Things remained calm for the next two weeks. There was no word from Chapman on Victoria, which worried me, and no word from Melissa. She gave me distance, apart from our tactical training, but she even stayed silent during that too.

It somewhat made me happy, because that meant I could learn in peace even though there were still hard feelings leftover. But at least I didn't have her voice in my ear the entire time trying to explain herself. I figured she had lost all hope in doing so.

It wasn't until dinner onthe Sunday of our second week when something strange happened:

I had walked into the bustling cafeteria and spotted Paige picking at her dinner. She was alone and I was grateful. Honestly, she was the only one I ever talked to nowadays.

She looked up and spotted me. A quick wave signaled me over.

But as I stepped forward one guy stood abruptly from a table. Another mimicked his stance, getting a little too close to the other's face.

"You think I can't beat your ass, Grady?" one shouted.

"Justin, stop trying to compensate for wimping out in workouts," so-called Grady accused.

That's when Justin grabbed the front of Grady's shirt and threw him as far as he could. I stepped back just in time, but my dinner plate was knocked from my hands. My dinner flew in every direction.

Justin's hard fists pounded into the face of Grady, who seemed to have unleashed a wild animal. The cafeteria was in a quiet panic as we witnessed about twenty seconds of non-stop beating. That's when authorities pulled Justin from Grady's bruised and bloodied body.

I was too shocked to move.

It wasn't until I felt someone grabbing my shoulder that I snapped out of the shock.

"God. I can't believe that just happened." Paige led me away from the scene. "Are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine," I answered.

"Here." She offered me her food. "You can have the rest of mine."

"Thanks." But I was no longer hungry.

Paige looked towards the door where the two guys had been escorted away.

"It's weird... I know Justin. I have defense training with him," she confessed. "I never pinned him as a hot-head."

I shouldn't have been surprised this had happened. Emotions were high and stress now became one of the hardest things to tolerate. Two guys duking it out over something petty seemed almost predictable, but maybe Paige was onto something. Yet, dwelling over it didn't seem to have any benefit. Maybe Grady had been asking for it.

What did surprise me was that the next day, Justin, the guy who had nearly beat someone to death, was back in the cafeteria for breakfast. There was a logical part of me saying that this wasn't normal, that most people would be sent home, or maybe even to jail, but not this guy. Didn't he seem a bit dangerous and uncontrollable to be around the rest of us?

But things proceeded as if nothing happened.

Justin supposedly returned to his classes. Everyone talked about the fight in hushed tones and treated it like a big bad secret. And things went back to normal.

This bothered me, and I couldn't seem to let it go.

Then I started to notice things and overhear conversations that sounded odd.

I would hear a guy say something exceptionally violent, or spot a girl working out way too hard for it to be healthy. Yet, those instances were minor compared to the fight.

The questions were always in the back of my mind, but I tried not to let it consume me. After all, I was here to better myself and graduate.

So for once in my life, I triedmy best not worry about everyone else.

* * *

Five days later I walked into defense class and scanned the room for my partner. Melissa stood on the outside of the group with her arms crossed. She seemed off. Or just more off than usual. I decided to ignore it.

Our instructor stepped forward. "Today we'll learn some hand-to-hand combat skills."

He demonstrated some of the moves as I watched with intent, yet I could feel my attention wavering. My eyes glanced over to Melissa and I studied her, but not for long.

"Okay, drill with your partner what we just went over," the instructor ordered.

Melissa walked over but remained quiet. I wanted to ask, but decided not to.

She held her hands up in defense mode, indicating I would be the one attacking first.

I repeated the moves we had previously learned, careful not to throw my hands too hard even though deep down I wanted to. She blocked me just like the instructor demonstrated. As we continued I got faster in hopes to let out some of the anger I had towards her, thinking it would benefit her reflexes too.

But at one point she didn't move fast enough to stop my jab and my hand connected with the side of her face.

"Shit, sorry-"

She shoved me. Hard. My sentence caught in my throat.

I fell to the ground with a thud. My tailbone ached from the fall and suddenly a wave of anger washed over me. My will to hold back crumbled.

I tackled her to the floor and she groaned in pain. All the pent-up anger I had seemed to burst out of me. I hadn't meant to hit her and she knew that. Her shove was unnecessary. I could've injured myself!

There was a loud whistle right as my fist connected with her lip. Strong hands then pulled me off her.

"Cortez! Reese! Enough!"

Melissa wiped her bleeding lip as another guy helped her to her feet. My own body guard made sure I didn't attack again. I wasn't planning on it, but Melissa seemed ready to reciprocate. If she came at me again I would have no problem hitting her.

"Maybe next time remember to block," I growled.

"Fuck you, Alexa."

It was the first time she had spoken to me in two weeks. It was also the first time she didn't beg me for forgiveness. For some reason, it burned me like a hot stove. I hadn't expected those words to hurt so much.

Class ended early but I couldn't leave the incident in the classroom.

I knew I shouldn't care. That this is what I had wanted from her since being broken out of jail, but it wasn't. Not quite. I honestly wanted to go back to being strangers but knew that was impossible.

At dinner, she stayed to herself, which I found odd considering she usually liked company. Her lip was red and swollen from my punch, and when she caught me staring she got up and left the cafeteria all together.

I was worried. Not because I cared or anything, but because recently things had felt off around camp. A part of me wondered if I should follow her outside to ask what was up. Another part of me wanted absolutely nothing to do with her.

Without further thought I got up from the dinner table and left Paige with a few other friends. I couldn't believe I was doing this, and deep down I feared it would backfire, but this was strictly business. There would be no talking about our past, just why she was acting so strange.

Of course, other people had exhibited similar behavior, but Melissa's had managed to worry me. I would never admit that aloud.

I spotted her slowly making her way towards the dorms with her hands shoved in her pockets. I guess it was now or never.

"Wanna explain why you lost your shit today in defense?" I called from behind her.

She stopped walking. My heart sped up in my chest as I studied her dark silhouette through the night. Suddenly I felt bad for her.

When she turned around I could tell there was something going on. Something dark and sad. But the last thing I wanted was to have a heart-to-heart with Melissa.

"I believe I'm the one with the busted lip," she spat. "Besides, don't act like you haven't been dying to do that."

There was an obvious pain in her voice. It touched me in ways that made me feel even worse about what happened earlier. Obviously, I was still mad at her, but it really had been an accident. She had forgotten to block.

"I didn't mean to hit you that hard," I confessed.

"Sure," she dismissed before turning away.

I decided to stand in front of her.

"Melissa, tell me what's wrong," I demanded.

Her eyes fell from mine. The hard exterior that had once been present started to crumble. I knew she heard the worry in my voice.

I studied her, and for the first time in two months I really studied her. The bags under her eyes were visible even in the dark, and even though she had gained a bit of muscle while here she still seemed thinner. I hated to admit that I felt responsible for this even when it technically was her fault all of this was happening. But that wasn't the point of this conversation.

But she wouldn't crack. "Alexa, just leave me alone."

I stood my ground. "I will when you tell me what's going on."

Annoyance crossed her features. "So what? All I had to do was shove you to make you give a shit?"

I looked away from her in guilt.

Of course, I missed the relationship we had before she messed up, but that was past us and I was moving on. Or so I thought. Acting like strangers with Melissa seemed right, but it was also easier said than done at this point.

I shook my head. "I don't give a shit. But next time you pull something like that I'll do more than bust your lip open."

And with that I turned andleft her in the dark while I tried to fight off the urge to turn around and lether rip open all the old wounds I was trying so hard to heal.

* * *

I was never good at staying out of trouble, even at a young age there always seemed to be a knack for sticking my nose into situations. There was this one instance, back when I was about nine or ten, that I still remembered to this day.

Dad had come home for a few days and things felt normal again for my younger self, but looking back now I recalled how different it must've felt for my parents.

Anna was being a restless toddler and dad's touch couldn't quiet her down. Eventually mom had to take Anna from him and put her to sleep upstairs. The argument started when she came back down, and I had been ordered up to my room.

But instead I sat at the top of the staircase, wondering why every time dad came home mom always seemed to want him gone again. I remember the sound of her voice as she struggled to speak from the tears she cried. As a child, I didn't understand, but I sat there at the top of the stairs anyway, and listened.

Mom should've been happy dad was home, and dad should've felt the same, but the things they had said to each other still haunted me.

"Maybe if you'd be home more your child wouldn't see you as a stranger," mom accused.

"And if I didn't work who would support this family, Eva?"

"Do you not care what you're doing to your kids? Alexa cries for days when you leave."

"I don't have a choice! Don't you get that?"

"You always have a choice, Raymond, but your priorities were always fucked up."

Then dad had said some words I was never able to erase from my memory no matter how hard I tried. They burned their way into my brain and left a permanent scar.

And he was gone with the slam of a door. Mom cried alone downstairs as I remained silent, trying hard not to do the same. I should've just went to my room. I should've listened to them when they said go to sleep.

But I hadn't listened, and it still managed to bother me.

Ten years later nothing had changed, and I still seemed to have this need to know the truth, whether it was my business or not. It was like that when Chapman ended up at the foot of my hospital bed, and it was like that now as I interviewed the very guy who had almost hospitalized another trainee a week ago.

"So what you're telling me is that you got this from another trainee?" I asked.

He just nodded.

"Did she sneak it in or...?"

"I've told you all I know." He rolled his eyes and pointed to the name in my notebook. "She's the one who gave it to me. Go interrogate her."

Apparently, whatever this guy was on also made him easily agitated. I pushed a little more.

"And you didn't think to ask about possible side effects? Or what it was?" I coaxed.

"She told me what it did. That was enough to sell me on it."

I inhaled a deep breath. Some of the people here weren't as smart as I assumed.

I stood up I closed my notebook. "Thanks for talking to me, Justin."

"Yeah well, you didn't really give me a choice," he stated before his attention fell back to his lunch.

Leaving the cafeteria, I quickly wondered if I should wait to tell Chapman. I barely had any information on what was going on, but it seemed to be an important enough matter to make him aware of.

A possible steroidal drug that heightened memory, stamina and energy levels was circulating the camp. It sounded great. But the side effects were more than discouraging.

So far I knew it could cause violence, muscle cramps, and agitation, but those were only the ones I knew about. I was more than sure the drug effected different people in different ways.

Yet, I didn't know it's origin and had only spoken to one person that had taken it. Maybe waiting until I had more information would be a better call before alerting Chapman. I mean, the only lead I had was the name of a girl I had yet to meet. Hopefully once I got a hold of her I could gain more insight.

Instead of making irrational moves I attended the rest of my classes in hopes to distract myself from this growing problem. It didn't work considering all I could think about was how many people this drug had touched, and how it had gotten through the camp's walls in the first place.

After class I headed to dinner and spotted Paige sitting alone and decided to join her.

"You're not gonna have dinner with your new friend you made at lunch?" she teased.

I sat across from her. "What?"

"You know, the guy that nearly killed someone."

"Justin's not my friend," I confessed. "I just had some questions to ask him."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yup."

I knew Paige was probably curious, and honestly I found no harm in telling her. Maybe she knew something weird was going on and could help.

I leaned forward. "Can I ask you something?"

"Oh it's my turn for an interrogation?" she asked with a smile. "Let er' rip."

My eyes narrowed. "Have you noticed anything weird around here? Like people acting different?"

"Well yeah, but I think it's normal considering our circumstances." She gestured for me to take in my surroundings.

"No I mean, people becoming more agitated. More violent," I said in a hushed tone.

She got the hint that I was being serious.

"Other than witnessing Justin beat the snot out of Grady, no. I haven't seen much violence."

"What about people taking workouts too hard?"

"Alexa, what's this about?" Paige wondered.

Should I tell her? Did I want to involve someone else in something that was potentially dangerous and could get us into trouble?

"Never mind," I finished. "It's nothing."

Getting myself into trouble was one thing; but I couldn't do that to Paige.

"No you have to tell me now that you've brought it up."

I shook my head. "No."

"I'm serious." She grabbed my hand. "I want to help with... whatever you're getting yourself into."

Well if she was willing...

"Follow me," I ordered, heading for the exit.

I spotted Melissa on the way out who gave me a look I didn't like. Then Paige and I made a bee-line for the dorms.

We made it to our room.

"So after talking to Justin, I found out there's something going around campus. A drug of some sort," I started.

The look on Paige's face was priceless.

"A what?" she asked.

I grabbed the notebook from under my mattress and opened it up. "Yeah. Apparently it's some sort of steroid or something. He didn't give me much information, he just mentioned this girl gave it to him."

Paige's finger skimmed over it.

"Stacy Tate?" Paige voiced. "I know her."

I looked at my roommate. "You do?"

"Yeah I have Basic Defense with her."

"Don't you have that class with Justin, too?"

"Yeah," she answered. "And I bet the connection isn't coincidental."

She sat next to me on my bed as we thought in silence.

"I mean, how do you think something like that is getting in here?" I wondered.

She gave herself a minute before answering. "It's being disguised as something else."

We just looked at each other.

I shifted. "What do you mean?"

"Ever heard of contraband?" she asked.

Of course, I had heard of contraband. I had spent two months in prison. But Paige didn't know that.

I decided to lie. "Contraband?"

"It's smuggling of illegal things. Like in prison, when they sneak in cigarettes and stuff."

I smiled to myself. Oh, they smuggled in more than cigarettes.

"So you think someone is sneaking it in," I repeated. "How?"

She shook her head. "The infirmary is my first guess."

It made a lot of sense. If it was a type of steroid, it would come in a sort of vile or container. And if it was mislabeled for disguise, no one would know except the doctor. Did that mean they were in on it too?

"This is exciting," Paige exclaimed. "I get to put my college education to good use."

I looked at her. "What did you major in?"

"Criminal Justice," she answered. "What about you?"

Crap.

My eyes fell. "I uh, didn't go to college."

Confusion showed on her face. "Then how did you hear about this program?"

My heart began to beat a little faster. This was something I was unprepared for, but lying to Paige would probably be a bad idea. I already knew she could smell fakeness.

I shut my notebook. "It's a long story."

She tilted her head with thought. I could tell she wanted to know the truth, but wouldn't dare ask. I had already proven myself to be confidential, so prying would only make things worse.

"Alright," she finished. "Well I can talk to Stacy tomorrow. Maybe ask her to sit with us for dinner?"

I watched her stand from my bed but she could see the confusion on my face.

"So we can ask her questions," she clarified. "Like you did with Justin."

I nodded. "Oh y-yeah, sure. That's a good idea."

She grabbed her toiletry bag. "I'm going shower."

Then she left the room.

Once I was alone I scolded myself for revealing too much to Paige. No one here was supposed to know my history, or that I was underqualified in the education department. Chapman would kill me if the people here found out I was getting special treatment.

Then suddenly I remembered my cellphone.

I reached into my own bag and retrieved it to turn it on. After almost three weeks with no word from Chapman, I found myself growing anxious.

But when I checked my texts there was nothing.

Then I had a compulsion to text my sister. I knew I could. I had memorized her number the day she got her cellphone. And I really missed her.

I shook the thought and put the phone away. Texting Anna was a bad idea. Especially this early in the program.

So I picked up my books and began studying the things I had learned this week. There would be tests in all my classes tomorrow and I wanted to ace them.

Except the thought ofgetting myself into something dangerous was distracting, but I couldn'tconvince myself to leave alone.

* * *

Paige and I sat across from Stacy. The look on her face told me she was uneasy. I didn't blame her. I was sure she had heard about me from Justin yesterday, and had suspected I would come to her.

"I talked to Justin yesterday-"

"I know," she interrupted. "I just don't get why."

I raised my brow. "Because I'm trying to figure out what's going around camp."

"Why?" She leaned forward. "Do you want to try it?"

"No, but I-"

"Then why do you care?"

"Because it's causing problems."

"Is it hurting you in any way?" she spat.

I narrowed my eyes. Was she being serious?

"Stacy. It's illegal. You know if you get caught you'll be kicked out."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not stupid, Alexa. But some of us need a little extra help. And if the nurse in the infirmary gave it to me, it can't be that bad."

Paige shifted next to me at the information.

"Which nurse?" I questioned.

She crossed her arms. "I'm not supposed to say."

Then she went to stand.

"Wait," I called. "Can I ask you a few more things?"

I twirled my pen over my open notebook with angst.

She huffed. "What?"

"How long have you been taking it?" I questioned.

She thought. "About two weeks. I've only had like, four doses though."

"What about Justin?"

"I don't know." She threw her hands up in frustration. "Almost the same amount as me?"

I wrote everything down.

That's when Melissa passed our table. "Stacy?"

"Melissa, hey I'm coming." She grabbed her lunch plate and looked at me. "I'm telling you, Cortez. If I find out you're stirring up drama, I'll kick your ass."

Melissa looked at me with a worried expression before leaving with Stacy to join Justin at a table. The three of them eyed me suspiciously. Since when did Melissa hang out with them?

"Looks like it's claimed another victim," Paige accused.

I didn't want to believe Melissa was getting caught up in what Stacy and Justin were already tangled in. But I didn't care anyway, right?

Yet, deep down I hoped she was smart enough not to get involved.

I left dinner early in hopes to beat the crowd to the showers. Plus, I couldn't stand the annoyed glares from the three amigos anymore.

I got that they didn't like me snooping, but I wasn't going to rat them out. The person they should be worried about was Melissa. She was the real snitch. I had learned that the hard way, and so would they.

I made it to the showers and was grateful I was alone. There weren't many instances where you could find solitude. That's one complaint I had about this place. But other than that, I felt as if I was learning a lot of valuable things.

But as soon as I finished up in my stall I heard someone join me in the bathroom.

I exited to see Melissa sitting on the counter.

"So you're sticking your nose in another situation," she accused.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I lied.

"I heard what Stacy told you, Alexa. And I know she's not joking."

"I'm not scared of her."

Melissa hopped off the counter. "Why can't you just make things easier on yourself and leave it alone?"

I found humor in that comment.

"And what about you?" I said. "Why can't you just leave me alone and make it easier on yourself?"

She rolled her eyes. "I've barely spoken to you since we've gotten here."

Unfortunately, I knew that all too well. I guess some things I couldn't overlook.

"And yet, here you are," I claimed.

"I need you to stay away from drama, Alexa," she pleaded.

"Why? So I don't catch you juicing up like Stacy and Justin?"

My comment hurt her. "Because you're being stupid!"

"For being worried?"

"For being nosy," she stated.

I stepped closer to her. "I'm gonna find out where this drug is coming from."

Her gray eyes flickered between my own.

I continued. "And if I find out you're somehow involved in all of this... I'll make sure you go down too."

Then I left the bathroom beforeshe could try to convince me any further.