Page 86 of The Glass Girl

The General Population building is much bigger than the Detox building. Our room doesn’t have bunk beds, like in Detox, but single beds. There are five and they’re all neatlymade, each one with a small bedside table and dresser. I notice that the bedsidetables are fixed to the floor. Above the headboard of each bed, screwed to the wall, is a small light. On one side of the room, the cream-painted brick walls are bare, but on the other side, there are postcards and photos taped up. Someone has a lot of books under their bed; someone else has a fluffy black blanket, no blue wool like on the other beds.

“Just what I love,” Brandy says sarcastically. “More communal living.”

Tracy points to three beds on the left side of the room. “Those are yours. You can unpack later. Let’s head to meal. Billy, you’re across the hall. Find an open bed.”

There’s a meal room, like in the Detox building, but with really long tables with attached benches. It’s like a small version of a school cafeteria. Brandy heads straight for a table and sits down.

“I’m famished,” she says. “Where’s the coffee?”

“In there,” Tracy says, and motions to some double doors at the side of the room. I can hear movement and clanking behind the doors.

“Are you going to bring it out or what?” Brandy frowns.

“Nope,” Tracy says.

“This is getting weird,” Holly says.

“Can you please use another word besidesweird,” Brandy says. “It’s getting annoying.”

“Sorry,” Holly mumbles.

“If you want to eat here, or drink here, or have a clean plate and clean fork, or clean clothes, you do it yourself. We don’t do it for you,” Tracy tells us.

“The hell?” I say.

“Yup.” Tracy starts toward the double doors. “Come on.”

We follow her into a big kitchen. There are maybe fifteen kids inside cracking eggs, setting up yogurts on trays, standing at a grill flipping bacon.

A tall girl in an apron and latex gloves comes over to us. She’s got tons of freckles on her face and red hair pulled back in a bun.

“Hey,” she says. “I’m Lara. Kitchen manager. Newbies set the tables and do cleanup. When you’ve mastered that, you move to meal prep.”

“Um, what?” Brandy says. “I did not sign up for this nonsense.”

“The three rules of survival here: shelter, fire, and food.” She sighs heavily. “Why doesn’t anyone ever read the handbook?”

Shelter, fire, food. I don’t remember that from the booklet, but then again, I skimmed it.

Also,fire?

Holly’s the one who asks. “Uh, fire? What…does that mean, exactly?”

Lara grins. “You’ll see. You’ll learn to make one, kid. Fire happens later in the program. It’s very exciting.” She ticks the rules off on her fingers. “Keep yourself safe, keep yourself warm, keep yourself fed, and you’ll live. We cook all our meals and we clean up after ourselves. If you don’t help make the food, you don’t get to eat the food. I would learn that right away. You can start by taking out the plates and utensils and then the drinks. Don’t forget to count how many you need and give out, and how many come back. We need to make sure everything is accounted for.”

“Wait,” Holly says slowly. “So, like, we starve if we don’t help?”

“Listen,” Lara says. “Are you hungry?”

“Yes,”Billy says.

“Well,” Lara answers, “then you need to learn how to feed yourself. Because out there, in the world, maybe somebody will do it for you, but not forever. And what then?”

“I don’t get it,” Brandy says.

Lara smiles. “You will, trust me. You will. Wash your hands, grab some gloves, and get started.”

We wash our hands in the sink and pull gloves from a box. I drag the gloves onto my hands. I’m not particularly happy about this, but I’m also hungry, so that’s my priority. Brandy starts grabbing plates, swearing under her breath.

---