Shelly was at a table and staring at the food that was on her plate. There were four eggs, two over easy and two hard boiled, toast with sweet and creamy butter on top, and three strips of bacon. She would normally eat after ten minutes had passed - she needed to relax her body, her muscles in general, and let her stomach build up its hunger because of her anxiety disorder - but she did not feel hungry today.

She rested her head in one of her hands and held her fork with the other hand, poking at her over easy eggs. The yellow yolks soon broke free from the eggs and began oozing out and spread over the rest of the food and plate. Shelly was never worried about her yolk touching other foods. She loved yolk and would dip almost any breakfast food in it.

But she did not care this morning.

She kept convincing herself that she would be hungry once she saw the delicious food. She thought that her stomach would growl like crazy as soon as her favorite foods hit her plate. But it was no use.

It was worse when there was not at least one person sitting with her. Frank would always sit with her, and Ms. Jane would sometimes sit with her during lunch, for she was busy in the morning and in the evening. Those two people were gone now. Ms. Jane quit her job, and she and Frank were no longer friends.

Speaking of Frank, where was he?

The girl noticed the new mistress from the corner of her eye and quickly chopped one of her over easy eggs into pieces. She then, trying her best to not gag, scooped up a small piece with her fork and shoved it into her mouth. She slowly chewed and forced herself to swallow. She put down her fork and let out a cough, sticking out her tongue.

"Shelly? Why is your tongue out of that mouth of yours?"

Shelly became startled by the voice and looked up. Mrs. Hopper was standing next to her, and a clipboard was under her arm.

The mistress put her hands on the table. "What are you doing?" she demanded.

The girl gulped. "Uh..."

"Answer me."

"E-eating..."

"Do not stammer. I hate stammering." She squinted at her. "We need to have a little chat. You and I."

"And...what would that be?"

"I just want to let you know that there will be some changes around here."

"What kinds of changes?"

Mrs. Hopper slowly took her hands off the table. "Well, for starters, I want you and every orphan who lives in this darn orphanage to stop mentioning Ms. Jane. She was fired, and that means that she was not good enough."

Shelly was mad at what she had to say about Ms. Jane. "You—" She was interrupted by the rude mistress.

"Did I tell you to talk? No. I did not." She rubbed her fingers. "I also want to add that I will never hurt you physically. That does not mean that you will not get discipline like every orphan here. You most certainly will. It just means that I will not injure you in any way. Smack you. Hit you. I will never do those things."

"Oh." She was surprised by this. "Okay..."

"One more thing..." She paused, and then continued. "Do you know someone by the name of Frank?"

"Frank? Yes. We are...I mean...we used to be friends..."

"Ah. Then you will be happy to hear that he is gone."

"Huh? Gone?"

"He is no longer at this orphanage. He was adopted early this morning by a man. A single man."

"What?" The girl tried holding back tears. "He...he did not even say goodbye to me..."

"Why should that matter to you? You two are not friends anymore."

"Yeah...but..."

"Shush!" The mistress put a finger over her blue lips. "Enough with the talking. You need to eat." With that, she left the lonely orphan and chatted with some other kids.

Shelly sniffed. Tears streamed down her cheeks, now red, and she stood up and picked up her plate of food. She needed to hurry to her room and talk with Slappy before everybody noticed that she was crying.

She went over to a trash bin and tilted her plate towards it. She watched as the wasted food slid off the plate and fell into the bin. More tears formed in her eyes and slithered down her face. She wiped them away with her arm and placed the plate on a stack where dirty plates go. Her body began shaking.

"Oh, no. My anxiety. I am about to have a panic attack."

The orphan was about to leave the cafeteria, when someone gripped her shoulder. She spun around and gasped.

"No."

"Yes."

Standing by her were her bullies. Three of them, and they were all males. The lead bully had a hold on her shoulder.

"Look who we found," the lead bully said. The other bullies laughed.

Shelly jerked away and frowned at them. "Leave me alone. I have already suffered enough."

"Oh, really?" Simon said. He had blonde hair and was wearing a gray hoodie, black pants, and black shoes. His hands were in the pockets of his hoodie. "And why are you back? Did your new family not accept you? Again?"

"No! I—"

"I bet that they did," Jason cut in. He had black hair and wore a red hoodie, gray pants, and tennis shoes. "It is because she is useless and a crybaby."

"That is not true!"

"It is true," Morgan told her. He was the leader. He had dark brown hair and wore a blue sweater, black shorts, and white shoes. "Face the facts!" He then punched her.

"Ah!" She stumbled back and held the side of her face.

"You should not have done that."

The lights flickered off.

"You do not mess with my bride."