Categories > Celebrities > My Chemical Romance > Orphan Two

The kids ate their breakfast at the dinner table with Jennifer. Penina was reading her sign language book while Eva signed something to Jude. He turned to Jennifer with a frustrated sigh "Mom, what's she saying?"

"She wants you to pass the milk." Penina told him.

Jennifer gave Jude an admonishing look "See? If you studied more you wouldn't have to ask all the time." Jude glared at Penina but she was busy reading her sign language book and didn't notice.

Gerard came in, ready to go to the studio, grabbed his travel mug filled with coffee and kissed Jennifer goodbye "See you later."

Penina held her arms out for a hug. He leaned in to kiss her but she clinged to him and wouldn't let go. She pouted "I want you to take us to school today." She looked up at him with big puppy dog eyes.

Gerard couldn't resist "I guess I can be late today." He turned to Jennifer "I can take them to school and you can pick them up."

"YAY! We're going with Daddy!" Penian cheered, jumping down from the table and running off to get ready.

When all the kids were ready, Jennifer went to the door to say goodbye to everyone "Bye Mom." Jude said, hugging his Mom. Jennifer kissed him goodbye, kissed Mia goodbye and kissed Eva goodbye She tried to kiss Penina goodbye but she ran past her, running towards Gerard. She took Gerard's hand and held it on the way to the car. Jennifer watched them, feeling a little hurt and jealous.



After school, when the kids were home, Jennifer invited Penina into hers and Gerard's bedroom and gave her a small square gift wrapped box. Penina opened a small journal "I have a journal just like this that I write in every day." Jennifer told her.

"What kind of things do you write about?"

"What I did that day, how I feel. Anything I don't wanna forget. I thought you and I could spend some time together and start a life book."

"What's that?"

"It's like an adoption storybook. And it's all about you. I did a couple of pages to get you started. Look." Jennifer took the journal off of Penina and opened it. Pasted to the front page was a photo of Jennifer and Gerard with fancy writing enough saying 'Mommy and Daddy get married.'

"So beautiful..." Penina whispered, stroking Jennifer's wedding outfit in the photo.

Jennifer turned the page to reveal a picture of a newborn Mia, five year old Jude and seven year old Eva. Gerard was holding Mia while Jude was sitting on Jennifer's lap and Eva was in between them smiling "Eva looks so different." Penina muttered "She looks so happy." Jennifer went bright red when she remembered what had happened to Eva but easily turned the page. The next page said 'Penina joins the family' with a photo of Gerard's band, Valeria, their children, Mia, Eva, Jude, Gerard and Jennifer standing there with Penina standing at the front with their arms around them.

"If you want, we can put your other pictures in here too." Jennifer smiled.

"What other pictures?"

"The ones I saw in your bible." Penina gave a dismayed look "I'm sorry. They slipped out at church. If they're private-"

"It's okay. I want you to see them." Penina smiled a forced smile and took her into her bedroom. They sat down on the floor. Penina removed the elastic band from her battered bible and takes out a few battered photographs. They're all of Penina with another family. A man in his early thirties with his wife and three little boys "These are the Sullivans. That's James and Hannah. And that's Micah, Luke and Isaiah."

"This is the American family the adopted you from Russia?" Jennifer asked. Penina nodded. All the pictures were full of happiness and laughter. James, Penina's old adopted father, was in all of them. The last photo was of James holding Penina in his arms outside a barn "They look very nice. They must have loved you very much." Penina nodded but Penina saw that she was holding back tears "What's wrong?"

"I hid these because because I didn't want you to know how much I miss them. I was afraid you'd think I didn't love you."

"It's okay Sweetie, I don't understand." She paused "You know, I lost someone who was very special to me too once."

Penina looked up and wiped away her tears "Really?"

Jennifer nodded, took Penina's hand and took her downstairs into the green house 'I never held you, but I feel you. You never spoke, but I hear you. I never met you, but I love you.' was written on a plaque sticking out of a plant of white roses "We don't have any photos of Jessica because she died when she was still in my tummy. But we spread her ashes in here and as long as this flower grows, part of her will be alive inside of it." Jennifer looked at her "It's okay to be sad about the people we've lost. And it's okay to miss them too." Penina nodded. They smiled at each other through their tears.



The next day at school, when the bell rang signalling the end of break, Penina walked through the corridors holding about five books in her arms against her chest. Jude and Trevor were walking the other way and as they passed, Jude delibirately knocked Penina so that all the books fell out of her arms. Penina glared at Jude but bent down to pick them up while they both laughed at her. All the kids were walking past kicking them on purpose though. Penina quickly gathered up her books but one was missing. She looked around and spotted it.

Her bible lay on the floor at someone's feet. Brenda's hand reached down and picked it up "Is this a bible?" Brenda asked in disbelief.

Penina got to her feet "Give it back to me." She reached for it but Brenda laughed and raised it above her head.

"Jesus freak brought a bible to school today!" Brenda laughed and all her friends joined in. Penina angrily grabbed at it but Brenda threw it to one of her friends.

Penina took a deep breath, trying to calm down "May I please have my bible?" Penina asked the girl politely.

The girl hesitated and held out the bible to her but then snatched it out of the way at the last second. Brenda laughed. Penina reached for it but the girls kept passing it between them. Suddenly Penina and Brenda grabbed it at the same time. There was a brief tug of war and then the rubber band snapped, making the pages of the bible go everywhere.

Penina gasped in horror and dived to the floor, desperately scooping up the loose pages. A crowd gathered, watching and snickering, Jude and Trevor too. Penina looked to Jude for help but he just stood there, watching uncomfortably. Brenda laughed at Penina moving around on all fours "Look at the cute little doggie." Brenda cooed "Is this your collar little doggie?" Brenda reached out and grabbed the ribbon around Penina's neck.

The second that Brenda touched Penina's ribbon, she flew into panic. She screamed, batted Brenda's hand away and sat back screaming her head off. A teacher came running and Trevor put a hand over his mouth so the teacher wouldn't see him laughing. She dragged Penina away and Trevor turned to Jude who was embarrassed "Dude, your sister's a total spaz." He told Jude.

"She's not my sister." Jude hissed.
Sign up to rate and review this story