Wacko Academy (11 page)

Having time to kill before lunch, the girls and I played a game of Would You Rather.

The tiring days went by quickly.  Nearly every day was the same.  I soon became accustomed to the routine.  As the weeks progressed, I found myself aching less and less even though the training was as brutal as ever.  I guessed that I was getting used to the pain, since now I just felt numb.  My arms and legs became stronger and the little scabs and scars accumulated on my body.  Besides the grueling drills, horrible obstacle course, and the terrible feeling of confinement, it really wasn’t all that bad.  

Stealth

On the night before the departure ceremony, I was very jumpy.  What if we got caught?  Would we get some kind of horrific punishment, or worse, be forced to stay longer?  Sheer panic crashed over me in waves as I lay awake.  I glanced around the room.  Everyone seemed to be asleep.  The blonde girl—never did catch her name—snored softly in the bunk across from mine.  Red tufts of hair stuck out from the covers on the two top bunks.  The silence made me even more antsy.  

Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore.  

“Cattie, are you awake?” I whispered, lightly kicking the bunk above me.  “Don’t you think we should be leaving now?”

I heard what sounded like a muffled “Ouch!” Then there was a rustling of sheets.  Her head appeared from the top bunk, hair disheveled.  

“Yes, I’m awake,” she hissed.  “And a little sore on the bottom, thanks to you.  I have a cousin who—”

“All right.  I’m sorry.  I’m just nervous,” I apologized.

She nodded.  “I’m nervous too.  Come on, let’s get out of here.” She climbed down the ladder.  I noticed that she was already dressed, like me.  We woke True up and headed out as quickly as possible.  

The hallways were eerily silent.  True and I followed Cattie down the corridors, looking this way and that.  When we came near the third door on the left, we heard voices.  From what I could gather, some of the staff was having a midnight snack of some kind.  Out of pure curiosity, we pressed our ears to the door.

“Just think, by tomorrow those brats will be gone,” one said with a satisfied sigh.

“Yeah,” barked another one.  “But a new batch will be arriving soon after.”

There were agitated murmurs of agreement.

Someone cleared her throat angrily.  “These ‘brats’ are mere children who are being forced to do things no one their ages should be doing.  However, they continue to work hard and push themselves to the limit.  Many of them come to me with ghastly injuries, but they don’t utter a single cry of pain.  They just stare down at the floor, trying very hard not to show any emotion.”

We couldn’t believe our ears.  Someone was actually taking our side.  An uncomfortable silence followed.

Finally Sergeant Buck muttered, “Tough little monsters.  I’ll give them that.”

Again there was silence and a few uneasy coughs.  After a while they began to talk about other things, such as politics and how much they were getting paid, which was a lot, mind you.

I felt like kicking myself for spending so much time standing there.  Still, it definitely was interesting to hear what they really thought about us.  Brats?  Tough little monsters, were we?  Oh, I’d show them how tough we really were.  I’d outwit them and teach them a thing or two.  I squared my shoulders, holding my head a little higher.  We silently moved on.

It felt like a full hour before Cattie stopped us in front of a big metal door.  When she tried to turn the knob, it wouldn’t open.  

“I don’t understand.  It opened for me before and I’m sure this is the right one,” she insisted, staring at the door in disbelief.

With my hands on my hips, I asked, “Are you sure nobody saw you?”

She blinked.  “Of course.”

True rolled her eyes, removing a bobby pin from her hair.  In one stride, she stood right in front of the door.  She picked the lock and had the door open in a matter of seconds.

We entered the room, which was full of weaponry.  One word: Awful.  Guns, grenades, and heaven knows what else lined the walls.  I didn’t really understand why they would have all this stuff.  I mean, this was a boot camp, but technically not a real one.  And another question: Why wasn’t their security better?  We had just picked the lock and waltzed right in.  There should have been sirens going off and red lights flashing.  Something.  Anything.  The lack of protection was shocking and a bit suspicious.  Maybe they had a hidden camera somewhere and a mob of angry armed men would be coming this way any minute, but when I looked out the door, there was nothing.  Since we’d left our room, we’d seen no one patrolling the hallways.  The whole setup seemed very unprofessional.  

As planned, Cattie stood at the door while True and I raided the stash.  I settled on a handgun.  Although it made me grimace to touch it, I reluctantly slipped it into the bag I’d brought with me.  True took one for herself and one for Cattie as well.  Then she took a few other things that she thought would be useful.

Before leaving the room, I took a quick sweep around just to make sure that there weren’t any big gaps or anything that indicated that someone had been there.  Nope.  We’d been careful to take very little so that we wouldn’t leave any clues behind.  Being surrounded by all those terrible tools made me feel oddly vulnerable.  I hightailed it out of there once Cattie gave the go-ahead.  My friends and I surreptitiously crept down the corridors extra quietly until we were safely back in our room.

The other two fell asleep instantly, but I did not.  Lying awake, I checked my watch.  1:00 a.m.  exactly.  I willed myself to go to sleep.  Since the departure ceremony was tomorrow, the time to wake up had been changed to an earlier time.  Like the staff had said, they couldn’t wait to get rid of us “brats.” Huh.  Clenching my teeth, I replayed the whole conversation in my head.  They made me sick.  We weren’t so crazy about them either.  On that note, I slipped into a deep sleep.

I wandered the halls of KVMS, my school.  Hearing sounds coming from the now dark cafetorium, I headed there.  Chase, Malerie, Louis, Asialie, and Ella sat at one of the lunch tables.  They had their heads lowered, voices hushed.  I stepped closer to hear what they were saying.  They abruptly stopped whispering, turning to stare at me.  Elated to see them again, I felt like running over and giving them all a great big hug, but something stopped me in my tracks.  Their expressions were all wrong.  Instead of smiles, looks of fear and perplexity greeted me.

“Lily,” I heard a voice say, “don’t do anything hasty.  Just put it down and we’ll work this out.”

I turned to see Dustin slowly backing away from me, hands up.  “Please, don’t shoot!” He got down on his knees, eyes pleading.  “I’ll do anything.  Look, I’m sorry for everything I’ve done.  You’re right to be mad, just please don’t shoot.”

Bewildered by this peculiar spectacle, I tried to assure him that I had no idea what he was talking about.  I had no intention of hurting him.  Dustin didn’t believe me.  He continued to beg and whimper.  This was so unlike him.  Then I saw it.  That thing in my hand.  My shaking hand was pointing it right at him.

“No,” I whispered, trying to put my arm down, but it wouldn’t budge.  Panicking, I attempted to drop the thing, but it was as if it was glued to my palm.  Shaking with fear, I tried to throw it, stomp on it, and bang it against the wall.  Nothing worked.  

I had no choice but to watch in horror as my fingers slowly pulled the trigger.  Crying silently, I closed my eyes, unable to bear what came next.  There was a loud bang and I felt my hand being pushed back from the force.  After an agonizing cry, I heard nothing.  Finally free of the dirty thing, my sweaty hand let it fall to the ground.

Opening my eyes, I ran toward the lifeless heap on the ground.  The utter silence threatened to suffocate me as I placed his head upon my lap.  A scream for him to get up filled my lungs, but nothing came out.  I held him close, tears streaming down my cheeks.  How could this be happening?  This had never been the plan!  He wasn’t supposed to be…I couldn’t even think the word.  

Suddenly my friends had surrounded me.  Their looming figures glared at me in disapproval.  They chanted something that I couldn’t quite hear.  Their voices became louder and louder until my ears rang with the terrible screeching.  

“Murderer!” my former friends accused, pointing their fingers at me.

I noticed that my hands were wet.  Turning my palms over, I found them scarlet red with blood.  This time my screams bounced against the walls, making an echo.  Agony, surprise, fear, and a whole bunch of other emotions surged through me all at the same time.  Darkness closed in as the now ghoulish figures came closer and closer.  Soon I could see nothing but their feet and grasping hands.  So many hands.  Certain that my life would soon end, I squeezed my eyes shut and waited.

I woke up in a cold sweat, the sheets in disarray.  I could still feel the blood on my palms and the shame that pulsed inside me.  Wincing at the sound of the stupid morning horn, I rubbed at my eyes and stretched.  In the shower, I scrubbed a little harder to wash that horrible dream away.  Remembering the look in his eyes and all that blood made me shiver.  I gave myself a vigorous shake.  Scrubbing wasn’t doing any good, so I tried just blocking it out of my head.  That seemed to work for the time being.  Satisfied, I finished getting ready and headed for the ceremonial breakfast feast.

Laughter and excited chatter streamed out of the room.  Everything about it was bigger and friendlier.  Yes, the dining room had always been the happiest place, but this was different.  We were finally going to leave!  This made everyone happy—especially the staff, as we had learned the previous night.

I sat down at the usual place, greeting my friends as cheerfully as I could.  They weren’t buying it.  I assured them that nothing was wrong.  Then after much persistence on their part, I caved.  I told them about my dream.

“I know what it means,” Cattie said with a casual nod of the head.

True and I both stared at her.

She took a sip of her fruit punch before going on.  “It’s your conscience.” She leaned back in her chair, looking all wise and knowing.

“That explains it,” I agreed.  “I really don’t want to do this, so I think my brain is reminding me of that.  Maybe there is another way .  .  .”

True shook her head.  “Sorry, Lily, but there’s not.  It’s not like you’re going to hurt the guy.  You’ll just hold him at gunpoint to make him get us out of here like in the movies.  Anyway, we can’t come up with a whole new plan now.  We leave boot camp in a few hours!”

“But this isn’t a movie!  It’s real life.  I mean, how is our crazy scheme going to hold up?”

“It will,” Cattie insisted, putting her hand over mine.  “If we trust in each other, then we can do anything.”

True raised her eyebrows.  “Did you get that from a sappy movie or something?”

Cattie grinned.  “Yeah.”

We all giggled.  It was a little corny, but she was right.  We really could do anything if we had the drive to do it.  I had full confidence in them and myself.  This had to work.

“Fine, we’ll stick to the original plan.  If anything changes, I’ll find a way to contact you, all right?” I said.

They both nodded their heads.  We stacked our hands on the table and broke on three.  Nothing could stop us now.  The confidence emanating from them lifted my spirits.  Not entirely, though.  I couldn’t quite shake the guilt tugging at me.  Grandmother had always said that if something didn’t sit right, then it was wrong.  Biting my lip, I gazed out the window.  Maybe that dream had been telling me something.

A loud bugle interrupted my thoughts.  The ceremonies had begun.  Everyone lined up in a single file.  Down the halls we marched until we reached the ballroom.  Why a boot camp would have a ballroom stumped me, but there it was.  Streamers and balloons covered the huge ceiling.  The floors were as shiny as Asialie’s lip gloss.  A sharp pang of homesickness surprised me.  I shook it off and stood at attention like the rest.

Sergeant Buck walked down the line of unusually stiff children, handing out metals.  They weren’t the cheap kind.  No, they sparkled and shined with real gold and silver.

“Never have I seen a sorrier group of ragamuffins,” he growled.  “However, you are tough, and tough is what this place is about.  We’ve decided to give you kids a little treat.” With the way he said “kids,” you’d think he was talking about a bunch of cockroaches.

He glared down at us.  “Since you’ve been working so hard, and it’s the last day, you may mingle with your friends and have some punch and refreshments.”

With that, we were let loose into the big room.  Music blared, but nobody danced.  They just hung around the punch table, munching on cookies.  People mumbled to their friends, staring down at the ground.

“That’s it,” True exclaimed, taking another swig of her punch and slamming it down.  “I’ve had enough of this.  Time to liven up this dead party.”

Cattie and I followed her to the center of the room, wondering what the heck she was doing.  All eyes were on us.

Then True began to dance.  I’m not kidding.  She was dancing like a crazy person in the middle of a dead party.  She looked over at me like she wanted me to do something.  So I got in there and started to dance right beside her.  Then she stopped and said, “Go, Lily!” She stepped back next to Cattie, who had begun to chant along with her.

Soon everyone had surrounded me in a circle, chanting, “Go, Lily!” Then some guy I’d never seen before jumped in, dancing with me.  Shrugging my shoulders, I went with it.  Whatever.  Following our lead, they all joined in.

“You’re a good dancer,” said the guy.

“Thanks.  Right back at you,” I yelled over, and I meant it.  

For the first time, I looked him over.  He rocked a buzz cut and a strong build.  He appeared to have a love for dancing, like me.  I decided that I’d like to get to know this boy.

After a while I got tired and excused myself to the refreshment table.  On my way over, I caught a glimpse of my pal True.  She was teaching a group of boys how to beat box.  She seemed to be having fun.  When I reached the table, I found Cattie talking some poor soul to death.  I sipped my punch and took a bite of a brownie, watching in amusement.