Page 10 of The Compound

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It was suggestedthat the boys take a nap, while the rest of us sorted out dinner. “Don’t get used to us waiting on you,” Mia called at their retreating backs. “This is only because you were in the desert this morning.”

I didn’t want to cook dinner. I wanted to sit with the girls, and play with someone’s hair, and have someone play with mine. Although the ranking had technically gone well for me, and although we had done the same to the boys, I felt degraded. I saw the boys walk to the bedroom, talking and relaxed, while the girls wouldn’t meet each other’s eyes. I thought that we had lost some crucial bit of power, not from the act of being judged, but by showing that it meant something to us. I wanted tobe like the boys, who seemed to have forgotten that it happened the moment they stepped away. Was it that the boys didn’t care as much about their appearance, or because they were already so sure of their worth that external opinion meant nothing to them? I didn’t hate that I was the second-most beautiful: I hated that I had to stand there and be told that everyone else thoughtso.

We were quiet and thoughtful as we prepared dinner. We were making an enormous vat of spaghetti bolognese; there was a large quantity of meat which had to be used, as we still had no freezer. “You know I can’t eat this, right?” Mia said. “I’m vegetarian.”

“This is what I’m making,” Candice said, inspecting the meat. “If you’d like something else, you’re welcome to make it yourself.” Candice began cutting the garlic, while Mia looked at her. We glanced between the two of them. I thought that Mia might snap back, but after a few moments she started to cut some mushrooms. Perhaps if things had gone differently Mia might have challenged Candice. But the boys had voted Candice the most beautiful, and it would have been foolish to pretend that the sway she held was limited to the boys’ perception of her.

At last Susie broke the silence. “I didn’t think the ranking went that badly, actually,” she said. At this, Eloise and Melissa left without a word, dropping their utensils on the counter, leaving their onions half cut. We watched them through the window as they walked to the farthest edge of the perimeter.

“Don’t mind them,” Candice said. “We’re going to have a brilliant evening, all of us.” She cut their onions in quick, sure chops, and scraped her work off into the pot in one smooth motion. She glanced at me. “So, who do you like?”

I knew that there was a significance to Candice singling me out. I wasn’t sure if it was because she wanted to be my friend or if she was threatened by me. I think that the simplest way to understand it was that Candice was the most beautiful, and I was the second-most beautiful. If we didn’t pay attention to each other, what was the point of it all?

“I don’t know,” I said, struggling to open a tin of tomatoes. “It’s too early to tell, isn’t it?”

“Please.” Mia plucked the tin from my hands and removed the lid forme. “It didn’t look too early when you had Ryan slathering you in sun cream.”

Candice finished the last of the onions. Her eyes watered a little, and she wiped at them absently. “I like Andrew, I think,” Candice said slowly. “I’m going to ask him to share my bed tonight.” She glanced up at all of us. “But that doesn’t mean that any of you can’t get to know him. It’s far too early to claim anybody.” She went back to her stirring, and she looked so unconcerned, I thought that she probably meant it, too. She didn’t mind anyone talking to Andrew; she wasn’t threatened. That’s what it meant to be the most beautiful.

“We’ll need to look good tonight,” Mia said, then turned to me, smiling. “Lily, would you do my makeup?”

I nodded and offered to do anyone’s, if they wanted. Susie gasped suddenly, and I started, sure that she had cut herself. “The screens!” she said. “We never checked them!” She ran off, and we watched her for a beat before following her. I caught Jacintha’s hand as we went into our dressing room, and we laughed with excitement at the absurdity of it. My heart raced as I sat at my bench and touched my screen. Distantly, I heard some of the girls exclaim or giggle at the instructions they had been given, but I wasn’t paying attention. In fact, I had never felt so disconnected from them.

Task: Tell someone in the compound a secret

Reward: Comb

I touched my hair. I glanced around and saw people looking at their own screens. You weren’t obliged to do any task, but once the task expired at sunrise you weren’t offered the same reward again. Because there were so many of us, the rewards we received wouldn’t be valuable. But as it was, we had fairly little, and weren’t in a position to turn down the possibility of anything that would make us more desirable, or more comfortable here. We would take whatever we were offered.

“All right,” Mia said, “back to dinner.” Most of the girls went back to the kitchen, where we could smell the onions and garlic frying. Becca stayed in the dressing room, cleaning some of the makeup stains that had accumulated on the table.

“Hey, Becca,” I said.

“Yes?” Becca had a quiet, serious way about her. I wondered what age she was. If she was older than eighteen I would have been surprised.

“When I was eleven,” I said, “I had a sleepover with my best friend. When she was sleeping, I cut off her hair and buried it in the garden.”

Becca looked confused, and I left without further comment. I went to the postboxes at the back of the house. There were chutes for every resident, first names labeled on the massive containers. In my chute there was a comb. It was shiny, black, and plastic, like something you might get in a Christmas cracker.

Along with the comb was a slip of paper with the name of the brand. Once you received your Personal Reward, you had to thank the brand that had sent it. It was the best advertisement brands could get, and it meant that there would always be a supply of things for us to win. I held the comb like a statuette in my hand and looked at the small glass lens fixed on the wall across from the postboxes. “Thank you, Alsipa, for this,” I said, and smiled.

Sometimes, if the brand really liked you on the show, or if it seemed like a good pairing, they would hire you as a sponsor when you came out of the compound. Contestants would gush over certain rewards in a clear bid to get a sponsorship deal. But Alsipa wasn’t a brand that I had ever heard of, and I wasn’t going to fawn over a brand if I didn’t want to be in a partnership with them.

I sat down on the stairs for a few minutes and brushed my hair, placing the comb gently on the crown of my head and slowly dragging it down, down, down to the hair that hung down my back. There were knots, at first, but I brushed until my hair was sleek and bristling with static. I might have stayed there for longer, but I heard steps coming toward the postbox, and went to the kitchen to join the other girls.

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The boys weresitting outside on the grass. They were wearing sunglasses, and it was hard to tell, but I thought they were looking at us through the window. Jacintha and I were ladling large portions of spaghetti into bowls, and passing them on to Candice, who would add the bolognese, and then on to Mia, who would add the Parmesan. The othergirls were bringing out glasses, the case of champagne, and cutlery wrapped in toilet paper. The boys cheered when they emerged, and I saw Sam and Andrew get to their feet to help Becca carry the case.

Tonight would be crucial, and we knew it. It would be humiliating to be the first to leave.

Quietly, I said to Jacintha, “Which one, do you think?”

She looked out the window at the boys who were lounging, confident, at ease. “Carlos,” she said.

“Do you like him?”

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