The next morning, Tayoncé awoke to a room that was not her own. An ache was pounding and her body felt as if it had been through a washing machine. With great difficulty, she forced her eyes open and sat up, staying still for a few moments to let the fog that clouded her brain to clear.

Looking around, she saw that the room she had been placed in was painted a blank white, with colorful decor lining the walls and colors rimming the furniture like the mirror and lamp posts. The walls were clean with no hint of withering like back home, and so were the bed sheets—and that it was an actual bed and not her cot anymore. The room didn't have a slight dank smell lingering...but that smell was always near Darla's room, and Tayoncé almost never went there.

At first Tayoncé had began to panic at her new surroundings but then the memories of yesterday hit her like a load of bricks. She remembered finally moving in with Mayonna and her mother arranging a court meeting for her adoption and abuse weeks ago. She remembered two strangers taking her in, what she guessed—no matter how astonishing it was—in some kind of time travel vehicle. She remembered those same two strangers revealing that now in this near future, that her best friend and her kind mother perished in a fire.

All this came crashing down on her, and the tears were not far behind.

Has all that really just happened in the last day?

Tayoncé curled into herself, bringing her knees as close to her chest as she could without causing the pain in her back to come back.

She forgot she fell hard yesterday as well. That didn't help with what sleeping on a cot for months on end does too.

And what about Esperanza, the baby she found abandoned in an alley?

Her friend was dead and the one person she had perhaps saved was probably gone too. What was she to do now? Tayoncé was completely alone, stuck in a time that was not her own. She was abandoned.

She was trapped.

Tayoncé was alone, trapped, and isolated. Everything and everyone was so foreign now, even the walls seemed weird and to glow slightly but that was probably a trick of her own eyes.

Tayoncé squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head furiously before burying it her folded arms atop her knees.

She was stuck in a strange world and had no way of getting home.

She didn't even try stopping the tears that cascaded down her face.

In the rest of the house, the Robinsons were caring on their day as if nothing was out of the ordinary. It was a Monday so Lazlo, Tallulah, Billy, and Gaston were out doing...whatever it is they did. It's funny that no one knew, and Franny could only speculate.

Like herself, her brother liked his privacy and she respected that. Everyone in the family has their own boundaries that are…mostly kept.

Franny knew that Wilbur was in school and Art was at work in this time of the hour, and the rest were either working as well or also minding his or her own business. Earlier, Franny had been composing the next song her amphibian band would play at the gala downtown, but she was now circling the halls.

She bit her knuckle nervously as she walked down another random hallway. She was caught in a predicament. The owner of the city's concert hall had given her a deal that would allow her frogs to play for their first big gig. After years of research and training, an opportunity was finally arising and she couldn't be happier and her thanks couldn't have been quick enough. The problem was that she didn't know if she could go through with it, the deal. More precisely, she was afraid to.

If she had been any more deep in thought, Franny would have missed the muffled sounds from the guest room. It was the room that Tallulah's friend was using for the time being, she had been told by Gaston. Franny had become concerned for the poor girl since her graceless incident last night during dinner. And then after finding out that she had fainted, Franny refused to allow the girl to rest anywhere but here at the house where she could keep a close eye.

The mother paused in front of the tall blue door and the more she listened, the more she was sure of those faint sounds. She pressed her ear to the door and sure enough, the sound of sobs was so faint, one could have easily missed it. She knocked on the door, unknowingly making girl inside jump.

"Morning," she called, trying to sound happy. "Are you okay in there..?"

Tayoncé wiped her face and just stared at the door. She wasn't sure how to answer that.

Franny didn't get an answer.

She sighed before asking in a low, calm voice, "may I come in?"

Again, no answer but she did hear the bed creak as Tayoncé moved inside.

Franny opened the door slowly as not to spook her.

There was a window right next to the bed and Franny could see a pair birds in a tree nearby.

The girl was sitting up in bed and her knees were drawn to her chest, face rested atop folded caramel arms. She refused to look at Franny and instead continued staring out the window, not focusing on anything in particular.

"How are you feeling," Franny asked, taking a slow step closer.

This time she did get an answer—the girl only shrugged slightly.

"Is your stomach okay?" she asked. "Are you dizzy? You feel hungry? I know it's almost the afternoon..."

Franny had reached out her hand to feel the girl's forehead but recoiled, remembering that she didn't know this child. Franny looked to the floor. She had let her mother-mode switch on and didn't mean to bombard the guest with questions.

"I'm sorry..."

When she looked up, Tayoncé was staring at her.

Franny almost stuttered. "May I sit?" she motioned to the empty space near the foot of the bed.

Tayoncé didn't answer and after seconds of her continued staring, Franny sat anyway.

"Tayoncé, was it?" The mother asked, hoping she hadnt gotten the name wrong.

The girl nodded but refused to speak. She saw Franny's look soften and her hand reach for her shoulder. Tayoncé began to shrink away out of habit, making Franny hesitate, but stopped remembering the hospitality the woman had shown her the day before. She remained rigid as Franny held her cheek softly.

"You look pale, honey."

Her tone of voice made Tayoncé uncomfortable. It was weird and unknown and she couldn't put a finger on it.

"You haven't eaten anything, have you?" Franny realized. She stood up before motioning to the small girl. "Come, let's fix you something to eat," she smiled.

She was glad that Tayoncé followed her out the room and down the stairs without a word.

Franny resisted the urge to shudder. The look she had seen in that girl's eyes was one she had only seen on some who had been homeless when she was younger, before the poverty rate all but diminished. It was a look of hopelessness, a dead stare of someone who had given up on everything and probably in such a deep hole. To Franny, the look should not belong to a child. There was no other young person whom she had so vividly seen such adversity and regret in those eyes.

I've went over this story and rewritten it, corrected bad grammar and hopefully made it decent to read.

I'm now at a crossroads with this story. I'm not really sure where to go with this right now and need opinions on what to do. What should happen next? Who do you want to see? I don't have any ideas and that's why I'm asking you all. That and also that it helps lots to have suggestions.

Now please don't scroll back up. You've read this far and if you truly like this story and want it to continue please message me, type a short review, tell me something. I need to know so I know what you all think. And if you've had enough time to read this, then you have enough decency in you to take a few seconds to type a review. Again, it would mean SO MUCH and help A LOT if I can get suggestions on what to happen now because I pretty much have NO idea.