Change of Perspective

Jail cell confession

I looked around at the sulking teens laying in the small cell. Bars that were thicker than me, cold floor stained with who knows what. Dean stared at the lightbulb as it flickered and brightened, never reaching more than a dull yellow glow.

Jerra was sitting on the single bunk, hands proping his face and mouth pulled into a frown.

There wasn't much I could possibly do to cheer them, especially when I was just as depressed and upset.
Remember Tory?
Yeah...
She was pretty cool, had a nice smile.
Always able to think of something random to cheer us up.
Yeah.
Wish I could have said bye.
Wish I could see all of them, Tyler, Tory, Justin...
Adam...
Who could forget him? He always had paint on his face and said the stupidest things.
Remember when he started ranting about the importance of always having red paint when we ran out in ninth grade?
Duh.

I smiled despite myself. Recalling the complete look of seriousness and patriotism as he stood in front of the class. We had all laughed together about it during lunch. My mouth turned down as I realized something.
You're thinking like you're going to die.
I am.
Do you?
No!
What's going to happen now though?
There's a less than 1% chance that you'll be able to go home, less than .5% chance that you'll wake up and this was just a very vivid dream.
50% chance I'll die here by some means.
More than that.
I'm being positive.
So am I.

Chance mumbled something, I heard my name, and turned around to look for him in the mountain range of bodies. His red hair stuck up on the other side of Dean, and I scanned my neck to see if he was looking at me.

"How come you're still here?"

Ross rose into my vision, raimed in my direction.

"You can fit through the bars."

Jerra looked at Ross, Trace sat up, his eyes shining.

Dean stated on the ground. "I know what you're thinking, and even if she could find the keys, they're bigger than her, there's no way she could drag them here."

The air of hope left the group, and they fell back down to the floor.

I caught on to what they'd been thinking.