“My mom always says if life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” she said.
I didn’t remember Mom ever saying that, but maybe the mom in this world had a greater need to have that kind of attitude.
We finished warming up, then headed to the treadmills. There weren’t two next to each other, so when we got on, there was one between us with a boy on it. Ten minutes into our run, Austin stopped next to Amy.
“Well, well, well. Who do we have here? If it isn’t little miss Amy Campbell. Baby sister to Morgan. I should feel so privileged that you would want to be in my gym.”
I looked over at them. Amy stared straight ahead, clearly trying to not let him get to her. He faced my direction, and as I watched him watching Amy, revulsion crept up my spine.
“Your big sister loved coming here to see me,” Austin said. “She was my special friend. Did you know that? Have I told you that before?”
No, I wasn’t, I wanted to yell.
“But she left and now I don’t have a special friend.” He paused as he stared at her, which gave me the creeps. “You look like you could use a friend, Amy. Maybe you could take her place.”
The thought of Amy being alone with Austin made my skin crawl.
“What do you think, Amy?” he said.
I couldn’t take it any more. “Can you come help me?” I called out to him.
He looked at me and frowned, like he didn’t appreciate being interrupted. “What do you want? Can’t you see I’m busy?”
Amy looked at me, gratitude on her face.
“I’m not sure what my heart rate is supposed to be,” I said.
He sighed and came over. “What’s your name?”
“Hannah.”
He pulled a device out of his pocket and pressed some buttons, then told me what my target heart rate was.
“Okay, thanks.”
“Hey, Austin,” a girl called to him, and he walked away.
Amy and I finished our workouts without further trouble from Austin, then went back to our floor. As we walked toward our rooms, I thought about Austin. I had to warn Amy about him. She was only thirteen. The likelihood that she would know what to do if he came on to her again was slim. “Amy,” I said, stopping in the hall.
“Yeah?”
“That guy in the gym that was bugging you?”
She frowned. “Austin?”
I nodded. “I have a bad feeling about him. Make sure you’re never alone with him.”
She looked at me with wide eyes. “Okay.”
I smiled, hoping my words would save her from danger. We parted, and after I took a quick shower, I worked on homework, then headed to the classroom floor for my nutritional counseling class. I had to admit that so far my stay hadn’t been as bad as the last time. It seemed like the kids who were there for breaking a rule were the ones who got the worst treatment. Or maybe it was the drugs in the power bars that were making me feel more mellow about this whole thing.
The next morning Lori stayed by my side as I went to breakfast, evidently trying to prevent me from sitting with Amy. I turned in my food journal, got my food, and started walking toward the tables.
“Wait up, Hannah,” Lori said, making it clear she wouldn’t take no for an answer. She caught up to me a second later. “You’re going to sit with us, right?”
“I didn’t know you enjoyed my company so much.”
She laughed. “Of course I do.”
I knew that was a complete lie, but I pretended to believe her. “Okay.”
“Really? That’s great.”
I set my tray on the table and sat down. Taylor, Madison, Emily, and Brittany were already there.
“Hi, Hannah,” Emily said.
“What’s up with you and that Amy girl?” Taylor asked, voicing what I was sure they were all thinking.
“What do you mean?” I decided to make them work for any information.
“I saw you sitting with her at dinner last night and I wondered why.”
“Why shouldn’t I? Is there something wrong with her?”
“Uh, yeah,” she said. She dragged out the word “yeah”, which silently added “isn’t it obvious?”
“She looks okay to me,” I said. “What’s the problem?”
“In case you hadn’t noticed,” Madison said. “She’s, like, toxic. Didn’t you see that Enforcer come over and hassle Lori because you were sitting with her?”
“Why should the Enforcers care who I sit with?” I shook my head. “I just don’t understand.” Of course I completely understood. To punish Amy for being a stand-in for me—as if that wasn’t punishment enough—the Enforcers, and because of that, everyone else, tried to isolate her and make her as miserable as possible.
“She’s, like, a pariah,” Madison said. “And if you’re with her, you’ll become one too.”
“Yeah,” Taylor said, a grim look on her face. “And then you might infect us.” She motioned to the assembled group at our table.
“It’s like a sickness, you see,” Brittany chimed in. “A sickness we don’t want to get.” She paused. “I feel sorry for her just as much as the next person, but I have to look out for myself first.”
The others nodded. Even Emily seemed to agree, which disappointed me. I looked at Lori who smiled in evident victory that everyone seemed to understand—everyone but me, of course.
“Well, maybe I’m not afraid of catching whatever it is she has.” They all looked shocked that I would think—let alone say—such a thing. “So I’m going to go ahead and sit at her table. But don’t worry, I’ll stay away from you guys.”
“That’s not going to work,” Lori said, her eyes blazing. “You still live in the same room as me, don’t forget.”
That was impossible to forget, unfortunately. I debated whether to defy her or go along with her demands, but finally decided that as much as I wanted to push her buttons and do what I wanted, I didn’t need another enemy. “Okay. Fine.”
Lori smiled in triumph. “Good.”
I ate the rest of my breakfast in silence, occasionally looking at Amy and her two friends. Chloe, the one who didn’t think I’d be back, shook her head at me one time and I felt like a jerk because it turned out she was right.
When I got to the supply closet/office on my floor to begin my morning shift, Kyle was waiting for me.
“We have a problem,” he said, obviously unhappy about something.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“What?” I was so wrapped up in my little drama with Amy and Lori that I couldn’t think of anything that could be wrong.
“I understand you’re not doing your job.”
“What do you mean?”
“I have a report that you skipped out on doing your job yesterday.”
My thoughts flew in ten directions at once, rendering me speechless.
“So you don’t deny it?”
His firm conviction that what he said was accurate pushed words out of my mouth. “No, wait. That wasn’t me.”
“Is there another Hannah Jacobs staying at Camp Willowmoss that I’m unaware of?”
“No. I mean, I did my cleaning yesterday. But Jessica—”
He cut me off. “Jessica is the one who reported your absence.”
This was unbelievable. “She was the one who didn’t work. She told me she had homework to do.”
He laughed. “Look, Hannah. Jessica’s been working for me for several weeks now and has been an exemplary worker. You, on the other hand, just started here. Do you really think I would believe you over Jessica?”
Stunned, I stood there with my mouth hanging open. Then something occurred to me. “What about the cameras?”
He looked bored now. “What cameras?”
“The cameras in the hallway. Can you watch those from yesterday? You’ll see that I was working the whole time.”
“I don’t have time for that. Besides, they may have been down for maintenance yesterday.”
“What about when I came in to get the
cart. You were there. You saw me.”
“That doesn’t mean you actually did any work.”
“But did you see Jessica get her cart?”
“Of course.”
With no way to prove my case, I had no option but to beg. “You have to believe me. I worked hard all day, but I wasn’t able to finish one of the bathrooms because I ran out of time.”
A flicker of doubt flashed across his face, but it vanished as fast as it had appeared. “Look, Hannah. I won’t accept any lying from my workers. I have a zero tolerance policy and those who choose to ignore it do so at their peril.”
My chin wobbled as frustration filled my chest, and when I spoke, my voice shook. “I’m telling the truth. I don’t know what else to do to make you believe me.”
His expression softened ever so slightly, then he sighed. “I’ll give you one last chance to prove to me that you’re a good worker.”
I forced a smile onto my face, which was difficult since I was trying to keep from crying.
“Now, get to work.”
I grabbed my cart and wheeled it out of the room and down the hall. I stopped by each bathroom, looking for Jessica, and found her in the third bathroom. By this point my frustration had morphed into fury that she had so blatantly lied and gotten me into trouble for something I hadn’t done. “Hey,” I yelled when I saw her hunched over a toilet with a sponge in her hand.
She turned and looked at me, her brows pulled together in annoyance. “Yeah?”
I stormed over to her and put my hands on my hips. “You lied to Kyle about what happened yesterday.”
She wiped sweat from her forehead and stood up. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
My mouth fell open in shock.
“You’d better close that or flies will get in.” She smiled.
Despite her rudeness, I closed my mouth. “You were the one who skipped work because you had homework. But you told Kyle it was me.”
“You’re crazy, Hannah. I worked the whole time.”
She seemed so confident in her answer that for a split second I wondered if I was crazy. But I knew what had happened. I shook my head. “No. No. You said you needed to do homework and that it was cool if you skipped work.”
She turned back to the toilet. “Whatever.”
Livid now, I stood there, my gaze burning holes into her head. She blithely went on cleaning the toilet, completely ignoring me. Finally I turned and left before I did something I would later regret—like shoving her face into the toilet bowl and flushing several times. The thought made me smile, which took the edge off my anger.
As I cleaned I tried to forget about the injustice of the situation and was glad when Kyle checked up on me several times. Jessica couldn’t claim I hadn’t cleaned that day, not with Kyle seeing with his own eyes that I was doing it. My mind wandered as I scrubbed a shower and I realized that the next day was Halloween. I hadn’t heard any mention of it though, and since candy was such an important part of Halloween, I could only assume the holiday had ended at the same time the laws regarding weight controls had taken effect, and it was no longer celebrated.
And if the next day was the last day of October, that meant there were only eleven days left until I had to be at the tunnel if I wanted to get back to my world. That wasn’t much time to finish what I needed to do to the satisfaction of Jack and Dani so that they would get me out. I’d gotten some video for them with my glasses camera and I hoped they’d been able to hack into the wi-fi here and download the video. I’d also stashed several chunks of power bar that they could have tested at a lab, but I didn’t know if it was enough yet. I also didn’t know if the video I’d taken was enough to change people’s minds about the inhumanity of the F.A.T. centers.
In just a few days it would be Saturday, which meant the Saturday Challenge. That should be good for a lot of video that would get the attention of the public. But in the meantime, I needed to survive this place, gain Amy’s trust so that she’d come with me when it was time to leave, and make sure I was in position for the rescue.
I finished my shift and went to my room to work on homework. When it was time to go to lunch I heard a soft knock on my door. I opened it to find Amy standing there and I invited her in.
“I understand why you didn’t sit with me at breakfast.” She stared at the floor as she spoke.
My shoulders slumped. I was such a terrible sister. “I’m so sorry, Amy. I really wanted to, but Lori basically threatened me.”
She nodded. “Okay.” She looked at me. “What about lunch?”
I felt vile and cowardly. “I can’t.”
Her face seemed to droop even more. “Okay.”
“But let’s work out together after classes, okay?”
She seemed to perk up at the suggestion. “Okay.”
“I’m ready to go eat some lunch. Do you want to go with me to the cafeteria?”
“Sure.”
We arrived at the cafeteria together and got in line. About thirty seconds later I felt a tug on my arm and saw Lori standing there, pulling me.
“There you are, Hannah. I was looking for you. Come get in line with me and the girls.” Her gaze flicked to Amy, then back to me.
“I’m fine here.” I gently pulled my arm out of her grasp. “I’ll meet you at the table, okay?”
She looked uncertain, but after a moment she nodded and walked away.
“I’m tempted to sit with you just to see what she does,” I said to Amy.
“Do it, Hannah.” Amy’s eyes were bright with hope.
My heart pounded as I considered the consequences of defying Lori’s demands. What could she do to me anyway? And who was more important? Lori or my baby sister. “Okay.”
“Really?”
Grinning, I nodded.
“Cool,” Amy whispered.
At that moment I felt proud of myself. Something I was doing was making my sister happy.
We collected our food and went to her table. Chloe and Amber were already there.
“Wow. Look who decided to join us,” Chloe said. “I’m truly shocked.”
Amy laughed. “Stop it, Chloe.”
I glared at the little smart aleck, although of course she was right. I’d even shocked myself by coming here. As soon as I sat down I looked at Lori and her gang and saw them openly staring at me, and Lori looked pissed. I turned away and focused on eating my lunch, making sure to put a large chunk of power bar in my pocket.
During lunch I looked over at Lori’s table and saw Jessica sitting next to her and having what looked like an intense conversation. I hadn’t realized the two were friends, but then I realized I didn’t know any of Lori’s friends, except the four girls who sat at her table. Seeing the two of them talking worried me, particularly after what had happened that morning.
I tried not to think about it and tried to focus on the fact that in less than two weeks I’d be back in my home world with my family.
After I finished eating I stopped by my room and set the chunk of power bar on the bed, then pulled out the other pieces I’d stashed and set them next to the new piece. I turned on the camera and held it in front of my face. “I’ve collected some power bars now, just so you know.” Then I pointed the camera at the small pile of power bar chunks on the bed. I turned off the camera, put the pieces of the power bars back under the bed, and put the glasses back on, hopeful that giving that message might speed up the time for my and Amy’s rescue.
Next, I went to the supply closet/office to get my cart. Kyle wasn’t there, but I hoped he would check on me that afternoon so that he could verify I was working.
I worked hard all afternoon and kept my distance from Jessica, though I saw her vacuuming the halls at the end of our shift. When I dropped off my cart Kyle still wasn’t around, but I tried not to worry and instead got my backpack and headed to class.
My first class was English. Amy was already there and when I arrived she pointed to the desk next to hers. I turned in my pape
r to Mrs. Needham, then sat in the seat next to Amy.
“I hope Lori didn’t give you too hard a time about sitting with me,” she said.
“I actually haven’t talked to her yet.”
“Oh. Well, I hope she leaves you alone. You should be able to be friends with whoever you want.”
I nodded, liking this spunky side of her.
After classes were over I dropped off my backpack and went to the cafeteria. As I waited in line, I wondered if I should sit with Amy again or if I should sit with Lori. Then I remembered Amy saying that I should be able to choose my friends, so after I got my dinner, I walked toward Amy’s table. No one was there yet, but as I walked in that direction I heard my name and saw Emily motioning to me. Just she and Brittany were at their table. I stopped to see what they wanted, but didn’t set my tray down.
“Where are you going?” Emily’s eyebrows pulled together, like she was worried. “Are you going to sit with that girl again?”
“That girl’s name is Amy. And yes, as a matter of fact, I am.”
“But why?”
“What’s the big deal?”
“Lori is so pissed at you. Why do you want to make her mad?”
That gave me pause. I could tell she was mad when I sat with Amy at lunch, but I figured she’d get over it. Evidently she hadn’t. “I have the right to choose who I sit with, don’t I?”
“Well, yeah. But you need to be wise about it.”
Wise? What was that supposed to mean. “Okay.”
“You don’t want Lori as your enemy,” Brittany said.
That was something I already knew, but I had to put aside my own fears and do what was best for my sister. That’s why I was here in the first place. I couldn’t let a bully like Lori keep me from doing what I knew was right. “I appreciate the warning.”
“So sit down.” Emily patted the table next to her place.
I looked at the spot she indicated, then looked at the line of kids getting food. Amy was in line and just at that moment she turned and looked at me, then smiled and waved. Then I saw Lori, her tray full, walking toward us. Crap.
“Come on, Hannah,” Emily said. “Sit with us.”
I turned back to Emily. “I’m sorry, but I can’t.”
Hunted (Parallel Series, Book 3) (Parallel Trilogy) Page 18
