As Amelia had expected, Noah was the first to jump at the chance, and – also as expected – again dragged his brother with him. Most of the others started to make their way towards the side table. Soon, only Amelia and the ‘new’ girl remained seated. As Amelia looked behind her again, the girl appeared oblivious to her surroundings. Her hands were on her lap, and she was as still as a statue, half hunched over. Amelia turned away again.

 Soon Noah and Brody returned, each carrying a tray with a plate of oatmeal, a glass of milk and some bread on it.

 “You should get yours too! No waitresses here.” Noah winked. He sure was a lively one, she thought.

 As she stood up and started making her way across the room, she noticed Miss Ursula leaning down next to the red-haired girl and saying something to her in a low voice. Then she focused on the side table’s contents before her. There weren’t too many choices to be made. Other than what she saw, the two boys have, there were some fruits. As she was picking up an orange, Rosalie appeared next to her. Close up, she could see that the girl was more than half a head shorter than her. She appeared quite unkempt as well. Her hair looked like it hadn’t been cut by a proper barber. Locks of it seemed to poke out every which way.

 The girl seemed to notice Amelia’s gaze and glanced first at her and then away again. Amelia didn’t want to bother her, so she completed her breakfast tray with a glass of water and headed back to her table. She didn’t have much of an appetite, but as she glanced behind her from her seat again, it appeared that Rosalie had even less of one – she’d only taken a piece of bread and an apple. She’d not even taken a tray. With a shrug, Amelia turned back to her own meal.

 Throughout the day, she encountered the other kids as they, urged by Miss Ursula, came to introduce themselves. The two older girls were called Mary and Jillian. The former was a brunette, while the latter was a blonde. They didn’t seem particularly interested in her. Well, she was much younger after all, she thought. The other two boys, in turn, were Dawson, the older one of them who had nearly black hair, and the younger Michael had light brown hair and wore glasses. None of them said much other than a greeting and their names, their obligation filled to the bare minimum. Pauline also told her age, which was nine, and also asked for hers. They were nearly the same height, but somehow the girl seemed pleased at being the older one. And Rosalie... she’d gone somewhere on her own again, so their official introduction was postponed.

 The mysterious day room Amelia had wondered about turned out to be rather mundane, much like a regular living room. There was a shelf full of books you could read – or even take with you – as well as some toys, board games and other pastimes such as puzzles. She didn’t feel like doing anything in particular, so she mostly observed the others or sometimes just stared out the window. Eventually, she decided to simply return to her room. On her way there, she came across another caretaker. The woman introduced herself as Sandra before carrying on with whatever she had been up to.

 Once back in her room, she retrieved a well-worn, well-loved storybook from her backpack. She’d not unpacked it yet in the morning. With it in her hands, she went to sit on her bed and opened it. She knew the short stories in it by heart – both of her parents had read all of them to her countless times, and she’d read them by herself too once she’d learned how. There was something soothing about these familiar stories in this yet unfamiliar environment.

 However, it turned out that it had to wait. Time had flown, and before she could even choose which story to read, a ringing bell announced it was lunchtime. Of course, Amelia didn’t realise what it was for, but it soon became apparent as Noah came looking for him. This time it really was her that they were waiting for. How embarrassing, she thought.

 The rest of her day passed uneventfully. Noah told her that during the weekend, there usually wasn’t much in the way of organised group activity beyond the meals. During the week, on the other hand, basically all of them normally attended school. Amelia already knew she wouldn’t be going just yet, but that would change at some point in the near future. She idly wondered what she was going to do until then. She was still wondering when the time came to go to sleep again. Time for sleep – and more tears.

 The next day passed much like the previous one. She did start it with a shower, but that aside, not much changed. The others still did little else in the way of talking to her beyond the occasional unenthusiastic greeting. She couldn’t help but think once more that while this might be her home now, it sure didn’t feel like living with family. As such, she wasn’t in the best of moods when the night came again. The darkness fell, and with it the tears.