1 A Rule-Breaker Who Breaks No Rules

I jumped out of bed at exactly six in the morning.

My bare feet hit the cold wooden floor but I didn't even wince. There were way more important things to do than get caught up on a little discomfort.

Without further ado, I began dancing around the room.

"Could you not do that?" my best friend, Ruby, asked me from her bed, voice groggy with sleep.

"NOPE!" I shouted.

Our door swung open, and a woman with a tight, wrinkled face barged into our room, grey hair in curlers.

"Excuse me, Ms. Seraphim! It's not appropriate for you to be shouting at this ungodly hour, you infantile brat!"

I cleared my throat, grabbed the edges of my nightgown, and curtsied. "Pardon me, madam," I said in a British accent, mocking her. "Please excuse me. I am so, terribly, terribly sorry."

Mrs. Williams rolled her eyes at me. "Not time for your sarcasm either!"

"Oh, then it's time for my mocking?" I still sported the posh, fancy accent.

"No!"

"My time of the month, then?" I cocked my head innocently.

"NO!" Mrs. Williams shouted at me, probably waking up all the other girls in the house. "By God, child, you are the most infuriating girl I've ever met!"

"Thank you."

"Ugh!" Mrs. Williams threw her hands up in exasperation, turned on her heel, and walked out of our room, shutting the door behind her.

Self-satisfied, I sat down on the edge of my bed, bouncing up and down with excitement.

"Sara, you do realize that Mrs. Williams can kick you out any time she wants, right?" Ruby reminded me for the billionth time, sitting up in her bed and rubbing her eyes.

"Come on, Ruby." I said, in my normal voice again. "I've been annoying her since day one, ever since my oh-so-loving parents decided to leave me on this doorstep, and she's never kicked me out before. Why now?"

I fell back so my legs hung off the bed.

"Plus," I added with glee. "I can leave any time I want now. I," I stood up and pounded my chest proudly. "am now officially an adult. I can do whatever I want, whenever I want!"

Ruby rolled her eyes. "Not like you haven't been doing that already."

I beamed at her. "Exactly! But now I'm not actually breaking any rules. I am now a rule-breaker that breaks no rules! I can leave whenever, and I can leave my past behind. I can explore and adventure, travel around the world. I've been stuck inside this orphanage since I was a baby."

"But," Ruby sounded hurt. "I thought you liked hanging out with me."

"Of course I do, Ruby!" I stood and sat down on the edge of her bed, grabbing her hands. "You're my bestest, bestest, bestest, best friend in the whole wide world," I sang.

Ruby grinned widely back, about to say something.

She was interrupted by our door swinging open again, the door slamming into the wall behind it.

"GO TO BED AND GO TO SLEEP!" Mrs. Williams roared at us.

Ruby instantly dropped to her bed like one of those fainting goats, but I stayed sitting.

"No, I'm going to go to bed and stay awake the whole night," I said sarcastically.

"NOW!" She yelled.

"No, when you tell us something I'm going to automatically assume you mean for us to do it in a few hours," I said sarcastically again.

I know, I was being stupidly and annoyingly sarcastic, but Mrs. Williams rubbed me the wrong way. She regularly snapped at us kids in the orphanage, locked our doors at night, and acted like we should thank her and grovel at her feet 24/7.

Mrs. Williams gave me her famous death glare that had Ruby trembling in her slippers. But me? Pfft. I was so used to it, I just cast her an unimpressed look. She should've known by now that that glare didn't work on me.

"Listen here, young lady," she hissed, but I interrupted her.

"No, I'm just going to go listen over there." I pointed to the far corner of the room.

"ENOUGH!" Mrs. Williams screamed at me. If the other girls hadn't been awake, they definitely were now.

I sighed and went over to my bed.

"I can still dispose of you!" Mrs. Williams told me, the whites of her eyes showing with fury. "You're– You're just some brat! Disposable!"

"Um, no. I'm now eighteen years old and I can decide for myself!" I declared proudly, standing tall in front of Mrs. Williams. Well, Mrs. Williams was a short person, around five feet tall, and I was taller than her by only one inch – but I was still taller than her, and that's all that mattered!

"Oh? So, would you like to make your departure now? We can arrange that." Mrs. Williams raised an eyebrow.

A moment passed.

"No," I mumbled and looked down. I flopped back onto my bed, defeated.

"Then suck it up, be quiet, and go to sleep!"

Mrs. Williams whirled around and shut the door behind her. I heard the lock click, and then it was just me and Ruby again.

Ruby and I sat on our respective beds silently in the dark.

"Happy birthday," Ruby said to me.

"Thanks."

"When are you gonna leave?" Ruby asked me quietly.

I sighed and slumped my shoulders. "I dunno. I'll miss you. But," I added brightly and straightened up, "in a few months when you turn eighteen, you can find me and we can live together!"

"Of course! You think I'm going to let you brave this harsh world all on your own? We've rarely been outside of the orphanage; who knows what's out there?" Ruby asked me, shivering.

Instead of feeling afraid of the great big world out there like Ruby, I felt a shiver of excitement. New adventures, new risks to take, new people to meet! I could journey to places I'd only read and dreamt of!

I mean, sure. All us girls at the orphanage knew about the bad people out there, people we had to be wary of. Robbers, kidnappers, the whole lot! But not all of them could be bad, right? I would bet that most of them were good people, driven to crime only by circumstance.

I laid my head on my pillow and looked up at the ceiling. An excited smile drifted onto my face. I couldn't believe it! Today was going to be awesome.

I closed my eyes and my head lolled to the side tiredly.

Today was going to be awesome.