Duck #OnceUponNow

Part 1

"This is your fault you little duck." her mother said. These were the last words her mother said directly to her. These are the last words the little girl will remember about her mom.

    A week had passed in the orphanage by now. It was an all girls orphanage and they all ranged around the same age, four to six years old. They were all, what the nuns called, prime ages to get adopted. So most of the things they learned were how to impress people. These teachings tended to pit the girls against each other. Especially when one was better than the other.

    The little girl had faced this head on when the girls were in art class. They had been told to draw what they thought was pretty. Most of the girls drew big bright pink flowers, or yellow suns with smiley faces. However, the little girl was different from everyone else. She had drawn a picture of a baby duck and a swan, holding each other. The little duck was grey, because the other girls had all of the yellows and she was too quiet to ask for one. The girls art skills surpassed everyone else, even the ones who were older than her. They did not like this one bit.

"That's so ugly!" one girl shouted.

"Ours are way better than that!" another girl said.

"She kind of looks like the ugly duck!" a girl yelled. All of the girls around her started to laugh.

    This caused the little girl to be very upset. She started to cry and one of the nuns escorted her out of the art room. With the duck picture in hand the little girl got pushed all the way back to her room. The nuns did not like when the girls cried, they often got punished if they did. Even though the girl knew this, she could not hold back her tears.

"What did we say about crying, hm?" the nun asked, putting the girl up on the bed. The young girl did not answer and kept sobbing. "Crying is a sign of weakness and no one like girls who cry. Girls who cry, get taken advantage of." the nun finished.

The girl nodded and wiped up her tears with the back of her sleeve. She had been told this many times, and she had only been here for a week. She had cried at least once every day by now. Now she would try her best not to cry, to not make people upset, and to not get taken advantage of.

"Are you done now?" the nun asked before leaving. The girl nodded in response. "Also dear, no one likes a show off." she said before slamming the door. So now the girl, like many times before, was shut alone in her bedroom. She liked being in class and learning, but she felt she was not wanted. "Better by myself", the girl thought.

   The girl was now six years old, her birthday had just passed. She had been in the orphanage for a year now, and still had not been adopted. Most of the other girls she knew had left already. They are already used to saying 'Mom' and 'Dad' to their new parents. This young girl on the other hand, had barely had the chance.

   Being a shy young girl results in not having too many friends. While all the other girls got attached to each other so quickly, no one even bothered to look at the small girl. She often was left alone when they went outside to play games. Instead of climbing on the jungle gyms she was off towards the forest. She had a fascination with nature and animals, she wanted to be outside all of the time. This time she had a plan to keep her happy and to not be so lonely.

    When it was time for recess she ran outside last, hiding behind the group of girls. She made sure the nuns weren't looking and headed deep into the forest. Her brown eyes lit up when she got far in. The tall trees hovered over her, giving her shelter from the sometimes harsh sun. She felt as though the trees were pulling her in, that they too didn't want her to leave. As she kept walking, she spotted a squirrel perched on a log, cracking a nut with it's small hands. This was the girls plan.