Variant

I didn’t leave the room that night, and didn’t talk to anyone else. Curtis came back with lasagna and bread sticks. It was better than I expected-it tasted more like it came from a restaurant than a cafeteria. Mason sat up reading. I think that he expected me to ask him questions, but I stayed quiet in my bunk.

I went through the manual hoping it would have some answers, but it didn’t. It was mostly a retread of what I’d already heard-do this, don’t do that. There were no explanations for why any of the rules existed, and they weren’t even linked to punishments. I got the impression that the others had just figured out the punishments through experience.

Only twenty-four hours ago I’d been in my old foster home, lying awake, imagining how amazing my new life was going to be. Now I was lying awake, wishing I was back there. This wasn’t fair. But since when had life been fair to me?

When dawn came, I was sitting by the window, searching for any sort of escape route. I didn’t see anything promising. Just a couple equipment sheds, a tiny set of bleachers-I had no idea what they’d be for, since we couldn’t compete with other schools-and endless pines.

A girl was down on the track, jogging.

“That’s Mouse,” Mason said, standing behind me. “She’s the girl version of Oakland-the two of them run Havoc.”

“Mouse?” I asked with a halfhearted laugh. She was a tall, tan brunette, wearing short shorts and a sports bra. She looked nothing at all like her nickname.

“Yeah,” Mason said, watching her run. “All of Havoc has stupid names. I guess that’s part of their image. Mouse, Oakland, Skiver, Walnut.” He left the window to go get dressed.

“And that’s supposed to intimidate people?”

“Don’t let it fool you. Mouse is vicious.”

She followed the oval of the track, jogging fast and steady. I wondered if she was training for an escape. I wished it was me down there-I’d run straight for the woods and get out of this place.

“Can anyone go out on the track?” I asked.

“No. Havoc has the contract for groundskeeping. They can get out there most of the time. The Society’s security, so they can go wherever they want. But we can’t.”

“I ought to join the Society for that,” I said, and then wished I hadn’t. I’d just been thinking aloud, but the idea was so good that I wished no one had heard me.

“It won’t work,” Mason said. “Other people have tried it-joined the Society to get on the security team. But those guys are handpicked by Isaiah, and you’d never make it.”

“Why not?”

“You’ve said no to him. People who say no to Isaiah don’t do well in the Society.”

“What contracts do we have?”

Mason smirked. “Janitorial and maintenance. Not very flashy, but it pays pretty well.”

Mouse bent down to retie her shoe and then stood and continued jogging.

I heard Mason open the closet door behind me. “Hey, Fish,” he said. “Your stuff came.”

I stood to look. My school uniforms-seven sets of white shirts, red sweaters, and black pants-were all neatly hung. Below them on the floor were shoes and socks, and a bag of school supplies-pads, pencils, and a very small notebook computer, about the size of a paperback.

“Did someone bring them in during the night?”

“No,” Mason said, pulling a shirt down from his side. “This is how we get the stuff we buy with points. I’m not sure how it works. At night we lock the closet, and in the morning the new stuff is in there. It’s some kind of elevator.”

I walked to the closet and inspected the edges, trying to figure out how it moved. “I was awake all night, I think. I didn’t hear it.”

Mason shrugged. “You can hear it in other rooms. Ours just isn’t as squeaky as some.”

I took a shirt from the hanger. I wanted a shower, but didn’t really want to deal with a communal bathroom right now.

Mason talked as he dressed. “Some kid, like, a year ago, tried to stay in the closet all night. They must have seen him on the cameras because the closet never moved until he got out. He’d try all kinds of things-waiting until the room was totally dark and sneaking in, or having someone stand in front of the camera while he hid.”

I took off my T-shirt and pulled on the uniform. It was heavily starched and stiff.

“They watch us pretty close, huh?”

“Yes, they do,” he said. “That’s why we do dumb stuff like wear these uniforms. Leaving the dorm without your uniform is against the rules. Not going to class is against the rules. Not shaving is against the rules. Everything is.”

I had to get Mason to help me with the tie-I’d never tied one before. He said that was pretty normal for the new guys.

Mason seemed pretty even-tempered. He was a V but didn’t have the same drive I did to get out. I had to wonder if he’d joined the Variants simply because he wasn’t passionate enough to be Society or Havoc.

We skipped going down to breakfast on Mason’s recommendation. He said it might be better if we waited until class to leave the dorms, just to be sure Oakland was already gone. That was fine with me.