fine then” He says. After everyone was out, he closed the doors. Silence invaded the room.  I walk towards the middle of the hall and face the door in front of me. I wait.  Wait for death to be delivered on a plate to me…

 

A shadow looms from underneath the door. It begins to get bigger meaning that he was getting closer. The shadow continues to grow bigger and bigger until a loud bang erupts around the room and the door bursts of its hinges. In the doorway is Mr Fatso, his new nickname from me.

“About time!” I say.

He’s wearing his usual black suit with his bald head shining just like his shoes.

“Did you polish head just to come and see me or do you always poli…?”

“Shut up!” He shouts.

“Alright, no need to be so rude”

“If you don’t shut up I will tear you to pieces!”

“You’re going to do that anyway Fatso” That does it. He charges straight at me. Little does he know that I’m not going down that easily. I wait until the last minute to move to the side. He goes flying past me and into the wall. CRACK! He’s lying on the floor in a heap. That crack must be either the wall or his shoulder breaking. He stands up and his arm is dangling at his side in a way it shouldn’t be. As he realises this he uses his other arm to place his broken one back into its original position and there’s another loud crack as he relocates his shoulder. EWW!  He’s now looking straight at me. His face is just like a bad guy from a comic book. It’s puffy and bright red with anger. “That’s why you shouldn’t throw you weight about” I says. “Especially when you’re eating too many burgers”

“AAARRRGGGGGHHHHHH” He comes running at me and this time he decides to try a karate kick me, just like before I move to the side, just dodging the kick. He turns to face me. “Aww, don’t be ashamed, everyone likes a Big Mac every now and again” This time he caught me off guard. As soon as I finish talking he comes charging at me like a bulldozer. Loud ringing in my ears blocks out any sound momentarily and every time I try to get up dizziness overcomes me. I don’t even realise that Fatso is about to jump on top of me. He knocks the air straight out of me. There’s definitely going to be some broken ribs. However it got rid of the ringing in my ears. For the first time I realise a familiar voice calling my name.

 

“Chloe open this door now!” Miss Everdeen shouts. She must have realised I’m not outside with everyone else.

“Chloe!” She shouts.

“Who’s that?” Fatso asks pointing to the door. “A friend of yours?” I begin to get up slowly and steadily. It isn’t easy. I feel like I can’t breathe. “Fine, I’ll go see then won’t I” He starts heading for the door. “No one and I mean no one gets attacked other than me!” I shout. I charge straight at him expecting to just bounce back off his enormous stomach, only to find that when I hit him he goes flying into the wall. He definitely doesn’t like that. He straightened himself up. “No one hits me and gets away with it” He charged straight at me. He still hasn’t learnt that I can just easily step to the side out of his way. He goes flying past me and into the floor. A groaning noise escapes from his lips. He’s weakening! Maybe I can beat him before the police get here. But then I remembered Miss Everdeen. Maybe she’s come with the police. No, she can’t have because the police would’ve been in here by now. Then I realise that Miss Everdeen was no longer shouting my name. The police must be here. Fatso is still on the ground. Is he unconscious or is he just pretending so that I’ll go up to him? I decide that I would back away from him. “I told you, you eat too many burgers!” I shout at him. All of a sudden he’s stood up.

 “You are a puny, stupid child!” He shouts.

“Hey, I’m not the one who fell onto the floor and now has a face like a baboon’s behind” I reply.

Once again he charges at me. Is he related to a bull or what? A loud bang echoes around the hall followed by a sound that is similar to a gun shot. What’s going on? Before I can see anything Fatso is falling on top of me. Everything goes black. The last thing I hear is someone calling my name…

 

I feel as though I’ve been through hell and back. For starters I feel as though I can’t breathe again, which has probably got something to do with the stabbing pain in the right hand side of my chest. To be honest the whole of my chest is hurting. On top of this, my left arm is hurting and my right leg is killing me! I also feel like I can’t open my eyes. I probably can but I can’t be bothered at the moment. I decide to just relax but it’s not easy because there was an annoying beeping noise. Oh no. I open my eyes. Damn it! I’m in a hospital bed surrounded by white walls. I’m just about to close my eyes again when I realise someone sitting next to the bed. Miss Everdeen. She’s reading a magazine although I can’t be sure what magazine because her hair is acting as a curtain hiding it. I find it kind of strange how we look similar. She has long dark brown hair, where I have long darkish brown hair. We both have blue eyes and we look alike. And we like the same hobbies. I try to move only to be stopped by excruciating pain. She looks up. “You really shouldn’t move you know”.

 

“You have a broken leg, and fractured elbow, a punctured lung and god knows how many ribs you’ve broken” Miss Everdeen says. “I can’t believe you stayed in there with him and didn’t let me in”

“Umm, yeah about that what happened before I blacked out?” I say.

“Before you blacked out the police knocked the door of its hinges and shot Hoyle”

“Who’s Hoyle?”

“The guy who was trying to kill you, his name was Slade Hoyle”

“Oh, that’s what his name was”

“Why? What did you think his name was?”

“Fatso” Miss started laughing.

“Well, he has quite clearly been eating too many burgers” she says.

“I know that’s what I said to him” There’s a moment of laughter and then silence.

“Why did you fight him?” She asks.

“Because it was me he was after”

“But why was he after you, did you steal his Happy Meal?”

“No, I stopped his thugs from beating up a woman”

“And he knows who you are and where you go to school because…”

“Newspapers” I thought she’d stopped asking questions.

“Oh, you don’t know how to get a hold of your parental guardians do you?”

“Ha, you’ll be lucky if you could get their voicemail”

“What do you mean?”

“They don’t pick up the phone if it’s got something to do with me”

“Why not?” she asks.

“Because they don’t care about anyone but themselves”

“I’m sure that’s not true”

“Oh it is alright”

“How long have you lived with them for?”

“Three years unfortunately”

“Three?”

“My first surrogate parents adopted me when I was three but they died in a car crash when I was seven”

“Oh” She looks ashamed, for some reason, maybe… “So, did you go back to the orphanage?”

“No, instead they passed me onto the next relatives who happened to be Danny and Chelsea”

“Do you know who your real parents are?”

“I’ve never meet them but I know their names”

“Oh!” She said. She looks excited now, maybe I’m right…

“The orphanage changed my name when I was three”

“So you’re not called Chloe Stryder then?”

“No, my name is Chloe but not Chloe Stryder, it’s actually Chloe Everdeen spelt the exact same way as yours is” Judging by the shock on her face, my guess must be right.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, going along with it.

“Do you know your parents’ names?”

“Yeah, if you get my bag I can get the birth certificate out”

“You carry your birth certificate around with you?”

“It proves that Danny and Chelsea are not related to me” I say. “And it gives me hope that I’ll one day find my real parent or parents” She stands up and walks over to a chair where my bag is. She walks back and passes it to me. I pull the certificate out.

“My mother’s name is Lorelai Everdeen”

“And you fathers?”

“Theodus Hayden” I pass her the certificate. She reads it over and over. I have to be right. “Why?”

“Because…” Once again she has a face of complete and utter shock. “Because I’m Lorelai Everdeen, I’m your mother”