So I woke up. Why. The. Hell. Was. It. 7. O'clock. I know people wake up like this and earlier normally, I was the lucky one to usually not have to. But for my sleeping in whenever I could, because I couldn't get myself out of bed, ass, this was way too early for any remote comfort. I had to drag myself out of from underneath the duvet with a sour face and groaning, made my rubber mattress, metal railing bed look presentable. Then I was out on a search for a bathroom, I could use, once again, while not having a bedroom I was assigned to, like yesterday, I had to hunt one down from one of the bedroom toilets, this was such a pain in the butt, way to give me more anxiety guys. Not your fault, I know, this is the rules, but God were some of the nurses a menace. Some of them though seemed nice enough, others perpetually exhausted, understandable unfortunately, taking their job into account, not everyone gets to watch over mentally ill kids for a living. Must be interesting, in all meanings of the word that is. The breakfast was like the holy grail of social life of a sort, everyone ate together for better or worse. The dining hall couldn't really be called a hall since it was a small room but let's say it was a hall nonetheless. I made my way, in my tracksuit without laces, to breakfast and after debating on where to even try to sit, I settled on the most empty table possible. The tables on the left from the door were general tables and on the right there was the ED patients' own table, where a nurse sat diligently ready to keep the girls and one guy eating. Now let me guide you through the patients at that table. Alright, so important mention, I don't know their names, I know, so great of me, but I didn't talk to any of them so I guess it kind of is to my defense. One girl, let's name her Olivia, was this tall for her age twelve year old, that liked to dress up a bit more skimpily and was by all means a stereotypical blondie, no offense to anybody that has blonde hair, my boyfriend's literally blond, its just the girl was a complete lite barbie package. Then there was Katie, young, about eleven, she was the thinest, and that wasn't a good thing in any way, shape or form. Her hair was very frail and frizzy and so was everything else about her really, her sweater hanging loosely down from her shoulders. Then Marcia, pretty basic, average conventionally pretty, small, around ten years of age, dark blonde and that's about that. Some other girls back then that my memory refuses to vividly remember were also really young and anorexic. The one boy, I didn't know what was wrong with him yet but was about to find out later. Moving on to the other tables we've got Aaron, a tall, overweight guy that sat at the back closer to the windows. Then there was Natasha and Nina from the day before with another girl sat close by and then the small boys moving around the entrance. The food cart rolled in at last and the seventeen and fourteen year old, that the eight year old made fun of the day prior walked in late, to the middle tables. The smallest kid - Bruno, the eight year old - Henry, the two girls from younger to older, Reyna and Vivian. That's about it for now - I thought, turning my attention to the plates being distributed amongst us. Bruno settled himself finally at my table to my dismay, but sure enough I kept a stoic demeanor, as a got my plate with a slice of buttered bread and turnip cabbage, ham on the side and something else I couldn't be bothered to remember. I hesitantly begun to take bites of the breakfast, it wasn't great but it wasn't terrible as I chewed on it slowly.
- You new here, yeah? - Bruno spoke out stirring in his chair, clearly struggling to sit whatsoever still. He bounced, as he asked plainly curious.
- Yeah, sure. - I replied blankly.
- Do you have anything nice? - The boy bounced some more, his head still had little hair on it - I thought as I was taken aback by his words. What a little scoundrel. - I reflected, squinting my eyelids.
- What is that to you? - I asked, my eyebrow raised.
- I want to play with something nice. - the hairless kid spoke up, lifting himself from the chair and spinning, he trailed out of the room ducking underneath the food court ladies arm. We could go now I guess. I stood up, scanning the room for some trays to leave the plate on, and upon finding them, I left passing by the medication cart, unimpressed but in a way annoyed at being excluded from the "funny pill" time. Leaving for my bed once again I was at a loss for what to do. Now the building was filled with white sunlight through the limited window surfaces. The whole place was both really secluded but then again out in the open for anyone to see through the narrow, tall windows looking out onto the hospital grounds' pavement. A nurse, Geraldine as I read soon enough, broke me out of my trail of thoughts.
- It's time to get you to your room, come with me Mark. - the professionally looking old lady spoke in a warm tone, that's a weird combo - I thought to myself as I trailed behind her sluggishly. Upon entering the room I was met with the ED table guy and the small scoundrel. Perfect. The boy was swaying on the balls of his feet as he ran to his bedside cabinet and began rummaging through its sparse contents, so that's why he wanted something nice. I almost felt bad for the kid, until he tried to get to my things as well that is. I started unpacking and before I could even finish, he was at my back blatantly looking over. Whilst I got progressively more annoyed, the other guy…
- This is Kyle and here is Bruno. - I reminded myself the words that the nurse spoke before she promptly left for her station. So the other guy - Kyle aggressively began to do crunches. So ED table and crunches, maybe orthorexia, who knows, for now must secure my things from this little imp. My left eyebrow higher than the moon at the small boy's behavior. I did in fact possess an mp3 player with some built in game features, so nice stuff it was. But heck if I'd let that little thing play them. Or so I thought, 'till I ended up letting him play for a couple of minutes after being asked a billiard times. I watched him over, Kyle still at now his push ups and I soon whisked the orange mp3 back from the six year old and stuck it into the drawer. Too bad they were not lockable, so, I'd have to be on constant look out for this boy's sticky fingers, fantastic. This was going to be an interesting stay, sure as heck. Feel welcomed.