Who owns the right to name an orphan? Sadie has been pondering on that question all her life, ever since she was rescued as a crying toddler from a dumpster bag. Her unorthodox rescue came at the hands of a nun named Zahya, whom thinking cats are once again rummaging through her trash, rushed to the alley with her broom, intent on chasing them away for good this time. She hit the crinkling plastic bag with the wooden edge, and the meowing sounds turned to a child's full fledged cry.

Upon hearing the wails, she realised her deed and frantically scrambled to open the bag, inside was an undernourished toddler, blood and tears pooling in its small mouth as it cried its heart out. The nun tried to calm it down with a soft nervous voice, then reached for her napkin to wipe Its front. The baby slightly opened its eyes to observe what she was doing before closing them again to intensify her crying.

Zahya became her caretaker ever since, and she called her Sadie. It was an unusual name, not unusual enough to make Sadie pester a woman of the Lord about it, but a long and solitary trip to school was enough to trigger Sadie's interest in the most mundane subjects. She wondered if she was named Sadie because of the sadistic tendencies she displayed towards the other kids at the orphanage, or was it perhaps inspired by her constant sad demeanor as a child?

Whatever it was, now is too late to hear the answer from the adoptive mother. The lips that were once dedicated to prayer have since bestowed their final kiss upon the sacred cross on the 28th of June 2022, during the summer of this year.

As a result, all that remains is an adolescent, twice orphaned now, walking the sixteenth street by herself for the first time. Every detail from the public seats to the high pavements made her remember Zahya, for she used to walk with her to school, keeping her company and taking care of anyone giving her a hard time, Sadie stopped in her tracks, swallowing back tears at the flood of memories.

Her actual name was Sarah, but the nickname Sadie stuck. She knew the meaning behind her name, but she hated it.

"Religious people are something else," she thought while cupping her hand around a cigarette, lighting it before resuming her walk to school.

Zahya was convinced that God has something great in store for Sadie, but much like Sarah, she was the definition of doubt. "You think I lived on that day because of some divine intervention, that I was merely spared to fulfill god's promise... If that were so, why did he take you away so early from me. Where's your purpose then?"

"My life's purpose was to save you." A gentle wind caressed her cheek, Sadie became embarrassed at the thoughts in her head. "Now I am hearing voices," she mumbled churlishly. "If the value of your life was based on rescuing me, then it was a life gone to waste." She declared as she threw her cigarette bud to the ground, extinguishing it beneath her sneaker.

She harbored a mild hatred towards her former religious tutor, in part because she was the reason that she has to experience the overrated "gift" we call life. But also because in her final will, the nun specified that she bequeathed her small fortune (around 140 000$) to Sadie on the condition that she graduates from Lincoln's high school.

"Damn heartless woman leaving me penniless, might as well write them off to your orphanage, it'll take me an eternity to graduate." Sadie was not exaggerating, this elitist school had a reputation of being the hardest in their district, welcoming only the most accomplished and prestigious students, and Sadie.

She was a slow learner, with the attention span of a goldfish. She blamed it on the godsent head-smack she received as a baby. "It's also the cause I can't remember my parents' appearance." She complained to herself while rubbing the indented wound on her front.

She only remembers that her mother had brown hair, she remembers that she hated them. Can you hate people you've barely met? Sadie answers yes, yes you can. Sadie was a racist, she discriminated against all the women with brown hair.

She was also the victim of reverse discrimination, a pious nun having so many great expectations of her that she rolled the carpet of Sadie's success on her stairway to heaven. Sadie can imagine her shock as the carpet is drawn from right under her, sending her diving straight into hell. At least they'll both be suffering.

She walked down the halls of the school, some boys were cracking jokes at her expense, she couldn't care less. She went by the red lockers to the left of principal's office, one of the boys got too audacious and tried to bother her directly, alterating between giggles and dumb words, something about her resembling a scarecrow savaged by dogs.

She didn't have time for this, so she shoved her fingers in his nostrils and dragged him by the nose backwards, shoving his face in an open locker before shutting it with a surprising force.

The bells tolled, and she was glad to finally reach her class, she passed by the rows of empty desks towards the one in the very end of the class. Emily, the high school's special charm, charged her as she was trying to sit down.

"Uhm excuse me, yes hi... whatever your name is, we were here first." Emily said, an obnoxious smile animating her face.

Sadie stared at her for a few seconds before lazily sitting down. "The race is only won when the finish line is crossed." She said with a dispassionate tone.

"Look, I'm trying to be nice here. I know you've failed this class for three years in a row, I get that you isolate yourself at the very end because everyone despises your guts, but this is important, our friend was dumped and we want to try and cheer her up in a more remote corner."

Sadie wasn't paying attention to her, which got on Emily's nerves so she half screamed. "Just beat it already! It's not like it has your name's written on it."

"No? My name is literally carved on it." Sadie pointed a middle finger out of her sleeve towards a carving on the desk seemingly made by a large knife "And if you don't leave me alone, I'll test my carving skills on a softer surface."

Emily didn't feel like risking getting stabbed by a sociopath, so she collected her peppy group to tell them to scatter. "Let's go girls, it isn't worth our time, let the freak rot in this chair."

And rot she did. Sadie laid back, always with a sense that her spirit is leaving her body. The teacher talked for what felt like hours, but when she looked at the wall clock, only five minutes elapsed, time must've been broken.

She put her arm on the desk and buried her face in the sleeve to rest her sight for a moment, but what started off as a way to decompress had turned her looking as if she was a corpse in a state of decomposing.

A corpse in class that no one paid attention to. Students listened attentively to the lecture. Sir Waltson, their teacher, was a stern and eccentric man, he spoke with a tenor voice and moved his arms with hypnotic precision when teaching.

Their subject of the day was about literature in the 18th century and the development of the modern novel as a literary genre, many candidates for the first novel in English date from this period. The students had been assigned a project due to be presented for today, it was to write a ten thousand word document discussing Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel "Robinson Crusoe".

When Sir Waltson was passing through the rows to collect the homeworks, he saw a shipwreck in between the lines of a student's notebook, and that wasn't a metaphor. Ralph literally drew the ship of Robinson Crusoe with few words written.

When Ralph saw the expression on the teacher's face, he stood up automatically, fearing for the worst. Sir Walton started lambasting him in a pentametric tone. " Indolence and apathy, your generation's obvious inane attitude is the blight of our society and spells a grimdark future for our nascent civilisation. You disappoint me to no end with your blatant disregard to school duties.

More so, you did not consider peculiarities of the ship, since you are well aware, Mister Ralph, that it was written during the 17th and 18th centuries at height of the transatlantic slave trade, and since it is mentioned in the novel that the merchantile ship was bound for the coast of Guinea in West Africa, all of these indications suggest that it was likely a trading vessel involved in the transatlantic slave trade while you, mister Ralph, have drawn a pirate ship!"

He continued scolding the seemingly remorseful student, Ralph kept his head lowered, his conjoined hands at the level of his loin.

The noise awoke Sadie, finally witnessing this scene, and she remembered she hasn't done her homework either, so she stood up dizzily, interrupting the teacher.

"Waltson mister I didn't do the assignment either."

Throwing that out there before falling back in her chair and resting her face between her arms.

Sir Waltson turned wordless, just staring with spite and disdain at the slumbering girl as the entire class was erupting in wild laughter. He felt he was Robinson Crusoe in this moment, castaway in a hopeless class and surrounded by loud, dumb animals.

As the school bell tolled, signaling break from classes, Sadie marched into the playground with an air of indifference. Her lanky body drifted clumsily in the winds, roaming as a ghost with heavy ropes tied around its ankles. She was hoping that her scraggy limbs and gaunt face would be enough to deter other students from her path, but they offered her no distance.

Sadie walked to her usual spot, a place where she can eat her measly lunch in peace. But Cynthia, one of the more cheerful squads, lost all her cheer and was sobbing uncontrollably in Sadie's usual corner. Sadie nudged the invader slightly through her sleeve, hoping she'd go cry elsewhere, "time to go." She said, but all it did was trigger an agitated Cynthia to confide in her.

"He's gone!" Cynthia slobbered while hugging Sadie with all her might, face nestled in her flat chest. "That's cool, I mean It'll be cool" Sadie stuttered hesistantly, the unexpected embrace had made her dart her eyes addled, looking for a way out. The surprising force Cynthia exerted restrained her movement, and Sadie felt as a fly squeezed in the jaws of a Venus trap.

She'd usually respond with a snarky comment to escape such confrontations, but Cynthia looked so utterly devastated that she almost felt pity for her. So she just listened as the other girl broke out with renewed sobs, full of naive adolescent certainties. "Chris left me, he just left me! it was meant to be true love..." Cynthia paused to swallow tears then added with a rage. "That blonde bitch Jessica just batted her eyelashes and he forgot that I even existed! I turned into a summer fling!"

The closing of her phrase was accompanied by whimpering. Sadie nodded her head, expressing fake sympathy with a gentle bend of her eyebrows, yet beneath her attempt to be nice laid a judgemental subtext - that boys were easily led astray, easily manipulated with an interested glance or a sensuous smile, the real war was between the women, men serving only as slaves for the victor.

As the defeated girl sobbed, the other students watched, a mix of pity and schadenfreude in their gazes, and Sadie started becoming uncomfortable at the attention directed at them.

"Maybe I should forgive him," Cynthia said, holding unto Sadie's shoulders while looking directly into her wandering frown. Her words and grab took Sadie by surprise, so much so that she almost slapped the living spirit out of her.

She peeled Cynthia's hands off her shoulder because she hated being touched, then responded:

"Then you'd be worth less than dirt in his eyes,"

"Why even live if I am not seen by the king's side. I'd rather be the dirt beneath his feet and get walked all over on than exist without him."

Sadie cringed, unsure if she was serious or just trying to bother her at this point.

"You're better off without him," she commented whilst trying not to gag, she meant to say you'd do better offing yourself, but she wanted to hold back on her first day of school.

Then Sadie analysed the situation to her with a cold and detached tone, knowing fully that her advice will go to waste. "It is obvious that your high level of interest in Chris is caused by him preferring Jessica over you which degraded your self worth."

Cynthia intensified her crying, but Sadie was oblivious to it, her energy to care dwindling fast, for beneath the performative empathy she still realised that should Cynthia's dilemma one day be her own, the same sympathy would not likely be returned.

But for now, in this moment, her disgust of letting Chris be rewarded for his betrayal of this beautiful girl instead of punished was too much to take.

"This is my proposal, you go out with someone who can't cheat on you, then you'd be treated as the diva you think you are, I can arrange a date for you if you'd like,"

"Excuse me?" Cynthia uttered, seemingly insulted. She stared begrudgingly at the girl standing next to her as her blurry sight cleared up and she finally realised who she was talking with.

"Well, Stuart over there seems to have a crush on you." Sadie pointed at a smiling Stuart with the tip of her stinky sandwich. When Cynthia turned around, she was met with uneven yellow teeth, held together with knotted braces. Excited at his prospects, Stuart started waving a skeletal arm at them.

"Ewww!" Cynthia screamed at the top of her voice, her arms twitching in revulsion as if she just had a panic attack.

That alarm call gathered her vogue group to their site. Soon the entire group of entitled girls congregated at their spot, in a barrage of hugs and reassurance to calm down their friend. Their leader, Emilia, was shooting a vicious glance at Sadie. Paying her no heed, Sadie rolled her eyes and took the opportunity to slowly sneak out of the mess she has found herself stuck in then beelined for the jungle gym, where she'd hoped she can finally be left in peace.

Climbing high above the petty drama below, Sadie felt the rays of rare sunlight warming her porous skin as she balanced her lank body on top of the steel bars. Laying atop the rusted jungle gym tower, she cast her yellow eyes over the bustling schoolyard and felt a sense of relief that she escaped from the petty drama of gossiping girls below.

She turned and peered into the large puddle right under, examining her admittedly odd features—her amber eyes, quite far apart, were ringed by dark circles. The muddied waters, besides blurring her flaws, had also made the dark circles seem as the sockets of the reaper, the iris a light at the end of the tunnel.

High pitched voices almost made Sadie fall from her height, her button nose twitched and her black-painted lips tilted downward as the girls' shrill gossip were carried in the winds towards her hearing, as if chirping cicadas were performing right inside her hooded ears.

She spotted crows bickering at a distance in their usual fashion over some inconsequential morsel and decided to throw her cold sandwich at them, hoping their cawing would mask the hollow shrieks of demon possessed girls.

The autumn sun marked the passage of time as it traced its path across the sky, casting shadows that stretched ever longer across the schoolyard. She enjoyed the fleeting stillness of the moment—sunlight falling upon her gaunt face, leaves spiraling to rest upon damp ground, beggar children squabbling in the dirty streets.

As Sadie started drifting asleep, the bell clanged, signaling recess end. She waited for the girls' ceaseless chatter to fade before she began her lazy descent, climbing down rung by rung. Dreading to stand in the claustrophobic line regiment of students.

Sadie hung back, leaning against the iron railing of the cube. She was in no hurry to go inside. As she gazed idly at the street, a shadow fell across her face. She looked up, squinting her small eyes to make sense of the shape. For a moment she thought it was a cloud passing over the sun, but then she saw it was no cloud. A huge hexapod was blocking out the sky, growing larger by the second.

With mounting intrigue, Sadie realized it was an enormous winged creature descending upon the school district. As it swooped lower, Sadie made out the distinctly insectoid form - an ant the size of the school bus, its furry metasoma wobbling, its mandible necklace clicking as it banged against the sternum. The other students had now emerged from the building and stood frozen in horror, gaping up at the creature.

The monstrous ant landed in the schoolyard with a ground-shaking thud, and Sadie gathered enough courage to stare in its horrific face. It was... Miss Antonella? What the hell?

A sort of creeping malaise haunted the air as Miss Antonella, the bizarre biology teacher with her unkempt nest of hair and eyes flashing a brownish red, was revealed to be the odd entity hovering over the students.

"Hello dear children," She greeted her pupils with an unusual exuberant tone "Today, class will be held out in the open,"

Miss Antonella had always been a disciplinary force in the school, her methods were effective, a tad cruel even.

And as such, no one dared disagree with the hot tempered teacher, especially not now that she was in a mutated state.

They've spread the chairs and sat down politely, as if hypnotized to submission by the strangeness of the situation. Sadie shifted uneasily in her squeaking plastic chair, trying not to make eye contact with the hybrid woman.

Miss Antonella launched into her lesson with her characteristic combination of austere vocabulary and logical structuring, her voice humming over the murmuring crowd like an irritatingly insistent bug. "A successful colony," she intoned, "requires a vigorous work ethic and unquestioning submission to the queen."

Cynthia rolled her eyes and chuckled, "She thinks herself an ant queen now, I mean look at her, antennaes tangled in a tiara."

The boy next to her joined in "Right! And I wouldn't consider what she did as flight either, she was barely hovering,"

Sadie's unease intensified to equal parts dread and ridiculous disbelief. Their teacher came to school transformed into a bug lady and no one seemed to mind, it was weird. "So no one will address the weirdness of the situation?" She threw the question reluctuntly at the chattering bunch, feeling out of place.

"What's there to address?" Responded Remi, his arms crossed. "Ants aren't that interesting, neither are teachers. Why would the combination of the two merit any attention?"

A curious george pondered further, "Is it an ant posing as Miss Antonella or Miss Antonella masquerading as an ant? Lord knows what sort of concoction she drank to transform into such a state, or do you think it was magic?"

"Regardless, even magic couldn't haul up her butterballs." Retorted Remi, and a wave of giggling spread among the crowd, Sadie wished she could join in the laughter, dismiss Miss Formicae's rhetoric as harmless fantasy. But something about the fanatical edge in the teacher's voice and her immense size disturbed her terribly.

Their mocking became louder and Miss Antonella felt she was losing control of her class. Then a front sitting exchange student from Britain lifted up his dainty leg and squished a circling of ants while saying with a thick accent, "Perish ye insignificant lot."

His comment got on the teacher's nerves. She raised her front arms and let out a piercing squeal. As the sound hit Sadie's ears, something deep within her awoke - some primal fear long dormant. All around her, the boys were breaking into a run, charging across the yard towards the monstrous insect.

Sadie watched in shock as they swarmed around the teacher, calling out in worshipful cries beneath her spread arms, slavering on the ground on which she trod while the Ant Queen laughed to her heart's content.

Suddenly, Sadie understood - The ant queen has released pheromones to turn male students into her personal drones. Sadie backed away slowly, wanting no part of whatever ancient spell this creature had cast.

Emily, unimpressed, stood her ground and argued that the boys had pushed the boundaries of ingratiating themselves to the teacher to an unprecedented level and that she would send an official complaint to the principal himself. And with these words, she has become the first victim of the horde.

For it is then that Miss Antonella cried, "Rise up, my loyal underlings, and gather food for a famished queen!" And the unthinkable occurred: Chris and the entire male student body sprang up as one from their kneeling stance and came swarming towards Emily and the others with horrifying purpose.

They've held Emily's struggling body in place, while Miss Antonella came forward and grabbed her by the chin. "Principal Geoffrey will join you shortly." She announced before decapitating her head, sending her angry face rolling to the first row of the class.

Sadie tried to back away after this, grasping for an escape route - but the swarm of students had her surrounded. She swung a chair at a charging Chris and squashed a less intimidating Stuart underfoot, before getting overwhelmed by hundreds of bodies.

Hands grasped her arms, dragging her towards the stage where Miss Antonella waited, mouth drawn back in a mad grin. Sadie struggled, fighting unconsciousness, as the relentless skeleton fingers of Stuart fastened around her throat, drawing out a last breath from smutted lips.

Her last blurred vision was Cynthia screaming and running around, chased by the racing boys. As darkness overtook Sadie, she wondered what they'd do with her insentient body.

.