Imprisoned (Parallel Series Book 2) (Parallel Trilogy) Page 6
He smiled at me then, and there was a twinkle in his eyes that I hadn’t noticed before. “I like you, Morgan Campbell.”
My cheeks flushed for the millionth time that day, but suddenly I didn’t care.
Chapter Seven
Unexpectedly self-conscious, I dug in my pocket for my card, prepared to wave it in front of the card reader. We stood in front of the elevator, waiting for our turn to get on, and I was hyper-conscious of Billy’s presence next to me.
I tried to analyze the five words he’d spoken. He’d only met me that morning, so he couldn’t have meant much by it. Maybe it was just that he felt the same way I did—he thought the rules were stupid and unreasonable. Maybe he could be an ally in trying to get out of this place.
The idea buoyed me up and I wondered if I should confide my plans to him.
I went to my room to drop off my backpack, then headed to the cafeteria. When I arrived, Billy had just gotten there too, and we walked together to the line that had formed.
“What kind of food do they give us for dinner?” I asked, my stomach gnawing inside of me.
“You’ll see soon enough.” He smirked. “You need to have a little more patience.”
Irritated by his attitude, I turned my back on him.
“What kind of house did you grow up in anyway, Morgan?” he asked. “You act like you’ve never been deprived of a meal.”
Actually, I hadn’t. But how could I explain that to him? Evidently deprivation was the norm in this world. I turned to face him. “I’m just hungry, okay?”
He held up his hands in surrender. “Okay, I get it.”
Really, he didn’t get it at all. He had no clue the culture shock I was experiencing. Two weeks ago I had been happily living in my world. Well, maybe not happily—after all, I’d run away. But I had been stupid and naïve. I hadn’t realized how good I had it. Now, though, I was miserable and scared. Terrified, actually. I could hardly allow myself to consider the possibility that I wouldn’t be able to get back home. The thought was simply unacceptable. The hope that I would soon be back in my natural world was the only thing keeping me going.
Finally I reached the front of the line and eagerly picked up my tray and slid it along the rails. The woman behind the counter glanced at her screen and handed me a small bowl of soup and a roll. My mouth watered as I took the items from her and placed them on my tray. Another woman gave me another bowl, this one with steamed vegetables. At the end of the counter a different woman gave me a bowl of fresh fruit and a power bar. Well, more likely it was canned fruit, but it still looked delicious. I grabbed a box of skim milk and waited for Billy.
A moment later we were sitting with Alyx, Piper, and Cassidy. There was still one empty seat, as there had been at breakfast and lunch. “Is anyone else going to sit with us?” I motioned to the empty seat.
Everyone suddenly looked very interested in their meals, not that they weren’t interested before, but it seemed obvious that they were ignoring my question.
“Alyx?” I hoped she would at least tell me.
She looked at me and frowned. “No.”
I looked at the others, who were watching Alyx. “What’s going on?”
Piper set her spork down and leaned toward me. In a voice loud enough to be heard above the low roar of the room, but quiet enough not to carry beyond our table, she said, “Some people don’t deserve to be at this table.” Then she leaned back in her chair, picked up her spork, and continued eating.
What did that mean? I looked at Billy, a questioning look on my face.
He seemed to be trying to hide a grin, evidently enjoying my confusion. Then he shrugged and dug into his food.
Whatever, I thought, trying not to care about the politics of this group, but desperate to know what someone had done wrong so that I wouldn’t make the same mistake. I didn’t know what I would do if I was banished from this table.
I began eating my food and was pleasantly surprised by how tasty it was. Of course it didn’t hurt that I was starving. “Piper, this is really good. Did you help make it?”
She smiled. “I was with the group making the soup today. Not bad, huh?”
“It’s delicious.” Even though the meal wasn’t as big as the mid-day meal, it left me satisfied. However, at this point in the evening I usually liked to eat something sweet. I knew that wouldn’t happen and I tried to think about something else. “What are you guys going to be doing next?”
“I think we all have workout time or homework time,” Cassidy said.
“I’ve got a ton of homework to do before tomorrow,” Piper said, as she stood and picked up her tray.
I really wanted to get more information from her about what she’d meant earlier, so I stood too. “I guess I’m supposed to workout, so I should probably get going.”
I walked with Piper, and after we dropped off our trays, we headed toward the elevators. Most people were still at their tables, so the number of people waiting to get on the elevators was fewer than there had been after lunch.
“You’d think they’d have us take stairs,” I said to Piper. “Wouldn’t that give us some extra exercise?”
She smiled with a look of indulgence, like she would need to point out something obvious to the new kid. “They like to control where we go.”
“But we stop at most of the floors anyway.” I paused. “Plus, they put that chip in us, so they’ll know where we are.”
“True.” She hesitated, like she hadn’t considered my points before. “Maybe they just want us all in one place. I don’t know.”
“Where are the stairs, anyway?” I asked, the idea occurring to me that I could just run down them to the first floor.
Piper looked thoughtful. “I don’t even know, to tell you the truth. But they’re probably locked anyway.”
That wouldn’t surprise me, but I decided to check when I was cleaning the next day. Earlier when I’d been cleaning, I hadn’t noticed a door marked stairs, but now that I’d thought about it, I would see if I could find them. I’d look when I was cleaning—that way it wouldn’t be obvious that I was searching. Then, trying to get Piper on my side, I said, “I think the people who run this place are crazy.”
She looked at me, fear written on her face, and whispered, “You shouldn’t say stuff like that.”
I watched her, worried I had done something seriously wrong. I whispered back, “Why not?”
She shook her head and glanced around. “Never mind.”
Other people waiting for the elevator crowded around us and I knew this wasn’t the time to have this conversation.
“What floor are you on?” I asked as the elevator moved upward.
“The sixth floor. Same as you and Alyx.”
“Oh. Is Cassidy your roommate?”
Piper smiled, the look of fear gone now. “Yes.”
“How long have you been here?”
“A month. I still have to lose thirty pounds before they’ll let me leave.”
The doors to our floor slid open and we stepped out. Still wanting to find out what Piper had meant when she’d implied the sixth chair at our table belonged to someone who had done something wrong, I walked with her toward her room. “Do you like working in the kitchen?”
“It’s okay. But it’s better than some jobs.” Then her eyes went wide. “Sorry, Morgan. I know you have the worst job right now.”
I frowned as I thought about my job. “That’s okay. I don’t plan on doing it forever.”
Piper stopped in front of a door. “This is my room. I’ll see you later.” She waved her card in front of the reader and opened the door.
“Piper, wait.”
She turned to look at me, a question on her face.
“Hey, I was just wondering what happened to, you know, make you guys not want the
other kid to sit with you?”
A pained expression flashed across her face. “Why do you want to know?”
This was where I sucked at expressing myself. I was embarrassed to admit that I was desperate to have this group of people be my friends. They were the only people I knew, and since I wasn’t great at making friends, I was terrified to be set adrift on my own. If that happened, then what would I do? But I was also afraid to admit any of that to Piper. She would think I was a total loser and then I would risk her telling the others about how pathetic I was and then they would exclude me for sure. So I settled on saying, “I was just curious.” And hoped that would be enough.
It wasn’t.
“If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather leave the past in the past.”
“Okay, sure.” What else could I say?
We stood there a moment, then she said, “Well, I gotta get started on my homework. See you tomorrow.”
Disappointed that I hadn’t gotten an answer, I smiled. “See ya.” Then I went to my room. I knew Mom had brought some shorts and t-shirts—I remembered seeing them when I had gone through the clothes earlier—so I changed and put on a pair of sneakers, then grabbed my card and went to the elevator.
My work supervisor, Kyle, had said the gym was on the third floor, and sure enough, that was the only button that lit up when I waved my card in front of the reader. When I arrived, I stepped into a room filled with every kind of workout equipment imaginable. A row of treadmills lined one wall with a row of elliptical machines behind it. Stationary bicycles, weight machines, and stair steppers were available as well. Some of the equipment was being used, but I decided to warm up on a treadmill.
As I stepped onto an empty one, a man walked up to me. “Hey, you need to check-in before you start.” He pointed to a small office. “Over there.”
“Okay.” I went to the office and found a teen-age girl sitting behind the desk. “Hi, I’m supposed to check in?”
She looked up from what she was doing. “Yes. You swipe your card on this reader.” She pointed to a small device on the corner of her desk.
I did as directed and she looked at her screen. “Morgan, huh?”
I nodded.
“You’re Alyx’s roommate, right?”
“Yeah.” I remembered Alyx saying that her job was in the workout area.
The girl smiled. “I’m Livvy. Alyx told me to watch for you.”
I exhaled slightly, grateful to Alyx that she had thought about me.
The girl got up from behind the desk. “Let me show you around.”
She led me to a small room next to the office. “After you check-in, come in here and grab a towel. When you’re done using any machine, make sure to wipe it down. And before you leave, toss your towel in this hamper.”
It was nice to be told the rules before I broke them for a change. “Thanks.”
Livvy led me to the workout area. “Make sure you stretch out before starting.” She pointed to a corner where several people were stretching. “That’s the warm-up area, so make sure to stay in that area while you stretch out.”
“Okay.”
“If you get thirsty, there’s a drinking fountain in the corner.”
I looked where she pointed and saw two people in line. “Don’t you have water bottles or something?”
She laughed. “No.”
“Oh.” I could only assume they didn’t want to waste any money on us campers for something as extravagant as water bottles.
“Have a good workout,” Livvy said.
I watched her leave, then I went into the small room and got a towel. I walked over to the warm-up area, draped the towel around my neck, then bent over, stretching my leg muscles. The other people were chatting, but I didn’t say anything, uncomfortable not knowing anyone.
“You new?” one of the boys asked.
I did a different stretch, noticing his curly blonde hair and chocolate brown eyes. “Yeah.”
“What’s your name?”
Maybe this wouldn’t be too bad, I thought. “Morgan. What’s yours?”
“I’m Harley.”
“Like the motorcycle?” As soon as the words left my mouth, I wished I could pull them back.
He laughed, like it was a question he had heard before. “No, I wasn’t named after the motorcycle.”
“Sorry,” I muttered, feeling like an idiot.
“It’s okay. I get that sometimes.”
I sat on the floor and did some more stretches.
He motioned toward my face with his head. “Did you try to run?”
I kept forgetting that my face was an advertisement for a failed escape attempt and wondered how long it would take for the bruise on my cheek to fade. “No, I just ran into a wall.” I had no idea why I had just lied to him. Was it better for him to think I was a klutz? Why did I even care what he thought?
“Come on, Harley,” a red-headed girl said to him.
“Nice meeting you, Morgan.” He picked up his stuff and followed the red-head to the weight machine.
I finished my stretches, then went to an empty treadmill and began walking. Exhausted from all that I had done that day, it was a chore to put one foot in front of the other, but I kept going.
After twenty minutes, the man who had told me to check-in came up to me. “You need to pick it up. Your heart rate is barely moving.”
I turned to him, confused how he would know my heart rate. “What?”
“You heard me. You’re not here to take an evening stroll. You’re here to lose weight. Now move it.”
I stared at him a moment, taking in his muscular arms and cold eyes and had a flashback to the night before when Hansen and Dimples had dragged me out of my house and brought me here. I was about to tell Mr. Muscles to shove it when I also remembered being tasered. Twice.
Then Mr. Muscles pressed a button on the treadmill, increasing the speed of the belt and I had to jog to keep from falling. I reached for the button, but he spoke sharply. “Don’t touch that. I want you to run for twenty minutes before you slow down.”
Afraid of what would happen if I disobeyed, I kept running, hating his guts more and more with every step.
This was nothing like doing laps for track. That had been my choice. Now, I was being forced to exercise. Even worse, I wasn’t able to decide how hard to exercise. Rage at Mr. Muscles pushed adrenalin through my body, helping to keep me going, but after ten minutes my side began to ache and I desperately wanted to stop running.
How did he even know my heart rate? Then I remembered the chip that the not-so-nice doctor had injected under my skin. She’d mentioned that it could read my heart rate.
I frowned, loathing this place even more than before. Alyx was right when she called it a hell-hole. How long was I going to have to stay here? I didn’t know how much of this place I could take.
I looked at the readout and saw twenty minutes had passed since the Exercise Nazi had increased the speed. I punched the button, slowing the treadmill down, and began walking at a more comfortable pace. After I’d caught my breath, then gotten a drink at the drinking fountain, I decided to try the elliptical. I still had over an hour that I had to spend here and I wanted to get through it alive.
A lot more people had arrived to work out while I’d been in the middle of torture Morgan time, and there weren’t many pieces of equipment available. Then I saw one elliptical that wasn’t being used and hurried over to it. Another girl reached it a moment after I did. I recognized her from the bathroom that morning. She was the one who’d made me move to the back of the line for the shower.
“I was here first,” she said, which she and I both knew was a lie.
Anger at all that I was going through emboldened me. “No you weren’t.”
Her eyebrows went up. Evidently she wasn’t used to being challenged. “What did you say, new girl?”
“My name’s Morgan. And I said I was here first. Not you.”
She looked at the people who were nearby
and I realized we had an audience. Great. Then she leaned toward me so only I could hear. “I’ll let you have it this time, Morgan, but you’d better watch yourself.”
I watched her walk away, but rather than feeling victorious, I felt alarmed. The last time I’d stood up for myself it was to Lori and I had ended up here. What have I done now?
Chapter Eight
“That took some courage.”
I looked at Harley, who was using the weight machine next to mine. “What do you mean?”
“That Beth is a bad seed. I wouldn’t cross her if I was you.”
Exhausted, sweaty, and hating life, I scowled at him. “What am I supposed to do? Let her bully me?”
He shrugged. “You can do what you want.” Then he turned back to doing leg lifts.
I was already worried about what Beth was going to do to me. I didn’t need someone else reminding me of the danger I could be in. I’d been here less than twenty-four hours and already I’d made an enemy. That was even faster than with Lori. I was breaking all kinds of personal records.
I looked at the clock and saw it had been nearly two hours since I’d checked in. I was supposed to meet with a counseling group at eight o’clock so that I could be “re-educated”, but I was sticky with sweat and wanted to shower first. After wiping down the weight machine, I tossed my towel in the hamper, then took the elevator back to my floor.
When I went into my room, Alyx was sitting at her desk working on homework. She turned to me when I walked in. “How was it?”
“Awful, if you want to know the truth.”
“Which part?”
“Well, the only part that wasn’t was your friend Livvy being nice to me and showing me around. Thanks for that.”
Alyx smiled. “You’re welcome. I know how sucky it is to be new and not know anything.” She paused. “What did you think of Austin?”
“Who?”
“The guy who runs the gym.”
“I hate him with every fiber of my being.”
Alyx looked shocked. “Why? What did he do to you?”
Embarrassed that he’d basically accused me of slacking, I said, “I just thought he was a jerk.”