Obsessive, Compulsive.

Ten.

I sat at the table alone.

The first one in the dining room, I stared solemnly at the bleak plate of pasta in front of me. It was hot in there and I wished I could take off my jumper, but I didn't want everyone to see my bandaged arms. Antonia was in the room next door. I wondered how she was getting on. She had seemed nervous to go in and had kept asking the staff what was for dinner.

Something clanked, and I looked up to see someone sitting opposite me. She had shoulder length brown hair and freckled skin, her eyes appearing tired and worn out. On her hands were a pair of plastic sterilization gloves.

I plucked up the courage to say something. "Hi."

"Hello." She looked me up and down timidly. "I'm not trying to rude... Are you clean?"

"Yeah, I... I had a shower about an hour ago." I told her. "My hair's still a bit wet, see?"

She relaxed. "Oh, good."

There was an awkward silence.

"I'm Bella." I told her. "I'm sixteen."

"My name's Eve. I'm fourteen." She looked like she wanted to say something, but didn't. "You're the new girl, aren't you? The OCD one?"

I nodded.

"Oh! I've got that too." Eve looked pleased to have someone understand her. "I'm a cleaner. Antonia said you were a counter, right?"

"Yeah." I was desperate to see her OCD in action. I wanted to see how else people could have my illness and how it effected them.

"What are your numbers?" She asked. It flattered me that everyone in this place wanted to be respectful.

"Four is good, and the bad one is..." I couldn't say it.

Eve understood. "I'll ask Antonia."

I smiled gratefully and looked down at my plate. Reluctantly, I ate a tiny bit of pasta, chewing it four times on each side of my mouth. In front of me, Eve checked each mouthful thoroughly before she ate it.

After a few minutes, a few other people started to pile in, all of them nodding at me as a sort of 'hello.' Eve saw me looking around nervously and caught my eye. "Everyone's nice here. I remember being scared, too. But everyone's nice. They like you, they were talking about you in the Common Room earlier."

I hated it when people spoke about me. "What did they say?"

"They think you're brave. First you run away, then you get restrained on your first day here. That's badass." She smiled shyly.

"Really?" I frowned.

"Why did you run down into the lobby when they restrained Robert, anyway?" Eve asked, stopping eating for a second.

"Well..." It sounded a bit stupid now. "I didn't like that they were holding him down. He didn't like it."

"You'll get used to it." She shrugged. "They do it for our own good, so no one gets hurt."

"I know, but still... I feel like Robert needs help." I looked at the floor, tapping my toes against the floorboards four times.

"That's why he's here." Eve looked confused.

"I know... I don't know. I don't really know why I did it." There was a pause.

"Still badass, though." Her eyes twinkled with admiration, starting to eat again.

We ate the rest of our meal in silence, both of us listening to other people's conversations. Once I had finished, I put my cutlery onto my plate and looked up at Eve for guidance. Just as I was about to open my mouth, a boy walked past and dropped a glass, pouring some apple juice on the floor. Like a bolt of lightning, Eve was up and sprinting out of the room. My jaw dropped and I looked at the boy, who started jogging after her.

"Eve! Eve, I'm sorry! Come here." He called.

Everyone stared at me so out of nerves I stood up and followed the other two, reaching a blue door in the bedroom corridor. Eve was in her room, the door shut. The boy stood outside, running his hand through his blonde hair. He looked at me, before looking at the closed door sadly. "Eve... I didn't mean to. I'm sorry."

Breathing heavily, Eve opened the door and nodded. "It's okay, you just caught me off guard."

"Did I spill any on you?" The boy asked.

Eve shook her head, still panting. "I'm going to go clean it up."

"No, don't!" The boy said. "Part of your therapy is resisting the urges, I'm not going to let you go back after you've been doing so well."

Looking at me for help, Eve wasn't sure what to say. I gave her an encouraging look. She nodded slowly, turning to sit on her bed. "Can I be left alone for a minute?"

We agreed, closing the door and walking down the corridor quietly. As we walked, the boy turned to me and smiled. "You're Bella. Hi."

"Hi." I tried to sound friendly.

"I'm Jay." He grinned. "Anger problems."

"Oh." I was taken aback at how open people were about their mental health here. I shrugged. "OCD."

"Nice." Jay said as we walked into the Dining Room again. Five faces looked at us, worriedly. "She's okay." He assured everyone. They all let a breath out.

Just as I was about to go and sit down again, I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Antonia, looking more pale than usual with her mascara running down her face slightly. She sniffed, smiling at me.

"Hi." I pretended not to notice how sad she looked.

"Hello. You said you'd like a makeover earlier. Do you want me to paint your nails before visiting times?" Antonia asked. "I'm going to paint Eve's nails too."

I hesitated. Did I want to see my family? I wanted to see Kai, but he sent me away too. No. I wasn't going to see them. Even if they showed up. But there was no harm in getting my nails painted if it would make Antonia happy, so I nodded.

"Yay! Eve wants purple nails. What colour do you want?" She giggled and looked down at her hands, twisting the string bracelet on her scarred wrists. "I think I'll go with pink today. My mum's favourite colour. Maybe you could have one of your family member's favourite colours?"

Kai liked blue, but I shook my head slowly. "I don't know any of their favourite colours."

Antonia shrugged and led me down the hallway. "We can just make an educated guess."