I expected to see Trey in the doorway, gloating over the tears streaking down my cheeks. Instead, a short girl stood in the hall with her mouth open in shock. Her dark skin glowed like ebony beneath the fluorescent light, and she wore her frizzy hair in a bob cropped close to her head. The expensive tailored uniform of Derleth clung to her like a sack. Deep brown eyes widened as she took me in. She looked like she was about to keel over with fright.
If this girl had spent the day dealing with Trey and Courtney and their cronies, I couldn’t blame her for being afraid. At a guess, I’d say I was looking at my roommate. I stood up and offered my hand. “Hi, I’m Hazel. We’re gonna be sharing a room until one or both of us is eaten by the rats in the walls.”
She didn’t react to my joke or even take my hand. She remained rooted in place, her right foot shuffling backward as though preparing herself to make a run for it. Her bookbag slid down her shoulder and dropped to the floor. “I… I didn’t know I was getting a roommate.”
“The second bed didn’t give it away?” I grinned to show I was kidding. This girl was gonna have to get used to me mouthing off, because I was like Niagara Falls when I got going. A constant stream of filth you couldn’t shut off.
She still didn’t move from the door, rocking her weight to her back foot. At any moment I expected her to spring away like a deer. I tried again. “As I said, my name is Hazel. Hazel Waite. I’ve come up from Philly. I won the Derleth scholarship, although I’m starting to doubt that it was actually a prize worth winning. It took them a while to track me down, which is why I’m late starting.”
“I won a Derleth scholarship, too,” she blurted out in a thick accent. “My name is Loretta Putnam. I’m from Louisiana.”
“Hey, Loretta Putnam from Louisiana. You can come in, you know. I won’t bite.”
She winced. I wondered if my choice of words was triggering, given all the talk about ‘new meat’ from Trey. I bet he gave her the same treatment when she arrived at school.
Without turning her back on me, Loretta skated around the edge of the room and perched on the corner of her bed. “You should run away while you have the chance.”
“It’s tempting, but nah. I got nowheretorun.”
She nodded. “Yeah, me neither.”
“You an orphan too?” My boots clattered against the bare floorboards as I kicked them off and folded my legs underneath me.
She nodded, but didn’t volunteer any more information.
“Loretta, I don’t know if you’re aware, but this is the part of the conversation where we bond over our mutually fucked up pasts. You want to elaborate on your story there?”
She stared at the floor, forcing out every word like it was a battle. “My mom died when I was three. My dad was never in the picture. I’ve been living with my grandparents, but…” she trailed off, her features going blank as she shut down. Whatever it was that filled in the blank at the end of her sentence, it was clearly so traumatic for her that she couldn’t speak it aloud.
“That’s cool,” I shrugged, giving her the chance to focus on me instead. I wanted to ask her how her mom died, but she clearly wasn’t up to talking about it, even though it was so long ago.Does it really never get better?“I was raised by a single parent, too. My mom was a stripper, and I guess sometimes she did… other stuff. My dad was one of her clients. He doesn’t even know I exist. It was just Mom and me against the world until two months ago, when she was killed in a house fire along with my best friend. I dropped out of school to get a fake ID and work a couple of shit jobs so I wouldn’t have to go into foster care, but these bozos found me, so I guess I wasn’t very good at hiding.”
It seemed impossible, but Loretta’s eyes widened even further. “You could go back. Just walk out the gates and go back to your jobs.”
“Nah.” I shrugged. “I’m just going to tough it out.”
Loretta nodded, swallowing hard. “You look tough,” she whispered, staring at my scuffed Docs and ghetto outfit. For some reason I couldn’t identify, her scrutiny made me feel self-conscious.
An awkward silence settled between us.
Loretta wrung her hands together. I noticed her nails were ragged, bitten down nearly to the quick. I didn’t want to upset her further, but I was desperate for more information. “I am tough. I can show you how to be tough, too. How have your first three weeks been? What’s the school like?”
She winced. “Bad. Who did you get as your student hosts?”
“Trey Bloomberg and Courtney Haynes.”
Loretta winced again. “I’m sorry. They’re the worst.”
“Really? They seem like suchlovelypeople. I think we’re gonna be BFFs.” I held up the top of my suitcase. “Did you go through this? A woman in a grey smock took it from the car. Supposedly she also delivered it here, but someone’s gone through it and taken something of mine.”
She shook her head. “Anyone wearing grey is building staff. They clean the rooms and maintain the grounds. I haven’t touched your bag. I haven’t returned to the room since breakfast. One of the teachers probably searched it.”
“They did more than search it. They stole something. I understand if I packed a bottle of liquor or a t-shirt that said ‘Derleth Academy Sucks Balls,’ but my friend’s journal is missing.”
Loretta gave a faint smile at my joke. “A journal? Why did you bring something like that?”
I lifted up one of my boots to show her the gaping hole in the sole. “I couldn’t exactly afford to rent a safe deposit box.”
Loretta took in my outfit with her wide, terrified eyes, as though she was only seeing my clothes for the first time.What are the chances it’s that I’m just too amazing to take in all at once?“You have to change. You can’t wear that to the dining hall. They’ll crucify you.”
