The Doll Girl [discontinued and horribly cringey]

Chapter Fifteen: Home?

The dining hall was noisy, and it generally had a cheerful air. The young ones were happily tucking into a dessert of banana cream pie, and the supervisors, teachers and regular adults were chatting over platters of fruits- staying healthy was essential.

The Head leaned back in her chair, thoughtfully surveying the girls. Of course, they seemed satisfied with this place. But in their hearts, the Head knew, they were terrified. Terrified of their future, and they had good reason. The Head herself had been once a little girl called Magnolia, with human parents, and when she' d been recruited and told the truth about herself she had been shocked and horrified.

But that was all a long time ago. Now Magnolia had grown, and she was in her late fifties (although she didn't look it) - which was an unusual and rare age for any of her kind to reach- and she was wiser and not at all scared of what she would soon become. She was no longer Magnolia; she was the respected Head. Magnolia was forgotten, but the Head did not care... now she was loved and looked up to by the young ones as well as the adults in their home. Magnolia was no longer needed, for in her place was a proud and intelligent leader.

The Head looked to one of the long, wooden tables. There sat the new one. Brooklyn Willow. She appeared awkward and uncomfortable in this new environment. Just like Magnolia.

~~~~~~

Brook laughed nervously. The girl's joke hadn't made sense, but the rest of the girls had laughed heartily, so Brook pretended she'd understood it, and echoed their chuckles.

"You didn't really get that, did you?" asked a dark-haired girl on Brook's right.

"No," admitted Brook.

"You'll fit right in soon, though. It took me a while, but I think you should be liking this pretty good soon." The girl- Esther, if she remembered correctly- talked quickly but very clearly.

"Is it true that we stay frozen forever instead of dying?" Brook blurted suddenly.

Several girls who had heard giggled. "No, sometimes the recruiters just say that to scare you," replied the one who'd made the confusing joke.

Another girl explained, "When you get old you get kinda numb. To emotions and pain. Then you start to shrink a little. Once you've shrunk completely, your limbs go stiff and you eventually can't move anything but your eyes... Then after a very long time- I think ten years at most- the spirit goes out of you."

"Does it hurt?" Another question came tumbling out of her mouth. Brook thought furiously, "Why can't I just keep my fat mouth shut? They all probably think I'm really stupid now."

But thankfully the rest of the girls thought no such thing. They had all been new here once, and had not forgotten the ignorance they'd possessed then.

Esther opened her mouth to answer, but another person beat her to it.

A yellow-haired girl who looked slightly older said loftily, "We're not supposed to tell you everything. You'll learn all that in your classes."

"We have classes on everything we have to know. They're definitely different from school; they're a little bit interesting sometimes and they don't teach us junk we don't need to know here," explained the girl on Brook's left. "We have Staying Fit, Powers and Training, History, and Numbing. Staying Fit is the worst, and History's really dull, but everyone likes Powers and Training."

"Oh. So in Powers and Training, you learn how to use your powers?" guessed Brook.

Well, obviously, it was, but she had to seem interested or the girls would interpret the reason for lack of interest as boredom with them. Naturally, after such a long day- had it just been today that Seraphina Gideon had come to school?- she was tired and couldn't find it in herself to display genuine interest.