January 3rd, Tuesday

The Lone

5:00

Solaforma's eyes spring open, still heavy with sleep as she turns over to lay on her side. Her dream was such a surprise, not because it was rare for her to dream and not because she saw that person who was covered head to toe in a deep red shade of hardening liquid. It was because it felt like that other person she saw, the one who looked like her, resembled a far off memory she once had. A memory where she had seen herself with those two different colored eyes. She was covered in droplets of blood at that time. A time from long ago.

She stares through the darkness, keenly aware of the far off footsteps of the head mistress strolling down the hall. She closes her eyes again, the sound of the mistresses shuffling feet becoming louder as she focuses. Somewhere in the first room of the second floor Solaforma can hear her heavy body step on a creaking floorboard. She then hears the click of the room light being turned on and then the sound of girls rustling in their warm blankets. It is accompanied by a set of groans that would do anything to go back to sleep. 

Solaforma opens her eyes once again, the sounds so distance they were no longer audible to her. She slowly brings herself to silently sit up in the darkness for at least a minute before getting out of bed. The mattress lets out a long creak as she distributes her weight from one side to the other. As she does this, her keen sense of hearing can distinguish that the headmistresses footsteps are growing louder. She hastily makes her bed in an attempt to have it done before the old woman who was rather stout and pear shaped entered the room.

The door swings open, creaking lightly on it's hinges before the light switch was flicked on. "Get up now." The Mistress says in a cold steel voice. 

She looks at Solaforma, a shadow casted on the left side of her face, the opposite side of where the lights over head hang from. "Wake them up." She commands with unwavering eyes.

Solaforma obediently nods then looks to the dozen girls who were still rubbing the sand from their eyes before turning over in their beds once again. The youngest girl in the room is only four years old while the oldest girl is nineteen. She worked at the foster home full time in exchange for board and food something only a few of them were able to do.

Solaforma claps her hands so loud almost every girl jerks up annoyed. She did this almost every morning and almost every morning she received the same cruel glares. 

"Let's get ready." She says in her calm mechanical voice.

Some girls pout from the reminder that they have to get up to clean, others obediently leap out of bed beginning to fix their wrinkled sheets and scratchy blankets. 

Solaforma slowly lowers herself to finish making her bed as neatly as humanly possible. She recalls the list of chores she had to complete before going to school then reviewed the list of chores she had to supervise. Scrub the floors, eat breakfast, get dressed, polish every piece of wood, dust or make food for the younger girls. After all that was completed they would clean the windows that were already always spotless.

It was a tedious task, making so many girls clean but if done right the house would be left in a cleaner state then when they first woke up. 

Amades, the nineteen year old glides across the floorboards to Solaforma who pays her no attention but was highly aware of her presence. 

She discreetly places a small envelope onto her pillow and is about to pass her but stops. "Luna, distributed the pay. " She mumbles then glides away.

Luna was the eighteen year old financier of the girls home. She was one out of the three financiers. 

Solaforma unconsciously tilts her head as she inspects the off white paper envelope. It was worth only one week of school meals. She tucks the money into the thin pocket of her nightgown and continues her morning routine.