The S.S Delinquent

Chapter 9 & 10

Chapter Nine

   Never in her life had Tatts been so relived and pleased at the thought of returning to the Orphanage. She was giddy with excitement at the chance to see her friends to tell them her good news, who she had feared that she would never get to see again.

   She couldn't wait to burst open the door and waltz back inside to show everyone that she had not been disposed of yet. The looks on the guards faces when they saw her still alive in the morning were going to priceless.

   Not to mention she was really looking forwards to wiping the smug smirks of The Bad Boyz faces when they saw that she was back from the dead. She would happily continue to make their lives a misery for being snitches and picking on the little kids.

   "It's Inmate 469, isn't it?" Cadet Lockhart asked, slowing the pace down so that they could talk.

"Apparently" Tatts replied, wishing that he would hurry up.

"So do you have a real name?" Cadet Lockhart wanted to know curiously.

   "I don't actually" Tatts admitted with a shrug.

"Well, they must call you something around here" Cadet Lockhart argued, refusing to believe that she was nameless or just referred to as Top Dog

"Until a few minutes ago, I didn't even know that I had an identity number. Let alone know what my parents called me. I don't even know their names" Tatts informed him.

   "Oh....sorry. I forgot that....." Cadet Lockhart apologized, then trailed off feeling awkward. As he remembered her telling him that she had never left the Orphanage. He knew that inmates did not normally like to talk about their parents.

   If it wasn't the executed parents crimes that had gotten their innocent child locked up, then the child's crime often resulted in death of their parents as punishment. Inmate 469 was clearly an illegal half alien, on of a species he did not recognize.

   "They call me Tattoos or Tatts for short" Tatts finally answered him, whilst gesturing to the tattoos on her face, bare arms and legs that covered her entire body.

"Tatts..... that's a lot easier to say than Inmate 469" Cadet Lockhart commented, trying not to stare at her bare legs on display in her nightdress.

"Whatever you say, Lockie" Tatt told him, thinking that Cadet Lockhart was a bit of a mouthful to say all the time.

   If they were going to be working alongside each other on this secret mission for the time being, then he was going to need an inmate nickname like the others. It would also help him to fit in rather than reminding them all that he was a higher ranking than they were.

   Cadet Lockhart grinned from ear to ear when she called him that, he seemed to like his new inmate nickname. It didn't look like he was used to being included in the team very much, it was probably why his useless Cadet Squadron had been selected to go on the suicide mission with the young offenders in the first place.

   "Did Luci take the time to explain everything to you about the mission?" Cadet Lockhart asked quietly, stepping in front of her to block her from going any further

"You call him Luci as well" Tatts noted, surprised the cadets called him Lucifer behind his back too.

"We liked your name for him, it's rather fitting" Cadet Lockhart replied with a smirk.

"You mean you stole it. You'd better be careful, that sort of thing can get you locked up around here if you're not careful" Tatts accused, finding it funny.