Purple | Cole Stewart -VERSION DISCONTINUED

Chapter Seven: New Nightmare

Caledonia was a much smaller camp than Thurmond. One of the other girls in my room, Jenny, told me that they guessed there were only about 200 kids there.
There were eight girls in our bunk room, including myself.
Jenny was the obvious leader of the group. She was the one who had woken me up my first day there, and she was the one who made sure we all got up on time in the morning.
Cassie was the mom of the group. She was the one who told stories just before lights out to help the rest of us fall asleep. She was the one who taught everyone how to make their beds as quickly as possible so we wouldn’t get in trouble.
Lily was… something else. No matter how shitty our situation was, she never seemed to get upset. Sometimes I envied her for it. It would sure make life a hell of a lot more bearable.
Zoe was the troublemaker. I lost track of the number of times she was punished for misbehavior after my first few days. While I didn’t envy the punishments she had to take, I admired her courage. She put up a fight, something I had lost the will to do.
Amelia was newer to Caledonia like I was. Her parents had kept her home from school on the collection days, and they had managed to keep her hidden up until a few months ago. But with all the time she spent alone in her basement trying not to be seen, she had learned how to use her abilities even better than I had. Because of her, the rest of the girls were able to learn to control their abilities, and I would owe her for that forever.
I wasn’t really sure why the last two girls in our room were there. Their names were Emma and Rosie, and they were years younger than the rest of us. We tried our best to find out more about them, but they really only ever spoke to each other, so we didn’t have much luck.
Jenny told me that I had been brought in late in the afternoon, and I didn’t wake up until after dinner, so I didn’t see Liam again until my second day.
I was shocked to see him when I did. At Thurmond, our meal times had been separated by color and gender, so the only times I had even seen anyone of another color or gender was in passing. 
I had just been handed my tray of food, if you could call it that, when I happened to look up and see him sitting only a few feet away. It was almost like coming home, seeing Liam again.
And the real miracle: we could sit where we wanted during meals. Probably because the guards were too lazy to enforce more rules. Not that I was complaining.
So after a moment of just staring at him, I was nudged with the end of a gun by a nearby PSF, which snapped me out of my daze. I looked towards my bunk mates for a moment, most of whom were already sitting down, before heading towards the table Liam sat at.
Unsurprisingly, He was surrounded by other kids, who were all whispering to each other, some even with smiles on their faces. Liam had always struck as the type to draw a crowd of followers. All of those other kids made it a hell of a lot harder to secure a seat next to him, but nothing was going to stop me from being with my best friend again. 
After elbowing another kid out of his seat rather harshly, I sat down next to Liam, who was completely focused on the boy across from him who was talking about god knows what. I had to elbow him in the side about four times before the boy he was talking to sighed and nodded his head in my direction, clearly annoyed that I was taking Liams attention away from him.
I felt bad for a second, but only a second. Liam’s eyes lit up when he saw me sitting next to him, and that look alone was worth annoying the boy across from me for the rest of my life if I had to.
Liam hugged me first, wrapping his arms around me as discreetly as could so as not to draw any unwanted attention. And while we didn't attract any unwanted attention from PSF’s, we attracted plenty of attention from the boys at the table around us.
“I’m so glad you're okay, Lee. I don’t know what I’d do without you,”
“The feeling is mutual Cara, don’t worry,”
“Oh thank god. I was worried you only put up with me for the last year because I scared you or something,”
“You could never scare me away Carter.”
“Where’s Felipe? Have you seen him?”
Liam’s smile faded slowly as he shook his head. “No. and I’ve asked all the guys at this table and in my bunk room, no one’s seen him. I don’t think he’s here Cara,”
I didn’t respond to that, and after a moment Liams attention was drawn back to another one of the boys at the table. I finished my meal with a cloud over my head, and rejoined my bunkmates as we were escorted back to our room in silence.
When we got back to our room and the PSF who was escorting us was a safe distance away, I was immediately bombarded with questions.
“Who was that boy?”
“Do you know him?”
“Is he your boyfriend?”
That last question caused a chorus of playful “ooh’s” throughout the room, and Emma and Rosie collapsed onto a bunk in a fit of giggles.
I shook my head, laughing at the younger girls playfulness, something I hadn't seen in them before. “No, we’re just friends. We were traveling together when we got caught and taken here, that’s all.”
“Aww,”
I laughed again at that, turning to see Jenny smiling not at the antics happening on the bunks, but at me.

Word Count: 1022