Among all the kids I spot one that keeps distance from everyone else. He's around twelve, I dare say, and he sits in a corner with a book, minding his own business. Some little girls have decided my hair is pretty and want to braid it. I've never done anything to my hair besides a side plait or a bun because that's easy and fast. The girls giggle and play with my hair whilst I sit leg crossed on the floor looking at this boy. His hair is kind of long and shaggy of a warm shade of chocolate; his fringe is long, almost covering his eyes and I'm not sure how he manages to read. I can't see the cover of the book for he rests it against his legs.

"Who's that boy?" I ask one if the girls playing with my hair. "The one reading?"

"Oh, he's Andy. He doesn't talk and doesn't like to play with us. He's always reading," one of the girls replies.

For some reason as I watch him, away from everyone else and with his nose buried in the pages of a book, I think of the way I used to be. He's literally ignoring everyone, like I used to do.

Is this what I looked to the rest?

"Your hair is so pretty!" a girl squeals and I focus again on them.

There are three girls playing with my hair, Sophie, Nina and Julie, eight, ten and eight respectively.

"Thanks," I reply. I never thought of my hair as pretty, probably because I never cared. It is just hair, blonde and straight and I keep it long because going to the hairdresser too often takes time. Plus, it's not like it bothers me to have it long.

"It's so soft and easy to braid," Sophie adds and I smile at them.

"And it's so light and shinny. I want hair like yours," Nina pouts. Her hair is ginger and super curly, like corkscrews and it looks like she has three times more hair than I, it must be hard for her to tame it.

"But your hair is so pretty, like fire. I like it," I tell her and I mean it. I think it has personality. When I look at myself in the mirror I see this pale girl with pale hair.

Nina blushes and giggles and Sophie and Julie poke her.

Julie leaves then, without saying a thing and I frown. "Did I upset her?" I ask, Nina and Sophie shake their heads.

I look for Julie, worried, but then I see her coming back holding something in her arms. "Close your eyes," she demands and I frown again, confused. "Please," she adds softly and I smile before I comply. I close my eyes and soon I feel hands on my hair again. I have no idea what they are doing.

"Done!" they sing together and I open my eyes. The three of then are staring at me with big grins and their hands at their backs.  I just blink, wondering what I look like.

"Mirror?"

Nina takes her hands from behind and hands me a small mirror. I look at my reflection and finally see what they've done. I have a braid crown and between the strands I have small flowers of bright colours. Pink, light blue, purple and orange. It looks like spring has come to my head whilst outside is autumn.

I never had something so intrinsic done to me. I'm marvelled at what these girls have done to my hair to actually make it look so pretty. I never imagined you could do that to my hair.

"Wow, it's looks amazing," I say. "Thank you so much. I love it."

"You look so pretty!" Nina chirps and then she shouts, "doesn't Allie look pretty, Zeke?"

I turn to look at my right where Zeke is playing with many, many kids. They are playing Pictionary and I would've joined but I've never played before, besides the girls wanted to play with my hair.

Zeke's eyes are on me, taking into notice the change in my hair and his eyes widen in surprise. For a few seconds no one says a thing as Zeke and I keep the eye contact.

"Very pretty," he says with his eyes still on me and I feel my heart racing like when he scared me before but I'm not scared this time. Then what is it? And why am I blushing?

Some girl demands Zeke's attention so we break the eye contact and he's back on his game but my heartbeats are still strong and rapid.

"When I have a mum she'll do my hair like this and I'll be the prettiest girl in school," Julie says and all the agitation I felt before disappears when I hear her words. I don't know what to say or do, especially when they lose their smiles because none of them have mothers and they want, they really do.

I feel pain.

Theory says humans are social beings and they take comfort from touch, so I open my arms as wide as I can and they stare back at me, ponding their options. Three seconds later they are in my arms and I hug them tightly. They are kids, they don't have a family; this is what they seek and need.

"Thank you for making me look pretty. I think you three are already the prettiest girls in school," I say and they hug me tighter.

I never received hugs, I was never shown affection and I never thought about it. Now I know this is what I was missing, this warm feeling that is born inside of you and expands to your whole body. But even if I never received a hug from my parents I'm still extremely blessed because I do have parents. They chose to keep me, to have me. Not everyone is that lucky. 

We break the hug and I smile at them as kindly as I can and I notice then how teary their eyes are. My chest squeezes with a feeling I fail to describe. These adorable and nice girls want a family so bad, someone to love them but they can't do anything about it, they can only wait and that hurts me.

"I'm sure your mums will come for you soon," I tell them and I honestly hope it happens. I want these girls and everyone in this orphanage to find a home. "For now you have each other so you have to be good friends."

They nod in synchrony and I smile at them. I notice then at their backs Andy is still reading, ignoring us all. I wonder if he also longs for a family like Nina, Julie and Sophie.

"Hey, why don't we all try to play with Andy? Let's ask him what he is reading," I propose but they don't look convinced. I don't want Andy to isolate himself, he also has to live the present. Maybe he just needs to feel a bit welcome, maybe someone just has to invite him.

I rise to my feet and motion to the girls to come with me. A bit reluctantly, they walk behind me and together we approach to the boy and his book.

"Hello," I say with my most cheerful voice and I have to repeat myself for him to notice I'm actually talking to him. Once he looks up and sees us there his eyes widen in confusion. "How are you? Reading something interesting?" I ask. Sophie, Julie and Nina are super close to me, almost hugging my legs. I wonder if they feel intimidated by Andy.

"H-h-hi," he replies with a small voice and raising his book to show me it's one about astronomy.

"Oh, that looks interesting! You like the stars?" I ask and he nods shyly, his cheeks burning bright. "Stars are wonderful, don't you think, girls?" I try to include them in the conversation. They all nod. "I don't know much about stars, what can you tell us? I would like to learn," I request and this time his eyes shine with excitement.

"Stars are made of gas! There's nothing solid in them and they are super, super hot. The blue ones are the hottest!" he exclaims and I chuckle at the difference in his attitude.

"I thought all stars were white," Julie says and I smile at her, patting her head.

"Oh no! There are red or blue, depending how hot they are. The sun is a star and we see it yellow!"

The three girls gasp in surprise and Andy looks victorious. At the sight I realise Andy isn't like me, he wasn't ignoring us on purpose because he preferred his books, it's because he's shy and because no one bothered to talk to him. Everyone thought he didn't want to talk to them, but he just didn't know how. He's happy to share what he's been reading.

"The sun is the biggest star," Nina says seriously, trying to sound like Andy.

“The sun is just the closest one that's why it looks so big but there are far bigger stars!"

"Ooooohhhh really?" Sophie gasps. "Which one?"

Andy is so excited now that he leaves his place and comes next to the girls. They also leave my side and approach him as he opens his book for them, to show them all what he's learnt.

I smile at them and just watch them, happy that he's not alone anymore.

"You got Andy to join the girls. Well done! He's awfully shy around girls," a voice says and I turn around to find Zeke watching the same scene.

"He just needed the right topic," I say. "Who won?" I ask next motioning to where he was previously playing Pictionary.

"Sussy's team. She's too good, I can never defeat her," Zeke shakes his head and I chuckle.

"Keep trying," I encourage him although I'm sure he lets her win. Sussy is five, her drawings can't be that good. Or maybe Zeke doesn't know how to draw. "They are all so nice," I add and he smiles kindly. If he smiled like this in college everyone would try to make friends with him. He looks so much more approachable. "It's really nice that you come here to play with them. They surely feel lonely."

"Yeah, it's not like I'll solve their problems by coming here, but I'll cheer them up for a tad bit."

I shake my head. "Don't belittle what you do. You make these kids happy, it's obvious they adore you. They want to feel someone cares about them and you do that. That is amazing, Zeke. I've never helped others, I never even thought about helping others until now and I'm very ashamed for that."

"It's never too late to start," he says with a small smile. "It's not about how much you help or when you start, it's about actually doing something. At least that's what I think."

I look at him, at this boy who scared me so much at one point, a boy that confused me with his actions because I couldn't understand his behaviour. But he's not just what meets the eye, he's kind and caring, he's a good person who doesn't need the world to know. He's fine with helping others only. He doesn't need the world to remember his name and he is already making a difference. I feel so shallow when I compare the person I am to him.

But human are amazing beings for they can change their behaviour if there are willing to. Habits can be developed and behaviours can be controlled, even suppressed in certain cases. As Zeke said, it's never too late to start. If I feel ashamed of my selfish behaviour, I have to do something about it.

I will do something about it.

"You are completely right. Thank you, Zeke, for showing me this." He smiles brightly at me. "Thank you for letting me see this side of you and for helping me understand. But why do you act like so different in college?"

Zeke looks away and his smile disappears. "I don't like people minding my business. They don't need to know what I do in my free time."

I remember all the times he glared at me because I was staring, because I was minding his business.

"Sorry," I mumble.

"Plus, college is filled with idiots who only care about themselves."

I feel like he slapped me across the face because even if I'm here now, I'm like that. Until recently I only cared about my future, nothing else touched me. And not even now I can say I'm a better person.

"Sorry," I say looking down, feeling so little and insignificant.

"No, no, you are not one of them. You don't mess with anyone and you don't judge people."

"But I'm conceited, I only care about my life," I refute and next I feel his hands on my shoulder. I look up and he's really close.

"That's not the exactly kind of selfish I mean. You feel bad about it, that makes you different. You think half of our classmates would feel like that if they come here? Some would be even repulsed. Those are the ones I'm talking about."

I have no idea. Are there people who could react like that? What has Zeke seen?

"You're a good girl, Allison," he says and his right hand rises to cup my face, the softest touch. I gasp and hold my breath, I've never been touched like this. "You didn't judge me, remember?"

"Is that why you look so threatening at college? You want to test people's judgement?" I venture because since we left college he hasn't once look that intimidating.

He smiles and steps back, taking his hand with him and my cheek now feels cold.

"Maybe that's what I'm doing," he grins. "Maybe I just like looking threatening," he chuckles at the last word. "Who knows?"

His smile widens and one of my own comes to my lips because I like the way he answered. He's just ignited my curiosity. Knowing why is my strength and my weakness, I can't just leave this matter here, can I?

I think not.

-:-:-

I love this chapter <3 by mistake I had updated this instead of XI but now it's all right. I hope you enjoyed this. For a new chapter I'll ask 300 votes this time because I need more time. I started posting BBB here on wattpad, too :S

Dedication to @_xEbru

Bel, xx

PS: Remember you can follow me on twitter if you wanna talk @BelWatson
PSS: Go #Zellie!