Never Miss Lunch (Paige)

    "I see." Ms. Manry bobbed her head for a moment. "I'm surprised a girl your age is interested in all of this, though. I remember when I was in junior high." she let out a fond kind of laugh, shaking her head as if pushing away her sudden thoughts.

    Derrick seemed uninterested in Maria's next question, but Sarah pouted and kicked at the table, striking the center support and making the table rattle. Immediately Ms. Manry reached out and steadied the table with her hands, pausing for a second to make sure the surface wouldn't tip over before she sighed and nodded at Maria. "Yup. These two were the only ones interested in coming today."

    "June promised she was gonna come along but she didn't!" the girl whined.

    "Now, now, Sarah. June wasn't feeling well."

    "She was faking." Derrick said simply, popping a fluffy piece of bun in his mouth and chewing calmly. After he swallowed, he looked over at Sarah. "Most likely she wanted to sleep. That's what she was doing before I came downstairs."

    At this information Sarah took another bite of her popsicle and chewed morosely while Ms. Manry gave Derrick a look of surprise mixed with exasperation. Seeing this, Derrick shrugged and picked up his food, finally beginning to eat the whole thing.

    Shaking her head, Liz looked at Maria with a small smile as she pointed a finger at the girl's pizza. "So how's it tasting?"

Maria chuckled, "I tend to be the curious type, Liz. I think I know what it's like to look after them. I have little siblings of my own, after all."

She fondly looked back at the memories. It wasn't even that long. The girl was only leaving the house for one day for herself. But somehow, she was starting to miss them. Maria blinked at Sarah's kick and frowned disapprovingly at her. But she found herself tiltingher head to the side in confusion. There was... something odd.

"Oh, it's not bad. It'll keep me going for the rest of the day, that's for sure," Maria supplied and then looked at the rest of the kids, "How are you two faring?"

She also continued with another curious question at Manry, "I take it June is their older sister?"

    Sarah offered a slow thumbs up with her free hand at Maria's question, obviously still dismayed at the news Derrick just relayed to her. For his part, Derrick merely bobbed his head, more intent on taking careful bites of his food.

    "Huh? Sis-?" Ms. Manry seemed taken back by the question before she stopped herself and blinked. "Oh, no, no, she's not."

    "She lives at the orphanage with us." Derrick supplied calmly before taking another bite of his food and chewing contentedly.

    If the three were bothered by this sudden reveal, they certainly didn't seem like it. Sarah only offered a nod in agreement, her mood neither brightening nor dimming. Ms. Manry seemed almost relieved, actually. Perhaps she was glad she didn't have to break the news herself. And Derrick just chomped down the last bite of his hot dog before taking a sip of his drink, looking at Maria and studying her reaction.

Maria blinked at why Manry seemed so flustered about. She would soon realize thanks to the stick-in-the-mud attitude that Derrick had. Yet, she didn't quite know what to make of this. All three of them didn't seem to mind. Perhaps, they were used to it? The thought of an orphanage made her sad.

She finally murmured, "Oh I see... I'm sorry, I was being too nosy. I was... rude."

Maria hung her head rather awkwardly. Maybe it didn't mean much to them, but for her, she didn't quite know how to maneuver herself at this point. The girl took another bite of her meal and chewed as she thought what to do next. It's not like that them being orphans offended her. Just that, it's her first time meeting people like that and walking into that kind of conversation was an awkward first.

How's your meal, Derrick?" she weakly asked him.

    He'd been waiting for it, that little awkward droop everyone got the moment they found out where he lived. A part of him was annoyed about it. So what? There were plenty of people who didn't have parents. The number of kids at the orphanage proved that. So why were people so antsy about it? Rather than answer Maria's question, Derrick set down his drink (now only about half full) and shook head head almost bewilderingly...or was it in disappointment? "It doesn't matter."

    "Derrick!"

    "What? It doesn't." the boy shrugged, scratching lightly at his dirty blond hair. "Just because I don't have any parents doesn't mean people should feel bad for me. I'm doing fine."

    Seemingly used to this response, Ms. Manry leaned across the table, about to pat the boy on the head, but soon thought better of it and patted his hand instead. "You're right, you are doing just fine." She spared Derrick a grin before looking back at Maria with an awkward little laugh but just as bright of a grin. "I'm sorry. Please forgive me for not breaking this to you a little easier. But really, don't look so down. I promise, orphanages aren't all terrible like you see in The Blues Brothers."

    "What's that?"

    "An old movie, Sarah. But really, it's not that bad."

    "Have you never met kids like us before?" Sarah wondered curiously, finally pulling her empty popsicle stick from her mouth. Her eyes began to shine a little brighter as she knelt in her chair and leaned across the table eagerly, getting as close to Maria as she could without falling. "Didja want to ask questions? I'm good at answering questions!"

Maria was mystified at first at their nonchalance. Her idea of orphanages were inherently negative from the very idea that they lost their parents and sometimes by extension their family. Yet, these kids seemed happy enough. Truly, there were a lot of firsts for the girl today.

She finally broke out into a smile, "I see... That's a relief."

While not knowing what exactly what the Blue Brothers are, the reassurance that they were fine allowed her to start relaxing. But, Sarah's eagerness was starting to make her feel at unease again. She started to rub the back of her neck in thought. Then she patted Sarah's head.

"Mmn... Do they teach you cat's cradle?" she finally asked while nonchalantly pulling out a looped string.

It was a mundane past time that she did with her younger siblings. With the string looping around her fingers, she finally made a specific pattern of a diamond between her hands.

    Sarah seemed almost disappointed by Maria's response. That mood immediately flipped into curiosity the moment the older girl began stringing the yarn across her fingers. "Why's it called Cat's Cradle if there's no cats with it?"

    "That's like asking why Blue Bell is called Blue Bell when the ice cream isn't blue and it's a cow instead of a bell as the logo."

    "But cows wear bells, so it's okay!"

    "It's the same thing. Don't take it so literally."

    "But you're the one-!"

    "MARIA." Ms. Manry cut in sharply, her voice sugary sweet. "Why don't you teach Sarah how to play? I'm sure she'd love to learn."

    The two children grudgingly stopped, Derrick sipping at his drink and Sarah watching the string intently. Ms. Manry leaned back and sighed, pleased she'd been able to intervene before their lunch went too out of hand.



    Some time passed before Ms. Manry pulled out her phone and frowned at the screen. She tapped it a few times, typed in something, waited a moment, then sighed and began collecting the children's trash. "Come on, you two. Mr. Belicek wants you guys back."

    "Now?" Sarah whined, the string wrapped around her hands as she attempted to copy a design Maria showed her. After earning a nod, Sarah morosely handed the string back to Maria and hopped down from her seat, windmilling her arms slightly as if stretching. Derrick quietly piled his trash in his hot dog container and walked to the trash bin a few feet away, dumping it off before returning to the table. From his place he quickly picked up a few napkins he'd doodled on while the girls were busy, folding them carefully and placing them and his pen back in his pocket.

    "Thank you for being so nice and spending some time with them." Ms. Manry smiled, standing and ruffling Sarah's hair. "I'm sure they were glad to talk to someone closer to their age." After a moment she frowned, as if recalling something. "Will you be able to find your way home alright?"

The girl was about to answer Sarah, but she found herself at a rut and fell silent. Maria pouted her lips in thought when she was asked that question. All she knew that it was called by that, but she was never really the curious type then. Back then as a little brat, she was more wowed by new things that caught her eye while being amazed by the novelty than anything.

She blinked at how quickly the two children were in getting into another argument. Liz had been quick this time to act as the authoritative and constructive figure. Maria approvingly beamed a smile back at her.

"Sure! Now watch carefully. You could get confused here..." she started to hold the pattern towards Sarah and began giving her instructions how to enjoy this game.



All good times came to an end, the children had to go. Maria smiled back at her and let her keep the string, "Keep it. You'll practice won't you? I think you've got the hang of it."

Maria started to stand with the empty plastic plate with the remains of pizza grease stains and napkins. It was an alright lunch, it was enjoyable really.

"Don't worry about it. I had fun too," she chuckled back at Liz, "I'll be fine. I can manage. The rest of you should get going. It looks like they're waiting."

Judging by that phone call and Liz's announcement, it must've been the facility's patriarch. She walked over to Liz and handed her cellphone number on a napkin that was hastily etched on. "If it's okay, can I come by from time to time? I'd like to meet you guys again."

Maria wasn't quite sure if it would be possible for her to come out to the orphanage and skip work again. But she would make it work somehow. If there was a will, there was a way.

"I hope to see you two again," she ruffled both Sarah's and Derrick's heads while giving them a toothy smile, , "I'll see you later. See ya."

She waved to the three and left.

[Exit]

    Ms. Manry took the napkin from Maria's hand with a nod. "Oh, of course you can! I'm sure you'll be welcome. We can even sign it off as volunteer hours if you'd like." Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a small card with an address printed on it. "Here's the business card. The address is on there plus the phone number, so you'll be able to find it."

    "Bye!" Sarah grinned up at Maria, giggling as her pigtails were ruffled. Derrick, on the other hand, merely nodded and straightened his hair afterwards. The three waved goodbye as the girl left, and after a moment Ms. Manry ushered them towards the ferry boat, intent on getting them home.