After choosing your name, you are led to a small shed around the back of the boarding school. There two older boys shove you into a chair and hold you down while a girl cuts off your long braided hair. You stare at the floor where your braids have landed. Then just as quickly as you were in the shed you were out of the shed and led into the school house. A tall pale woman was waiting for you next to a room full of beds. She barked something in English and pointed to a pile of clothes sitting on one of the cots.
Quickly you rushed into the room; the door slamming behind you. You pick up a blue dress admiring it's creased edges and hating it all the same. You feel a hand on your shoulder and quickly turn around, dropping the dress to the floor. An older girl smiles at you halfheartedly and points to the tin bucket in the corner of the room. "Wash." So you change out of your clothes and the girl helps you to wash and change into the blue dress.
You look at her sadly, "Must I wear itchy dresses, stay away from my parents, and," you sigh. The girl smooths out your dress and brings out shiny black shoes motioning for you to hold out a foot. Your eyes widen at the shoes and the girls mouth turns into a smile momentarily. The shoes are too small and pinch your feet. You sit down on a cot. The girl reaches for your jewelry and snatches them away.
Shocked you sit there, as still as a stone. Calmly the girl scoops up your jewelry and clothes. Still holding the clothes with one arm she grabs your hand and walks to the dining hall; only pausing once to place your clothes and jewelry in a tin bin filled to the top with other clothes and jewelry. At the dining hall you eat a filling meal at a table with other newcomers.
Then night clothes are handed out and you walk back to the room with the beds, changing once more. You climb into bed as the lights are turned off. As soon as the door was shut and the footsteps of one of the teachers went down the hallway, you could hear sniffling from the other side of the room.
After an hour of tossing and turning, you let out a shaky breath and feel a tear run down your face. You quickly wipe it away. You knew your parents would be ashamed of a cry baby. But after tossing and turning for what seemed like an eternity, you let the rest escape, silently screaming to the spirits you believe in, why me? Why now? Somewhere in your misery you fell asleep, tired of powering a constant stream of tears forming a lake on your pillow.