Oh hello there! Let me introduce myself. My name is Alexander. No one calls me Alexander though except my mother when she is mad at me. I also hate being called Alex. It makes me sound like a small puppy. I got the nickname Allie in the orphanage from a friend that just started calling me that. Since then, Everyone has called me Allie.
Your right. I spent most of my childhood in an orphanage. I never knew my parents. I suspect that they were rich and famous. At times it was sad being in an orphanage. It was as if you felt that no one wanted you and you had no one to love you. It was hard to see other children get adopted. I was always jealous when someone got adopted. I was also afraid, as I heard other children say that the older you were, the harder it was to get adopted. I didn’t think that I would get adopted. I did not consider myself cute or smart. I was not good at sports. I only thing that was good at was singing. I never thought a family would ever want me.
I did have friends at the orphanage. Most of my friends were girls. I had long hair and this meant that they liked playing hairdresser and putting my hair in pigtails or ponytails. They would also play dress up with me and let me try on their dresses and clothes. The other boys were mean and called me a sissy and things like that. I did not understand what a sissy was. Why could a boy not wear dresses? It did not make me a girl! Just because I played with girls did not mean that I wanted to marry them. I was too young to even know what fancying a girl was like. The girls were not as rough as the boys. They were fun to be with.
Life at the orphanage was not that bad. Even though the boys bullied me somewhat, I did have good friends, even though they were girls. We were fed and we had clothes and toys. I learned to accept what I had and not think that I had no parent to love me and spoil me. I was once sure that my rich parents would come and get me. As time went by, I was giving up hope in this happening.
My life changed when I was told a family wanted to adopt me. They were a Jewish family which was strange as I was a Catholic. I wondered if I had to wear one of those funny caps and have the strange hair hanging down the sides. My new mom was very nice. She hugged me straight away and told me that she wanted me to be happy in my new family. I would have 3 brothers and a few sisters. The staff at the orphanage warned me to behave in the family and warned my new mother that I had a talent for getting into trouble. I glared at the staff when they said this. They didn’t have to tell my mother this. I am sure she would find out in time.
At first, I was afraid of my new family. I thought they would cut my hair and make me a jew. I thought my brothers would always be rough with me and I would constantly have bruises. This did not happen. My mom told me that I would not be forced to cut my hair. If I wanted long hair then that was up to me. If I was happy being a Catholic, then I would not be forced to be a jew. My brothers were also nice. They did not attack me or anything. They even taught me how to dance.
I did not look like my new brothers and sisters. They had dark tidy hair while mine was blonde, long and always in a mess. I was small for my age and had no muscles. They used to think I was a wimp at the orphanage. I liked to wear bright clothes and I had no problem wearing pink clothes. I even wore pink glasses. I think when I lived at the orphanage, the other girls had a big influence on me. I did not want to look like other boys. I liked being special. It was my identity. I did wish that I would grow to be taller.
My mom told me that she enrolled me in a new school. It was a Catholic School called Saint Columbas. Even my brother Cameron would be attending the school. I teased him and told him he would be converted to being a Catholic. Cameron smiled but I could also see he was worried that the school would not accept a Jewish boy. I could understand that he was worried. I was also worried about what they would say about how short I was and my long hair. Mom told us that it was normal to be afraid of meeting new children at a new school. She advised us to be ourselves. The other children would see our good sides and love us for who we were. Sometimes I think parents forgot what it is to be like a child. They forget that children could be very mean!
Cameron and I went to the new school. The school looked so old as if it came out of a history book. There was a sitting room that had expensive sofas and a picture of the Pope. The teacher told us that we were not allowed to sit on the sofas. I thought this rule was daft. Then she showed us a classroom that looked as if it was a museum exhibition. The desks were huge wooden ones that looked very uncomfortable. I don’t think anyone could take a nap during class. Besides the classroom was a place where we could eat. The teacher there explained that we would get some soup every day. This made me think that I would starve to death. The soup was something people in prison ate! I needed to hide some food in my pocket when I went to school.
The uniform was old-fashioned. I looked like that boy from the Adams family. It made me think that I was suddenly transported back in history. The girl's uniform was just as bad. I began to think about why mom wanted us to go to this school. It was old-fashioned and has lots of rules. This meant that I had to be obedient and like an angel. I had to be polite and a good Catholic boy. I had to keep out of trouble. How hard could this be?
There were not so many boys at the school. Most of the students were girls. There was one boy there that looked like one of the Beatles. His name was Billy. There was another boy there called Noah. Noah was the first boy I spoke with. He asked me if I was a sissy. I went all defensive and told him that I was a boy. He smiled and told me that it was OK that I looked like a girl. Noah was fun to be with. He was an altar boy at the masses and he talked a lot. He told me that he fancied me, but I had no clue what this meant. How could a boy be in love with another boy? I decided just to ignore him when he told me how much he loved me. I did not mind that he thought I looked like a girl. The other pupils seemed to think that I was very girly. On my first day of school, I was known as the school sissy.
We had an inspection before classes, where the teacher would see if our uniforms were right and they would ask us if we were good Catholics. I had to snicker when they asked Cameron if he was a good Catholic. Besides that, inspections were very boring. We just stood there and looked forward while the teacher talked and talked. I would not listen to a word and would daydream. I would think if there were ghosts at the school or things like fairies. I would look at the teachers and think that they were very old. I was very impatient with these inspections. It seemed as if the teachers had the talent to make them drag on for ages.
The one good thing about inspections was that this was the first time that I have seen Annie. It was like looking at an angel. Annie had long curly hair that sat perfectly. Her face was also perfect. It was as if she had the kindest eyes I had ever seen on a person. Her uniform was perfect and she made the old-fashioned thing look like it was high fashion. She wore white gloves that looked so clean. I thought I was looking at an angel. This was the first time in my life that I looked at a girl this way. It was confusing.
While we were walking to class, Annie welcomed Cameron and me. Cameron replied politely. I of course made a fool of myself as I stuttered and felt my legs get all shakey. This was embarrassing, but at the same time, it was nice to see Annie smiling. Think of it, she smiled at me! This was something I could write in my diary if I had one.
Annie had lots of sisters there and Billy was her brother. I wondered how she could be in the same family as him. Her mother was also a teacher at school. This confused me as well because I thought her mother was so strange. She wore the strangest clothes and said the strangest things. I suppose it did not matter who was in Annie's family. This was a special time in my life. It was the first time that I felt weak in my knees when I was with a girl. This was a sign that I was growing up.
Noah left the school and that made me feel alone. The only other boys were Billy, Cameron and an Indian boy called Mutt. I figured that If I became friends with Billy, I could get close to Annie. There were a few problems with this. Billy had a girlfriend called Anneke and they were always saying smoochy things to each other. The bigger problem was that I do not think that Billy liked me. He always pointed out when I did something wrong. The biggest problem was we were very different. He lived and breathed for the school while school was just a place mom sent me. He loved the school rules and discipline while I… well you know. He also loved soup. I even think Billy daydreamed about soup during classes. I also think that Billie was one of those commies everyone spoke about as he called everyone "comrade". I quickly found out that Billy would not be my best friend and a way I could get closer to Annie. I must add that maybe I was jealous of him in many ways and looked up to him.
I always told people that mom called me an angel. I never told them that she called me a fallen angel. This got me into trouble on the very first day of school. When you do something against the rules, then you get a demerit. For some reason, the school called demerits “ticks”. I did not quite understand this, as for me a tick was always something I considered a bug. Another thing that I should say about the school is it had students, prefects and an excellency. Students were like the commoners, and prefects were those that were supposed to help us and show a good example. Billy was a prefect. Then there was an excellency. She was like the student president. She could even give us ticks. The excellency was called Sarah. She was a girl with huge glasses and a huge ponytail. I can understand why she got the job. She was very bossy.
I did like Sarah. I do not think she liked me. She gave me a tick on the first day for having dirty knees. I found this to be unjust. I was a boy! Show me a boy with clean knees! To make things worse, I did not understand why a girl my age could tick me. So I protested by pulling her ponytail. After a short scream, she ticked me again. The next day, one of the teachers whose name was Madam Pickery gave me a tick for having long hair. She warned me that I had to cut my hair. There was no way on this earth I would do that. What did Madam Pickery know? She was an old woman that was probably a teacher back then when Moses lived. She did not know that we now had human rights! I should be allowed to have the hair that I wanted.
I do not think that Annie was impressed that I already got into so much trouble. She never got a tick and seemed perfect in every way. The best thing about Annie was that she was so nice. Everyone liked her and was her friend. She had a heart of gold that would shame a saint. My brother Cameron knew that I was obsessed with Annie, but told me not to waste my time. Annie was Mutt’s girlfriend. He was everything I was not. He was a strong and tall boy. I think his dad was even a chief in an Indian tribe. He never got in trouble. I can understand why Annie liked him so much. This was the first time that I fancied someone and had my heart broken.
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