Rosaleen Dickonson's famous quote says "Whatever they grow up to be, they are still our children, and the one most important of all the things we can give to them is unconditional love. Not a love that depends on anything at all except that they are our children." Some parents don't love their children, though. Some parents hate them, wanting to be rid of them the first moment they legally can. In the small New England town of Munishire exists a school to deal with a select few of these unwanted children, and this is its tale.

The Lockely School for Unloved Girls was created back in 1907 by the local schoolmaster a mister Charles M. Lockley. He was tired of seeing these filthy excuses for females wandering the streets of his beloved hometown. These girls were desperate after being thrown out by their families in the wealthy town of Braxton located just a couple towns east. They had never worked a day in their lives, and were completely clueless as to how to make a living without their parents to gorge off of. They were spoiled, ungrateful girls tossed out for various reasons and were now roaming the streets willing to do anything for a warm meal and some affection.

Charles being the upstanding citizen he was couldn't stand to see his beloved village of Munishire turned into a hotbed of crime and prostitution just because some snobs weren't able to deal with the brats they had created. He began going door to door in Braxton in attempts to convince these families to take their daughters back in, but to no avail. They no longer wanted anything to do with the useless creatures they had raised. Charles knew something had to be done to get these pitiful creatures off the street, and so the idea for Lockley's School for Unloved Girls was born.

Instead of pleading to the families to take the girls back in, he instead went to them offering to turn their trash into decent members of society ... for a small fee that is. Sure they could no longer run in the same crowds as they had previously run in, for their families still didn't want anything to do with them, but now at least these girls wouldn't be rotting in the gutters. The families of Braxton were delighted with this idea and it was soon known that the moment a daughter became high-strung and out-spoken she could be easily disposed of, given over to Charles.

Charles worked tirelessly at the school teaching the girls manners and hygiene, whipping their impure thoughts and independence clear out of them. The school was enormously successful and many of the girls went on to marry local merchants as they had become most dutiful. Charles received many accommodations from the mayor and even went on later to marry one of his very first students, Roberta, who had at one time been the daughter of the wealthy Hix family before she went astray. The Lockley name was soon revered in the town of Munishire, and well respected in Braxton, and so the school thrived.

Times have changed since then. Charles died in 1939, at the age of 60, of unknown causes. Some suspected his wife may have had something to do with it as she disappeared soon after. The school was passed down to the eldest of his three sons, Mortimer. Mortimer ran the school for only ten years though before he passed away in an automobile accident, his brakes having apparently failed him. The school was then passed down to Charles second son, Karl and his wife, also a former student of Lockley's, Lisbeth. Karl and Lisbeth eagerly took the school over both sharing a love for children, charity, and teaching obedience. They even took up residence there with their daughter, living on the grounds and firing all of the previous staff. They ran the school up until 1980 when are horrendous fire burned down half of the building and claimed their and four of their students lives. Their daughter, Peruvia, who was only fifteen years of age at the time of the fire, was one of the few lucky enough to have survived unscathed. She was shipped off to live with her elderly uncle, Charles Jr., and what was left of the school was boarded up and closed.

For the past twenty years the school has remained closed to Braxton and Munsihire's dismay. Spoiled daughters are still being thrown out of their homes the minute they hit their eighteenth birthday and Munishire is once again crawling in illegal activity. The last couple weeks, though, there has been a stirring at the old school. Three large trucks having been spotted in the drive only last Tuesday. The towns are stirring with the gossip of possible new tenants. "Will the school be opening again," they all whisper?

That Friday the following ad runs on the second to last page of the Gazette:

Ms. Peruvia Lockley would like to announce the reopening of the Lockley School for Unloved Girls. Applications now being accepted.

And as the applications flock in, a small red haired woman sits in a burned out parlor polishing a leather paddle with a smile thinking of what is to come.

Please stay tuned for next chapter in Ianthe's Unloved Girls series, Alexa's Story!