The girl with the bubble gum came back, holding a college-ruled notebook and two stationary pens. She practically threw them into Melody's still-chained arms and went back to her place next to the other young woman.
"Melody, meet Diana and," the doctor swallowed with hesitation, "Puzzle."
Suddenly, Melody felt nerves she thought were close to being intimidated. "Diana, and- I'm sorry, what?"
The other girl, the one with the lipstick who had welcomed Melody to the 'Palace at Versailles', smiled and stood up straighter. "Oops. Guess I forgot to introduce myself. Hi, I'm Diana," she said. "It's nice to meet you. I guess Puzzle and I will be showing you around today. Your name is Melody?"
Melody nodded. "Melody Tsushima. Who is Puzzle?"
Diana grinned her pink lips and half-rolled her eyes, jerking her thumb at the girl with the gum. "This is Puzzle. She's a puzzle."
"Diana--" Doctor Riley began like a mother giving a stern scolding.
Diana sighed. "We got this, Doc. We'll see you tomorrow."
The doctor rolled her eyes. "Well, Melody, let's get those chains off. I doubt you want to keep them on any more." She reached into the pocket of her long coat and pulled out a key. She quickly removed the chains, and Melody sighed deeply when they came off.
"Feels better, doesn't it?" Puzzle said for the first time. Her head was tilted slightly as she watched the chains leave the doctor's hands. She handed them to Jim.
"If you'll excuse me, I better go see how the juvenile delinquents are doing out in the garden," the man said with a good-natured grin. "It's the asparagus-planting day."
Doctor Riley sighed again. "Jim, what have I told you about calling our patients that?"
"Yeah, we're technically not juveniles anymore anyway," Diana said.
He flashed Melody a grin. "Our gremlins, then." He turned and left. A few seconds later, a door closed shut with an echoing bang.
"Oh, he's going to freak out," Diana said. "Zac appeared after lunch, so nothing got done." She looked at Doctor Riley. "Seriously, we got this. How many times have we done this?"
The doctor rubbed her brow with her fingertips. "Yeah, yeah." Melody had a feeling she was doing her best to not laugh. "I hope you settle in tonight, Melody. We'll talk tomorrow."
Melody clenched the notebook in her hands. She didn't want the woman to leave. But the doctor followed where Jim had gone, and the two girls turned to the closed gate. Puzzle pressed the button on the gate.
Diana spoke. "So, first thing's first, if you wanna get anywhere around here, you gotta buzz security using these buttons. If you're expected where you're trying to go, they'll let you through. There's not a whole lot of security here, just a few guys up in the camera room, but they're good." She looked Melody up and down. "Just in case you wanna try pulling anything."
The door puzzled, and the three girls went through. "I'm not going to cause any problems," Melody said. "I just want to do my time and get out of here."
"Perfect," Diana said with a shrug as she held open the gate for Puzzle and Melody. Puzzle quietly followed Melody. Melody looked at Diana's hand that was holding the fence. Her nails were long and the color matched her lipstick. She raised an eyebrow, and Melody dropped her gaze.
"Second things second, the old lady who donated the place left some money to run the place, but Versailles doesn't get any government funding or anything like that. So we gotta make our own money. We're the ones that grow the vegetables in the garden, and some of that goes to us for food, but we sell most of it. Jim helps as the main gardener for the estate, but we do all the hard work. Are you any good with plants?"
Melody nodded. "Yeah, actually. I love gardening."
Puzzle gave Melody a sideways look like she was trying to decide if Melody was kidding. "Huh. Cool. You'll be the only one."
The gate swung closed behind them, and Puzzle started to lead them down the hallway.
"Speaking of food," Diana continued, "we cook pretty much everything ourselves. If you want outside food that isn't totally normal and healthy, then you have to earn it through good behavior. Twinkies, Snickers, whatever. Same with other stuff that's considered luxuries, like makeup and stuff like that."
"It's a pretty independent place," Melody said.
"Doctor Riley wants us to basically take care of ourselves. That way, when we supposedly get out of here, we have transferable skills and don't immediately die," Puzzle said. "Well, at least skill-wise." The last part was muttered quietly.
"Oh yeah," Diana continued as if neither of the other two had spoken. "We get doctor's checkups every six months unless there's an issue, dentist checkups every six months unless there's an issue, and we get haircuts every two or three months. They're all students, so don't expect anything too nice. A priest comes in and does a church sermon every Sunday and runs a Bible study every Wednesday. You don't have to go if you don't want to, but she's cool. And bakes some amazing cookies."
Melody tried to take it all in. She swallowed nervously and looked at a picture that was hung on the wall. It had an old woman in it. She wasn't smiling, just looking straight at the photographer. The photograph was framed with gold. "How long have you guys been here?"
They both seemed to think about it. "Six years for me. I have a long way to go still, though," Diana said eventually.
"How long?" Melody asked.
The girl's eyes darkened. "Ten years?"
Melody's mouth went dry. Suddenly, her twenty months in Versailles didn't seem so bad. That was less than two years. She nervously glanced at Puzzle, who was glaring at her. "What about you?"
Puzzle blew another bubble with her gum and let it pop with a loud crack. "Four years left to go. They took my manslaughter charge pretty seriously."
Melody decided at that moment that she was going to avoid talking to Puzzle as much as possible for the time being.
They walked towards a tall staircase. The slippers the two girls were wearing made hardly any noise on the worn-down wood, whereas Melody's boots made loud thumps with each and every footstep. Melody looked down at the bright orange uniform the jailhouse had made her put on and felt even more out of place.
Diana hummed. "What else, what else... Oh yeah. You'll be in your room the rest of the day. We spend a lot of our time together, but Riley is going to want to learn more about you tomorrow before you can hang out with the rest of us. Also, all the bathrooms are locked half an hour before and an hour after mealtimes, so if you've got issues with that, figure out alternative arrangements."
"Try not to stare at Key. He's self-conscious," Puzzle said.
Melody blinked. "Who?"
Apparently, Diana didn't feel the need to answer her. "Drugs are kept locked up with security, so if you're a junkie like Puzzle here, tell the doc."
"I'm not a--"
"If Jordan pisses you off, try not to punch her. She's really freaking annoying sometimes," Puzzle said. She was twirling a loose piece of hair that had fallen out of her hair bun around one finger.
"If Colt pisses you off, though, feel free to punch him," Diana added. "He's tougher than nails." The strange group got to the top of the stairs. Diana paused and spun around to face Melody. "Hey, how long are you in here for?"
Melody swallowed. She noticed there was a faintly floral scent in the air. She looked beyond Diana and saw a long, dark hallway. She could imagine what it may once have looked like: full of decorative tables holding vases of huge flowers picked from the garden, with overstuffed armchairs every few feet. But now the hallway was empty, except for the lights that hung overhead and the singular window at the end of the hallway, letting in the dull natural light. "Um. Twenty months."
Both of the girls let out scoffs of disbelief. "Seriously?" Puzzle said, crossing her arms. "Fucking seriously?"
"I'm sorry," Melody said. Her face was burning. "They told me I had to come here. They didn't give me a choice."
Suddenly, Diana stood in between Puzzle and Melody. "Hey, Jordan only got three years," Diana said to Puzzle. "It's not that out of bounds. Come on, didn't that chick with the pink hair from a few months ago only get like fifteen months or something like that?"
Puzzle frowned. Melody wondered if her face was permanently in a frown, like kids are told when they're little by their mothers. Melody's mom had told her that once when she had finished reading a storybook with a sad ending. But there was something in Puzzle's face that told her the girl had once been carefree and happy. She didn't know how she knew that, but she had a feeling. It was a gut feeling, the kind that had kept Melody alive a few times as a journalist.
Oh God, Melody wanted to go home.
After a long time, Puzzle shook her head. A few more strands of hair came loose from the loose updo.
Diana forced a smile onto her face and looked back to Melody. "Look, you'll get used to the place. You'll get started on treatment and chores tomorrow, and you'll meet everyone. It's not so bad after a while. Just hang in there, and you'll be out before you know it." She shrugged her shoulders, and Melody felt as if the height difference between the large girl and her didn't exist anymore. "Or at least that's what everyone says. Come on, I'll take you to your room."
Diana turned and began walking down the hallway that smelled like flowers, and Melody followed. She noticed after a few feet that Puzzle wasn't walking either and opened her mouth to say something.
"She's fine. She can stay there," Diana said before Melody could say anything. She said it louder than was probably needed, and Puzzle looked at Diana's back with a scowl. Diana kept walking. "The girls' bathroom has sinks, toilets, and showers. It's down the hall there, the last room. The boys' is downstairs. Got it?"
Melody nodded. She felt like she was back in her college dorm, and it wasn't a good feeling.
"Your room will be the sixth one here. Pretty basic layout, since it's just a bed and a storage area. But you can ask for a bookshelf if you want." She stood against the doorframe of the sixth one, and Melody hugged her notebook to her chest as she entered.
It was, much to Melody's surprise, a pretty nice room. Beyond the bed, a large wooden trunk, and a window with bars over the thick glass, it was empty. But nice. Old, dark wallpaper covered the walls with images of flowers and woodland fairies. She wondered who had lived in this room before the mansion had become the prison. She imagined it had been a girl or young woman who loved to lose herself in the books found in the library. Maybe she had loved some of the same books Melody loved: tales from the mystical land of Narnia, or maybe she had dreamed of finding a magical garden somewhere on the grounds of the estate.
"Sorry there's no curtains," Diana said. "But I'm assuming you understand why."
Melody shivered and nodded. "Yeah, I guess so. Would you like to come in?"
Diana stayed in the doorway. "Since you're a writer, the doc would maybe let you have a desk, too. I think she likes you." The girl shook her head, her hair swaying. "Actually, I bet she would give you one without asking if you wanted to write about the patients here. She'd love that."
"I was thinking about it, actually," Melody said. "I used to be a reporter."
For the second time, Diana looked really surprised. "Really? Like, it was your job?"
Melody scratched at her arm and walked to the bed. Folded up nicely, as if it were for sale, was the outfit of a gray T-shirt, gray sweatpants, and gray slippers. Next to it was a thicker gray jacket. The color palette really wasn't anything to be admired. What had they been talking about again? Oh, right, journalism. "Can't say I was ever super good at it, but yeah."
"What stopped you from doing it?"
"My bipolar disorder and binge drinking," Melody said.
Much to her surprise, Diana snorted. "Yeah, that'll do it," she said. "Get settled in, someone will bring you dinner later." She began to walk away, a slippered footstep on the wood floor.
"Wait!" Melody called, and Diana turned to look at her.
"Yes?"
"If I were to write about this place, would you tell me your story?"
Diana smiled. "I'm pretty sure everyone here would pay you to write down their stories."