A/N: This is a story about a girl from the Industrial Revolution(around 1903) going to ME. This will not be a Mary sue and it will have a few twists to it. She isnt going to be some worshiped Lady or anything like that. : )

Disclaimer: I own everything in this chapter.

Margaret White walked the crowded streets of New York. People bustled about, shouting or working. A women dragged a crying child behind her, telling him to quiet down.

Margaret looked with hunger to the venders with carts of fruits and vegetables. Noticing one vender with their head turned to a customer, she quickly stuff an apple in her dress, and headed in the other direction.

She knew it was wrong to steal, but was too hungry to care. Margaret had been working in a threading factory all day. Her eyes still her from the lack of light. Her lungs still burned from the dust and lint filling the building. Her breath was uneven as she breathed in clean air for the first time in twelve hours. And her dress had become torn, again. She knew that she appeared to be wearing rags, but that wsant uncommon.

Margaret mentally scolded herself for thinking about work. It didnt matter now, she thought, I dont have to go back for a while. I am done for the day. She smiled to herself as she entered the tenement building. Today, she could give her mother the apple.

As Margaret walked through the building, she looked at the people around her. Many were sleeping on the floor in the hall. One person was vomiting out the window. Children could be heard crying, and people fighting with one another. 'This is my home,' she thought to herself.

" Ma!" she called as the walked through another door.

This was their apartment. Margaret and her mother shared it with a family of five. There was no furniture. All they had was a few tattered blankets that they used as a bed. She sometimes felt that it would be nice to have a room just for her and her mother, but scoffed at that idea. She knew that they were lucky to have a room at all.

" I brought an apple," she whispered, touching her mothers head slightly. Her mother made no response.

Margaret sighed, and turned away. For the past week, her mother had been sick with influenza. She worried that her mother would never recover.

Yes, Margaret thought to herself as she settled down to go to sleep, this is my life.

" Ma!" said Margaret walking through the doorway.

Today had been a good day for Margaret. Her boss had actually given her a dollar extra with her pay. That meant that Margaret was able to buy some more food.

" Ma!" she called happily as she sat down, " Look, Ma! I brought some bread! Ma!"

Margarets smile slowly disappeared from her face. She put her hand on her mothers forehead, but instead of feeling the intense heat she had felt all weak, her mothers head was cold.

" Ma," she said again in a whisper. She shook her mother slightly, hoping beyond anything that there would be a response, but there was none.

" MA!" she screamed as she shook her mother harder. She felt hands on her shoulder, pulling her away from her mother.

" No!" she screamed again, pulling away from the hands, "Ma! Wake Up! She is just sleeping. Wake up!"

" She is dead, little girl," said a mans voice, " This space needs to be filled for people who can actually live. Now get out of the way."

Margaret watched in a stunned silence as a few men picked up her mothers body, and carried it out of the room.

"Wheres ya father, girly?" asked the man.

" I dont have one,"she said meekly.

" Well ya aint staying here. Its off to the orphanage with you," he said in a gruff voice.

A little while later, Margaret found herself speaking with a woman who ran the Golden Gardens Orphanage For Girls.

" There will be no going outside other than to work. You are forbidden from seeing any visitors unless they wish to adopt you. I will assign you a bed and floor. You will never leave that floor unless you are to work. Any meals will be taken on your bed. If you are caught stealing another childs food, you will be thrown out into the street. If you break any other rules, I will send you to the mines. And believe me, they are not pleasant. Any questions?"

" No," said Margaret. She had heard about the mines. No clean air and hard work. She had seen the marks of a club or whip the people in charge had used on some of the other children in the tenement building.

" Good. This is your floor, and you shall sleep there."

Margaret looked at the bed before her. In it, were two other children. The bed was really only for one person. All around her, were children her age. They were packed onto the beds, some on the floor. Sighing, she sat down next to the other two girls. One of them, she realized, was crying.

" What is wrong?" she asked softly. The child was silent and made no response.

" She misses her sister," said the other girl. The girl sat, sucking on a lock of dirty brown hair. Margaret noticed that some of her teeth were missing.

" The mistress wont let Eva see her," she said, " She is on the other floor. My name is Laura."

" Im Margaret."

For a while the girls talked. Supper came and went. Margaret got to eat a slice of bread and some broth. But even that wore off as a distraction, and Margaret began to sob. ' I miss you Ma,' she thought to herself, ' I dont want to be here! This place is so horrible! I cant even play outside! And I am so scared of the mines, Ma! I dont want to ever go there! Please help me! '

After many tears, Margaret finally fell asleep.

A/N: Ok, next chapter will be more about Middle Earth and such. And, yes, I know it seems a bit rushed. Sorry for any errors! Review if you have any comments to make.