Unlike You

One

"Alright, ladies, rise and shine," Officer Grey announces down the large hall, her voice echoing off of the empty space.

The lights of each cell flick on, awakening us from our slumber. Not that we get much in this place. Our cells don't have windows, and we have very limited objects in our cells. A cast iron bed which is more like a table with a shitty mattress over it, a pillow, a paper-thin blanket, and a plastic table. The walls are a dull gray with cracks and holes as decoration. Not really the 'American dream' everyone wants, but that's not really what you would expect to have in a juvenile detention center.

I hear rattling coming from the bars of my cell which is Officer Grey unlocking it. I pull my pillow from above my head and stand up with a scowl on my face. I grudgingly walk over to the front of my cell where I see Officer Gray with a frown on her face.

Officer Gray is a nice lady. She is about an inch taller than me, she is a proud African-American woman and is not afraid to say it whenever she can, she is a bit on the larger side, but that doesn't change the fact that she can take down any girl in this joint, and her warm smile is the only thing that makes me want to live another day. She's like my mom away from home.

"Come on, Hampton, smile. You're leaving tomorrow," she says happily, but I don't miss the slight bit of sorrow in her tone.

"I don't know, Sharon, I think I've taken a liking to this place," I state jokingly as we walk down the hall with about forty other girls in orange jumpsuits following. I'm one of the only inmates that calls Officer Grey by her first name. She doesn't seem to mind, neither do I.

"Oh, please," Sharon says, waving her hand dismissively. "Nobody ever misses this place once they leave."

"Fair enough. I will miss you though, Sharon," I smile as we walk into the cafeteria.

"Don't tell the other ladies," she whispers, leaning in towards me. "You were always my favorite."

Sharon winks at me before walking off to the other inmates who are still half asleep. I get in line for the food window.

'The window', as all the inmates call it, is a two foot by three foot hole in the cafeteria's concrete wall. Our server, Felicia, is probably the cruelest person in this place. She is about sixty years old, she has long graying hair that she has underneath a plastic hairnet, her wrinkled skin is close to resembling leather, lines and cracks in her skin makes her appear twenty years older, and she has a permanent scowl on her face. I don't know how she sits behind 'the window', serving convicted felons without losing it.

As the line gets shorter and shorter, I am eventually faced with Felicia. Her scowl deepens as her eyes meet mine. Her eyes are a dark brown- almost black color, mirroring that of a demon. 

"Hey, Felicia," I smile. We both know the smile is false, but neither of us care.

Felicia just grunts in response before slamming a plastic plate of mush in front of me. The colors don't appear appetizing. There is a murky green colored substance that has odd chunks of black in it, a pile of pale yellow mush sits in the upper left near a piece of wheat bread and carton of plain milk. 

"Have a great day, Felicia." I turn up my lips before walking off.

"Liar," she spits, making me cringe.

Everyone here knows my story. Well, they know as far as what the rumors say.

I walk through the cafeteria trying to find the one inmate who doesn't look at me like I am some freak. Her name is Dana. Dana was convicted for stealing from a Tiffany's & Co. She got halfway through town with twelve diamond rings and some expensive necklace that would have Paris Hilton doing backflips. She was arrested about an hour after she left the store. Since she's only fourteen, she was thrown in here. She didn't really care though. She was kicked out of her house a few hours prior.