MADISON'S P.O.V.

Our teacher, Mr. Thorndike, was the worst teacher in the school, and unfortunately for me, my sister, and some of our classmates, we were stuck with him.

This portion of our story will not make sense to you if I do not introduce ourselves. I am Madison, and my twin sister is named Madeline. We have the same long, brown hair and the same faces. The only way that people can tell us apart are by the clothes that we wore. My favorite color is green, so I wore a shirt with pink and green stripes. Madeline's favorite color is blue, so she wore a shirt with pink and blue stripes.

You might be thinking that I forgot to mention our last name or our writer was too lazy to add it in. You would be wrong. The reason that our last name is a mystery is because it is a mystery to us. We do not have last names. We also do not have parents.

Madeline and I were only toddlers when we were taken away from our mother and father and placed in the Forlot orphanage. Of course, we were too young to understand why, but as we grew older, we put the pieces together.

Mom and Dad were not good parents. Heck, they did not even try to be a decent mother and father. They smoked and took supplements that they were addicted to and abused me and my sister. The place where we lived was no better. Cigarette buds were on the floor, and our very small apartment had roaches and scorpions - yes, scorpions - crawling all around. Because of the careless behavior that our parents had for us, Madeline and I got sick.

Both of us suffer from asthma, so you can imagine how difficult it was for us to breathe and fall asleep with smoke claiming every inch of the apartment. It reached the point where I had to contact the hospital because Madeline was unconscious and not breathing. Thank the Lord from above that the paramedics arrived in time and were able to save her.

You would think that our mom and dad would be sorry for almost killing Madeline and change their habits and attempt to be better parents. Nope. It was painfully obvious that they cared more about themselves rather than their own children. The evidence that was provided to us by the mistress who ran the orphanage proved that Mom and Dad considered us nothing more than mistakes.

Madeline teared up. "Why would they believe that we are mistakes?"

The mistress gently patted Madeline's hand. "You and your sister are far from mistakes," she said softly. "You two are bright and beautiful girls, and anyone who tells you otherwise is a moron."

My sister and I giggled, and the mistress continued.

"The main reason that your folks call you mistakes is because you were unexpected. Your father and mother were irresponsible back then, and your mother became pregnant with the two of you. Both she and your father were devastated because they did not want kids."

Madeline and I always wondered what Forlot would be like if we did not exist. The answer can be summed up in one word, and that "magical" word is "doomed." Without us, Forlot would have been a goner.

Our story began when Mr. Thorndike was out of character. We and our classmates were on time and sitting up straight in our seats. Madeline and I sat next to each other, and I had my hands clasped in my lap. There was no sign of Mr. Thorndikde. He was late for class. This was unusual for him because he was always either early or on time.

Madeline leaned over to me and whispered, "Where is Mr. Thorndike?"

"I have no clue," I whispered back. "Why are we even whispering? He is not here yet."

Just then, an adult skipped into the classroom. It was Mr. Thorndike. He was wearing one of his suits that was as clean as a whistle and smiling. Though, it was not one of his wicked smiles. His eyes darted to each and every student, and he took off his glasses and wiped them using his shirt sleeve. That was not like him at all. He always carried around a cloth in his back pocket so he would have it when he needed it. Why was he using his sleeve instead of the cloth?

"Good morning, my lovely students," he greeted. "I have had a change of heart and realized that I have not been unfair to you kids. So I decided that we would take a break today and have a pizza party with games."

Everybody except me and my sister clapped and cheered. One of the students said, "That is why my mom told me to not eat breakfast."

"The pizza is in the lunchroom," Mr. Thorndike explained. "We will head to the lunchroom in just a minute. I have presents that I need to give to Madison and Madeline."

Madeline and I looked at each other, and then back at him. Did he say what I think that he said?

Mr. Thorndike would never hand out gifts to his students, especially to me and my twin sister. He absolutely despised us the most for some reason and would bully us when no other adults were around and let our classmates know that if they told anybody that he was bullying us, he would fail them so hard that he would put them back in preschool.

Like I said, Madeline and I had no idea why our teacher hated us. He would constantly tell us how useless we were and that we would never be part of a real family because no one loved us. Luckily, we were smart enough to know that those were lies. We were loved and would be adopted...one day.

Anyway, Mr. Thorndike handed us our presents. Madeline opened hers - and screamed.