Calm After the Storm

Samantha roused herself with the other girls to go about their day. It was an uneventful day as usual. The air was still damp with the residual humidity from the storm, but the air did smell a bit cleaner. It wouldn't last long, it never did in the city, especially this part of it. All too soon the smells of chamber pots that had been emptied in the street, and dirt street urchins and other unwashed bodies, hundreds of different food smells, cooking and rotting, and other such unpleasant aromas that are created from the human condition would rise to meet their nostrils. Samantha scrunched up her nose unconsciously at the thought as her feet carried her through her daily tasks by rote. The girls seemed uncharacteristically quiet today, maybe none of them had gotten much sleep because of the storm and they were just tired. Something seemed odd to Samantha though, but she could not seem to put a finger on what. Midday rolled around and they sat down at the long table in the mess hall, and overflowed onto the stairs and floor to eat their midday meal which consisted of a mushy white nondescript substance that was simply referred to as gruel. It was a pretty standard meal around the orphanage. They were sometimes lucky enough to get bread, though it was rarely fresh and sometimes they got fruit too, but it was usually not at it's prime either. A lot of it was bought for very cheap by the bucket load after it had reached a point where the farmers could no longer sell it in the marketplace. As well as the bread, which was usually left over from a day or two ago that had not sold when it was fresh either. Anything was better than turnip soup and gruel though. Samantha toyed with hers for a moment, lifting the spoon out of the substance and watching the gruel slide off of it slowly. It was starting to solidify as it cooled and she realized it would be stupid to waste food, so she stopped playing with it and ate before it became like glue.
As the midday meal was coming to an end, the mess hall door was abruptly pushed open. Any other day this occurrence would not have been noticed, there would have been enough noise coming from talking, whispering, taunting, giggling little girls to have drowned it out. Today however, everybody stopped eating and stared at the Mistress as she entered. "Mind your business." she said with a wave of her hand. "Samantha, may I see you in my office a moment?" She said. Girls were called into the office for various reasons, punishment being the most common, but there were occasional adoptions, or sometimes just changes in work tasks, and various other whims of the Mistress. Samantha finished the last bite of her gruel and left her bowl on the table to follow immediately. Swift obedience was always prudent. She wracked her brain as she walked to the Mistress' office. Miss Higgins had left the mess hall immediately and was probably already there. What could she have done wrong? Did she do something that warranted punishment? Maybe that was why the other girls were so quiet today, did they know something that she did not know? Probably not. She usually knew more than anybody else did around her, besides, if they knew something they likely would have told her. Samantha didn't like surprises, they rarely bode well for orphans...