Imprisoned (Parallel Series Book 2) (Parallel Trilogy) Page 7

  “This is the muscular, good-looking guy?”

  Then I remembered that Alyx probably worked with him. “He’s muscular, yeah.”

  She seemed to be thinking. “Yeah, I guess he can be a bit bossy sometimes. But he’s basically a nice guy.”

  “Maybe to you.”

  She turned back to her homework. “I’ve got a lot to do.”

  “I’m gonna take a quick shower before my counseling thing.” I paused. “Where do they meet, anyway?”

  She turned back toward me. “On the ninth floor where we have school.”

  “Okay. Thanks.”

  After my shower I felt a bit more human. When I arrived on the ninth floor, I saw a board posted with several sheets of paper. Each one had a room number and a list of names. I found my name on the sheet for room five. It was the same room where I had my English class earlier that day. Since I knew exactly where that was, I was able to walk down the hall with confidence.

  A moment later I reached the room and saw that the desks had been pushed to the sides and instead eleven chairs were arranged in a circle. Several kids were already there. I sat down and waited for my “re-education” to begin, skeptical about the whole process. I didn’t need to be brain-washed about the way this world thought—that would never happen—I just needed a way to get out of here and back home.

  Other kids trickled in and at eight o’clock on the dot, a slender woman my mom’s age walked in, a tablet computer in her hand. She sat in one of the chairs in the circle and crossed one fashionably-trousered leg over the other, then looked at each of us. I noticed one chair was still empty. So did she. She looked toward the door and sighed, clearly irritated to have any delay.

  Just then Billy walked in. He went straight to the empty chair and sat down, immediately slouching and not making eye contact with anyone.

  “So nice of you to join us, Mr. Foster.”

  He ignored her and continued staring at the floor.

  This didn’t seem to bother her, so I assumed she was used to it.

  “Let us begin tonight’s session. First, I need all of you to check-in.” She held up her tablet and I noticed that there was a card reader attached to it. One by one, each of us, even Billy, stood and waved our cards in front the reader. “Very good.”

  Once we were settled, she said, “We have two new members of our group tonight. Please welcome Chad Beacon and Morgan Campbell.”

  All eyes rotated between me and the new boy. Several of the kids said hello, but most just stared. I remembered the large bruise on my face and almost reached up to touch it, but was able to keep my hands in my lap.

  Deciding not to let myself be intimidated by these kids—after all, they must have done something wrong to be assigned to the counseling group too—I kept my chin up. My gaze flitted from one kid to another, stopping on Billy, who was staring at me, a small smirk on his face.

  What did he do anyway? I wondered.

  “My name is Mrs. Reynolds.” She paused. “As always, we begin with the pledge. All arise.”

  As I stood, I noticed most of the others didn’t seem in a hurry to stand and felt a sudden kinship with the group. These kids were like me—they hated the way things were too.

  Mrs. Reynolds began saying the pledge and most of the kids half-heartedly followed along. When we finished, she spoke. “Don’t sit yet. You know that was unacceptable. How many times do I have to tell you? We’ll continue to repeat the pledge until I’m satisfied with your recitation.” She looked at each one of us. “Now let’s try that again.”

  We all spoke as one, this time with a little more enthusiasm. “I pledge to always follow the rules and to take care of my body. I will strive to put the good of all above the desires of one. A healthy me is a healthy world.”

  Mrs. Reynolds smiled. “That was better. You may sit.”

  We all did as instructed.

  Mrs. Reynolds spoke again. “Now, last night we were discussing how it’s important to follow the rules so that society can keep order. Morgan, Chad, what are your thoughts on following the laws that society has put in place?”

  “I think they suck,” Chad said. Everyone laughed but Mrs. Reynolds did not look amused.

  “Perhaps you’re not familiar with the rules of this group, Mr. Beacon,” she said. “Outbursts like that will cause you to forfeit two meals.” She smiled. “Which two would you like to forfeit?”

  Chad’s face blanched and everyone got quiet. He swallowed and I could see his Adams apple move. “I guess breakfast?”

  She typed something into her tablet computer. “Breakfast it is.” She glanced at him. “Two days in a row.” She set her tablet down on her lap and turned to me. “What about you, Morgan?”

  “Me?” Fear trickled down my spine like sweat after a vigorous workout.

  “Yes. What are your thoughts on the importance of rules in society?”

  Her eyes locked on me and I wasn’t able to look away. Afraid I would say the wrong thing and be punished, I hesitated.

  “Speak up,” she said.

  I reminded myself that this whole thing was just a farce—a fake world that I would soon be leaving. I just had to pretend until I could find a way to escape. “Well, I guess it’s important to have rules so that you know what to expect.”

  She smiled, evidently pleased with my answer. “Very good, Morgan. Very good.”

  Her praise, though it was for an answer I had made up and didn’t mean, helped me to break my gaze. I felt the others looking at me, but I ignored them. Especially Billy, whose smirk I could see in my mind’s eye.

  For the rest of the session I was able to come up with answers I knew Mrs. Reynolds wanted to hear and got through it without any punishment. No one else got in trouble either. When we were done she told us we could go, but asked me to stay behind. As I watched everyone file out, worry coursed through me and I wondered what I had done wrong.

  Finally, the last person left the room and Mrs. Reynolds turned to me. “How are you settling in, Morgan?”

  “Okay, I guess.” I hoped she would get this over with quickly—my imagination was filling with all kinds of horrible punishments for what I may have done.

  “Good. I’m glad to hear it.” She paused. “Here at Camp Willowmoss we want our campers to develop good habits. Not just to lose weight, but to cultivate a healthy lifestyle—a lifelong way of caring for their bodies. Now, as you know, there are those who are here for other reasons. That’s what our counseling group is all about. Some people make poor choices and they need to be reminded why we have the rules that we have. Take you, for example. I’m sure what you did wasn’t done maliciously. Nevertheless, you broke an important rule.”

  As I sat silently, I wondered where she was going with her lecture.

  “Here at Camp Willowmoss we believe in second chances. Most people leave here with a new attitude and are ready to become productive members of society. There are some, however, who have no intention of changing their ways. Not only that, they want to bring down as many other people as they can.”

  Alarm bells rang in my mind. Did she somehow know of my desire to escape? Could she tell I hadn’t been sincere in my answers during the counseling session?

  “Morgan, I have a good feeling about you.”

  The alarm bells quieted as I listened to her. Plainly, she had no clue about what was going on in my mind.

  “As much as we want to, we can’t be everywhere so we rely on other campers to help us out.” She watched me for a moment, then said, “How would you like to shave some time off of your stay?”

  “Really?”

  She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Yes.”

  “I would like that.”

  “I thought you would.” She paused. “You can earn points which can go toward shortening your stay at Camp Willowmoss.”

  That’s great, I thought. Maybe I’d need to work extra hours in my job or something. “What do I need to do?” I couldn’t help it. My voice betrayed how e
ager I was to earn these points.

  “You just need to share information with me.”

  I felt my early release slipping away. “What kind of information?”

  “Anything that you think we would be interested in. I think you’ll know it when you hear it.” This time when she smiled, it seemed evil.

  “Okay.”

  “Can I count on you, Morgan?”

  What was I supposed to say? “Uh, I guess so.”

  “Good.” She stood. “I’ll see you tomorrow night.” Then she turned and left the room.

  I stayed in my seat, trying to process what I’d just been told. If I ratted people out, they’d let me go early. I had no idea how early, but any time I could take off of my “stay”, as Mrs. Reynolds called it, would be good. But could I do it? Could I be a snitch?

  I left the classroom and went to the elevator, my mind going a hundred miles an hour. Did I care enough about the people I’d met to keep their secrets? Not that they’d told me any, but what if they did? Would I be willing to risk losing their friendship to benefit myself?

  Chapter Nine

  When I got back to my room, Alyx wasn’t there. I wondered if she was working out. The night before when I’d arrived she’d just finished a workout.

  Though I still had an hour until lights out, I was completely wiped out and decided to go to bed early. After getting ready for bed, I noticed a stack of blank food journal pages on my desk. Groaning with exhaustion, I decided to fill them out in the morning and instead crawled under my covers and was asleep the moment my head touched the pillow.

  The next morning when I woke, my body ached. Between scrubbing all those bathrooms and the two-hour workout, my muscles screamed at me for using them when they weren’t used to it. I crawled out of bed, gathered my things, and made my way to the bathroom. Since I had showered the night before, I decided I wouldn’t take the time to shower this morning.

  The bathroom was a beehive of activity—seven girls vying for mirrors, sinks and showers. My gaze swept the room and I noticed all the ways the girls were making a mess. After working so hard to clean yesterday, I couldn’t help myself, and spoke without thinking. “Would you guys mind not making such a mess?”

  One of the girls laughed and my gaze met Beth’s. Oh, crap, I thought, recalling our confrontation in the gym the previous evening. Then I watched as she squirted some toothpaste onto the counter, took a tissue and scooped it up, then smeared it on the mirror.

  “That’s for you, new girl. I want to make sure you have plenty to do when you clean up after us today.”

  Fury spiked in my brain. How dare she treat me like her personal maid? But wasn’t that what I was? For all of the girls on this floor?

  I had to use all of my self-control to keep from responding. Instead, I purposely ignored her challenge, then turned away and went about my business, hurrying through my tasks so I could get away from her.

  When I got back to my room I saw the food journal sheets on my desk and remembered that I needed to fill them out. Still upset about what had happened with Beth, plus feeling achy and tired after working so hard the day before, I struggled to remember everything I’d eaten. I did the best I could and hoped it would be good enough, then folded the sheet of paper and put it in my pocket.

  After Alyx and I turned in our food journals, we got our trays. Today’s food was a little better—fruit, eggs, a power bar, and no oatmeal. As I sat with my group I tried not to think about what Mrs. Reynolds had offered me. Then it occurred to me that everyone here was probably told the same thing. But then I wondered if everyone had been. After all, Mrs. Reynolds didn’t talk to Chad after the counseling session. Just me. Did they only make the offer to those who they thought would be likely to tattle?

  I hated the idea that I came across that way, but at least it would make the people running this place less likely to suspect my true plans.

  “You seem deep in thought,” Billy said. He sat across from me.

  “What? Oh, I’m just tired.”

  “What did Mrs. Reynolds want to talk to you about?” he asked as he took a bite of his cold cereal—some sort of brown flakes swimming in skim milk.

  I felt all eyes turn my way. Did he really not know? Or was this a test?

  “Mrs. Reynolds pulled you aside?” Piper asked. “What for?”

  My heart pounded as my mind raced to come up with an answer. Obviously I couldn’t tell them the truth. What if one of them told me something juicy enough that it could get me released immediately? If they knew what she had said to me, they would never trust me. As much as I liked them, as soon as I got out of here, I would never see them again. “She just wanted to know how I was doing. You know, if I was having any problems.”

  “Really? She cares?” Cassidy asked.

  I laughed, maybe a little too loud. “I doubt it. But I guess that’s her job—to pretend to care.” I looked at the others and no one accused me of lying, so I went on. “Have you guys noticed how fake their smiles are? It’s like they get paid extra if they can pretend to like us.”

  “I know,” Cassidy said. “It creeps me out.”

  “Of course some of them don’t even try to pretend they like us,” Alyx said.

  “The Gray Witch hit Morgan with a book yesterday,” Billy said.

  “She did?” Piper said, her eyes wide. “What did you do?”

  “You call her the Gray Witch?” I looked at Billy.

  He nodded, his ever-present smirk on his face.

  I looked at the others. “I was so tired and her class was so boring, I fell asleep and I guess she didn’t like it.”

  “I’ve seen her do that before,” Cassidy said. “I think she enjoys it.”

  “Well, I’d better get to work,” Alyx said.

  “Yeah, you don’t want to keep Austin waiting,” Piper said, a knowing look on her face.

  Alyx’s face turned red. I pictured Mr. Muscles and wondered what she saw in him. I had to admit he wasn’t ugly, but when I thought about how he had forced me to run on the treadmill for twenty minutes, all I saw was a horrible person who didn’t care about us “campers”.

  “I’d better get going too,” I said, not wanting to be late.

  When I got to the supply closet/office, Kyle was just leaving.

  “Glad to see you made it on time today. There’s quite a mess in bathroom two. You might want to start there.”

  Bathroom two? That was my bathroom. I pictured Beth purposely smearing toothpaste on the mirror and wondered what else she had done.

  Kyle walked down the hall. “I need to go to one of the other floors, but I trust you can manage things here.”

  “Yeah,” I called after him, then gathered my supplies onto the cart and wheeled it to bathroom two.

  The smell hit me first, then I saw brown streaks on the walls.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.” I nearly gagged. I tried breathing through my mouth so I wouldn’t smell the horrible odor emanating from the room. I just knew this was Beth’s doing, but how could I prove it? And would anyone even care? After all, I was just a prisoner here. No one would care if I had to clean up someone else’s crap.

  Rage boiled inside me at being so helpless. As far as I could tell, I had no rights here. No one cared about me. Well, my new group of friends seemed to care. They were my family now and suddenly I knew I could never tell Mrs. Reynolds anything that they said. Maybe that’s what had happened with the person who was banished from the group. I certainly didn’t want that to happen to me.

  Swallowing my pride, I put on a pair of gloves, grabbed a squirt bottle of disinfectant and a roll of paper towels, and got to work.

  When that bathroom was sparkling clean, I moved on to another one. Fortunately, no one who used the other bathrooms hated me so the cleaning wasn’t too bad. At eleven o’clock, when it was time for me to stop, I hadn’t gotten as much done as I had the day before and I was worried I wouldn’t get everything done that I needed to.

  Even
though I had some homework to do, I continued working, trying to get a little more done. At eleven twenty I heard someone walk into the bathroom where I was scrubbing the sinks.

  “Looks great, Morgan,” Kyle said. “But you can stop now.”

  Pleased that he had caught me doing more than I needed to, I said, “Bathroom two took longer to clean, so I thought I’d better work a little longer.”

  He smiled, evidently impressed. “You’re a hard worker. I like that. But you don’t have to overdo it.” He paused. “We might have someone join our little crew tomorrow, so that will help.”

  I set the sponge down, my feelings mixed. It would be great to have more help, but that meant someone was about to be dragged in here today and probably had no idea. Had Kyle known I was going to be arrested and brought in ahead of time? The idea bothered me immensely. “Great,” I said, trying to show enthusiasm I didn’t feel.

  “I’ll take the cart back for you. I’m sure you have other things you need to get done. I’ll see you after lunch.”

  “Okay, thanks.” I peeled off the gloves I’d been wearing and set them on the cart, then went to my room and sat on my bed. Even though I had homework from the day before, it wasn’t due until the next day, so instead, I lay on my bed and stared at the ceiling and felt sorry for myself. At lunch I sat with my new friends, glad to have them around. Without them I would feel so much more alone.

  Using the plastic knife, I cut off a piece of my bunless veggie burger and stabbed it with my spork. The burger actually tasted pretty good. Almost as good as the veggie burger I’d had at the Come On Inn diner. Remembering the waitress who had seemed to disapprove of my choice to have the burger instead of the soup, I now understood her attitude. This whole society was so screwed up, believing everyone should be forced to be a certain size. And now I was basically in prison because I weighed more than what some random group of people had decided was acceptable.

  “Well, I’d better get back to pulling weeds,” Billy said as he stood.

  I looked at the clock and saw my time was rapidly ending. I finished eating, said good-bye to the others, then dropped off my tray and went back to the sixth floor to continue being the maid for my floor.