Hunted (21 page)

And what had Lori meant when she’d said her dad was trying to work everything out? If he had so much pull, how did she end up here in the first place?

I gathered my food and started walking toward my table—I didn’t see Amy at her table yet. After a few steps I saw Jessica sitting with a group of kids and stopped next to her. “Did you get your homework done?”

She gave me a look of fake apology. “Oh sorry, Hannah. But no. Not quite yet. But thanks so much for covering for me. I
truly
appreciate it.”

I’ll bet you do
. I wanted to tell her that getting her homework done was not my problem and that she’d better show up to clean after lunch or else, but I noticed all of her friends staring at me, so instead I smiled and silently seethed. The last thing I needed was to make more enemies. I was supposed to fly under the radar, not create a growing list of People Who Hate Morgan/Hannah.

I walked away without comment and when I got to my table, Lori glared at me.
 

“There she is now,” she said, like she’d been talking about me.

I added her to the aforementioned list, along with Beth, Hansen, and all the other Enforcers. And possibly Amy. Maybe even Billy. A feeling of self-pity that no one liked me swept over me as I sat in the chair furthest from Lori and picked up my spork. Taylor and Madison ignored me, probably on orders from Lori, so I just began eating, and wondered who in this world cared about me, or even liked me—I would even settle for someone who didn’t recoil at the site of me. Then I thought of Jessica and was sure she wasn’t mad at me, but that was only because I was doing her work for her—and not by choice.

Emily and Brittany appeared, smiling and talking, and I thought at least Emily seemed to be a candidate for a friend. They sat next to each other, Emily next to me.

“Hey,” she said to the group.

“Hey,” Taylor said.

“What’s going on?” Emily asked.

“Ask Hannah,” Lori sneered.

All eyes shifted to me. This was getting ridiculous. How did I even know Lori was telling the truth about Beth? Maybe Lori was making it all up—I knew how she liked to lie to make herself look better—to have an excuse to punch me. “Lori hit me,” I stated, then took a bite of my food and sat back to watch the chaos erupt.

“What?” Emily said, her eyes wide with shock.

“Why would you do that?” Brittany said.

“That’s not exactly true,” Taylor said at the same time as Brittany.

I held back a grin, my self-pity lifting a bit to watch them act exactly as I had predicted.

“Then what happened?” Emily asked, looking at me.

I sat forward. “All I know is that I was asleep, Lori woke me up, then punched me in the stomach.” I paused for emphasis. “It really hurt too.”

All eyes moved to Lori.
 

“What the heck, Lori?” Emily said, her true feelings for Lori filtering through like sunlight through partially opened blinds.

“She’s not telling the whole story.” Lori sat up straight in her chair, anger clouding her eyes.

“Which is?” Emily pressed.

“I know how much you admired Hannah’s bravery.” Lori made air quotes on the last word. “But sometimes there are consequences.”

“You mean with Beth?” Brittany asked.

“Duh,” Taylor said.

“What happened?” Brittany seemed even more interested now.

“During my morning shift she cornered me and told me she wanted me to give a message to Hannah. Then she punched me in the stomach.”

Emily and Brittany gasped.
 

“And you hit Hannah?” Emily looked confused by this part. “Why would you do that? Couldn’t you just tell her what Beth did?”

Lori smirked. “I thought the message would be more effective if I delivered it the way it was meant to be delivered.”

Emily didn’t say anything and I wondered what she was thinking. Then she turned to me. “Are you okay, Hannah?”

“What about me?” Lori asked. “I’m the one
Beth
punched. And she hits really hard.”

“Are
you
okay?” When Emily asked Lori, she didn’t seem to have her heart in it.

“I’ll live,” she said.

She turned back to me. “What about you?”

“I’ll live too, I guess.”

“What are you going to do now?” Emily asked me. “About Beth, I mean.”

“I don’t know.” And I didn’t. She had taken things to a whole new level and I didn’t know what else she was capable of.

“She’s going to stay away from her, that’s what,” Lori said. “Otherwise she,” she pointed to me, “Will have
me
to deal with. I don’t need Beth on my case.”

Lori was not my priority. She didn’t even make it onto the priority list. Amy was my first priority. Getting out of this place was next, and last was getting the information for Jack and Dani, but only because that was the agreement I’d made with them.

Lori looked at me. “Agreed?”

I nodded. I had no plans to
intentionally
provoke Beth, but if she bullied Amy and I was there, I wouldn’t stand by and do nothing.

We ate the rest of our lunch without the topic of Beth coming up, and I kept a surreptitious eye on Amy after she sat at her table. No one bothered her and she seemed a little happier today—maybe having me here standing up for her helped raise her spirits. The thought certainly raised my spirits.

After lunch, when I went to the supply closet/office to pick up my cart, Kyle was there.

“Hi there, Hannah. How are things going?”

I was sorely tempted to tell him about Jessica skipping work, but decided I didn’t want to be a snitch. “Okay.”

“Good.” He paused. “Okay, then. Get to work.”

Well, duh, I wanted to say. Why else was I there? I had only stopped because he asked me a question. I gathered supplies from the shelves, loading up my cart, then headed to the bathroom where I’d left off earlier. I found I wasn’t working quite as fast as I had when I’d been at Camp Willowmoss the first time. I could only assume it was because I’d gotten more out of shape and it was harder to work for long stretches without getting worn out.

By the end of my shift I hadn’t had time to get everything done—one bathroom hadn’t been touched at all—but I hoped Kyle wouldn’t notice. It wasn’t my fault anyway. If Jessica had done her share we would have been done early.

I put the cart back, freshened up, then got my backpack and took the elevator to the classroom floor. I had Social Studies first. When I arrived most of the kids were there and I recognized one of them. Piper. She was the one who had originally suggested escaping this place and she was the one who’d taken the knife that we used to cut out the tracking chip, but she’d backed off from escaping just days before Billy and I got out.

I remembered how the compliance drug had made her more conscientious about following the rules and how she’d wanted to turn the knife back in and confess that we’d taken it. When I looked at her now, I wondered if she was still being a stickler about following rules.
 

I decided to sit as far from her as possible—no point in taking a chance on her recognizing me. I found a seat across the room from her and a little behind her. I got through Social Studies without her noticing me, then headed to Science. When I walked in I immediately saw Amy sitting at a table by herself, so I walked over to her.

“Is anyone sitting here?” I said, using my Hannah voice, which I only used around Amy.

“Oh, hi, Hannah.” She smiled. “No. You can sit there.”

I slid into the seat and took out my Science book.

“I’ve been thinking,” she said, then stopped, looking a little embarrassed.

I looked at her. “Yeah?”

“Well, as long as I have to be in this place, I can use as many friends as I can get.” She laughed. “It’s not like I have people lining up to be my best friend, but it’s only fair to warn you that if certain people see that you’re my friend, you might not like what they do to you.”

I thought about Beth’s “message” and had no doubt that Amy was not exaggerating. “Okay.”

Sadness flitted across her face. “So you can change your mind if you want.” She looked at the desk. “I’ll understand.”

My heart broke as I looked at my little sister.
What have I done to you?
My throat ached as a lump formed there, and warm tears pushed into my eyes. She must have taken my silence to mean I was reconsidering being her friend, because her shoulders slumped. I found it hard to speak around the lump in my throat, and forced back the tears that had formed. “No, Amy. I want to be your friend. I don’t care what everyone thinks.”

She slowly lifted her head and turned toward me, undisguised hope in her eyes. “Really?” Then uncertainty replaced the hope. “This is Lori’s idea, right?”

“No,” I said with a ferocity that surprised me. I dropped my voice to a whisper. “I hate Lori.”

Amy seemed to finally believe me, though I could only imagine the care she needed to take at any overture of friendship. I wondered how many times she’d been burned by people pretending to be her friend.
 

She smiled. “Will you sit with me at dinner?”

Her request was unexpected and I hesitated. What would this mean for me? Would Lori make my life more difficult? Would everyone turn against me? But this was my sister and the only reason I was even there was because of her.

Amy frowned at my silence. “I’m sorry. Maybe it’s too soon to ask that of you. You only got here yesterday.”

What kind of loser was I? First, my choices got my sister sent here in my place, then I try to be friends with her, but then when she makes a simple request, I worry about what people will think? Really? “Of course I’ll sit with you.”

“Are you sure?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

Her face lit up. “Yay!”

I laughed despite the worry that whispered in the back of my mind.

When class finished, Amy suggested we go together to our floor to drop off our backpacks, then go to the cafeteria together. When we arrived at the cafeteria and got in line to get our food, I could tell Amy was excited to have me with her. I’d only seen two other girls sit with her—and I was grateful to them for being friends with her—so I was certain she was quite pleased to have another person to add to her group.
 

We collected our meal, then headed to Amy’s table. As we walked, my gaze wandered to Lori and the other four girls. They didn’t seem to notice me—at least not yet—but I had to admit I was nervous about the way Lori would respond.

“This is my new friend Hannah,” Amy said as we sat at her table.

The other two girls looked me up and down and I wondered if there had been other “new friends” who had turned on Amy.

“Hi,” I said, trying to show my sincerity through my smile.

“Hey,” they both said.

“This is Chloe and Amber,” Amy said. “Chloe is my roommate.”

Both girls were about Amy’s age—thirteen—and both were overweight. I wondered where Amber’s roommate was since it seemed most roommates sat together at meal time. Maybe she wasn’t willing to risk being associated with Amy.

“Hannah and I have two classes together,” Amy said, seemingly trying to pull the other two girls into a conversation.
 

“That’s cool,” Chloe said, then looked at Amy and ignored me. “Hey, Amy. Were you able to get that load finished after I left?”

“You must work in the laundry too,” I said.

She glanced at me. “Yeah.” Then went back to pretending I wasn’t there.

Clearly, she didn’t trust anyone who suddenly showed up wanting to be Amy’s friend. While I appreciated her protectiveness, I was Amy’s
sister
and couldn’t help but feel offended by her behavior. I put my feelings aside and ate my dinner—and put a chunk of power bar in my pocket.
 

Toward the end of the meal Chloe looked just past my shoulder and said, “What does
he
want.”

I looked over my shoulder to see who she was talking about and saw Hansen approaching our table. I quickly looked away, but my heart hammered in my chest and I only hoped no one was monitoring my heart rate.
 

Amy looked too, then gasped and whipped her head around to face forward. Obviously these girls were familiar with Hansen and his tendency to be mean. I’d seen him abuse Amy in the gym just the evening before, but wondered how often he harassed her in the cafeteria.

My back to him, I just hoped he would ignore me—not that I wanted him to bother Amy—but I was terrified he would recognize me. Then it would all be over. Suddenly I felt a sharp jab in my back.

Chapter Twenty-Two

“Who are you?” Hansen asked, obviously talking to me.

My eyes widened and I met the stares of Chloe and Amber, who were sitting across from me.

“This is Hannah,” Amy said. Her voice wavered ever so slightly.

“I wasn’t talking to you, loser.” He jabbed me again. “Turn around when I’m talking to you.”

I had enough of my wits about me to turn the camera on before slowly turning in my chair. Even though the video would be better if it showed his face, I kept my gaze glued to the floor. I really,
really
didn’t want to meet his eyes.

“Why are you sitting with this table full of rejects? Or are you a reject too?” He laughed. “You’re here, so I guess you
are
a reject.” He paused and I hoped he was done. “Who’s your roommate?”

Uh oh
. I stayed silent, really not wanting to answer his question.

This time he shoved me in the shoulder. “Look at me and answer my question.” Anger laced his voice.

I lifted my gaze enough to look at his face and the fury there was clear. I had a sudden flashback to the night I’d stabbed him and his promise to me.
I. Will. Kill. You.
My heart pounded so hard I thought it would burst.

“Who?” he demanded, no hint of recognition on his face.

“Lori,” I whispered. “Over there.” I motioned in the direction of the table where she sat with her gang of admirers.

Hansen glanced toward them, then back at me. “You’d better learn to show some respect.”

He didn’t deserve any respect, as far as I was concerned, but I kept my thoughts to myself. He walked away and I was able to breathe normally again. But then I saw him walk straight to Lori and say something to her. He motioned towards me and she looked at me, her eyes narrowed. Then Hansen shoved her shoulder and walked away. Lori threw daggers with her eyes and I felt every one of them land in my gut.