New Arrivals
We followed the groups of teenagers down the hallway through the door and up a set of stairs leading out of the garage. I took a deep breath and focused on keeping up with the rest of the kids as we instinctively ran up the stairs. I didn’t think of anything else besides staying with the group; I was afraid of where my mind would take me if I did.
We went down some halls and then went through a final set of doors. On the other side was one of the largest rooms I had ever seen. The ceiling reached high with rafters holding up a wooden roof. In front of us was a large grouping of tables with plates and a buffet off on the left side of the room with everything from pizza to shrimp. The most surprising thing however; was the sound.
The doors opened and instantly a thundering round of applause crashed into us. The tables were filled with teenagers in street clothes and employees in white scrubs looking at us all and applauding enthusiastically as we streamed into the room. At one point people started to stand and it quickly turned into a standing ovation.
I looked over at Vinessa surprised smiles spreading across both of our faces all of us wondering how walking through a door could get us a standing ovation. In the front of the room a woman wearing a suit at a table with some adults motioned for the applause to stop and for the teens to be seated. She smiled and addressed us.
“Welcome,all new arrivals to Rigecleft; a center of operations for the Youth Safety Project. My name is Mrs.Lenan the head of Rigecleft. Here you will see that we are all like a large family,together we support each other in our struggles,find joy in each others achievements and encourage each other to become the best people they can be!
“Here at Ridgecleft we have a large majority of clubs, activities, and education opportunities available including scholarships and apprenticeships for many different careers.Tonight and tomorrow will be a time for us to get you all integrated into our program and then you can join the activities and clubs we have for everyone!”
“Now I won’t have you keep starving to death while I tell you all about our program! Go get your food at the buffet! New arrivals first!”
We all rushed over to the buffet table.
The boy with brown hair and a green band shoved to the front of the line along with a few others. Vinessa and I made sure to keep out of their way and got in the back of the line. I was starving.I hoped there would be cookies left when we got there;I had always had a strong sweet tooth.
I got to the buffet and gave myself a large slice of ham, some spoonfuls of Mac n cheese,potato chips, two chocolate chip cookies and a slice of Coffee cake. Vinessa got spaghetti with meatballs, french fries, and a brownie.
“Where should we sit?” Vinessa asked
I looked around. The tables were full of teens talking loudly with their friends, eating, and laughing. It felt overwhelming to me with all the noise. I looked around for an empty spot at the tables. A movement caught my eye and I saw that a girl with long blond hair was waving at us. I looked behind me to see if she was gesturing to someone else and pointed at myself looking back at her. She nodded smiling and waved us over again.
Vinessa and I went over to the table. The people moved to make a space for us to sit at their table.
“Hi my name’s Brooklyn!” the girl with blond hair said. “What’s your names?”
“I’m Vinessa.”
I waved. “I’m Megan.Thanks for letting us sit with you.”
“No problem.” said a scrawny boy across the table with brown hair. “My name’s Chandler and my friend currently stuffing her face..” he said nudging a girl with black hair next to him who was eating chips . “..Is Mia.”
Mia finished her chips and smiled. “Sorry,Hi! It’s nice to meet you!”
“Soo…what even is this place?” I asked them as I cut off a piece of ham and stuck it in my mouth. The food here was delicious!
“A really big building!” Chandler said smiling
I smiled. “Right,but I meant why are we here?”
“That’s always been the question hasn’t it?” he said looking out into the distance, a mischievous glint in his eyes.
“No, I mean why are we here?”
“To eat food,obviously”
Vinessa started laughing so hard she almost choked on her fries. Mia had to cover her mouth to not spit out the water she had just drank and I found myself laughing at his answers too even though I was exasperated at them.
Brooklyn rolled her eyes. “Sorry about Chandler his jokes take some getting used to. Pretty much the rule of thumb is if you’re feeling down talk to him and you’ll be suffocating on laughter in ten minutes.”
Everyone erupted into laughter again.
“The answer to your question though.” Brooklyn said “Is we won’t tell you. No one would dare ruin that surprise!”
“Don’t worry though it’s only a secret until tomorrow.” Mia said then smiled.
I looked at them. They didn’t look like they had any disease though I knew some diseases didn’t have symptoms. They didn’t hint that whatever this surprise was,was something bad. No looks or glances of fear, no secret messages in their words. If anything it was as if they were hinting at a big party or something!
Chandler noticed me staring. He leaned forward eyes widening. “Staring contest! Three, two, one, go!”
It took me by surprise and I blinked.
“Ha,I win!” he said, raising his fist in the air triumphantly. I saw the band on his arm. It was yellow.
I glanced at Mia who was eating a brownie. Her band was blue. I looked at Brooklyn’s armband as she picked up a piece of pizza; hers was red like mine and Vinessas.
“What’s with the different colored armbands?” I asked “or is that part of the surprise?”
“Surprise” Brooklyn said “you’ll figure it out tomorrow don’t worry about it.”
I turned to my food and kept eating feeling like I was asking too many questions. Vinessa asked them what the buildings we saw on the way in were and the pastures with the horses were.
“The small buildings are shops where you can buy things with gradecreds” Brooklyn explained “tomorrow you’ll get an ID card with credits on it. The better grades you get the more credits you have to buy cool stuff at the stores.”
“The horses are for lessons” Mia said “there are a bunch of extra curricular activities here,horse riding lessons,book clubs,drawing clubs,soccer team-”
“Mountain biking team!” Chandler interrupted “I’m on that. You guys should totally try out!” I noticed him glance down at our armbands and get a contemplative look on his face. “Maybe”
Some time went on with us eating and Vinessa and I trying to weasel out answers about what the surprise tomorrow might be. The others resolve however; was firm and they wouldn’t give us even the slightest hint, all they would say was that it was “too good to ruin”.
I was thinking of how to trickly phrase a question to get a hint of what would happen when the woman who had spoken earlier stood up and called for order.
“I am afraid that it is late and our New Arrivals feast has come to an end!” A series of growns came from the gathered teens. Mrs.Lenan put her hands up to silence the crowd. “I would like to again welcome all of our new arrivals, our staff and your fellow patients are here to help you adjust and are happy to answer any questions you may have. All new arrivals need to come up to the registration desk just outside the side doors to sign up for their rooms with a partner. No boys can share rooms with girls and vice versa.”
People started to stand up and move toward the side doors that led to a hallway. I stood up and went with Vinessa toward the side doors. I wished we could stay in the cafeteria talking to our new friends. I had felt more comfortable there.
Outside the doors there were three tables with kids getting in lines behind them to sign up for roomates. Vinessa and I got in line all the people from the buses were far more talkative now that they were full of food and out of the bus and I felt myself tense at their rowdiness. We got up to the table and the woman asked for our names which we told saying we wanted to be roommates. She wrote our names down next to a number.
“May I see your armbands please?”
We held them out and she looked at them; she turned to Vinessa. “You’re going to go with Ms.Miller to start your treatment tonight.” she said motioning behind her toward a woman who waved at Vinessa. “Do you still want to be roommates? Vinessas treatments will happen every night.”
“Umm…” Vinessa glanced at me worried. “Yes I’ll be her roomate”
Vinessa smiled at me and gripped my hand with hers. I flinched feeling her warm skin hating how cold my hands were. I felt cruel being so cold when I wanted to comfort people.There was nothing kind about the cold.
We moved off to the side of the line. The woman Ms.Miller waived for Vinessa again. My new friend gave me a worried look and I pulled her into a hug.
“If you’re not back by lunch tomorrow I’m coming looking for you.” I whispered in her ear.
“Thanks. I’ll look for you too if you don’t show. Do..do you think it’s bad?”
“I don’t know. The others didn’t seem worried. I’m probably just freaked out.”
“I’ll see what I can find. See you tomorrow” Maybe.
“See you tomorrow.” Maybe.
Vinessa went to Ms.Miller and was led out the door into the darkness. She looked back at me before leaving and I forced a smile of encouragement. I hoped it wouldn’t be needed.
***
An older man named Logan led the rest of us out of the large cafeteria building out to an even larger building with bedrooms called The Loge. It had the same stone outside and wooden roofing as the cafeteria. He gave us key cards and sent us upstairs to find our room numbers. I looked at my key card. My room was number 324. I looked at the landings and found that there were signs that had numbers on them. I went to the third floor and found a sign that said 300-350. I went down it until I found 324 and scanned my card in the reader next to the door. A light turned green and I went inside.
I flipped the lightswitch and saw that the room was a fair size with bunk beds, two dressers and a window looking out toward the front of the Loge and I could see smaller buildings with lights on in the distance only fifty yards away. Could those be the shops Brooklyn mentioned?
I put my bag under the bed and took off my shoes. I knew I should probably write in my notebook but I was too exhausted and worried about Vinessa to theorize. I turned out the lights, layed down on the lower bunk and finally fell asleep.
My Secret Universe 