Undisclosed Desires

Chapter 2

"Eggs or sausages?" the bored voice of the lunch lady asked me. She looked greasy and unsanitary. Maybe I should skip breakfast. Nah, I had to eat sometime and besides nobody looked ill.

The cases here at Cavanaugh differed very much from each other. It was like how I imagined a high school. You had nerd, goths, emo's, dancers, musicians and so on. I smiled inwardly, the chance I fitted in with a group was very big.

I directed myself at the lunch lady. "Both, please."

The woman gave me an annoyed look and planted her hands at her waist. "Does it look like you can get both?"

"Well, actuall-" I wanted to come back with an insulting retort, but I was interrupted by a feminine voice beside me.

"Martha, just give the girl her eggs and sausages."

Beside me was standing a very small girl around my age. She was at least one head smaller than me and I was only 5'4" (163 cm). Her blonde hair was cut into a sassy bob and the horrific uniform looked actually pretty good on her. She was very pretty, but her height made her look very young.

I looked up to see Martha smiling down at the short girl, a look of affection covering her face. Without complaining she scooped a heap of scrambled eggs and three sausages on my plate. I made a face when I saw her squeezing some ketchup over my eggs. Gross. I hated ketchup.

I decided to let it go and mumbled a quiet thanks to Martha, which was answered by a harsh glare. She didn't like me, that was for sure. Great, now I had to look out for a woman who'll might poison my food.

After the girl got her food, eggs and sausages too, she turned her attention towards me. "You must be the new girl, Melanie right?"

I smiled at her, she seemed like a nice girl. Not exactly the girl I would expect at an institute for delinquent teenagers.

"Yes, I am," I answered her.

"Great!" She nearly jumped in delight and continued enthusiastically. "My name is Audrey. I have a feeling we will get along perfectly fine!"

And then she surprised me. She pulled me into a hug, my tray balancing awkwardly on my right hand as I hugged her back with my other. Normally I wasn't really a hugging kind of girl, but her enthusiasm was contagious. I felt myself liking her already, maybe I should stay close to her. It would be a nice to finally have someone around I really liked.

"Would you like to eat with me and my friends?" Audrey asked, surprising me with the word friends. At the other institutes nobody had real friends. The contacts you had were alliances. You protected the members of your group, in exchange for their protection. Without a gang you couldn't survive. You would get beaten up or raped everyday.

"Sure," I said, already following her to a table with her friends. We were walking towards a group of four people. Not very big for a clique, but then I realized none of the groups consisted of more than five people. Strange.

At the table were sitting two boys and a girl. The girl was the complete opposite of Audrey. She was tall and slender, with long, curly hair and a tan skin. She looked Hispanic. But what caught my attention was the huge scar running across her face. It started at her right temple and ended at the left corner of her mouth. I couldn't help but stare, in my four years at institutes I'd never seen a scar like that one.

I dropped my gaze when I felt a elbow jabbing at my ribcage. "Stop staring at Crystal's scar. She doesn't like it when people do that," Audrey whispered.

I quickly complied and moved my gaze to the two boys. The first of them had his arm draped over Crystal's chair. He looked like a cowboy: shaggy blonde hair and a grin. The other guy was very muscular. His hair was ginger, but surprisingly it suited him. They all looked up when we arrived at the table.