Moonshine (Book Three) (The Moon Trilogy 3) by Tim O'Rourke

Author:Tim O'Rourke [O'Rourke, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ravenwoodgreys
Published: 2014-09-23T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

The orphanage was managed by two regular members of staff. Mr. Duvall and Miss Baxter. They both lived at the orphanage, just like the thirty girls in their care. Some of the girls said Mr. Duvall and Miss Baxter were shagging. Whether they were or not, I didn’t know. What I did know for sure was they were both cruel at times and very odd. I had only been there a couple of weeks before I saw for myself how peculiar they could be.

Miss Baxter had been sitting at the front of the class filing down her fingernails and chewing on a piece of gum. She was about forty, I guessed, with hair pulled back into a bun and a pinched-looking face. She was a scrawny lady, with a hooked nose that looked more like a beak. Her eyes were black and beady, and she had lines about her mouth that made her lips looked puckered. As I’d spent most of my childhood being passed from one school, foster home, and care home to another, I’d never really stayed in one place long enough to learn much. This had affected my ability to read and write. I struggled with it. I’d come across a particular part in a book that I was reading. I raised my hand to ask for help. Several minutes passed and my arm began to ache.

Eventually, I called out and said, “Miss.”

The woman seated at the front of the class didn’t look up. Her fingernails seemed way more important than actually helping the girls in her class.

“Miss,” I called out again, this time I clicked my fingers together to draw her attention.

At last she looked up and saw me. She put down her nail file and finally made her away across the class toward me. I lowered my aching arm and rubbed my muscles in an attempt to dispel the pins and needles that had started to tingle in them.

I looked up at her as she stood in front of me. I was just about to put the question to her that I had so long waited to ask, when to my complete surprise and shock, she slapped me across my face. I heard a cracking sound as my head rolled backwards under the force of her blow. My left cheek immediately began to burn with pain and glow hot. I looked at her completely stunned.

“Don’t you ever click your fingers at me again, you insolent girl!” she barked.

I raised my hand to my face and it felt hot to the touch. The burning sensation crept its way around my jawline and down my neck. Without another word, she turned on her heels, went back to her desk, picked up the nail file, and started to preen herself again.

Most of the other girls in the class had turned to look at me, and my other cheek began to glow red as I flushed with embarrassment. I felt tears beginning to sting at the corners of my eyes and I wiped them away.

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