"Hey, girl! Git yer butt up an' start workin'!"

That's my alarm clock. Every morning.

"Wussa matter? You deaf? Git up!"

I don't.

"Miss yer mommy?" Ms. Silch, the owner of the orphanage, drawls slowly. She knows she's hit a nerve. I clench my fists and swing my legs out of my bed. I face her, a short, plump woman with stringy black hair and an ugly, wrinkled face. I hate that face.

"I let you sleep late. All th' other orphans are downstairs gettin' ready for breakfast."

I glance at the clock. It's five o'clock A.M. I trudge downstairs, still rubbing sleep out of my eyes. I stumble into the kitchen, still pulling on my favorite clothes, a purple-and-blue striped shirt and blue shorts. They're the only things left from when my parents were alive.

"Guess what, Frisk?" I hear a sarcastic voice. "We don't have to have cold mush today!"

My heart lifts, but then changes its mind as Skye, the girl who spoke, says,

"We get warm mush!"

I give a half-hearted "Yaaaaaaaaay" and and plunk myself into a chair.

Poking at my lumpy oatmeal, I listen to the general morning chatter, but I don't join in. I'm thinking. Suddenly, I have an idea.

" We should run away!" I say. The twins, Addison and Ella, lean forward, but another girl, Kate, scoffs.

"And you think none of us have thought of that before? It won't work! Remember what happened to Chara?"

It's like someone's punched me in the gut. Chara was my sister, until… well, she didn't like the orphanage any more than I did. She ran away. Apparently she thought she could find shelter on Mt. Ebott. She was missing for almost a year, and no one could find her until a man found her body on a bed of yellow flowers.

"Yes," I say quietly. "But it's still our only chance. We'll go to Mt. Ebbot, find shelter, stay there for good. Just because Chara failed doesn't mean we will. I know all of us believe in fairy tales-"

"Well, I don't." announces Kate. "I think we're all too old for fairy tales."

Kate is more popular with the other girls than I am, so of course I hear a chorus of "Yeah,"'s, "Me, too,"'s, and a "Go, Kate!".

Well, if no one's coming with me, then I'll go alone. I think.

I run upstairs, leaving the sleep in me behind. When I get to the landing, I see Chara sitting on my bed. Yeah, Chara. After she died, I found myself wondering what it would be like if she was still alive. Then that, added to the fact that I don't really have any friends here, sort of fashioned her into my imaginary friend.

"I'm going to run away." I announce. "Are you with me, or not?"

"Uh… where?" mutters Chara.

"Mt. Ebbot!" I say.

"There?" She asks. I can see panic in her eyes. Oh. I'd forgotten that that that was how she had died.

"We'll be fine," I assure her. "Plus," I add, "You can't die twice!"

I bustle around, gathering my things into a little bag. After a while, I start taking stock.

Food, water, clothes…

"A weapon?" Chara asks. "I don't remember exactly how I died, but I can imagine." She shudders.

"Oh, yeah. Thanks." I try and work up the courage to get a knife from the kitchen, but I don't get very far, because I bump into Ms. Silch.

"Don't you have chores to do?" she says in a low growl.

"Uh… y-yes?" I stammer.

"Then get. To. WORK!"

I scramble over to the bucket, grab a rag out of the water, and start scrubbing the floor. I hate washing the floor, because it's practically made of dirt. I actually come across some woodlice and a couple of maggots. After I finish that, there are dishes to do. Then, I have to fold laundry. Every chore I do, I just get more determined to get out of here, alone or not. By the time I've finished, the sun is low in the sky. I finish packing by dark, and Chara's already awake, because she doesn't sleep.

"Are you coming?" I whisper.

She sighs. "I guess. If you're still set on going, I'm not letting you go alone!"