Chapter Text
"Good moooooorrrrning!!! Up, up! You'll be late for breakfast!!"
An all too familiar voice rang through my ears as I started to rousle myself awake. Pushing myself up in my bed in my room in Home Sweet Home, I shoved my glasses on to make out one of my best friends, Mae Łuczak, stood in the doorway of me and Jessica Kent's room, already fully dressed.
"What's brightened your mood?" I asked wearily, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. "You're never this excited for Mondays."
"We're getting a new doctor!" Mae exclaimed, rushing over to Jessica and pulling her up, as she'd still been dead asleep.
"Wha...? Jesus, Mae, give us some time to... *yawn*... even regain consciousness..." Jessica muttered. "The Red Smoke did a number on me last night, God..."
"Well, that's a you problem, 'cause I feel great," Mae said. "Apparently Theo's kicking off again, Abbie, so you'll probably want to go sort him out after you're dressed."
"Clothes again?" I asked as I grabbed a fresh set of clothes out of my dresser drawers.
"Nope. He stayed up all night again and now he doesn't wanna go downstairs."
"I don't know how he does it," Jessica grumbled as she got dressed, brushing her black hair out of her eyes. "That gas has me out like a light every single night."
"Eh, well, guess we're all just differently resistant to it. Theo's probably fully immune," Mae said, her brown curls falling over her face as she leant forwards. "I'll let Miss Greyber know. I'm all for all nighters but three in the past week? I do actually care about that kid's health."
"Can you go sort him out out?" I asked, pulling my sneakers on. "I promised Connie I'd show her how to tie her shoelaces."
"Yeah, sure. I know the younger ones like you more than me anyway. And it's not like Theo hates me or something. See you in, like, twenty minutes when he's finally realised he can't just sleep the day out in the infirmary again and actually has to go to school."
"Thanks, Mae. Save me, Jessica and Chris all a seat."
She grinned and nodded, before racing out of the bedroom.
"I thought she was all hyped up for adoption or something," Jessica said as I brushed my hair out. "Not like that's happening to any of us any time soon. One of us would know if Mae was being adopted by now. Miss Greyber said she'd tell us in advance before the adoption ceremony."
"She mentioned something about a new doctor," I recalled. "I think it's the guy that came in a few months ago. Harley Sawyer? He said he was looking into a new job here. Mae really liked him."
"I didn't. He was freaking terrifying."
I laughed, standing up and swinging my backpack onto my back.
"I'm gonna go help Connie with her shoes. The other little ones will probably have a million other requests, so I'll see you in probably half an hour," I said. Jessica nodded in acknowledgement, and I smiled, before turning and racing out the door.
~~~~~
"There you go! Well done!"
"Yay!! Thank you, Abbie!"
"You're welcome, Connie. Go on, go meet Gabriella. Get your breakfast."
Connie giggled, before jumping off her stool and speeding off to meet her friend. I chuckled to myself and stood up, looking around for any other kids in need. Thankfully, for once, they were all sorted. My friend in the grade above, Anna Holmes, was helping four year old Sadie Woodstock zip her jacket up, and all the other kids were able to help themselves. This was the first morning of decent peace I'd had in a while.
And so, I could leave the girls' dorm by myself for once, humming as I made my way through the corridors of Home Sweet Home.
This had been my home my entire life. As soon as I was old enough, my father had surrendered me to Playtime Co.'s on site orphanage, Playcare. My father was the Head of Innovation at this very company; Leith Oswald Pierre. I rarely saw him, and when I did I couldn't speak to him. Leith didn't know anything about me, I didn't know anything about him, and it was staying that way. He'd surrendered me because my mom had died in childbirth and Leith's uncle, the recently deceased Elliot Ludwig, had forced Leith into rehab for his alcohol addiction. He'd been barely taking care of me, so it was best for Mr Ludwig to just take me.
I'd been in this orphanage for thirteen years, yet had never had any parents ever take interest in me, even when there were hardly any kids in Playcare when I was little. I'd done everything I could; high test scores, constantly helping out with the younger kids, being polite and aiding the staff... nothing. Never a single parent. The closest I'd come to adoption was a couple almost picking me, but deciding last minute they wanted a boy and adopting a kid named Robert Cromwell instead. I was six, he was four. Guess parents just wanted kids as young as possible.
And now, I was a teenager, and in what all the kids called the "red zone". Basically, when it came to parent interest, you were fucked. The cutoff age for peak parent interest was about seven. Eleven year olds were really the true cutoff, twelve if you were lucky. But as soon as you hit those teen years and your voice deepened and you started sweating no matter the temperature, you had no chance. Especially considering how many little kids there were.
I'd been in Playcare for most of its lifetime and the only times sixteen year olds, the cutoff age for Playcare housing, were ever adopted was by a member of staff, or through an emergency, rushed, barely spoken through foster placement. No time to meet the parents, no usual week to prepare your goodbyes, rushed out on midnight of your seventeenth and never seen again, unless you came back to work as Playcare or Game Station staff, which a lot of kids did.
Unfortunately, I was now so settled into Playcare that, in all honesty, I kinda didn't want to leave. I'd had no experience in the real world, school here was heavily infantilised, my only money experience was with the token system we used to buy toys, and play money from toy cash registers, and I'd rarely had negative experiences with other kids due to the happy go lucky motto they pushed onto us. If I went out into the real world, in a real school, I'd be lost, confused and probably get beaten up.
And so, I was pretty much here for the rest of my life. When I was shipped out on my seventeenth I'd come straight back for an internship in childcare. My life was fake greenery and toys. I mean, it could be worse. An overly caring environment where there was no danger wasn't... too bad.
"Hurry up, Danny! God, you're so slow!"
"I'm coming, Makayla, jeez!"
I stopped on the staircase down to the ground floor, quickly shuffling to the side and pinning myself to the wall as two of my childhood friends, Daniel Greyber and Makayla Hyssop, came shooting past, chasing each other as usual. Danny was Miss Greyber's little brother, staying in Playcare to relieve some debt pressure off of her. He and Makayla were some of the first friends I'd made in preschool.
"Careful!" I yelled. "You're gonna knock someone over!"
"Sorry!" came a duo of voices, making me chuckle. God did they annoy me, but I loved them.
I made my way down to the kitchen, where kids were bustling around, making breakfast and packed lunches for school. We were responsible for making our own meals from ages four and up, the younger ones having help from the older kids but still being taught safe, simple cooking skills. The staff were there for emergencies, but left us to have a lot of independence.
Once I'd made myself some pancakes and said good morning of a lot of people, I found Mae and Jessica in the dining room with my boyfriend, Christopher Rosenberg, and self proclaimed little brother, Theodore Grambell. Thankfully, they'd saved me a seat, like I'd asked.
"Morning," I said, sitting down between Jessica and Chris. "How are we all?"
"I'm good. I slept very well last night," Chris answered, cutting up his toast. "You and Jessica look exhausted, Abbie. Obviously I know why Theo is, but all of you except Mae look like you haven't slept in weeks."
"It's this smoke, man," Jessica groaned. "Messing me up. I've been having so many nightmares it's insane. I know they're just test running it but I'm really hoping it doesn't become permanent. Otherwise I probably won't sleep normally again."
"I suppose we've all been having different reactions to it," I replied. "Mae's out quickly and fine, Jessica's out quickly but having nightmares, I'm taking forever to fall asleep, and Theo's not sleeping at all."
"I'm more like Mae," Chris said. "I haven't found any problems at all. If anything, I've found my sleep quality to have drastically improved over the past few nights."
"It takes me about... half an hour to fall asleep, I wanna say?" I added, putting a decent chunk of pancake into my mouth. "I dunno. We're putting our opinions in on Friday, so hopefully the cons outweigh the pros."
"Yeah..." Jessica muttered. Then, as usual, Miss Greyber appeared near the door and gathered our attention with the bell she carried around with her. Silence fell instantly across the room, all heads turning to learn who was being adopted this week.
"Good morning, everyone! I suppose you're all very excited to learn who's being adopted this week!" Miss Greyber said cheerfully, clapping her hands together. All the little kids started laughing and nodding, whilst us older kids stayed silent, as usual. Nothing to get excited about for us.
"Now, this week is a very special week, as we have not one... not two... but three very special children leaving! How exciting is that?!"
That set the little kids off instantly, all of them loudly asking if it was them. Three kids was... rare. Very rare. Heck, two at once barely happened. Three?
"Must be a friend or biological sibling group," Mae proposed. "I mean, there's a couple sets of twins here..."
Miss Greyber gently shushed all the kids, before pulling out a note from her pocket.
"Now, you're all going to different families. We've been very lucky. The first name seems to be... someone named Tommy Grey?"
One of the five year olds.
"Secondly... Freya Beard?"
An eight year old.
"And finally... our very own Arthur Locket! Congratulations you three!"
The room erupted into even louder cheers than the ones that had been circling around when the first two names had been called. Arthur was a very popular fourth grader.
"Yep, knew it. We didn't stand a chance," I mumbled. "Stop getting your hopes up, guys. It's not happening."
"Yeah..."
"Dammit..."
When all the kids had calmed down and we'd given those being adopted a round of applause, I took a deep breath and regulated myself a little. I was always disappointed at adoption ceremonies, but I was genuinely happy for these kids. I loved all of them and was happy they were getting their chances. I'd go congratulate them later.
"Right! Now, I have a couple more announcements," Miss Greyber said as silence resumed. "First of all, on Wednesday, we have a few new faces joining us. I'll explain more on the day. Secondly, we have a new member of staff to welcome in today! Obviously you're all aware that Doctor Strain retired a little while ago. Thankfully, we've managed to find a replacement!"
The door near Miss Greyber opened, and a tall figure walked in. I expected mutters amongst the kids, maybe even a few laughs or giggles, but... nothing. Silence. Dead silence.
The man stood next to Miss Greyber was the man that had come in to give a speech about Mr Ludwig at the Schoolhouse a few months ago: Doctor Harley Sawyer. A tall, pale-looking, thin man with long black hair, tan skin, and cold green eyes. His hands rested behind his back, and he scanned the room with just his eyes, them narrowing on a few kids. He wore a spotless, white labcoat with a blue shirt and black pants, and thick boots. His appearance contrasted heavily with the very colourful Playtime Co. lanyard fastened around his neck.
He looked terrifying. Mae didn't seem fazed, though. I mean, she'd woken us up because of this guy. She clearly really liked him.
"This is Doctor Sawyer. He's going to be taking the place of Doctor Strain! And he'll be joining you on your Game Station trips every few weeks. I hope you all end up liking him, as he's worked very hard to be here. Do you have anything to say, Doctor Sawyer?" Miss Greyber asked the doctor. He hesitated, before his eyes met my group. They remained fixed on us for a solid five seconds. Then, Doctor Sawyer shook his head, and replied in a very monotone voice, "I don't believe I do."
"Alright then! Everyone, get back to your breakfast! You have half an hour until you need to get off to school."
Chatter erupted instantly, with me turning back to face my group and starting up the conversation with, "Please tell me you all saw that look he gave us."
"Yep. We're screwed," Jessica replied quickly. "I don't trust him at all."
"I don't mean to be rude, but why would they hire someone that looks so... intimidating?" Chris mumbled. "I get they want qualified doctors but... couldn't they have chosen someone that doesn't look like he's planning to kidnap us in our sleep... Mae? Oh for goodness sake, Mae, hello?!"
Mae snapped out of her trance, glaring at Chris.
"What?!" she hissed.
"Don't tell me you have a crush on him or something."
"I DO NOT!" Mae yelled, shooting up out of her seat and slamming her fist onto the table, making the poor second graders a few seats down jump out of their skins. "SHUT UP YOU-!"
"Mae Łuczak! What on earth could you possibly be yelling about at this time of the mornin'?!"
Ms Harper came storming over, her hands on her hips. Mae sunk back down into her chair, groaning. She didn't like Ms Harper at all due to the amount of time outs she'd given her punishments. Fair time outs and detentions, mind you. Mae was a pain in the ass sometimes.
"Chris was making fun of me! He was saying I had a crush on Doctor Sawyer!" Mae pouted, pointing at Chris, who just quietly continued to eat his breakfast. "I don't! I just think he's cool!"
"Honestly you two, how immature. This bickering between the two of you needs to stop! You're supposed to be setting an example!" Ms Harper snapped in her strong Southern accent. "There's some lovely second graders over there that have witnessed this whole thing! In fact, I'm sure the whole room heard ya! Pipe down or you'll both be in detention! Christopher, stop provoking Mae, and Mae, learn to control yourself. Got it?"
"Yes ma'am," both kids muttered.
"Good! Really, you're both thirteen years old. Grow up a little. And Abbie, keep an eye on 'em for me lovely, alright?"
I nodded, taking a sip of my drink.
"Right. Thank you. Get along."
And just like that, she was gone.
"I dunno what you both expected," Theo suddenly piped up from next to Chris. "You need to stop fighting all the time and maybe they'll stop telling you off."
"He's got a point. I shouldn't have to tell you both over and over to stop bickering," I added. "Now, I'm going to go make mine and Theo's lunches for school. If I come back and you've been fighting again, I'm actually gonna lose it."
I stood up and grabbed mine and Theo's plates and lunchboxes, before taking them back through to the kitchen and putting the plates and cutlery into the nearest dishwasher. I then began to put our packed lunches together, soon being joined by my friend Adam Snyder.
"G'morning Abbie," he said cheerfully. "I've got my practise exams today."
"Hope it goes well," I replied as I carefully sliced Theo's cheese sandwich into quarters and placed them in his lunchbox. "My group of morons keep fighting."
"I'll go tell 'em off for you," Adam said, patting my shoulder. "Just leave with Theo. Get some peace and quiet for a bit, alright?"
"Yeah, thanks, Adam."
"No problem. I gotta practice taking care of you guys before... I become a staff member."
I nodded. Adam was one of the sixteen year olds; he was currently studying to come back as a caretaker. He wanted to work mainly in Home Sweet Home; helping kids with homework, morning and evening routines, etc.. He was a really nice guy, and it sucked he hadn't been adopted in time. As was the cruelty of the adoption system.
The few kids in Adam's grade sucked. Always smoking, physically bullying those being adopted that week, or just any lonely kids they could find... they knew they weren't being adopted so took their jealousy out on those who were. They often gave the pre teens cigarettes and weed, and sometimes cocaine. I have no clue how they got it, since kids go through heavy bag checks when they arrive. But they did, and a fair few members of the Playcare staff didn't care as long as they didn't smoke around the little ones. Poor Anna, who was asthsmatic, wasn't too fond of that.
I finished making mine and Theo's lunches, filling up our waterbottles and taking them out back to the dining room. I gave Theo his lunch before we both grabbed our backpacks, whilst Adam, sure enough, lectured Chris and Mae. I took Theo's hand and we managed to break away, with Jessica following behind.
I took Theo out to the Schoolhouse, leading him to his classroom and helping him get his CatNap backpack into his cubby and his jacket hung up. Theo liked to get to class before everyone else so he wasn't trampled in the corridors, which could occur often due to his height. He was pretty short for a seven year old.
"You just gonna read for a bit?" I asked Theo as he pulled his water bottle, books, and CatNap plush out of his backpack. He nodded.
"Mhm. I wanna do some more drawings of my friend, but I really wanna finish reading my book."
"What're you reading?" Jessica asked, picking at the staples holding one of the Smiling Critter posters to the wall. Theo pulled his reading book out from his stack of books and showed us.
"War Horse by Michael Morpurgo," Theo said proudly. "I didn't think I'd like it at first, but it's really good."
"Never read it," Jessica replied, taking the book and reading the blurb on the back, seeming interested. "Remind me to take it out after you return it. I like Michael Morpurgo."
"You're actually interested in reading for once?" I asked as Jessica handed Theo his book back. She rolled her eyes and responded with, "I'm not that stupid. I like a good read every now and again, what can I say? I just struggle cause of my dyslexia or whatever they said it's called, I dunno. Anyways, have a good day, little dude! Don't get into too much trouble."
Theo giggled and high fived Jessica, before hugging me and racing off into his classroom, closing the door behind him.
"I reckon he has a crush," I said. "That's sweet. I wonder who it is."
"I mean, I've seen him with this Marie girl a lot," Jessica replied as we made our way to our classroom, just as everyone else started to trickle into the building. "Marie Payne? The one that's basically Ms Harper's kid? Short and snappy, with blonde and brown hair?"
"Yeah, I know who you're talking about. Theo's mentioned her a fair bit. They'd be cute together."
Still pondering who Theo's crush could be, me and Jessica headed to our lockers and put everything away except what was necessary for the morning. We then walked through the new very busy corridors to our first lesson of the day; English.
Mae and Chris were already inside the classroom, on opposite sides of it and not looking at each other. Chris was reading, his crutches leant against the wall next to him. Mae was looking out the window and sulking. I said goodbye to Jessica and sat down in my spot next to Chris, saying to my boyfriend, "Hey. Theo's quite happy now."
Chris lit up a little when he saw me, smiling warmly and responding with, "Sweet. He was real cranky earlier. Thanks for getting him sorted."
"Of course. I don't mind."
Then, we both fell quiet as our teacher, Miss Cowrey, called for everyone's attention.
"Good morning everyone! I hope you did your homework. I'm going to get started right on that, so if you could all pull out your homework and copies of last week's new reading book, we can get started!"
~~~~~
"Abbie! Hi, am I alright to steal you for about twenty minutes?"
On my way to my last period of the day, biology, I was stopped by Miss Greyber in the middle of the corridor.
"Uh, yeah, sure. I might need to tell my teacher though..." I said awkwardly, ushering Chris and Jessica to go on ahead, who had stopped with me. "I'm supposed to have Mr Bradford now..."
"I've already emailed him honey, don't worry. And you shouldn't miss the whole lesson, if we stay on schedule! There's just someone who would like to talk to you in my office."
I nodded. Miss Greyber smiled warmly and led me out of the Schoolhouse and over to the Counsellors' Building, down to the end of the building and into her office. Sat in a chair opposite Miss Greyber's was... Doctor Sawyer, who stood up instantly as Miss Greyber opened the door.
"Abigail, hello! It's a pleasure to meet you," Doctor Sawyer exclaimed, shaking my hand. "Your father and Miss Greyber have told me a lot about you. Elliot did too."
"H-He did? Well, uh, thank you. It's nice to finally meet you too," I stammered. "What did, uhm, you wanna talk to me about?"
We all took our seats as Miss Greyber started up the explanation with, "You see, Abbie, I wasn't sure if you were aware, but you're very well known across Playcare. You're liked by everyone no matter what. And while we know you've had... a few failures in adoption, we want to start up a new promotion to show the public in the outside world that you teenagers are worth adopting."
I hesitated. A few years ago, back in about 1986, we'd tried this exact thing; I and a few others had been shoved in front of a camera to star in a Playtime Co. original, live action kids show that never ended up past test audiences. It was a dull, stereotypical, learning lessons show that wanted to show the public how well mannered Playcare's kids were. Unfortunately, it just made us look like robots programmed to do whatever anyone wanted. We looked fake. And so, no one liked it, and we never filmed anything past the pilot episode. The wannabe parents that had been in the test audience never came back to adopt any of us.
"I don't know..." I mumbled, fidgeting with the zipper on my CraftyCorn backpack. "I made a mess of myself last time we tried something like this. Honestly, at this point, I've just given up any hope of being adopted."
"But we don't want you to," Miss Greyber said. "That's the point. We've seen that some of you older kids have started acting out because you know you'll never get adopted. We want to show the public how wonderful you all are."
"I... suppose we could try again," I replied. "Why's Doctor Sawyer here?"
"He was the one who came up with the idea."
"Indeed I did," Doctor Sawyer said proudly. "Well, I suppose Pierre had quite a large input too. Now, I can't share too much with you, Abigail, as there's some paperwork and things that haven't been signed yet. And I wouldn't want you missing too much school, now would I? I mainly called you here just to briefly meet you and inform you that something will be starting soon, just so you're not too taken aback, considering you'll be a vital role in it."
"Yeah. Makes sense. Thanks for, uh, giving me the heads up. Am I allowed to tell anyone?"
"No, if you can help it," Miss Greyber answered. "I know you may... want to tell all your friends! But if you can keep this between us three for now, that would be wonderful. We will tell Chris, Jessica and Mae soon enough."
"Alright! That shouldn't be a problem for me. I can do that."
Miss Greyber smiled, before standing up and saying, "Right! Let's get you back to biology, sweetheart. We want to keep you with your friends before the rush to the Playhouse at the end of the day."
I nodded, taking Miss Greyber's hand. I waved goodbye to Doctor Sawyer, before heading back to the Schoolhouse.
~~~~~
"How'd your talk with my kid go?"
"She's... interesting. I see what you mean when you said she would be good for the initiative."
"Well, no point making her suffer, I say! Get her working here asap, no need to put her through the stress of the hiring process. You better get those experiments working though, Sawyer. If you kill Abigail, I'll kill you."
"And that's why I'm not taking her until we've had at least twenty successful creations. I've been granted three children this week by White, all of different ages, so I have a fair few chances. I won't touch Abigail until I know I can transfer her successfully."
"Good. She's one of our best, behaviour wise. I'm counting on you to not fuck her up."
~~~~~