Chapter One

Up until this point in the conversation Zaiden had had no problems with the things being said. He had simply listened, like he always did, but held little opinion. But this… this was personal. Gabe was picking on Luke about something that Zaiden knew all too well. He no longer cared if people knew about him, but he did care when someone was being bullied for that reason.

Zaiden was just about to speak up and say something, though he knew not what. Probably something unhelpful, like “that’s not very nice,” or “you shouldn’t tease someone about that”. Either way, the point was that he was about to say something when he was saved by the entrance of another person. Only, this time it wasn’t another kid around their age. It wasn’t another ‘young offender’. This time it was a full grown man.

He was tall, about Zaiden’s height, black, and muscular and he looked to be in his mid thirties. It became evident to Zaiden fairly quickly that he was their parole officer and he looked like he could easily put anyone who gave him trouble in check.

“Only three?” he asked, making his presence known to Gabe and Luke for the first time since he’d entered. He looked down at the bench where the last two jumpsuits still laid to reaffirm his thoughts that there were supposed to be five of them in all. “Well, I guess they’re running late. They’ll just have to deal with the consequences when they finally decide to arrive… and Alex will be doing well if he shows up at all.”

Luke was still feeling shaky, his heart was still somersaulting and he swallowed down a nervous feeling at the pit of his stomach, he really couldn’t look at Gabe anymore. The things he’d worked for so many years not feel, to try to hide from the people he lived with… she’d torn them out of him in minutes… like a predator… he bet Gabe noticed everything she could about people so she could make them feel that much more awful. He vowed to pray for her a lot, albeit grudgingly and bitterly and probably while simultaneously wishing that her horribly colored blond hair would fall out.

“Only three?”

He startled and was on his feet in an instant, standing, his fingers clenching on the leg of his suit, giving the parole officer a wide doe-eyed look, like a fawn caught in the headlights of a fast approaching truck. The man was tall, and imposing… and he was praying that he wasn’t as scary as he actually looked.

“Well, I guess they’re running late. They’ll just have to deal with the consequences when they finally decide to arrive… and Alex will be doing well if he shows up at all.”

Two more? Two more meant two more possibilities that there could be kids in their group just as bad or worse than Gabe, the thought made Luke feel slightly ill.

The big black man crossed his arms over his chest, his heavily defined brow emphasized his intense stare. “Right, well… I trust you three got acquainted already. If not, I am sure you will. If this is your first time meeting each other Gabe meet Zaiden and Luke, Luke and Zaiden meet each other and Gabe. Some of you may have already been performing community service in a different group, but this is your new group for the next few months. So do yourself a favor, kids, and don’t pick fights. Trust me, you gotta up and come here to work. You don’t want to have to deal with cliques and bullies and power shows. I don't want this to be hell for any one of you. We work together. We get the jobs done faster. I don’t want to have to break you guys up…”

He checked his watch. “Right, you kids can call me Peter.” The man turned to look out into the hall briefly. “we’ll wait a little longer for the other two to join us… I don’t want to have to repeat myself.” He turned his head, still standing in the doorway to look back at them all. “I expect good behavior…” he was looking at Gabe when he spoke.

Alice was running. Alice was running late.

She had been sitting in a small abandoned garden letting her fantasies float by. It was the first time she could sneak away from her mother since the incident. Sirens blaring and loud shouting coming from all around. Alice continuously tried to sign, "It wasn't me!"

Her mom had been furious and hadn't let Alice out of her sight. Unfortunately for her, she couldn't cut back her hours enough to keep an eye on Alice for long. She had asked the neighbors in the adjacent apartments to keep an eye on her, but Alice had managed to slip past them.

Her ears were thudding with her heartbeat. She never usually exercised, so she was already out of breath as soon as she had left the apartment. Luckily, her home wasn't too far away from the building she needed to report to for her community service. Soon, she was reaching for the hot handle of the door and slid inside, keeping her back to the sweet coolness of the wall. She closed her eyes to the immediate change in brightness, panting quietly.

Alice finally looked up to see the empty whiteness of the community center before her. She started walking hesitantly down the hallways, peering into the different rooms for some sign of life.

There was a murmur of conversation that echoed in the large building. Alice stopped to listen, then instinctively followed the sound to a light grey door, labelled "Locker Room".

Alice gingerly opened the door as she unconsciously tucked back a short lock of hair behind her ear. Nervous, but curious, Alice shyly poked her head inside to see four pairs of eyes staring at her. She smiled apologetically.

Zaiden turned his head to look as the locker room door opened behind their probation officer, everyone else doing the same. A skinny, meek looking girl poked her head in the room, a smile on her face as if to say she was sorry. Zaiden thought she seemed nice, in as much a way as one could tell from seeing someone for the first time, and was glad that she didn’t appear to be another person like Gabe.

“You must be Alice,” Peter said as he turned to look at her. “You’re a little late, but we won’t hold it against you since it’s your first day. Your jumpsuit is over here,” he told her, pointing towards the bench in the middle of the room that she’d have to step forward to be able to see. “Go ahead and put it on real quick and then we’ll get started.”

Peter stepped aside to make room for Alice to pass by him and then turned back to the group. “We’ve got a couple different tasks to get accomplished today, but first I want to talk to all of you. Finish getting ready and then meet me in the gym. I’ll be waiting…” He gave them all one last look and then turned and headed for the gym. Zaiden looked around at the others, wondering if he should go ahead and go to the gym himself, or if they should wait and go together once everyone was ready.

The door opened behind the parole officer and Luke stepped back, to lean on the locker there, expecting the worst, the absolute worst; (some huge guy with a foul mouth, smoking a cigarette, needle scars on the insides of his arms, a couple dozen tattoos, unnatural muscles, and a grudge against the world…) Instead, a short-haired girl slipped by him and into the locker room with an anxious little smile. Luke let the breath out of his lungs in an almost inaudible relieved sigh. She seemed nothing like Gabe, in fact, her soft features were actually quite appealing, quite pretty, and she looked innocently harmless, beautiful, in a plain pure kind of way. She reminded him of a fawn when he looked over her graceful slightness, and by reckoning she wasn’t much older than him, perhaps younger… though she was a few inches taller.

He wanted to give her a smile back but his dread still lingered at the pit of his stomach because any moment the fifth group member could walk in and be everything he feared the most. He kept his attention on the new girl and wondered briefly how someone like her had even come to be in this place… looks could be deceiving he supposed, after all most people would have looked at him the same way.

Peter said her name was Alice. He may have been a child of the church fated to read texts on ancient Catholicism and the lives of the saints but he had been given a small stack of books when he was younger that had nothing to do with religion, but fantasy and far off worlds. Father Stravinskus said it was good for a young child to have an escape into the ‘unreality’ as he called it. The name suited her, he thought, she looked like a girl with one foot in another world.

When Peter said that he would be waiting for them in the gym, Luke moved instinctually to follow the officer then stopped when he saw no immediate movement from everyone else and decided that it was best to wait for the new girl anyway, just to be nice. He could use some friends in here and whereas he wasn’t certain about Zaiden… who had stood by like a stoic statue when Gabe had taken her digs at him, he was pretty certain that the new girl would be kind, and therefore perhaps he’d found a good person to partner off with during hard tasks.
He looked from Zaiden to Gabe and really, really wished Gabe would have followed the officer… he disliked her, he couldn’t help it…

“You must be Alice.”

Alice shifted her eyes toward a tall man with ebony skin, standing quite close to her.

“You’re a little late, but we won’t hold it against you since it’s your first day. Your jumpsuit is over here,” he continued, pointing towards the middle of the room. Alice stepped forward, craning her neck, to see a bench with two orange jumpsuits. One had a piece of paper with her name on it. He must be the probation officer, she thought passively.

“Go ahead and put it on real quick and then we’ll get started.” He stepped aside so that Alice could slip by. She glanced momentarily at a boy seated close and gave a small, nervous smile to him as she was passing by.

“We’ve got a couple different tasks to get accomplished today, but first I want to talk to all of you. Finish getting ready and then meet me in the gym. I’ll be waiting…” the ebony man said, giving a final glance at the lot of them before leaving them for the direction Alice supposed the gym was.

She stared thoughtfully at the place the man’s back had disappeared from view, cocking her head to the side curiously.

Alice heard a slight rustle of movement. She turned to see a tall, shaggy-haired statue of a boy. He looked torn… Alice cast her eyes over the other people in the room with her. Another boy leaning against the lockers was looking at her. He was the one she had seen earlier. Now that she had time to study him, his delicate frame was stiff. He appeared nervous… or scared… perhaps both, she assessed uncertainly. A pang of sympathy flowered in her chest.

A loud tapping turned her attention towards the girl. Alice saw the large dark eyes belonging to a lioness of a girl. She studied her for half a second as she unconsciously fiddled with the small notepad, only slightly larger than her palm, which hung from her neck.Alice vaguely remembered that she needed to change into the jumpsuit. Turning, she carelessly picked hers up from the bench. She looked around her.

The walls gave way to a passageway; the showers. Alice floated through the opening and towards the curtain of a shower stall. She pushed it aside, watching how the white, plastic fabric folded against her touch.

Alice entered the stall and closed the curtain behind her. She began undressing, unbuttoning her loose yellow blouse and sliding down her breezy shorts to her ankles, to pull on the jumpsuit. It’s loose, the thought floated through her mind, as she tugged at her notepad so that it hung at her waist over the jumpsuit. She zipped it up as high as was comfortable before lazily searching though the clothes for the pen in the pocket of her crumpled shorts. Clipping it to the pocket of the jumpsuit, Alice slipped through the curtain and out of the showers.

Gabe sat nonchalantly on her bench as she half paid attention to what Peter was saying. She had been through this enough times before to realize she didn't care in the least what this man was saying. She gave an evil grin back when he had told them to behave but had looked her straight in the face.
She had just shrugged and continued about her day assessing the guy in the corner that just stood there like nothing was wrong. She really wanted to talk to him. To see what he had to say about things. But more in general to see if he could simply hold his own. She had to be here so why not make it fun?
Gabe, as well as everyone else in the room, turned instantly as soon as the door opened and a small girl quietly entered. What made Gabe different is that she didn't look away when the girl moved to get her jumpsuit. She couldn't decide whether to hate her or bake her a cake she looked so sweet and innocent. Taller than her and prettier in the nicer sense Gabe felt weird that she was entirely threatened by her but much rather wanted to take care of her and teach her things.
Ruin her.
Gabe smiled as the new girl, Alice, turned towards the showers. After Peter had left Gabe shot a glare at Luke and followed Alice into the showers but stood at the doorway waiting for her to come back out.
Seeing her come out of the curtain with the suit that was obviously loose on her Gabe stared her down.
"How old are ya?"

"How old are ya?"

The voice abruptly shook Alice from her dreamy state. The lioness girl had been waiting for her.

Alice tilted her head to the side, confused. Her forehead furrowed slightly as she studied the girl. She was shorter than her, but more curvaceous and she had the dark complexion of the ebony parole officer. The lioness girl had unruly, shoulder-length blond hair that looked too unnatural to be pretty on her, though there was a well-concealed beauty in the strength of her features. Her posture was certain… aggressive almost… And yet… Alice saw there was something broken in her; something wrong.

Alice smiled brightly and quickly pulled out her pen to write in her small notepad.

“I’m 16. What’s your name?” Alice had scribbled, turning it over for the lioness girl to see.

Zaiden watched Gabe carefully as she followed the new girl, Alice, to the showers where she had gone to change. A moment later she emerged from her makeshift dressing room, wearing the garb that they now all shared. Zaiden truly disliked orange.

“How old are ya?” he heard Gabe ask. Alice didn’t reply right away, but instead gave a friendly smile. Zaiden’s brow rose a fraction. Alice seemed quiet, but more confident then he and Luke. Zaiden had expected her to speak, but then she reached into her jumpsuit and pulled out a pen. It was then that Zaiden noticed the small notepad hanging low around her neck. She had been wearing it when she first came in, but he hadn’t thought anything of it until now. Now she reached for the notepad.

As Alice’s hand scribbled a quick response, Zaiden’s eyebrows lifted with curiosity and hopeful joy. Alice held up the pad so that Gabe could see what she’d written, and before she could even finish reading Zaiden throw up his right hand and waved it in the air, attempting to get Alice’s attention. His hands moved more fluidly then: pointing to Alice, and then to his head, and finally spinning a circle in front of him.

You know sign?, his hands asked.

Zaiden’s whole life, he had only ever had one person he considered a friend: his cousin. His cousin was a year older than him and deaf. Zaiden had taught himself sign as best he could, getting help from his cousin whenever possible. It became more than just a community’s way of communication. It became their own language. Zaiden had always been quiet, and not needing to speak to converse with his only friend hadn’t helped him improve in that area.

When Alice had walked in the room, something told Zaiden she was different, but he wasn’t sure what, until now. At least he hoped so. It would be a huge shot to his hopes if he had assumed all wrong…

Alice had just held her notepad up for the lioness girl to read when a quick blur of movement behind her caught her attention. The tall, shaggy-haired statue boy had come to life. He was waving his hand enthusiastically, his face bright... hopeful.

He pointed at her and himself. And then his hands were soaring through the air into graceful arcs. His hands were like liquid, as they flowed into discernible words.

Alice’s wide eyes grew wider, as did her smile.

You know sign?

Alice dropped the notepad, its purpose momentarily forgotten, as her hands, too, flowed into lovely words. It was like a dance. Alice had always been fascinated with watching people sign.

Yes. What is your name? How do you know sign?

The lioness girl stood before her, obviously disgruntled, but Alice was too preoccupied to notice.

Luke stayed pressed to the locker as Alice stepped by him and picked up her suite before heading to the showers, like Zaiden had done previously. He absently picked at the collar of his suite not liking the way it hung on him, inelegant and criminal, listening intently to the sound of Alice’s light footsteps and the scraping of curtain rings pulled across a metal pole. It seemed that for a few seconds all three of them, Zaiden, Gabe, and Luke were all slightly mesmerized by the young girl, but whatever spell she cast it didn’t last long… because Gabe was already on her feet.

He received the older girl’s deathly cold glare, flinching a little instinctively under it, his thin lips pressed together. She threw a lot of dislike into her expressions and he only shrank a little away from her offering an innocent non-threatening look. He should have never spoken up against that girl… he just hadn’t understood why she had to be so rude and demanding… and now he sorely regretted it. He would submissively bend to her will for a little while… too self conscious to be publically humiliated in front of anyone else.

He narrowed his pale blue eyes, watching as Gabe approached the archway leading to the showers, following Alice. He really hoped that she wasn’t about to harass her, thought judging by previous reactions that was probably her only intention. He pushed himself off the locker and stepped forward a few paces as if moving to stop her, or get in her way when the girl reemerged from the showers and Gabe immediately confronted her with a: “How old are ya?”
The short haired girl looked too small in her suite, like she didn’t belong in it at all. He tilted his head a little blowing his short brown hair from his gaze as he fidgeted with the rolled cuff of one of his sleeves. He wondered if Alice would actually answer Gabe but the girl took a notebook hanging at her waist and started to write.

This caught his attention immediately. He couldn’t read it from this distance but his curiosity sparked, he couldn’t help it. He hadn’t been out of the seminary very often and the children he occasionally taught confirmation class once a year he barely saw at all… this girl must have been mute… He approached a little, his arms by his side, one hand tightened on the leg of his suite to help pull it up so he could walk without tripping, trying to read the age on the paper, when a blur of movement caught his attention and he saw that Zaiden was signaling to her. He raised his eyebrows and his interest instantly turned back to her face, and she seemed to understand whatever Zaiden had said to her because she signed him in reply. He approached the archway to the showers not far from where Gabe stood and leaned against it, watching her with his intent but gentle blue eyes, looking all for the world doe-eyed and inquisitive, offering her a faint but friendly smile.

Yes. What is your name? How do you know sign?

Zaiden smiled in relief, glad his first assumption was correct. She was either deaf, and very good at reading lips, or she was simply mute. Either way, he’d be able to communicate fine with her. He lifted his hands again to reply.

Z A I D E N, he spelled, giving her his name sign afterwards: the letter Z followed by the sign for quiet. I have a deaf cousin, he replied. His hands shook slightly from nervousness. He had rarely run into any other deaf or mute people with the exception of his cousin, so he was always a little anxious when he talked to people for the first time.

What’s your name sign?, he asked after a few seconds. A name sign was an abbreviation for a person’s name, so that they didn’t have to spell it out. It was usually the first letter of their name, either combined with or followed by a sign that described them in some way. Zaiden was interested to know Alice’s.

The shaggy, statue boy smiled with relief at Alice’s response, the effect making his pale face soften from its strained state. His green eyes were gentler; more relaxed.

Z A I D E N, the statue boy’s hands spelled.

Zaiden. Quiet.

I have a deaf cousin, Zaiden explained. What’s your name sign?

Alice’s thoughts flashed back to when she first had decided hers.

She was a little girl playing in her room. She could still hear her parents arguing loudly through the house, but there were no clear words. An angry, indistinct babble was oozing through the walls as Alice focused on her dollies’ tea party. It was her favorite doll Susie’s first birthday.

Alice poured the water that she pretended to be tea into Susie’s cup first, observing all the niceties for such an occasion. She had passed out all the animal cracker cookies and was beginning to nibble on hers when she noticed her father in the doorway of her room watching her. The house was silent.

Her father walked into the room and sat on her bed, picking Alice up from her small chair and setting her in his lap. He smelled of cherry cigar smoke and something indescribably him. He smelled like comfort and protection… and that curious feeling you get when you never can find the match to your favorite sock. She smiled at him and touched his cheek gently, as if trying to smooth out the premature wrinkles of anxiety.

He hugged her tightly to his chest. “My dear, sweet Alice”, he had whispered. “You are my little ray of sunshine, you know that?” Alice smiled, still tucked close in her father’s embrace for what had seemed a sweet eternity.

Alice copied Zaiden, first spelling her name, then an A with a final smooth swish of her hand.

Sunshine.

Gabe looked from both the silent one on the wall to Alice quickly as they were signing. She wasn't stupid and knew what was going on but all Gabe new how to do was count and sign out the alphabet.
Figuring that she didn't care much for this right now she waved her hand in dismissal and sat back down on a bench and pulled her headphones on as she half watched them communicate.
Quickly getting bored she took her headphones off again and stood.
"Come on. We need to go meet what's his face." She stared at Luke first then to the taller boy. She half smiled at Alice knowing that she'd take it as a sign of friendship. She wasn't entirely sure how she felt about Alice but at this moment it sat neither here nor there.
Tying her shoes quickly she walked towards the door and looked at the other three. "Well? Y'all coming or is there something wrong with ya legs?"
She shook her head as she left the locker room.

Luke’s blue eyes were wide and curious and he wished more than anything he understood what they were talking about, leaning there against the archway of the door watching curiously, back and forth, the way their fingers and hands flowed into elegant shapes, the way they understood each other, as easily as if they were speaking out loud but it was silence and art.

It reminded him of a time when he was a small boy still, kneeling in the tiny chapel of the oratory counting his Hail Mary’s on a rose scented rosary. He’d looked up as Father Stravinskas strode up the isle in his dark robes and began saying mass, his first Sunday at the oratory. It was the hour he’d heard Latin for the first time. It had sounded so beautiful, so fluid. Pure and sophisticated. It was his first real foreign experience at the rectory, catching the priests speaking to each other in the halls in the voices of some far off world… and the books. There were books written in Latin, he’d found them tried to read them, tried to compare them to the copies in English. He’d needed the brothers and priests to tutor him… but eventually, Luke had learned it. For the most part nobody spoke in the oratory, and when they did it was a mix of both English and Latin except if it was about the printers or the computers not working, or the connections on the TV.

His reverie was broken quite suddenly by Gabe waving her hand and returning to sit at the bench, putting on her headphones, within the space of him looking from her back to the other two she was already on her feet again.

"Come on. We need to go meet what's his face."

Luke frowned, as she looked at him a strand of his brown hair falling down into his face, causing him to slick it back, looking at the other two. He pushed himself off the archway and started to follow Gabe, maybe because he felt he had to, though he gave her a wide berth.

"Well? Y'all coming or is there something wrong with ya legs?"

He startled a little in a jumpy kind of way and looked behind him at Alice and Zaiden, his lips pressed together nervously “Maybe we should… go meet… Peter…” He suggested in such a small voice he felt that even the silence seemed to drown it out. He decided not to say anything else but lingered in the doorway to the locker rooms for a few moments more before venturing out into the hall, looking up and down the corridor. He was curious, he’d never been in the community center before yesterday and it was quite large… like a school building.

Zaiden was about to sign something back to Alice when he was interrupted.

"Come on. We need to go meet what's his face."

The lioness girl had stood up and looked between the three of them. Alice warmed under the half smile the girl had given only to her, even though the smile never reached her eyes.

Everyone was frozen in silence, watching as the lioness girl propped her foot onto the wooden bench, leaning down to tie her shoe. Then she was heading to the door. The shorter boy gave her wide passage to the door and was timidly beginning to follow the lioness girl.

"Well? Y'all coming or is there something wrong with ya legs?" The lioness girl paused at the doorway to say. The shorter boy jumped at the girl’s voice as he turned to see that neither Zaiden nor Alice had followed. The boy pressed his lips together, as if debating to say anything.

“Maybe we should… go meet… Peter…” he finally said in a small voice. The boy lingered in the doorway before venturing into the hallway. He looked so small and fragile against the concrete walls, painted in such an empty kind of white. A sort of wasteland with its cold, florescent lighting.

Alice turned her head to see Zaiden studying the scene. She smiled brightly when he caught her eye. Follow me, her eyes said.

Alice floated forward into the hallway and instinctively grabbed the tall boy’s hand, pulling him gently, but eagerly along. Zaiden was startled at the sudden, unexpected contact, his mouth forming a perfect “O”, but he allowed her to lead him forward as they hurried after the lioness girl. Alice glanced behind at Zaiden as she playfully beckoned him to hurry with her smile.

Luke listened to the sounds of Gabe’s shoes hitting the white washed Community center floor, it resounded all around him like the small girl was much bigger than she really was, it gave him a sense of aloneness and isolation, like it was just them here and no one else. His group wasn’t that bad, two of them seemed to be nice, or on the nicer side, if somewhat unresponsive, but the good kids outnumbered Gabe so with that thought he let the air out between his teeth and watched the mean girl’s retreating back as she strutted off down the hall in the direction he assumed the gym must be in.

For a few moments it was silent and Luke felt suddenly engulfed in the clinical whiteness of the corridor, all alone and quite small, a silhouette of nervous life against the strangely happy billboard behind him; a mosaic of pinned up pictures and fliers of happy smiling people; people going to college, hammering together houses, hugging each other, and climbing mountains (irrelevantly). Luke was just leaning in for a better look at a bow shooting tournament when the two other kids, the silent ones, suddenly ran out from the locker rooms hand in hand and started off in the direction that Gabe had headed.

Alice, the new girl, had such a life in her face, such an irrefutable light that it seemed to bring warmth into the empty white space of the corridor, but she was looking at the other, taller boy, holding his hand, sprinting off down the corridor like two playful young puppies. The sight made him smile, he couldn’t help it, and the smile turned to a laugh, before that faded a little. His blue gaze turned back to the bow tournament flier, and his attention shifted from that to the AIDS flier right next to it. He swallowed back a dread in his throat and forcefully turned away from the board, crossing his arms over his chest in a self hug, and walking stiffly after the other two but at a slightly slower pace. He didn’t belong here… he belonged in the chapel right now, focusing on his morning prayers and thinking about making a breakfast of blueberry pancakes and sweet maple syrup.

Make it to the center. An old run down brick building. Piece of shit needs to be torn down if you ask me. Kick open the double doors and head down the hallway. Turn the corner and suddenly a group of people are coming at me. From here, it looks like three. A short black chick with huge tits and obviously fake colored hair, a skinny girl that seems to bounce rather than walk, and a tall boy being dragged by the bouncy chick. The last one looks like a fag. Suddenly a smaller boy walks around the far corner. He's almost as short as the black girl. Looks like a wimp. Fucking kids, all of them. I doubt any of them are old enough to have seen jail. Not that any of them look like the type that would be caught dead there. They're all wearing the orange monkey suits. I'll be dammed if I'll be forced into one today. Fuck that shit.

Remove my headphones as I get closer. Yawn. I think the black bitch said something, but I don't care enough to tell her to repeat herself. "'Sup bitches. The name's Fox. Remember it. You know who our nanny is today?"

Zaiden smiled at Alice. Sunshine. He could already tell why. She probably had a sunny disposition no matter what the situation. Zaiden liked that about her. He thought for a second about what to say back. He raised his hands and was just beginning to sign the word “how” when Gabe’s voice caused him to stop and turn his attention to her.

"Come on. We need to go meet what's his face."

Gabe got up and walked out, asking a mock question about whether or not they were physically disabled when no one moved to follow. Luke finally made the first move, heading out after her. He turned and suggested that they all head to the gym to meet up with their parole officer. Zaiden had meant to do that anyways, but then he had decided to wait for Alice… and then he had discovered she knew sign. He had gotten quite sidetracked.

Ever since Alice had joined them, he had been feeling better and better about everything. Maybe, just maybe, it wouldn’t suck quite as bad as he had expected. He had spaced out for a moment, but now she was pulling on his hand, and he found himself being pulled down the hallway. To the gym it was.

They made their way down the hall as if they were some sort of parade, or an elementary school class. Gabe led the way, fitting of her personality. Suddenly, a loud bang sounded around the corner and down the hall, quickly followed by the sound of heavy footsteps. Zaiden looked up to see a rather tall, fairly muscular guy, maybe a few years older than himself, rounding the corner. He was covered with tattoos and piercings, and the air he gave was so negative that Zaiden could sense it from the second he set foot in the building.

Zaiden watched as the guy took quick notice of all of them, not even bothering to hide it.

"'Sup bitches. The name's Fox. Remember it. You know who our nanny is today?"

Zaiden took in what the guy, Fox, had just said. He already didn’t like him, but he wasn’t going to start off on his bad side. He opened his mouth to answer, but changed his mind before he could make a sound. Instead, his eyes moved towards the entrance of the gymnasium, which they were now only a few feet from, as if to show Fox exactly where their “nanny” was.

Luke picked up his stiff pace, attempting to catch up with Alice and Zaiden who were quite a ways ahead of him. The sounds of shoes hitting the off-white patterned flooring of the hall ricocheted back at him, bounding off the cold white walling, making him feel tiny in comparison. This place was nothing like the old brick walls, wooden floors laden with extravagant rugs, and soft carpeting of the oratory. The light here was a clinical, artificial quality, just as cold, and just as impersonal. He missed the tinged sunlight lacing through the white curtains in his bedroom, where he wished he was now, curled up under the chocolate colored blankets reading his daily verses.

The air was tangy with Pine-Sol as they passed the drinking fountain where someone had propped up a ‘wet floor' sign against the freshly painted wall, it made him crinkle his nose and move to the opposite side of the corridor. As opposed to the other kids, he hardly made a sound, the treads of his black boots were a soft pliable rubber and provided him with quiet footsteps. His arms still hugged his chest, and he was paying very little attention to where he was going now, just focusing on walking, and following, and trying to breathe to calm himself.

Luke lifted his head quite suddenly, his posture stiffened, his steps faltered as the echo of the double doors to the building reverberated down the hall. His heart stilled, his stomach flipped and he got that sick feeling he always got just before he thought he was about to be scolded. Another member? Perhaps just a janitor?

He heard the set of footsteps first then almost came to a direct halt because in the next moment another guy walked around the corner and his appearance almost caused Luke to back-pedal and start running back down the hall in the opposite direction. His lip curled in horror, he lifted a delicate hand to cover his mouth, and his pale blue eyes fixed on the older male.

From what was visible, the guy was covered with tattoos, and sleazy looking clothing, chains clipped to loopholes all over his black pants. But it wasn’t his painted skin, or even his spiked hair, it was all that metal on his face that made him look almost inhuman; loops through his lower lip, the bridge of his nose, septum, eyebrows and ears, not to mention the tattoo on the side of his face. Luke’s blood curdled unpleasantly and he wondered what the guy had actually looked like before he’d done this to his body. The way he moved was laxidasical, uncaring, loose. Luke felt the need to take a shower just looking at him… or maybe that was because he had kept walking closer and got a good waft of his smell. He raised his hand from his mouth, non-too-tactfully, to just over his nose, clearing his throat and dropping the hand after a moment, self consciously, while all the while trying not to breathe in… or cross himself.

“Sup bitches. The name's Fox. Remember it. You know who our nanny is today?"

Luke had stopped behind Zaiden and Alice, his expression still mortified, he shifted a little so he was a little bit closer to the tall quiet boy in front of him, and nearly concealed behind his gangly frame. He stayed silent for a few moments, looking up towards Zaiden who opened his mouth to respond to the demented-looking new arrival but then, didn’t, and merely looked away. Luke didn’t think he would be able to find his voice at all, he didn’t think he would have been able to speak without fainting on the floor, but before he could slap a hand over his mouth to stifle himself he piped up;

“Peter?” his voice was nothing but a feminine little squeak.

Immediately, he squeezed his eyes shut, his hands gripped the orange fabric of the jump suite and he let out breath. Wishing he had said nothing at all, he edged closer to Alice and Zaiden.

Gabe rolled her eyes as the tall boy and Alice bounced past them. She couldn't care less what the girl was doing with her life. She was no threat at all. Focusing on each foot step and the sound they made she noticed the sound of an extra pair as a tall guy turned the corner.
"The hell are ya?" She spoke before she even had a single thought on the fact that this guy could probably throw her across the room without even trying.
That made her want to bother him more though so she stood in her place as he spoke, obviously not paying her any mind.
“Sup bitches. The name's Fox. Remember it. You know who our nanny is today?"
Gabe noted how Luke ran and hid behind the taller guy and attempted to speak but didn't accomplish anything like usual.
"What the pansy is tryin to say is that the nanny's name is Peter." She smacked her gum out of habit as she felt herself stand taller and not move as he made eye contact with her.
She puffed out her chest a little more and leaned to the side. "You seem like you've been here before but I've never seen you around."

The faggy kid looks a bit creeped out. Opens his mouth, avoids eye contact. He's scared of me. Perfect. Little bitch in the back looks absolutely horrified. Covers his nose as I get closer to the group. I'm sure he's gotten a good smell of what three days without a shower has done to me. "Peter" he squeaks. His voice cracks. Shakes, closes his eyes, grabs at his pants. Gets closer to gay boy and bouncy girl. He's more freaked out of me than gay boy. This is going to be fun.

Tits decides to speak. "What the pansy is tryin to say is that the nanny's name is Peter." Dick is working today. He has respect issues, but it could be worse I suppose. Tits shifts a little, trying to look taller it seems. She's half my size. Accomplishes nothing. "You seem like you've been here before but I've never seen you around."

Maybe this group isn't just a bunch of pussies. Tits has been through the system once or twice. "I don't like to be around. This place bores the shit out of me. I've got better things to be doing with my time. Though I suppose there are perks. Tell Dick I'll be in the shower and not to wait up for me. I'd hate for you guys not to go on ahead because of me." Grin, push my way past Tits and the rest of the group. Jump at Bitch-boy to see his reaction. Almost shits his pants. Evil sneer. "Oh yea. This is going to be fun."

"What the pansy is tryin’ to say is that the nanny's name is Peter"

Luke loathed himself for opening his mouth. He should have known better, he should have stayed silent like he’d been taught in the oratory. His blue gaze averted and he could barely let himself look at the newcomer, didn’t dare. His legs trembled a little to the point he felt like he was going to faint.

Don’t show weakness, don’t show weakness, please, come on, don’t show weakness.
Those words ran through his mind, they kept him standing, even if he swayed a little, even if he was pale in the presence of Fox. He instinctively crinkled his nose a little, having had to breathe in a little, letting his breath out between his teeth.

"You seem like you've been here before but I've never seen you around." Gabe’s voice was calm as a mid-summers day, like his appearance didn’t bother her at all, maybe she was used to people like him. God, there was just so much metal…

Luke stared at the floor pointedly, his fine features tensed with concentration as if the freshly polished tile would suddenly offer him up some consolation. He listened intently.

Fox seemed so nonchalant, unconcerned, his reply came with a supercilious air; "I don't like to be around. This place bores the shit out of me. I've got better things to be doing with my time. Though I suppose there are perks. Tell Dick I'll be in the shower and not to wait up for me. I'd hate for you guys not to go on ahead because of me." He pushed past Gabe, Zaiden and Alice... Luke held his breath.

Suddenly, the other boy mock-jumped at him, and Luke snapped and is alert body betrayed his fear, he startled backwards with a trembling stumble and hit the wall, his arm thrown out to catch himself with the palm of his hand, his other raised to just over his mouth, his blue eyes mortified… he almost felt the need to cross his legs because for half a moment he wasn’t sure if his bladder would hold out… he hadn’t expected that. He’d said nothing condescending, he’d said nothing mean, he’d done his best not to draw negative attention towards himself.

He watched the other boy grin cruelly. “this is going to be fun.”

The color drained from his face and he pushed himself away from the wall, straightening, fixing the collar of his black clerical shirt, then his suite, slicking his hair back from his face and trying to pretend nothing had happened, more than a little embarrassed. Less than an hour and the team bullies had already picked on him in front of the other kids. It made him feel sick, but he didn’t show it.

Gabe stayed silent as she payed attention to how Luke was responding to Fox and the moment Fox jumped at Luke and got the response he did, Gabe couldn't look away from him.
Luke had physically jumped just from that. She wanted that power.
She watched as Fox walked away. Took in his form and height and wanted to do nothing but touch him. A terrible habit she had when she wanted something. She just had to touch it to make sure it was something she could take.
The grin that spread across her face was infectious. She felt as if she just found the perfect pair of shoes that she would easily slip into her back pack and walk out with. Still grinning she turned to the other 3 and made sure to make eye contact with all of them, especially Luke as he was still trying to collect himself.
"That dude is a dick." She laughed as she started walking a head of everyone already in a better mood knowing that at least something will keep her interested for awhile.

Zaiden watched the small exchange between Gabe and Fox with mild interest. Now there was another person capable of making his life more miserable, but on the bright side, things would be slightly more interesting. They always were when two douche bags came face to face for the first time.

Zaiden was acutely aware of the fact that Luke was now using him as a human shield, but he didn't let him, or anyone else, know that he knew. He dared not betray one of his defenses. Fox finally headed towards the showers, after a few words about how much he hated being there, and jumped at Luke, attempting to frighten him.

Scratch that. It worked.

Zaiden resisted the urge to roll his eyes and instead turned his attention to Gabe as she spoke.

"That dude is a dick." She turned and continued towards the Gym, laughing as she did. It was funny, as much as Zaiden disliked her right now, he could actually see himself becoming quite fond of her. Especially if he had Fox Hole to compare her to.

Fox Hole? Hmm… Random thoughts are nice sometimes.

They reached the gym a few seconds later and Peter was standing there, almost like a drill sergeant, his brow furrowed. Perhaps they had taken longer than Zaiden had realized.

“Took you long enough.” Ope, yep. Cleared that up. “Well, as I said before, we’re going to talk for a moment, but after that, I hope you’re ready to do some work.”