-Phil's POV-

A week or so after that happened, after dinner, all of the kids were given an announcement. If you haven't noticed, after dinner is when we get announcements because almost everyone will be at one place at the same time. Anyway, the announcement was that there was going to be another new kid at the orphanage. This boy's name is Wilbur, and he'll be like me: he won't share a room with anyone until another kid comes here. Apparently he's 14. After dinner, we left and went to the abandoned room that I had noticed on the first day here. We'd come to use that as a hang out room when we don't want to be in our bedroom.

"So Techno, about the new kid..."

"Do I have to talk to him when he gets here?"

"Techno, I think you should give him something small as a welcome gift."

"Like what?"

"I don't know, maybe offer to teach Wilbur Minecraft if he's interested?"

"No way! Then I have to keep talking to him for an extended period of time! I'm not doing that!"

"Okay, that wasn't the best suggestion on my part. Sorry. Maybe let him use it for an hour every week or something like that? Or you could just contribute money to what I'm giving."

"Which is...?"

"I'm going to take Wilbur shopping for stuff for his room. When you get to a new room, everything is white and super basic and boring. So I was thinking I'd contribute, I don't know, maybe $20 to buy some small stuff to make the room more personalized and exciting."

"$20!"

"Is that too much or too little?"

"I mean, I was thinking too much. It's just a settling-in gift to some complete stranger"

"Okay, but think about it. This kid just came from who-knows-what to get here, and it must've been bad in some way. Kids with perfect lives aren't the ones that end up living here. So you come from that, and you get to this weird building full of complete strangers. You're shown to your empty, blank, lonely room to figure stuff out for yourself. Now imagine if someone shows up and offers to spend a few hours with you to show you around town and to buy you some stuff to make your room look nicer. Now, you know someone in the sea of strangers, your room at the very least feels like it's not some hospital room, and you know a thing or two about this place that you're in."

"... I guess. But why would $20 be too small of an amount of money? And how would my contribution be helpful? It sounds like the majority of the benefit from that is getting to know you."

We continue to argue for several more minutes (1.), and eventually Techno decides to double the money I contributed.

"Thank you, Techno. You sure you don't want to come with? I'll be there too."

"... I'll see how I feel."

"I'll take that as a no. If you say "I'll see how I feel, you'll never feel like stopping what you're doing to talk to someone. If you want to do it, say yes now and make yourself do it later."

He sighs. "Phil, do you want me to go?"

"I'd like it if you did, and you got to know this person. Also, it's a good opportunity for you to socialize without getting overwhelmed. But if you don't want to go, I'm not making you."

"Fine, I'll go."

"Thank you."

"And it's really convenient that he's coming on a Sunday, the day I have off. Otherwise we'd have to wait until after school, or even on a different day."

"Yeah, that happens a lot. It's almost like the author is trying to make it convenient for you to be able to do stuff without constantly missing work or needing to wait until after school"(2.)

We then leave, and Techno goes to his computer to play Minecraft while I finish my weekend homework. By the way, Techno has been doing really well at winning those Minecraft tournaments, so he decided to record himself playing and post the videos to YouTube after doing a bit of editing. So far, not many people have noticed him though, so it's more of his hobby. If I actually had free time to play Minecraft, I might give it a try as well, but I don't.

The next day, I woke up excited to meet this Wilbur person. I didn't want to overwhelm him too much, since that wouldn't be helpful. I go down to the library to get some work done, and I hear when WIlbur gets here. I wait until the orphanage workers finish telling Wilbur the stuff they tell you when you arrive. After telling him where his room is, they leave. It's weird that they didn't take him to his room, instead just telling him the room location. Well, I guess that means someone else needs to, aka me.

-Wilbur's POV-

Oh great. Now I'm living in an orphanage. I mean, it probably is better than my house was, but even still, I won't have Mikey. I don't really know anything about orphanages, the only things I've ever heard about them came from random fictional stories, and in those there are always a bunch of bullies, no nice people, and all of the workers are terrible and sometimes abusive. That's just wonderful. I mean, it's not like I'm not used to that kind of thing, but, once again, I guess now I won't have Mikey to be there for me.

I arrive at the orphanage with my small suitcase containing my stuff from my old house, plus a few things the neighbor that I was staying with during my dad's trial gave me. The government worker that drove me here walks through the front door and to the front desk thing. I follow, since that guy (I'm using "guy" as a gender neutral term, I am too lazy to choose a gender for them or make them nonbinary. Oh wait, technically Wilbur is thinking this I don't want to assume their gender). The worker doesn't look evil or anything, rather they just look kind of bored, like the most important thing to them is when their lunch break is or when their shift ends. If they aren't hiding anything, at worst they're neglectful. And while child neglect is a real and serious thing, I'm 14. I can take care of myself. But I still don't know about the other workers here, they could be worse.

The government guy leaves and the orphanage worker tells me the basic rules, like when dinner is, where my room is located, about the chore rotation thing, the rules for the library computer, etc. Then they leave. I guess I should go to my room and put my stuff away. Wait, I'm not sure where that is. This building is huge and has so many rooms, and none of them are labeled or anything. In the hallway near me, there's 3 doors, then the hallway takes a bend. I know one of the doors leads to the front room, but that's it. I would start exploring, but I don't want to end up in some kid's room and have them make me the main target of their bullying.

One of the doors opens and a blonde guy wearing green and white walks out. Before I have time to hide or react, he looks at me and says "Hey, Wilbur, right? I'm Phil."

He extends his hand, and I initially flinch, expecting to get hit. I'm not traumatized by my dad, no, I was totally just thinking that because according to stories, everyone here is a bully and no one is nice, and what would a bully do in this situation? Exactly.

Anyway, he was actually wanting to shake my hand, so after hoping he didn't notice my flinching, I shake his hand. Maybe he's not so bad? We'll have to see.

A/Ns:

1. Y'all, I actually wrote out an extra half a page of them arguing before realizing that it really doesn't do much to further the plot and no one wants to read through some people arguing

2. Ah yes. That will be a common pattern in this story. It's the only way I can make Phil actually be able to do stuff without constantly taking days off of work and leaving school, but also while being really busy at work all the time

Chapter word count: 1314

Total word count: 1401