Mad

Welcome to Daylight

As we pull up to Daylight institution I notice that it looks a lot less depressing than I thought it would. I was expecting it to be gray with a bunch of graffiti and maybe an intoxicated homeless man trying to fight with one if the nurses. But I got a tall building with fresh red paint and instead of the hobo there was an old lady being pushed on a wheel chair to her car.

He stopped the car and turned to look at me.
"Scarlett. I know that you don't want to be here but I don't see any other way that you can get better. Believe me this is going to help you and you may not think that way right now but trust me you will."
We exited the car in silence and proceeded into the building and up to the front desk.

A lady in her mid 40's was sitting behind the desk typing something into on the computer in front of her. She turned her head to look at me and my dad. No. She didn't look. It was more of a scan.
"Sir how can I help you?"
Her voice was tough and raspy and she smelled like cigarettes.
"Um I'm here to drop of my daughter."
"What's her name?"
As she said that I got a glimpse of her yellow and rotten teeth. Yeah she definitely smokes.
"Um Scarlett. Scarlett Webber"
She begins to type more rapidly.
"Okay. Here she is."
She looks at me.
"Now all you have to do is follow Louise right here and she'll give you the tour. Unfortunately there are no parents allowed so say your goodbyes and get going"

My dad grabbed me before I can even turn my head to him
"I'm gonna miss you honey. Just know that I'm doing this because I love you okay?"
Whatever
"Okay dad I understand"
"Okay bye I love you"
"I love you too dad" I say but I'm pretty sure he didn't catch that considering the fact that I walked off too soon for him to hear it. Oh well.

The first stop on the tour was to my room. Guess what color it was?
Green. Of course.
I set my bags down and let Louise continue with the rest of the tour. She had black hair with brown tips and she looked like she was a few years older than me. Maybe five.

The next stop was to the cafeteria. It must have been lunch time because it was packed full of kids all wearing the same thing a gray jumper.
"Do we have to wear that?"
She looked at me with a confused face. She must not have heard me over all of the noise. So this time I spoke up and gestured to the kids.
"Do we all have to wear that!?"
This time she got it
"Oh! Yeah! Well only every other Sunday when they give inspections. Other than that you can wear whatever is withing the dress code."
"Oh"
"Yeah that's just how it is"
She looked down at the map wonder where else she should had to take me.
"Oh!! Let's go to the Rec room"

Following her lead to the rec room I saw all of the other rooms with the other patients my age in there. Some doors where marked Do not enter unless permitted and others just had number on them. Some were wide open exposing all of their secrets. As she pulled over to check the map once more I saw the inside of room 718 and under the number it read schizophrenic. And there was a small boy no older than 13, he was having a full on conversation with himself or with the wall I wasn't so sure. All I could make out was him saying something about trees and how they are self centered. Or something of the sort.
"Aha! Here it is. Let's go this way"
Louise motioned to a dimly lit hallway. As we approached the hallway I noticed her starting to become more tense. Then right before entering she put her hand up signaling for me to stop.
Her finger was up to her mouth.
"Ssshhh.. These kids are extremely sensitive when it come to anything okay they need extra special care. Now we don't make a lot of noise,we don't keep the lights to bright, and we especially don't touch them unless we absolutely have to. Okay? So come quickly and quietly."

I did what she asked not because I was scared of them because I wanted to see what they were gonna do later, when I got settled in and I could dare someone to do it.