A Perfect World

Chapter 3

"It’s really me,” I say quietly, tears slipping down my cheeks.

“I can’t believe it! My favorite sibling, here, in jail with me. What did you do?”

I rub my neck anxiously, then say with a nervous laugh, “I, um, I may have killed Adrien. With the, uh, the knife you stole.” I look up at Claire to see her laughing.

“Well, he earned it, didn’t he? Giving you that,” Claire says, flicking open a knife out of her pocket and gesturing to my cheek, “I assume that was him. Gave you  28 stitches. Even I’ve never had that many on the same injury, my record is 23.”

I roll my eyes at my sister. “Yeah, it was him. I didn’t mean to kill him though, I didn’t even mean to hurt him. He tried to strangle me and I panicked.”

“You’re panic summoned a knife?”

“No. I brought it to school with me because I was afraid Markus would try to hurt me.”

“Markus?” I thought she knew about them already, but apparently not.

“That kid. The tall, black haired one,” I say, pointing to Markus, surrounded by his friends like hyenas.

“Ah. Him,” She said calmly, quickly jumping to a far more aggressive tone, “I will beat that kid senseless if he ever touches you again.”

“Please don’t. We don’t need to get in more trouble,” I say, silently begging my sister to tone it down a notch. “Let’s get food. I’m hungry. I haven’t eaten since dinner last night.”

Claire walks with me to the line and asks, “What? Do Mom and Dad not feed you guys anymore?”

“No, no, no, I just didn’t have time to eat breakfast before school, then I got arrested before first period even started. I was at the police station until an hour ago. Speaking of, what time is it?”

“5:30 in the afternoon. Lights out are in an hour and a half.”

“Good to know,” I say grabbing a tray from the end of the counter and filling it with nasty looking food. Claire and I go through the line the rest of the way silently before going back to her group she had been with and sitting down at the end of a table nearby. Well, I sat down, Claire put her food down and immediately introduced me to her gang.

“Aydin, this is Meg,” She points to a fiery redhead with dark brown eyes and a thousand freckles, “In for stealing. Dan and Mutyrey, best friends, in for breaking and entering,” She says pointing to a sandy-haired boy with blue eyes, and a brown haired boy with dark, Madelironian skin, and brown eyes, “Ty is deaf and Dan is mute,” Meg says, in an unmistakable, rough, Daldenovian accent, “Great pair, just didn’t make the best choices. And last but not least, Jaydia,” Taking up the rest of the introductions, much to Claire’s surprise and irritation, and gesturing to a shorter, Scarladish-looking girl with short black hair, honey-brown eyes, and warm, tanned skin. Or at least her eyes would have been if they weren’t so cloudy. “She’s blind but doesn’t let that stop her from doing anything,” Claire says, taking back her post of introducing people, shooting a glance at Meg. “Guys, this is my sister Aydin I was telling you about. Mess with her, you mess with me, not that it’s needed. She can take care of herself, can’t you, Ayda?” She says, ruffling my hair.

“Yeah, yeah…” I mumble, noticing Dan signing to Mutyrey out of the corner of my eye, and shoveling food into my mouth if it can even be called food. I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be, but it’s oily and sticky, too much salt immediately drying out my mouth. I drain my glass of water in a second and shove my food away, standing up next to my sister. I notice Meg trying to stifle a laugh behind Jaydia.