Part 16 (1/2)
”One day the tables will be turned, dears-all these old farts will be needing our help,” Bebe said. ”We'll let them rot while we get pedicures.”
A week after my field trip to Henley's, V pulled a little escape trip of her own, showing up in the quarry one afternoon and walking right up to us.
”Hey cowgirl, how'd you get sprung?” Ca.s.sie asked.
V looked at me and smiled. ”I have my ways,” she said.
”Always with the mystery, this one,” Bebe said.
”Ca.s.sie's the real Houdini. What do you have, a month left?”
”Nah, three and a half weeks,” Ca.s.sie said, her head bowed.
”Don't tell me,” Bebe said, ”you're sad to be going?”
”Not quite sad, but a dash mixed up. It's just, I'm goin' home.” Ca.s.sie paused. I had never seen her look so defeated. ”You gotta understand,” she continued, ”where I come from, they invented redneck there. And if you're so much as suspected of being different, it's like you're always in danger of getting found out, just waitin' for the 'Gotcha!'”
”That sounds like here,” I said.
”Nah, it ain't the same. Here we're surrounded by so many people that don't fit in that we all fit in. Like when y'all met me.” Ca.s.sie smiled. ”None of y'all even flinched knowin' I might be gay. The punch line is that messin' with some girl got me sent here, to be fixed. And now that I'm here, my secret's out and I don't feel so alone.”
”You willing to risk one final breakout?” I asked. ”We want to send you off in style.”
”Sure, why not? My parents have already booked my flight home, so there's no backpedaling now.”
”There's supposed to be a big meteor shower in two nights. I thought we could sneak out, watch it. It might be a while before we'll all be together again.”
”That sounds like a nice way to say farewell,” Ca.s.sie said.
”Good, then it's settled. Two o'clock by the infirmary door. We won't go far. Just outside, away from the lights.”
As we drifted apart, V called to me.
”I heard what you did,” she said.
”Fat lot of good it did.”
”Huge lot of good it did. You were seizing your destiny.”
”Thanks. Are you seizing yours? Is that how you escaped Level Two?”
”I told Clayton that I was planning on checking myself out soon. Not right away. I need to work up to it. But I told her I'd walk out today if they didn't quit with the penal c.r.a.p. And you know them, anything to keep collecting the cash. I'm on permanent Level Six until I leave.”
”That's a step, I guess.”
”That's all we can do, Brit. Take steps. Take enough of them and suddenly, you're somewhere.”
Chapter 27.
It was a beautiful night, the sky black as a patch of velvet, the stars like diamonds, with meteors exploding and fishtailing across the heavens. We sat out on a rock, me, V, Bebe, and Ca.s.sie. Although V began our meeting with a call to order of the Divinely Fabulous Ultra-exclusive Club of the Cuckoos, it didn't feel like that anymore. Maybe it was the air of finality. Martha was home. Ca.s.sie was leaving soon. V would be, too. There was no date yet, but it was going to happen. That night, V told the Sisters her secret. And I told them mine.
It wasn't over yet. Bebe and I were still stuck at Red Rock, still had to find a way out of the level gauntlet, but for one night at least, under a hail of flaming stars shooting across the galaxy zillions of miles away, none of that mattered. We weren't Sisters in Sanity. We were just sisters.
Chapter 28.
There were two daydreams I used to nurse when things got really bleak. In the first, Jed was here. He'd come back to get me, to take me away. And in the second, the world finally wised up to Red Rock-and the powers of good came and shut it down.
Let me tell you, the powers of good, when they finally show, can look an awful lot like scary storm troopers.
”This is a raid. Girls, please get your clothes and leave the building. I repeat: Please take your belongings, go to the parking lot, and give your name to Agent Jenkins.”
”Huh?” I rubbed my eyes. It wasn't light out yet, wasn't time for roll call. What was going on? I sat up in my bed, and two guys with identical buzz cuts and mirrored gla.s.ses were in the doorway. I yanked my blankets around me.
”Please get dressed, take your personal effects, and move to the parking lot.”
”Who are you?” I asked.
”FBI. This is a raid. No need to be frightened. You're all safe.”
”What the...?” Missy asked.
I hopped out of bed and looked out the window. There were twenty or more cars lined up, lights flas.h.i.+ng. My heart started thumping.
”What's happening?” Missy asked. For the first time, she didn't act like my master. She looked scared.
”I don't know. I think they're raiding the school.”
”Who is?”
”Federal agents.”
”Why would they do that?” she asked tearfully. She looked so upset that for a second I felt bad. Only for a second.
I got dressed and scrambled outside. V, Ca.s.sie, and Laurel were already congregated in a circle, huddling against the early-morning chill.