THE OUTCASTS

Chapter 11

Jane was standing in a massive room where breakfast was being served. It looked like a ballroom in one of those regency themed movies with huge windows and cream coloured walls while the tables were put in every corner of it. Hally introduced her to her two friends with whom she was talking to when they met yesterday. Perrie Fox, a cinnamon brown haired girl with a huge smile plastered on her face. Her light jeans and hands were stained with fresh paint, but she seemed not to even notice that. Jane wondered which of the art hanging in the gallery was her work. The other girl's name was Bea, a short girl with blond hair and black and purple highlights who was a bit quieter than Hally and Perrie but still friendly enough. The breakfast consisted of fruit, oatmeal, eggs and soda. Everyone was greeting everybody. People old enough to be her parents, kids her own age and younger were tripping over their own feet, some still in their own pajamas. It looked nothing like that dark prison canteen where everybody were either quiet as if in a funeral or getting into fights over an insult.

Still she noticed it. The faint scars, the fake smile here and there. The way some kids would jump at a nearest crash or yell. Older people who were to tired to care about kids her age who were a bit to loud so early in the morning. Kala had said that this was a place for people who had it rough. Perhaps even a place where a young former convict and a girl on the run could fit right in. She didn't dare to believe that. But still she felt a tug.

Hally had signaled for her to follow them to a table at the far right where Perrie was already sitting with a fair headed boy. He wasn't smiling. He wasn't even eating.

„Jane, this is my younger brother Felix. He doesn't talk much." Bea introduced me to him. He looked underfed with too long limbs on a too slim body. „Felix, Jane is new here."

„Nice to meet you." I said back as I sat down next to Perrie and Hally was sitting opposite me.

„So Jane, where are you from?" Perrie had asked as she was stuffing her mouth with oatmeal.

„I'm local actually."

„New York. Nice. I myself am from Wyoming." Perrie said.

„How long have you been here?"

„Not long. About six months."

„Have they tested you yet?" Bea asked and Hally scowled at her.

„Tested? For what?"

„For those „special cells" they had probably have told you when they showed you the command center."

„Not that I'm aware of.

„Oh, you'll be aware of it when they test you, trust me." Bea said, eating a red apple.

„ You didn't had to say it like that?" Hally warned Bea.

„She's gonna know anyway." She responded like she didn't actually care about wheather or not I am going to find out. Bea was the kind of girl she saw all the time in prison. Prissy, but quiet and a bit mean. Her brother who was staring out of the window didn't even seem to notice the conversation.

„So Jane, do you paint?" Perrie asked.

„Not really. I love the colours, but I was always bad it at school."

„Oh, well maybe you just need practice." Perrie exclaimed with enthusiasm like she was getting a student to teach how to draw and paint. Jane had to put a stop to it before the suggestion was already made. So she said.

„Computer geeks like me are not really good with brushes. Unless they are on a screan."

„ One would imagine that in today's world most of the people are computer geeks." Bea said with a bit of irony in her voice.