Tomorrow is Friday.
Fridays are special.
On Fridays, we sneak out, all four of us.
And if tomorrow is Friday, then today is Thursday.
And Thursdays are special too.
For me.
Chapter Two
It’s a little before midnight and everyone has gone to sleep.
Especially my roommate, Wyn.
Which works out great for me.
Because as I said, Thursdays are pretty special and I have somewhere to be.
So slowly, I climb out of my bed and go to my dresser. I open it and grab my pre-packed bag and creep out of my room.
Out in the darkened hallway now, I close the door behind me and look from left to right. The coast seems to be clear so I walk down the narrow hallway, which is flanked by beige doors and walls that have bulletin boards and motivational posters hung on them.
My feet are quick but quiet, matching the silence this time of night.
Well, except for the low drone of the television up front in the reception area.
There’s a twenty-four-hour warden – they change shifts – to keep an eye on things and I’ve chosen Thursday in particular to sneak out because I know Miss Alvarez likes her late-nightshows way more than she likes watching over the bad girls, and after two years of sneaking out, I’m an expert.
I know all the twists and turns of this hallway. I know how long it will take me to reach my destination if I walk at a certain speed. Twenty-five seconds.
It’ll take me twenty-five seconds to go where I want to go.
I’ve timed it.
And sure enough, twenty-five seconds later I’m there.
At the exit.
Which is located in the back of the building.
It’s a metal door with a trick handle. You have to jiggle it and push at it just so to spring it open; it’s something that none other than Poe discovered the first year she was here with me.
The metal door thuds open and I step out into the September night, which is slightly chilly but nothing I can’t handle.
I wedge a rock between the door and the jamb before I take off running through the concrete pathways and cut through the grass clearing toward the campus brick fence. Propping my feet on the gaps, I climb and cross over to the other side.
When I get down, I start running again.
From here I have about ten minutes to make it to the St. Mary’s bus stop, which will take me where I want to go. I run through the woods that line the back of our campus and reach the bus stop just as the bus is pulling in.
The inside is empty except for a woman who’s sleeping in the fourth row. It’s slightly scary, traveling in an empty bus at midnight, but I have no other choice, do I?
I show the driver my bus pass — I bought it over the summer with my own money, thank you very much — and then I’m off again.
It takes about thirty minutes to reach my destination.
