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The new girl is tall and sullen. That’s fine, Ellie didn’t want to make a friend anyway.
“This is Riley,” the dorm officer says without ceremony. “She’s been assigned to bunk in here.”
Ellie nods. She’s sitting on top of the covers, knees drawn tight to her chest. It’s been nice having her own space. The bed in the opposite corner of the room has been empty since Ellie aged up to stay in the barracks with the other thirteen year olds. Before, she was in primary with the babies. She doesn’t miss it.
Riley faces the wall and drops a heavy duffle down onto the bed, sending up a cloud of dust. The curve of her shoulders is hard and angry.
The dorm officer stands in the doorway. Her name is Kelly or Callahan, Ellie’s not sure. She’s new; a replacement after their last officer, a small, mean woman named Smith, was blown up by the Fireflies on a routine patrol.
“Report to the mess for dinner at six o’clock,” Kelly or Callahan says. She tosses Riley a watch. Cheap, FEDRA issue. The kind that they give all new trainees. “Don’t be late.”
And then they’re alone. Ellie picks at a loose thread on the blanket. Six o’clock is at least an hour away. She’s meant to be doing homework. The book is sitting out on her desk, open to the page about turtle migrations. Ellie’s never even seen a turtle. She doesn’t know why the hell she’d need to know about their migratory patterns.
Riley hasn’t moved.
“Soooo, what made you join up?” Ellie asks, breaking the silence. Riley’s whole body stiffens. It’s a stupid fucking question and Ellie knows it. No kid joins up with FEDRA. Either your parents send you off because they can’t care for you any more or–
“Fuck you,” Riley spits out, whirling around. “These fucking fascists murder my parents and think they’ll make me into one of their little soldiers? Fuck you.”
Ellie’s eyes widen and she sits back a little, pushed by the force of Riley’s words. It’s rare to hear a kid talk about FEDRA that way inside the facility. Too many consequences if they’re overheard. And FEDRA’s care is all most of them have ever known anyway.
Neither Ellie nor Riley says anything for a moment. Riley’s chest heaves up and down as she breathes, her features wild and contorted. At her sides, her hands are clenched into fists. The skin of her knuckles looks dry and cracked.
A flash of worry runs through Ellie. She’s sometimes a target for the older kids, the fourteen year olds. They know she’s an orphan, that she’s never met her parents, never known a life when she didn’t belong to FEDRA. But she’s always been safe in the tiny dorm room of her own.
Riley doesn’t try to hit her. She glares at Ellie for another horrible moment and then stomps out of the room.
When the door slams shut, Ellie flops back onto the mattress. Maybe she could take this Riley in a fight. Maybe a kid who grew up with parents they liked enough to miss wouldn’t know how to scrap, at least not well, and Ellie would have the upper hand. She closes her eyes and pictures it, thinks about how she could use her shorter height to her advantage. Riley looks strong, well-fed. Cared for. Most of the new kids who show up aren’t so lucky.
Ellie stands and paces around the room. She’s had the benefit of a lifetime of FEDRA consistency. Always at least one hot meal a day. A roof over her head and more than one shirt to choose from. Her toes catch on the dirty t-shirt she left on the floor the night before. Two shirts. It’s not a glamorous life. Just a relatively stable one.
Riley doesn’t return in the hour before dinner. There aren’t many place she can be, at least not legally. In the evening, trainees are permitted in their rooms, in the study hall, and in the courtyard. Even the bathrooms are off limits unless it’s a designated time. Ellie knows how to pee on a schedule. Every FEDRA kid does.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that plenty of kids don’t find ways around the rules. The fourteen year olds often brag about climbing out of windows and down into the alleyways that surround the barracks. Ellie isn’t sure if they really do it, or if they’re bluffing. But she does know that plenty of kids sneak into the empty classrooms or the gym. Maybe Riley already has friends here. Maybe she’s hanging out with Bethany and her crew, bragging about how they’re going to sneak pills into the complex when everyone knows they don’t really have any contacts on the outside. Maybe they’re already plotting how they’re going to torment Ellie next.
Ellie gets hungry on schedule too. At six, she heads down to dinner. The page about turtles sits forgotten on her desk. Riley is already there, sitting alone. So maybe she hasn’t fallen in with Bethany. At least not yet. Ellie sits alone too. She eats quickly, trying not to glance at Riley too often. Dinner is a shapeless gruel with floating bits of mystery meat. It’s better than nothing. Riley doesn’t bring the spoon to her mouth even once. Ellie always thought it was hard to get rations out in the QZ. The officers are always telling trainees how grateful they should be for the meals they receive. Maybe Riley’s been eating better with her beloved, dead parents. She’ll get hungry enough eventually.
Ellie cleans her plate and then goes back to her room. She doesn’t see Riley again before lights out. Wherever this girl is, she’s good at hiding.
***
For the first week, Riley barely shows up in their room. She eats alone and sits alone in class. Ellie keeps tabs on her. Who wouldn’t watch the random girl who sleeps ten feet from them and refuses to acknowledge their existence? It’s creepy and weird, Ellie decides. Riley is creepy and weird.
Bethany seems to have decided the same thing. Usually, Ellie doesn’t think Bethany would pick on someone like Riley, someone tall and self-assured who never defers to anyone else ever. But Riley is a loner and she’s new. A double hit.
The first time Bethany trips Riley they’re in the gym and it looks like it could have been an accident. The whole thing happens so fast. Ellie’s running steady laps around the room, headphones on, trying not to make eye contact with anyone else. The thud filters through the sound of Depeche Mode. Riley is sprawled on the floor, limbs akimbo while Bethany jogs away, her long braid swinging behind her.
Not my fight, not my problem, Ellie thinks to herself. She forces herself not to watch as Riley picks herself off the floor and the officer at the door barks at her to start running again.
The next time Bethany starts a fight with Riley, she drags Ellie into it too. They’re in line at the mess. Ellie is standing behind Riley and she can see Riley’s shoulder blades through the thin material of her t-shirt. Her braids are pulled into a low ponytail that sits neatly between them. For some reason, it makes Ellie reach self-consciously for her own frizzy hair, which is pulled up into a tight, messy bun. She never knows what to do with her hair, and no one’s ever tried to teach her.
Ellie’s contemplating cutting all her hair off when something crashes into her and knocks her down, flipping her tray and her lunch onto the floor. The something is someone; Bethany must have shoved Riley, and now they’re sprawled on top of each other. Goopy bits of porridge slide down Ellie’s neck, and her bowl is overturned next to her on the ground. There are no seconds in the FEDRA mess hall, what you get is what you get.
Ellie shoves Riley off of her and swears. “That motherfucker!”
Bethany is already wending her way over to her table like nothing happened. Ellie growls and chases after her, tackling her to the ground. She gets two good hits in before Bethany slugs her back, catching her in the mouth. More importantly, Bethany’s breakfast also hits the floor with a satisfying clatter.
For all that Ellie had the element of surprise on her side, Bethany is still taller and stronger and she gets Ellie pinned quickly, trapping her on the grimy floor. Ellie braces herself for another punch that never comes. All of a sudden she’s free to scramble away, and when she looks for her savior, she sees the strength of Riley’s back as she winds up to to wail on Bethany again and again.
The officer monitoring the mess hall breaks up the fight eventually. Ellie has a split lip and a bruised hip. It’s not enough to send her to the nurse. Instead they put her in solitary for an afternoon. Riley gets off with a warning. Perks of being the new kid.
When Ellie returns to the dorm, Riley is there waiting.
“You don’t have to fight my fights,” Riley says, her voice knotted up and angry. Her fingers clench the thin blanket.
Ellie scowls. Her lip throbs. “It was my fight too,” she says darkly. Her stomach growls loudly as if to back her up. She missed lunch in the pokey. Dinner won’t be for hours.
Riley holds her gaze. Ellie wonders for a moment if Riley’s going to come after her too, push her to the cold linoleum. Instead, Riley just says, “That girl Bethany is a cunt.”
Ellie laughs in surprise. “Yeah, she is. She’s always had it in for me. Her and her crew. I don’t even know why.”
Riley nods. “Typical FEDRA bullshit.”
A silence stretches between them, pushing out the sound of far off sirens. Ellie’s stomach growls again, louder this time. She grimaces and turns away, walking over to her desk. Just because they both hate Bethany doesn’t mean she wants Riley to see her as someone who can be weak.
There’s a rustling sound and then Ellie feels a tap on her shoulder. She’s holding something wrapped in a grubby bandana.
“What?” Ellie says, trying to keep her voice sharp.
Riley nudges her again. “Here.” She unwraps the bandana to show a piece of the beef jerky that the kitchen reserves for officers. “You didn’t get to eat lunch, did you?”
“Where–“ Ellie stops and starts. “How did you get that?” Why share it with me? she wants to ask.
The corner of Riley’s mouth ticks up in a mischievous half-smile. The first time Ellie’s ever seen her look even slightly happy. “I have my ways.” She shoves the jerky into Ellie’s hand.
Ellie’s too hungry to refuse food on some poorly thought out principle. She eats quickly and gracelessly while Riley watches impassively. A thousand more questions bubble up as she finishes chewing. Where do you go when you’re not in here? Where did you live before? Have you ever left the QZ? What was it like living outside the barracks? Is FEDRA really as evil as people say?
Riley folds the bandana and puts it carefully in her backpack.
“Thanks,” Ellie says, meaning it.
Riley shrugs. She slings her backpack over her shoulder. “Later,” she says casually, like they’re allowed out of their room. She pokes her head around the door frame and then quickly disappears down the narrow hall. Ellie watches her go.
***
Nothing much changes over the next few days. Riley still goes missing half the time and never offers any information about where she might be hiding. Ellie still keeps tabs on her, surreptitiously watching her in class and in the gym. But she doesn’t find Riley so creepy anymore. If she’s honest with herself, Ellie is kind of impressed. She’s never known anyone who was as good at getting around the rules. Most kids would wind up with detention or at least a little time in lockup for the number of infractions Riley’s racking up.
At dinner, three days after the fight, Ellie’s doing her usual Riley-watching when she notices Bethany hovering nearby. She shoves the last of her dinner in her mouth and hurries to clear her plate. She can’t get in trouble for fighting twice in one week. Lockup is cold and dark and she shudders inwardly thinking about having to spend the night there alone.
Riley meets her at the dish bin. Bethany’s eyes are like pin pricks at the back of Ellie’s neck.
“Let’s get out of here,” Riley says in that annoyingly casual way Ellie is coming to recognize. The only place they’re permitted to be at this time of night is their room. There’s no way that Riley’s suggesting they go back there. Bethany’s chair scrapes back.
Ellie’s mouth floods with bitter adrenaline. “Okay,” she says, her heart thudding against her chest. “Sure.”
They slip out of the mess hall in the direction of the dorms, but at the last second, Riley turns sharply, pulling Ellie through a swinging door with a big KEEP OUT sign.
“Service stairwell,” Riley says quietly, gesturing at the ugly concrete stairs.
Ellie shivers. None of the building is heated well, but this part is definitely not heated at all.
“My parents always said this building used to be an old hotel,” Riley whispers, starting to climb. “So I knew there would be a place for staff to get around.”
Ellie doesn’t know anything about hotels or staff. It seems like an even less useful topic than turtle migrations. Certainly no one is teaching about these things in FEDRA school. She has to move quickly to keep up. Riley’s legs are longer and she can take the stairs faster. When they reach the top, Ellie is sweating and out of breath.
“Won’t the guards check in here?” she asks, peering down the four flights of stairs they just climbed. The officers say they patrol the whole building. Ellie’s gotten flagged for wandering to the library after hours.
Riley shrugs. “It hasn’t happened yet.” She pushes against a heavy door, letting a whoosh of cold air fill the stairwell.
“You’re stupid. This is stupid,” Ellie says, but she’s smiling, she can’t help it. Just the feeling of the fresh air on her skin is so much better than being trapped inside the little dorm room, wondering where Riley is without her. “I know they do patrols on the roof.”
“That’s why,” Riley says, heaving the door open further. “I’ve found a perfect hiding spot.” She tugs on Ellie’s arm, pulling her over to a sooty patch of roof near a crumbling chimney. It looks sort of like a makeshift room. There’s a piece of hard plastic leaned up against the chimney that meets a low wall in a corner, and on the fourth side is only the open, dark sky.
Ellie frowns and looks it over.
“I’ve sat out here during patrols every night and none of them have noticed me,” Riley promises. She slings her backpack around and pulls out a book.
Ellie doesn’t know if she really believes that Riley’s hiding spot is so great. Maybe she’s just gotten lucky during those patrols. Ellie pictures her empty, sad dorm room. Beyond the QZ there is the inky black of the night, miles and miles of open land with no electric lights at all.
“What do we do now?” Ellie asks.
Riley sits down in her dumb little three-walled, no ceilinged hideout where an officer might find them at any time. She holds out the book from her pack. “You can tell me a joke.”
Ellie tugs the small paperback out of Riley’s hands. “That’s mine!” She hadn’t noticed the book was gone. No Pun Intended. The book was a lucky find in a pile of stuff left behind by a kid who was made an officer a few months earlier. She’d found a nice hoodie too, with no holes in it or stains. “I can’t believe you took it!” All of the good feeling from the fresh air and freedom of a minute ago evaporates.
Riley crosses her arms. “Maybe I have my own copy,” she says in a smug little voice. She’s either brave or stupid or both. She knows Ellie won’t back down from a fight.
“Oh like there’s some bookstore we can all go to with multiple copies of the same joke book, and when they’re out of stock they can just call someone up to send more?” Ellie narrows her eyes. “I don’t think so.”
Riley sighs. “Okay fine. I took it. But now I’m giving it back.” Her eyes are big and dark.
Ellie’s heart pounds. “Don’t touch my stuff.”
“Fine,” Riley says.
“Good.”
They stare at each other for a long moment. Ellie grips the flimsy paperback so tightly that the paper starts to crinkle. She doesn’t really want to fight. She had thought when Riley invited her up here that maybe–
Riley raises an eyebrow. “It is a good book.”
“The best,” Ellie says, her voice still angry and too high.
“Okay, it’s the best,” Riley agrees. “And I’m sorry I took it without asking. It just looked nice. And you know how boring it can be in here.”
Ellie isn’t really used to people agreeing with her. She’s definitely not used to apologies. The officers give orders and lecture in class. Back in primary, Ellie would play with other kids sometimes, sharing toys or books when they had them. But she’s never exactly had anyone on her side. She thinks of how easily Riley pulled Bethany off of her that day in the cafeteria. She opens the book and starts to read.
“Did you hear about the kidnapping at school?”
Riley grins, her whole face lighting up like a beacon. “No-oo,” she says expectantly.
Ellie’s stomach flips over. She almost forgets about the joke for a second. Riley nods encouragingly. “Yeah, he fell asleep,” Ellie reads, unable to keep herself from laughing a little.
Riley dissolves into giggles. “Tell me another one.”
Ellie turns the page.