Royal awoke to a small hand shaking her shoulder. She batted the hand away tiredly, her face still shoved into the pillow. The hand shook her once more and when royal didn't respond, a tiny foot began to kick her roughly.

"Wake up! It's the bell. The jockers are gonna kill you if you are late."

Royal smiled to herself at the little one's familiar vocabulary. She turned on to her back and stared into the wide eyes of a small boy who must have just woken for his hair was sticking up on end.

"We got an hour ta float, kid." She mumbled to the boy, pulling the blanket up to her eyes, blocking out the sunlight that was flowing into the room from a small window.

He looked at her confused and royal decide to rephrase.

"We just got here, we don't gotta be up till 8:30, now shove off alright?"

The boy nodded and scurried off, without having taken any offense to her rude comment.

She rolled back to her stomach, burying her head in the soft pillow and waiting for sleep to over come her once more.

Royal woke about an hour later though this time by Skittery. He was still under the blankets, nudging her with his elbow and muttering under his breath that they should probably start getting up.

Royal dragged herself off the cot and slowly stood up from the floor, gathering her clothes into a pile and heading towards the washroom.

The rest of the children were down stairs having breakfast or already off to their lessons so royal assumed the stalls would be empty. It would not make a difference if they weren't. No one on this floor would know her. Now that she thought of it, most kids in the orphanage didn't know her. After all she did not talk to people unless they talked to her first.

Skittery followed her out of the room, walking in the opposite direction once they got into the hall. His hair was disheveled and the first 4 buttons of his long johns had come undone during the night, revealing a portion of his muscled chest. He carried his clothes on his shoulder as if they were his papes and once more royal was over come with guilt.

She took refuge in one of the stalls, carelessly slipping on her dress and pulling up her thick stockings. She finished tying up her last boot and stumbled out of the small stall. She brushed her hair and tied in a half ponytail as usual, her hands slipping clumsily as she tied off the bow.

Skittery was waiting for her outside, leaning against the wall and lazily fiddling with the straps of his suspenders.

They started to descend the narrow stairs going down to the first floor, in silence. Skittery finally spoke,

"so… ah when do ya want ta start our rebellions?" he asked, smirking.

He seemed to have more energy today, probably because of the extra two hours of sleep. Kloppman usually woke them up at 5 every morning so that they would have time for a quick breakfast.

She shrugged, "when were you thinkin'?"

He shrugged as well. "Maybe at da end of dis week… ya know… give em sometime ta act real bad ta us… so when we do knock em out," he punched the wall of the stairwell in a demonstration, "dey can regret ever bein bitchy ta us… ya know… to give us some evidence ta support our case."

He waited for her approval.

"That sounds good." She nodded, in agreement.

They reached the first floor of the building and Skittery looked around puzzled as to which way to go. Royal turned him towards the corridor behind the staircase and mostly hidden from view. It looked exactly the same as the other two halls though its positioning made it very awkward.

They strolled down the corridor, Skittery checking his pocket watch as he did so.

"We still gots a couple minutes." He reported to her.

"Yeah, but we gotta tell the secretary we're here or else Mrs. Muller will think we're late."

He looked at her in bewilderment, waiting for her to explain.

"Mrs. Muller…well she gets mad when your late… so just to be on the safe side…" her voice trailed off as they approached the door marked office.

Skittery opened it kindly for royal and she stepped inside, thanking his as she did so.

The office was quite large with one great window displaying an unattractive alleyway on the left. Skittery looked about the room as royal talked with the secretary; an uptight woman in her 30s. The room contained one desk and about 10 chairs, all neatly lined up to the right of a large oak door that read Muller.

The woman at the desk motioned for Skittery and royal to sit in two of the 10 chairs, some of which were already occupied with kids.

The kids looked to be about their age though royal associated with none of them. She thought about how unsocial she must seem to Skittery though corrected herself before she could finish her thoughts; she was unsocial. Skittery didn't seem to notice anyway so what did it matter.

Skittery reached over royal and took a newspaper out of a bookrack to her left. He leafed through it, finally letting the pages rest on a bold article.

"Hmm… Brooklyn thieves strike again. I'm sure spots having fun with that." he chuckled almost to himself.

"If he isn't one of them," royal added in humorously.

Skittery looked the article up and down once more, glancing at royal, before looking back down at the article.

"What?" she asked hollowly.

"Large mob of thieves take Brooklyn by surprise in another attempt to drain borough of all wealth." His voice was calm and cooled while his headline was so outrageous, royal had to muffle a loud laugh.

He went on to the next article on the opposite page that read wife found guilty of brutally killing husband after nasty fight. He paused for a moment before creating his own headline,

"Wife convicted of massacring abusive husband after viciously raping him."

Royal let out a snort like giggle and placed her hands over mouth to stifle the noise she was creating. Skittery chuckled to himself as well. The secretary glared at them from behind her paper work. Skittery waved pleasantly at the irritated woman, making royal fall in to another fit of giggles. The woman looked down at her work once more, clucking her tongue disapprovingly.

Just then the door opened and a boy, who looked to be about 15 stepped out of Mrs. Muller's room, muttering angrily under his breath. He gestured for Skittery and royal to go in before sharply leaving the room, slamming the door behind him. Royal watched him go before getting up to enter the room.