"Look, I really couldn't help it," Nicky said to Katriel. "I mean, I didn't even know I'd said it at first! I … I don't know, she just made me so angry … "
"You've got to not do things like that," Katriel said. "It's not like other schools. Things are different."
"Yeah, no kidding. I don't care what Lauren says — this is a prison. I want to get out. I'm gonna tell my mother to switch me to a public school right now."
"Oh, don't do that!" Katriel said. "Please … you're my only friend … I know it sucks here, but if you went away … I feel like I would die. I have no one else to talk to. No one but Sister Helen, and she can't say much. She has to be careful at all times because whenever a nun says something wrong, Sister Justina somehow finds out!"
"Sister Helen?"
"Yeah. She's the only teacher who really seems to care about any of us."
"She's the one who showed us our house," Nicky said. "But if what you're saying is true, no wonder she couldn't tell us how awful this place was."
"She can't say anything like that," Katriel said. "You and me, we just get our Saturday grounds-leaving privileges taken away. The last time a nun spoke out against Sister Justina, no one ever saw her again. Or at least that's what they tell me. It was before I came."
Nicky stared. "You don't mean that she was … like … killed or anything, do you?"
Katriel shrugged. "Who knows? I wouldn't put it past Sister Justina."
"And one other question. What are Saturday grounds-leaving privileges?"
"Oh. Well, the nuns keep a list of all our names, and cross off the names of people who act up. Sister Justina does most of the crossing-off, of course; the others do just enough to satisfy her. Anyway, at the end of the week, whoever's name isn't crossed off is allowed to leave the walls of this infernal place and get out there into the 'outside world.' It's only sixth-graders and up who get to do this. The others just lose playground privileges, or what we would call recess."
Nicky stared incredulously. "Recess actually exists in this infernal place?"
"Yes … but it's only for one ten-minute period per day. Both 'privileges' are basically just to give them a way to punish us. If anyone acts up after their name is crossed off the list, then … bad things happen. Things that everyone knows Sister Justina is behind, but no one can prove it. Like … you wake up itching all over, and you know it's because of something she put in your bed. She can continue finding ways to make your life miserable until you start behaving better."
Katriel paused and looked around wildly. "It's worse if someone's done something and she doesn't know who. She'll do something that could affect anyone who's in the wrong place at the wrong time. Like one time, she rigged one of the playground swings to break if you swung high enough, and a kid was sent to the hospital with a broken arm. No one could officially pin it on Sister Justina. Somehow she gets away with running the school like she does."
"Wait a minute … she runs the school?"
"Yeah, she's the principal. That's what sucks. And like I was saying, it's like no one even bothers to investigate these things. If she did something obvious, then people on the outside might do something … but she's careful not to. And anyone on the inside who tries to do something about it, like I said, disappears."
"That's awful. That's worse than awful. I thought it was awful before you told me that. This absolutely royally sucks."
"Yeah, I know."
"You know what?" Nicky said suddenly. "I think I'm going to stay here. And I'm going to find out what is going on, and why, and how to stop it! And the first thing I'm gonna do is get into that locked room next to mine!"
Katriel gave her a weird look. "The first thing you're going to do is come to English class with me."
"Oh, right."
English was terribly boring. Sister Barbara spoke in a monotone and spent the entire time talking about propositions. Science was better … Sister Geraldine actually had something of a sense of humor, which was refreshing. Of course, she only used it to help the kids understand what they were supposed to be learning; she never acted too friendly with any of her individual students.
Finally, there was math with Sister Helen, where there was one thing that severely annoyed Nicky.
"This is normal eighth-grade math! I learned this stuff already! I was in advanced seventh-grade math last year and this year I'm supposed to be taking algebra!"
"Shh, don't whisper so loud," said Katriel. By some stroke of good fortune, the two of them had every single class together. And in this particular one, Nicky sat right behind Katriel. "Sister Helen does special tutoring sessions for kids who are further ahead, as well as for those who are behind. She has some algebra textbooks."
Nicky rolled her eyes. "Still, I have to sit through this boringness."
"Sister Helen doesn't mind if you doodle or write things. Don't try it in other classes, but she understands that people are at different levels of math and this class may be extremely tedious for some people."
"Good word," Nicky remarked.
Katriel smiled. "Thanks. I like words."
"Do they like you too?"
Katriel shrugged. "Apparently not, because they often escape me."
They both had to struggle to not burst into giggles.
"Have you seen our dorms yet?" Katriel said. The school day had ended and they were walking down the hall.
"Dorms?"
"Yeah … we have to sleep somewhere!"
"I thought I'd go home. My family lives in the old chapel right here at Millard Center."
"Oh … so you live there! Well, that's different. I don't think they'll have put in a bed for you then."
"I'd still like to come see it though. I just have to run home first. Can you wait here?"
"Sure. I can just sit here and do my homework while I wait."
"Okay. See ya."
Nicky waved good-bye to Katriel and slipped around the corner of the school. She was making her way toward the chapel when suddenly someone jumped out from behind a tree.
"Hey you! Stop right there."
Nicky stopped, eyes wide. It was a boy, slightly taller than her, with hair a slightly darker shade of dirty-blond than her own and eyes a strange yellowish color.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"Brandon Richardson. And I know who you are. You're Nicky Pascal, the new kid who lost us our grounds-leaving privileges."
"Hey, hey, that was an accident," Nicky protested defiantly. "I didn't mean to say it."
"Yeah? Well I'm supposed to make sure it never happens again. You're coming with me."
For the second time that day, she unintentionally said the first thing that popped into her head. "Make me."
And for the second time that day, it got her in trouble.