Finding My Family **ON HOLD**

Ch 6: Red Pills, White Food, Blue Walls

CODY POV- Morning

I'm sitting here at the lunch tables staring at the mystery meat they have served us today. It's breakfast time and we usually get cereal, but today I'm cringing at the white substance before me. It can't be meat, it has to be some sort of pureed vegetable. Maybe cauliflower or egg whites mixed with cauliflower. It has a runny substance to it, but at the same time I can tell it used to be solid food. Leaning down to take a whiff I quickly pull back at the grotesque smell and ask the beautiful girl sitting in front of me, "Any idea what this is today?"

"It's oatmeal, duh!! Boy you have a lot to learn." Chance says making a tisk tisk noise at me.

While I've been here for the past month Chance and I have become friendly and no that's not a code word or anything dirty like that. We are monitored 24/7 in this mental ward and boys and girls rooms are separate. I haven't thought about Sang in a long time, well except for just now, but that doesn't count. Chance has taken over all my thoughts. She vibrant, she's strong and she's fearless. Sang is all these things too, just in a different way; a way I don't find as appealing anymore. Sang's green eyes spoke to me, they asked me to help, to save. Chance's deep violet eyes enchant me, seduce me, they tell me to run away with her.

Oh and she kicks my ass at soccer, the only sport we are allowed to play out in the yard during free time. Besides the hour we get outside there is nothing else to do here... unless you count craft time. I am bored out of my mind and to think I'm going to be here for the rest of my life, or at least until the almighty Academy deems me safe to release back out into the wild!

I sit back and push my bowl away of bland oatmeal and just watch her eat. Shit. I'm being a creep again. Okay, I'm done with that shit. No more stalking, surveillance, creeper stuff...none of that. I look over to the girl sitting next to her. It's Chance's roommate, I can't even remember her name, but she rarely speaks. Right now she's intently reading a newspaper.

Wait a minute....

"Where did you get that newspaper?" I ask her, but she doesn't even look up from it.

Chance speaks for her, "Her mother brings it during visitation."

"And that's allowed?" My brain quickly goes through a bunch of thoughts on how to get my hands on reading materials.

Chance rolls her eyes at me and while others might find it irritating or rude, I find it adorable, "Yeah! The nurses go through the stuff to make sure you're not being passed any contraband. Don't want us breaking out!" She points over to my bowl, "You going to eat that?"

"No, go ahead." I tell her as my mind continues to reel...books, newspapers, magazines, journals, encyclopedias. The possibilities for entertainment are endless! Except of course the slight problem...no one is coming to visit me. And I know for a fact no one visits Chance. She's told me her parents have practically disowned her, so I can't ask her to get me something to read.

I look back over to the girl with the paper. She's still on the same page... is she just a slow reader? It can't be, she's been on the same page the entire time we've been here. Maybe she's doing the crossword. No. She doesn't have a pen.

"Uhh, can I possibly read the sections you're done with?" I ask leaning over closer to make sure she sees I'm talking to her. She still doesn't lift up her head.

"Sure Cody!" Chance says for the girl, "She only reads the Society Section and sometimes Arts & Leisure, you can have the rest." Chance shuffles through the paper and pulls out the ones the girl apparently doesn't want then hands them to me.

"Um, thank you." I say out loud although I'm not sure who I'm thanking; Chance or her roommate.

As we finish up breakfast one of the nurses brings around little cups filled with pills for the patients that need them. She stops by Chance who reaches for a cup with red pills, "Blue ones, honey." Chance corrects herself and grabs the appropriate cup and swallows the pills with a sip of water.