Hunted (24 page)

She laughed and looked at the other kids. “She doesn’t know. Does anyone believe her?”

Most of the kids just stared silently, but some shook their head.

“The rest of you know why
you’re
here. Am I right?”

Everyone nodded, and Lori nodded most vigorously of all—always trying to be the teacher’s pet. Evidently Mrs. Reynolds preferred a pet-free environment, because she looked at Lori and narrowed her eyes. “You seem quite eager to have us believe you know why you’re here, Lori. So I’d like you to tell us.”

Lori’s eyes widened and her gaze ricocheted around the room. “I’d rather not say.”

Mrs. Reynolds laughed. “I’m sure you wouldn’t, but that’s not what I asked you, is it?”

Lori looked worried now.

“Go on,” Mrs. Reynolds said. “Tell us why you’re at Camp Willowmoss.”

I watched their interplay with fascination, thrilled that Lori was being forced to tell us what she’d done. I’d been dying to know and now the information was being handed to me. Maybe being in this class—at least tonight—wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

“Well, I might have changed a few numbers in a report,” Lori said, her face reddening.

“What kind of numbers?”

“Uh, weight.”

“And what kind of report?”

“A request submission.”

I had no idea what she was talking about and wondered what the issue was.

“So what you’re saying,” Mrs. Reynolds said, obviously fully aware of the details. “Is that you falsified someone’s weight numbers on a request to have that person submitted to a F.A.T. center. Is that accurate?”

Lori’s face turned a darker shade of red and her voice dropped to a whisper. “Yes.”

“Speak up.”

“Yes,” she said in a louder voice.

“And what was the purpose of changing those numbers?”

She cleared her throat. “To show a pattern of weight gain.”

Now I was beginning to understand.
 

“And showing such a pattern would make it more likely that the individual would be sent to a F.A.T. center, correct?”

She nodded.

“I can’t hear the rocks rattling in your head, Lori. You need to speak.”

“Yes,” she said, her voice strained.

I looked at the faces of the other kids and they all looked disgusted, yet fascinated, by what she’d done.

“Do you realize the cost involved in housing people here?” Mrs. Reynolds said, the same rant she’d given me when I’d arrived.

Lori began shaking her head, but then said, “No.”

“It’s very expensive. And who do you think pays for that?” Mrs. Reynolds barely paused. “The people of this society, that’s who.”

Lori didn’t say anything.

“I’m confused, Lori,” Mrs. Reynolds said, obviously not confused at all. “Your father heads the local F.A.T. squad in your area, correct?” Mrs. Reynolds’ eyebrows went up in a question, evidently waiting for Lori to confirm her words.

Lori nodded. “Yes.”

“If someone is sent to a F.A.T. center because of his request, what is in it for you?” Mrs. Reynolds asked. “Why would you care if someone goes to a F.A.T. center or not?”

“I just want what’s best for everyone.” She smiled, which seemed forced. “A healthy world requires everyone to be healthy, right?”

Mrs. Reynolds smiled, but it was definitely forced. “Of course. But in
your
case, there was more to it than that, wasn’t there?”

Lori’s expression was of one who’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar—if cookie jars even existed in this world.

“Isn’t it true that your father gets a bonus if he submits a request to have someone taken to a F.A.T. center and then that person actually
goes
to the F.A.T. center? And isn’t it true that in this case he shared that bonus with you?”

Lori looked like she wanted to bolt from the room, but Mrs. Reynolds’ gaze pinned her to the seat like a needle through a butterfly. Lori opened her mouth to speak, but she started coughing instead.

“Of course it’s true,” Mrs. Reynolds said. “And this record falsification was only discovered when this same person came to the attention of the authorities, and the authorities looked more closely at her file. In fact, it turns out that if the file had not been falsified, she would most likely have gotten off with a warning rather than being sent here.”

I sat perfectly still, mesmerized by the words coming out of Mrs. Reynolds’ mouth.

“One last question, Lori,” she said. “What was the name of the person whose records you falsified?”

Lori had gotten her cough attack under control, but she didn’t seem at all eager to speak.

“We’re waiting.”

Lori looked around, fear written all over her face. “It was Morgan. Morgan Campbell.”

Everyone gasped, but I kept my face neutral. In the back of my mind I’d known she was talking about me, but I was still shocked. I was only here because of what Lori had done. If she hadn’t falsified my weight, I would never have come here.
 

Amy jumped up and everyone’s attention shifted to her. “You lied,” she screamed. “You lied about my sister. And now
I’m
here. All because of
you
!”

Then Amy did something I wouldn’t have thought her capable of. She lunged at Lori and knocked over her chair. The two of them fell to the floor with Amy on top. My gaze flitted to Mrs. Reynolds and I was appalled to see a tiny smile on her face. Disgusted by the fact that she seemed to view the fight between Lori and my sister as entertainment, I mentally urged Amy to stop. Lori and Amy were screaming, and a moment later a pair of Enforcers burst into the room and pulled them apart. Both of the girls were breathing heavily. I’d never seen Amy so angry.

“That’s enough,” one of the Enforcers said, forcing each girl to sit in her chair.

“Thank you,” Mrs. Reynolds said to the two men, who positioned themselves against the wall—I guess so they could jump in again if the need arose. “Amy, I understand why you’re upset, but what Lori did doesn’t change anything for you. You’re still here in your sister’s place because she stabbed one of our Enforcers, which is completely unacceptable.”

“It’s not fair,” Amy said.

“You must know by now that many things in life are not fair. Nevertheless, we must accept what happens and put the good of all above the needs of one.”

I didn’t understand how punishing Amy for what I did was for the good of all, but I kept quiet. As I listened to Mrs. Reynolds lecture us, I turned off the camera as it appeared all the drama was over for now. I also wondered why I’d been told to come to this class. After the drama with Lori, Mrs. Reynolds had apparently forgotten the original question—why I was there—because she didn’t bring it up again.

When the class was over I walked with Amy to the elevator, but she was silent. We rode down to our floor without speaking and it felt even less right to tell her who I really was. She seemed angrier than ever and I could only guess it was because of me.

“Do you want to talk?” I asked as we walked to our rooms.

“I just want to be by myself right now.” She avoided looking directly at me and I wondered if it was because I reminded her of Morgan.

“Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She left without another word and I went to my room and tried to collect my emotions before Lori showed up. As angry as Amy was, I was livid with Lori for lying about my weight and getting me thrown into this F.A.T. center. If she’d left things alone I would be living my life back in Timber Hills—as would Amy. It’s true I never would have met Billy, but that would have been for the best. I’d thought he was my friend, but he’d abandoned me.

My thoughts flowed freely and I felt my fury reaching a boil. I breathed slowly and deeply, trying to get my emotions under control. Just in time too, because Lori arrived moments later and she was in a very bad mood.

“Are you happy now?” she demanded.

I was as far from happy as I’d ever been. “About what, exactly?”

“Now you know why I’m here. You wanted to know, didn’t you?”

Even though that was true, I was actually happier not knowing. “That was a really rotten thing you did.”

“What does it even matter? Who even cares?”

I do
I wanted to scream, but forced myself to dial my anger back. “You ruined someone’s life. More than one person’s, actually.”

She rolled her eyes. “Again, who cares? Why do
you
care? Oh yeah, because your little friend Amy was sad. Boo hoo.”

It took everything I had not to wrap my hands around her skinny little neck and squeeze. Instead I put my hands into fists at my side, my nails digging into the tender flesh of my palms, and squeezed as hard as I could.

“Speaking of
her
, why are you sitting at her table? I thought we’d decided you weren’t going to do that anymore.”

I found it hard to speak through my clenched jaw. “I’ll sit wherever I want.”

She looked at me with an expression of
What do I care
? “Fine. But you may regret it.”

I heard a threat in her words, but after learning what she’d done to my family, I just couldn’t work up enough worry to care what she said. She’d hurt me as much as she possibly could. Anything else was just going to roll off of me. “I’m going to bed.”

She flicked her hand at me. “Do what you want.”

I gathered my things and went to the bathroom. When I came back to my room, Lori was gone. Her absence allowed me time to calm down, but it still took me a while to fall asleep.

The next morning at breakfast the whole cafeteria was buzzing with the information Lori had confessed. I sat with Amy—there was no debating about it this time; I couldn’t stand to be anywhere near Lori—and I noticed a few people greeting her. Evidently a lot of the kids thought what Lori did really sucked, which made them look at Amy in a different light. Instead of being the sister of a criminal who was now in hiding, she was the sister of someone who had been set up. To them, very different circumstances.

But the Enforcers didn’t seem to care about the shift in feelings. If anything, they seemed to take a harder line against Amy and anyone who was her friend. Maybe it was because Amy’s sister had stabbed one of their own and escaped this place, but I noticed them yelling at kids to keep moving if they showed signs of stopping to talk to us.
 

“I can’t believe she did that,” Chloe said, glancing toward Lori’s table.
 

I looked that way too and saw Lori sitting there, her head held high, as the other four girls sat glumly, obviously aware that everyone was looking at them and talking about them.
 

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Amy said.

I totally understood her stance. I didn’t want to talk about it either. Just thinking about the injustice of it all made me furious.
 

At the end of breakfast I went to my floor to begin my first shift, and when I went to the supply room/office, Kyle was waiting for me and he looked mad.

Chapter Twenty-Five

“I don’t like being played,” he said.

I immediately flashed to Jessica talking to Lori the day before, and then being sent to the re-education class, and instinctively knew both of those things were related to this. “I did all of my cleaning yesterday. You even saw me.”

“I saw the bathrooms where you were supposedly cleaning, but when I inspected it later, you hadn’t done a very good job. It was almost as if you were putting on a show for me.”

When I’d finished with those bathrooms they’d been sparkling. If they were dirty when he checked up on my work it could only be because someone had purposely dirtied them. “It wasn’t a show. I worked hard and cleaned the bathrooms completely.”

He shook his head and frowned. “That’s not what it looked like to me.”

Sighing, I tried to think of some other defense, but nothing came to mind. What was I supposed to say?
So you know your star worker? Jessica? Yeah, well she was conspiring with my wicked roommate, Lori, and I’m sure they messed up the bathroom on purpose to make me look bad. All because I’m friends with Amy Campbell. No, I can’t prove it, but that’s what I think happened.
Yeah, that would win me points. Finally I said, “I don’t know how I can prove it to you.”

“Good news,” he said, but he didn’t smile. “You won’t have to. I’m kicking you off my team and having you reassigned.”

Huh, I thought. This could be either really good, or really bad.
 

“And by the way, that’s why you’re now attending the re-education class.” He glared at me. “You need to learn to follow the rules.”

I’ll be out of here in a few days, I repeated to myself over and over, trying to hold down the fury that was building. “What’s my new assignment?” I asked.

He grinned. “I don’t know. You need to meet with Mrs. Reynolds to find out.”

Great.

“Go wait in your room for someone to come get you.”

I trudged to my room and sat on my bed, stewing in a deep pot of anxiety. Not only would I have to face Mrs. Reynolds one on one, but she would assign me to some unknown job. But what could be worse than cleaning the bathrooms?

A short time later someone knocked at my door. I opened it to find Katy standing there, and once again I wondered what ever happened to Kiera, the girl who had been my escort on my last visit. I couldn’t very well ask Katy without dredging up a bunch of questions, like, how did I know she was here and how did I know she was an errand girl? But then I thought of a way to ask.
 

“Hi, Hannah.”

“Hey.”

“I guess you need to meet with your caseworker?”

“So I’m told.”

“Okay. Come with me.”

I followed her to the bank of elevators and she waved her card in front of the reader.

“So, Katy. How long have you had this job? It seems pretty sweet.”

She smiled. “Yeah. I really like it. I’ve been doing it for about two weeks.”

“How did you get that job? Did you, like, know the person you were replacing and ask her to recommend you?”

“Actually, yeah. Kiera and I were friends and when she left she suggested me.”

Bingo
. “Where did she go?”