⇗ Chapter 2

Sabine arrived at Prufrock Prep the next day, and wrinkled her nose at the awful uniform Mr. Poe had forced her to wear.

"I do not look good in gray," she mumbled to herself as she walked to the building where she was supposed to meet the Vice Principal.

Mr. Poe had said that Vice Principal Nero would come out and get her when he was ready to speak to her, so instead of knocking on the man's door, she took a seat on the bench outside his office. She sat there patiently for hours, looking through her commonplace book as she waited to be summoned. Finally, someone approached her, but it was not a member of the school staff, rather a little girl with curly red hair and a very frilly dress.

The girl stomped up to her, her pink dress wrinkling where her arms crossed over her chest. Her nose wrinkled up in disdain. "Who are you?" the girl snapped, her tone loud and rude.

First of all, who are you, and why are you being nasty to me? Sabine thought. She wanted to say it aloud, but figured she should at least try to make a good first impression at this school. Sabine stood up, and held her hand out to the girl. "I'm Sabine Trillian. It's nice to..." She was going to say It's nice to meet you, but so far, it hadn't been nice to meet her, so she just trailed off, keeping her hand extended for a handshake.

But the girl merely sneered at her hand and said, "Follow me, cakesniffer." Then she spun on her heels and marched down a hallway.

Sabine, confused, shot a glance towards the vice principal's door. She was supposed to wait for him to come get her, but maybe this girl knew more about the situation than she did, so she rushed after her down the hallway. The girl gave her a tour of the school, and she listened intently, even writing down a few things that seemed important in her notebook, so she'd remember them later. Once they were finished, they ended up back at the Vice Principal's office.

"This is Vice Principal Nero's office, where you were supposed to be ten minutes ago, so now you're late," the girl said cheerily.

Sabine frowned. "Uh, okay... Thanks, I guess?" She shook her head. Maybe it was just her, but this girl was a disorienting whirlwind, and she didn't quite understand any of what had just happened. It was then she realized she'd never caught the girl's name. "What's your name?" she asked.

The girl frowned and stomped her foot. "Everyone knows I'm Carmelita Spats!" she shrieked.

Sabine took half a step back, wincing at how high the girl's voice had gotten. She seemed like she was about to have a temper tantrum from the way her shoulders were heaving, and Sabine suddenly realized that she must have been incredibly spoiled to react this way over someone not knowing her name. "Well, you didn't tell me that, so-"

"It doesn't matter! You should have known already because I'm the most special girl in the whole wide world!" Carmelita yelled.

Sabine wanted to slap her across the face. Yet, she shoved her hands into her pockets and grit her teeth. Don't cause trouble on your first day, she urged herself. "If you say so," she said simply, figuring that was a safe answer.

Carmelita's nose twitched irritatedly at her, then she spun around and knocked loudly on the Vice Principal's door. The horrible screeching sounds that had been going on inside the room stopped and the door flung open, revealing a man with crazy hair, twisted teeth, and a broken violin.

"What do you want?" the man shouted.

Sabine winced again and took another step back.

"Here's the newest cakesniffer and she's late for her meeting with you, Vice Principal Nero," Carmelita explained sweetly.

"How dare you be late?" Nero screamed. His spit flew into Sabine's face even though she was a good couple of feet away from him.

I hate this place already, Sabine thought as she wiped the sticky spit off her face. "I dare just fine, thank you," she said, a bit angrily.

The Vice Principal seemed taken aback by this, but he composed himself and calmly said, "Well, come inside. I don't have all day."

He stepped back and let Sabine into his office. Once she was inside, he shut the door and played a few screechy, horrible notes on the violin.

Sabine's eye twitched as she resisted the urge to cover her ears. He finished the notes and dramatically whipped the violin bow in Sabine's face. She stepped farther away from him and waited in silence as he looked at her expectantly.

Nothing happened and after a few moments, Nero frowned. "You're supposed to clap for the great violinist," he said.

Sure, when is he getting here? she thought, but didn't say out loud. She remained still, but when it became apparent he wasn't going to move on with the meeting until he got a round of applause, Sabine sighed and lightly clapped her hands together a few times. He took a couple exaggerated bows, stood up and set the violin on his desk, then sat in the desk chair.

"Welcome to the school, blah blah blah. You're an orphan, right?" he said.

Sabine's shoulders slumped. The question had made her already low mood drop even lower. Her parents had died years ago, but she still hadn't quite gotten over it. But, really, how could she? The vice principal didn't need to know all that, though. "Yes," she replied quietly.

"Then you'll live in a shack because you don't have a parent or guardian to sign the permission slips that allow you to live in a dorm," Nero said.

She shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. She had no clue what he meant by that, but at that point, she was too tired to care. "Okay."

"We're getting two new orphans tomorrow, so they'll share the shack with you when they come," Nero said. "They're twins. A girl and a boy."

Sabine nodded again, her gaze drifting away from him and out the window. The sky was overcast and the lawn completely brown. It wasn't a pretty sight. At least I'll have roommates in my... shack, I guess, she thought. Maybe I'll be able to make some new friends in this dismal place?

"Now go to your shack, I need to practice," Nero waved her off and picked up his violin.

~༄~

The shack was worse than Nero had described it. Not only was it small and uninsulated, but the roof had some sort of gross, dripping fungus, and the whole place was infested with crabs. Literal tiny red crabs. How they even made it to the shack, when there was no ocean anywhere nearby, Sabine had no idea. And after having to deal with them pinching her toes for an entire day, she began to wonder if Nero had planted them there on purpose, just to make her miserable.

Along with the fungus and the crabs, the wallpaper of the shack was an ugly green color, and had lots of ugly little hearts all over it, like a tacky valentines day card. But the worst thing, to her, at least, was that she didn't get an actual bed. Instead, she got a bale of hay. No pillow, no blanket, no nothing. Just hay.

The whole first night she stayed in the shack, she didn't get any sleep, because every time she tried, she was interrupted by the dried up hay digging into her skin, crab claws snapping at her toes, and fungus dropping onto her face.

The next morning, when she heard the bell signaling the start of the school day, she couldn't have been happier to go to class, despite the fact she was worried she might get a repeat of the last time she tried to go to class. Carmelita Spats apparently was a student, too, and she loved to make fun of everyone. Particularly the new kids. Still, Sabine raced out of the shack and quickly headed to her first class.

As she slipped in the room and sat down at her desk, a familiar face walked through the door. Sabine's eyes widened in delight and confusion as she said, "Isadora?"

Isadora looked around for a moment, trying to find who had said her name.

"Izzie!" Sabine shrieked excitedly, bolting up from her seat to give her friend a hug.

"Sabine?" Isadora was just as bewildered as Sabine as she hugged her back.

They pulled away and looked at each other, both grinning. Sabine didn't understand why Isadora was suddenly going to Prufrock, too, but it was really nice to see her. "What are you doing here?" she asked with a giggle.

Isadora's smile quickly fell. Her striking green eyes dulled and glossed over, and she looked away from Sabine, softly taking a step back. "I, uh... I'll tell you later," she mumbled.

Sabine's heart suddenly constricted, and her stomach began to hurt. What happened? Why is she sad? She wanted to ask these questions, but knew that soon the teacher, Mrs. Bass, would be there, and would yell at them for not being in their seats.

Softly, she took Isadora's hand and led her to her desk, which thankfully had an empty desk right next to it. They sat down right as the teacher walked in, just narrowly avoiding getting lectured.

"Settle down, students," Mrs. Bass as she took her spot behind her desk. "Please welcome our newest orphan."

Sabine gave a confused look as everyone shot looks in her general direction. She had already been introduced as the newest orphan yesterday, after her meeting with Nero.

It took her a moment to realize that she was not the one being stared at. Every single person in the room was staring directly at Isadora.

She quickly turned to her friend and saw Isadora had sunk low in her chair, hanging her head and biting on her lip the way she did when she was trying not to cry.

Mrs. Bass started talking about the metric system, but Sabine paid no attention. She quietly tore a page out of her journal and scribbled a note on it.

Izzie, what happened?

She passed the note to Isadora, who read it and scribbled something back.

Fire.

Sabine read the word and suddenly got flashbacks to her own parent's death. She remembered the officer taking her to see the remains of her house. The firefighters were still there, still trying to put out the blaze. The scene still haunted her at night. She hadn't slept a full night without nightmares ever since the fire.

Sabine dropped the paper on her desk in shock, trying to calm her breathing and shake the awful scene out of her head. Then she realized that she hadn't seen Duncan or Quigley, so she wrote another note on the page.

Are your brothers okay?

She passed the note to Isadora, but Isadora didn't need to pass the note back for Sabine to know that something horrible had happened to one or both of her siblings. The tears in Isadora's eyes were a clear giveaway, and they stung Sabine harder than they stung her friend.

Sabine took Isadora's hand again and gave it a little squeeze of comfort. She knew this wouldn't be enough to make her friend feel better, but she hoped it would help at least a little bit. Isadora took a deep breath and wiped her tears away, then handed the note back to Sabine.

Duncan is fine.

Sabine read the note and quietly gasped. Isadora hadn't included what happened to Quigley in the note, but Sabine assumed the worst. She didn't probe Isadora any farther though. She knew it would hurt her too much, especially so soon after her brother's death.

Sabine turned to Isadora and mouthed, "I'm sorry," then gave her hand another squeeze.

Isadora smiled sadly and mouthed back, "Thanks."

"Mrs. Bass!" someone screamed. "The orphans are talking in class!"

Sabine immediately recognized the awful, squeaky voice as the horrendous Carmelita Spats. She took a deep breath to keep herself from standing up and throwing her notebook directly at the face of the irritating little girl.

Mrs. Bass spun around and glared angrily at Sabine and Isadora. "Why are you talking in class?" she snapped.

"They were passing notes!" Carmelita supplied.

"Give the note to me, now!" Mrs. Bass said, holding out her hand to the girls.

Sabine shot an apologetic glance at Isadora, then handed the crumpled up paper to Mrs. Bass.

The teacher opened the note and read the whole thing out loud to the class. Sabine could see tears silently falling down Isadora's face as she tried to slide farther down in her chair.

"No one cares about if her brothers are okay or not!" Carmelita shouted.

Isadora's face turned pink from embarrassment as Carmelita started chanting, "Cakesniffing orphans passing notes in class!"

Soon almost the whole class joined in on the chant, banging their rulers on their desks. Some kids started throwing balled up papers at the girls. Isadora tried to dodge the papers, but Sabine had lost her temper, and threw them back at the kids. She could deal with people insulting her, but she would not stand for anyone making her best friend cry.

"Miss Trillian!" Mrs. Bass loudly said, pointing her yard stick at Sabine. "We do not throw things at students in this class. Detention!"

"What? But what about all the kids who were throwing stuff at me?" Sabine asked in frustration.

"You are the one who started it. Miss Quagmire, you have detention as well," Mrs. Bass said.

Sabine planted her palms on the desk. "That's not fair! Isadora didn't do anything!"

"Extra detention for talking back!" Mrs. Bass smacked her yard stick on Sabine's desk. The metal of the stick hit Sabine's fingers and caused her to draw her hands back in pain.

The class had fallen silent by now as Mrs. Bass glared harder at everyone. "Anybody else want detention?" she asked sharply.

Nobody spoke up.

~༄~

An hour later, class was dismissed and Sabine started to guide Isadora to the cafeteria. They met up with Duncan in the hallway, and he was silent for a moment until he saw the tear streaked face of his sister.

He still didn't say anything, just gave her a side hug and loosely held her hand as they walked down the hall.

"Hi, Duncan," Sabine said quietly.

"Hi," he replied tiredly. He had dark bags under his eyes, and his face seemed almost hollow.

Sabine wasn't as close to Duncan as she was to Isadora, so there was no joyful reunion this time. Still, she gave his hand a quick squeeze, expressing her sympathy for what had happened, though she didn't exactly know all the details.

They walked into the cafeteria and collected their trays full of some gray mush that the faculty called "lunch."

All three students wrinkled their noses in disgust as they found a seat near the back of the cafeteria. Isadora pushed her tray away and dropped her head onto the table.

"Sorry for getting us detention, Iz," Sabine said.

Duncan's eyes widened. "Seriously? First day of school and you already have detention?"

Sabine sighed, "It wasn't Isadora's fault."

"What happened?" Duncan asked.

Sabine re-capped the scene as she gently rested her arm over Isadora's shoulders.

"And no one else got detention?" Duncan asked, horrified, once Sabine had finished explaining.

"Nope," she sighed. Isadora sat up and Sabine dropped her arm.

"I hate it here," she whispered, her voice breaking.

"Me too." Sabine nodded.

"Is this even edible?" Duncan asked as he poked his tray of gray mush with his plastic fork.

"Yeah, but it tastes like concrete." Sabine wrinkled her nose again.

Isadora gave a pitiful laugh and poked her own pile of mush. "It even looks like concrete."

"And that, my dear friends, is why I have decided to keep candy in my jacket pocket." Sabine discreetly passed each of her friends a Jolly Rancher.

Isadora and Duncan's faces lit up as they popped the candy into their mouths.

~༄~

"Detention is where bad little girls go when they throw things at students, pass notes, and talk back to their teachers," Mrs. Bass said as she paced in front of Sabine and Isadora.

They were the only two in detention, and they both sighed as Mrs. Bass forced them to measure pointless objects and write the measurements down.

Detention lasted for hours, and by the time Mrs. Bass finally released them, the sky was pitch black. No stars poked through the thick clouds, which only put more of a damper on the girl's moods.

They walked quietly out of Mrs. Bass' room and found Duncan waiting in the hallway for them, sitting criss-cross on the floor with his back against the wall. He was writing something down in his notebook.

"Have you been sitting there the whole time?" Isadora asked her brother.

He looked up and sighed. "Yeah. Carmelita is forcing me to write an article for the school paper on how, and I quote, 'Amazingly beautiful and talented and pretty and adorable and pink and sparkly,' she is."

Sabine couldn't stifle her laughter as Duncan banged the back of his head in the wall in exasperation. Isadora giggled quietly with her, glancing down at her brother and into his green journal.

"I see all you've done is draw a picture of a witch?" she observed.

"Yes. That witch is Carmelita," Duncan said, showing Sabine his drawing as well. All three kids broke into a laughing fit as they began stumbling to the Orphan's Shack.

Sabine was laughing so much at Duncan's very cartoony and animated drawing of Carmelita as a witch, with warts and a long scraggly nose, that she didn't even notice the crabs on the floor of the shack as she fell onto her bale of hay.

Duncan and Isadora flopped down on the hay bales next to her and laughed so hard that their sides ached. They calmed down after a few minutes, then sat up and smiled at each other.

"It feels good to laugh again," Isadora said quietly.

"Yeah, I think I've only cried these past few days," Duncan replied with a sigh.

"I've only cried these past few years," Sabine said, copying Duncan's sigh. Isadora gave Sabine a side hug and they smiled sadly at each other.

The kids sat in silence for a while, then Duncan said, "It's late, we should probably get some sleep."

The girls nodded their agreement, and drifted off to a restless sleep on the uncomfortable hay bales.

𝔼𝕟𝕕 𝕠𝕗 ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣