Landry's was huge. A big four story building on the out skirts of New Orleans surrounded by a twelve-foot barbed wire fence with one way in and one way out. Every window I could see had bars on them. Past the big gray building and fence, there was nothing but trees. The only opening in the fence had a small guard shack to the side with one sleepy guard sitting there staring at a row of monitors when the bus pulled up to gain entrance. He snapped out of his daze long enough to allow us through and the bus proceeded up the short road.

Thankfully I was the only one on the bus other than the driver, the only juvenile to be going to this hell hole. Thoughts of my mother floated through my head.

The judge allowed me an hour with my mom in a visiting room before I was scheduled to leave for Landry's. I was told all I would be bringing with me was the clothes on my back. Though they did allow me a picture my mother gave me of the two of us taken just months before the incident.

As I sat with my mom in that waiting room all I could do was watch as my mother cried and hugged me. I was in shock, it all felt unreal to me. She kept repeating how much she loved me and how she would find a way to get time from work to come visit me. But I knew the visits would be few and far between, New Orleans was a long way from Baltimore.

The bus pulled up to the front doors where Ms. Pierce stood in another one of her skirted suites. I got off the bus and was immediately face to face with her eerie smile.

"Ms. McKenna, I'm so happy you made it here safely. Please follow me."

She quickly turned and walked through the doors while I tried to keep up. Once through the doors, I expected a strip down or a search but all there was were a long hall way with a couple of metal detectors and another tired guard sitting at a big metal desk. This definitely wasn't your typical juvenile detention center.

I followed Ms. Bennett through the detectors, passed the guard, and then into a room off the side of the hall. It looked like a schools principal's office with a long counter and a white haired woman standing behind it. Ms. Bennett handed the women a file. I could see it had my name written across the top. The lady behind the counter briefly typed on her computer before placing a mesh bag stuffed with unknown contents on the counter. Ms. Pierce grabbed the bag and handed it to me.

"This here is four sets of day clothes and three sets of night clothes. Along with some hygiene products and your sheets for your bed. I'm going to show you around a little bit before introducing you to your roommate. After that, you will have an hour to get dressed and settled in before dinner is served in the cafeteria."

She grabbed the file with my name from the women behind the counter and handed me a couple pieces of paper from it.

"This here is our rules of conduct, the hours in which meals are served, your scheduled laundry days, and your class schedule. You are listed as a class A occupant, there are two classes. Class A means you are at the lowest level of security. You misbehave, inflict harm to yourself or others, or exceed three warnings you will become a Class B occupant. You will be removed from your room and placed in a single room on the fourth floor, under more security. As well as be removed from all of your classes. Understand?"

I nodded.

We walked out of the office and were immediately confronted by a tall man in a black suit.

"Ms. Pierce, you called for me?" His deep voice asked.

Ms. Pierce beamed a brilliant smile at him.

"Oh yes Mr. B I wanted to introduce you to our newest guest Chloe McKenna."

He didn't even glance in my direction, just nodded back her. I couldn't help but stare at him, he was intimidating. Easily over six foot five and even through the suit, you could tell he was built. He was balled with dark skin, and dark eyes, his face looked as if he never smiled or showed any kind of emotion. It was clear this guy was not to be messed with. But Ms. Pierce kept her smile plastered on her face.

"This here is Mr. B. He is my right hand around here, my eyes and ears. You will see him around a lot and if there are any problems with the other kids here please feel free to tell him and he will let me know."

I don't think I would want to go to him for anything but I just kept my mouth shut, nodded, and followed them down the hall. We passed door after door along both sides. Ms. Pierce walked along side Mr. B as she began her tour.

"These here are the class rooms where you will be spending your day time hours learning to be a productive member of society. Our lovely building here is composed of five levels. This one here, the basement, which is off limits to any one except approved personnel, and the three floors above."

At the end of the hall was a big door that leads back out side and to the right a huge staircase. We went up to the stairs to a floor similar to the one below. Another long hallway with several doors on one side and an enormous dining area and what I assumed to be the kitchen on the other side. Ms. Pierce gestured to the dining area.

"This here is where you will eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. During off hours, snacks are allowed in the common areas only. The other rooms here," She waved a hand to the opposite side of the hall, "include the television room, library, and lounge. You are allowed to use these rooms during your leisure time which is listed on your daily schedule. But you must clean up after yourself and stay out of trouble."

Across the hall from the staircase, we had just climbed was another identical staircase. They walked up and I followed behind once again to find a much different floor. Where the others had the beginning of a hallway this one had a desk with two guards sitting, both who straightened up in their seats at seeing Mr. B approach. Behind them was a wall with two sets of double doors. The one to the right had a sign hanging above reading "Boys Dorms" and the left with a sign reading "Girls Dorms". Beyond the doors, you could hear the chatter of kids.

Where I expected to see another identical stair case across from the one we had just gone up was another set of doors with large letters plastered along the top reading "Class B" above it. Just beyond those doors, I could see another set of guards who looked much more attentive than the others and a smaller staircase. Ms. Pierce stopped at the desk and patted Mr. B on the shoulder before turning to me. Mr. B nodded and left us heading back down stairs.

"Well, Chloe let me show you to your room."

I followed her through the doors that read "Girls Dorm" and the chatter of kids got louder. Once through the doors, we walked past a small sitting area being watched over by a female guard and around a corner to find once again, another long hallway.

"The left and right doors here are the bathrooms. There are ten stalls and ten showers in each. Both are guarded by our female guards to prevent any kind of misbehavior, though there are curtains to the showers and doors to the toilet stalls."

I glanced at each door for a second before catching up to Ms. Pierce who was already half way down the hall. We passed door after door, some of which were closed, where as others were opened. Through the open doors, I could see dorm rooms with other girls in them doing their hair, reading books, or just talking to one another. As we walked further down the hall girls passed us, slowing from a run to a walk when seeing Ms. Pierce. They'd smile and then quickly head back to where they were going. Finally, we reached a door with the number 13 on it.

"Here we are Chloe, time to meet your roommate." She gave a quick knock to the door before opening it.

"Oh my god." yelled a girl who jumped with shock dropping her hair brush to the floor.

She had on the same loose gray shirt and pants set I noticed the others wearing, but she looked much different than the others.

"Chloe McKenna meet your roommate Lolly White."

The look on Lolly's face turned from frightened to pure excitement.

Lolly was very petite, at least five feet tall and no more than a size zero. Didn't seem like our uniforms came in such a small size being that hers hung very loose on her tiny frame. Her hair was what caught my attention the most. It started with pale blonde roots but then changed to a rainbow of different colors. Strips of blue, purple, green, red, orange, and yellow flowed just past her shoulders. It was the most impressive dye job I had ever seen. She nearly skipped over to us keeping her big brown eyes locked on me.

Grabbing my free hand she started to jump up and down.

"Finally I have a roommate thank the gods! We are going to be best friends. I'm not asking I'm telling."

Her smile covered her face and I couldn't help but smile just a little as well. For once Ms. Pierce wasn't show casing her brilliant smile. Instead, she nearly butted in front of Lolly, who quickly got the hint and went to sit on her bed, and locked eyes with me with such an intensity I couldn't help but stare back.

"Get dressed in your uniform, put your things away, go over your schedule and the bell will ring when it's time for dinner. When you head that way leave the clothes you have on now with the guards out side the dorms. I'll check in with you after your classes tomorrow."

I nodded and stood completely still as she walked out the room.

As soon as she was gone Lolly was back to jumping in excitement.

"Go a head get dressed if you're shy I'll turn around and then we can go over your schedule!"

I didn't bother to ask her to turn around, I never had a problem changing in front of other girls in the locker room at school. I stripped off the orange jump suit and pulled out a set of matching gray clothes.

In the room, there was a bed to one side, where Lolly was jumping, a dresser next to it with her stuff on top and a desk at the foot of the bed with some books. The other side of the room that was clearly unoccupied looked exactly the same. I placed my stuff on the bed and began to unpack. Once done with that I sat on the bed to go over my schedule but was quickly bounced in the air when Lolly ran over and nearly belly flopped on the end of my bed.

I tried to ignore her but couldn't help but chuckle just a little. In a place as dark and gloomy as this, it was nice to know there was still a small bit of light to keep me optimistic. A very bright and colorful light.

We huddled around my papers and one by one went through my schedule. Breakfast at seven, English at eight, math at nine, history at ten, science at eleven, peer counseling at twelve, lunch at one, and then from two to three was life skills, with dinner being at six. Seemed like a pretty typical school day but after reading it Lolly perked up right away.

"We have English, peer counseling, and life skills together!" She clapped real quick before tilting her head to the side with a confused look.

"You know it's kind of weird though. They gave me a new schedule today. Normally where peer counseling is at now, was scheduled my art class. I don't think we even had peer counseling till now. But Ms. Farley in the office said it was something new they were trying on a select few. Sounds fun though!"

Her confused look turned back to one of excitement just as the dinner bell rang. Lolly jumped up with an expectant look on her face.

Smiling just a little I said "I'll meet you in the hall if that's okay. I just want to do one last thing."

She nodded eagerly and ran out of the room.

Now alone I took a look in the long mirror stuck to the back of the door. The gray uniform was loose on me but not nearly as bad as Lolly's. I was no way near as small as her but I always thought I had a decent figure. Not too skinny but not fat either. I looked down at the picture of my mother and me that I now had clutched in my hand. I had my mother's big blue eyes with long dark eyelashes as well as my mother's blonde wavy hair. Though after what happened on my birthday I now sported a scar above my right eye brow. Other than the eyes and hair I looked much different from my mom. But I had no idea where the rest of my looks came from.

I had never met my father or even seen a picture of him, and my mother had no living relatives. My mother refused to talk about my father and at the age of ten, I stopped asking. Who needed a dead beat bastard like that anyways?

I took one last look in the mirror before slipping the picture in the top drawer of my dresser and headed out the door.

Lolly waited just out side our room like she promised and we soon followed the stream of girls down the hall.When we reached the guard desk outside the dorms I placed my folded up orange jump suit on top and we soon mixed with the flow of now girls and boys heading down the stairs to the cafeteria. When we got there Lolly showed my to a serving line in front of the kitchen where we were each served a hamburger, fries, corn, a roll, and a soft drink. But once we were out of the line I was some how separated from Lolly and stood in between a row of tables looking out around me.

There were kids every where just running around, or sitting and eating. Looked as if there were kids here ranging from the ages of thirteen to seventeen. Just when I thought I was going to be left standing there eating my food I felt a small hand on my arm. I looked to see Lolly who started to pull me to an empty table where she had already put down her tray of food. The table was against a wall of windows looking into the hall.

I watched the kids walk past the windows and ate while Lolly started to talk about classes and pointing out different kids in the room letting me know their names. Then I was taken out of my daze by a tray of food slamming in front of me.

"Oh goodie, Sage meet Chloe!"

I looked up and was in shock when I saw my own face staring back at me. A girl with my face or at least one that looked like mine, with jet black hair was giving me the same puzzled look I assumed I was giving her.

Lolly gasped, "Wow talk about twinsies, do you two know each other?"

Both the black haired girl and I replied with a quick "No." at exactly the same time.

Lolly shrugged "Well looks like you two share blood."

The girl across from me put out her hand while still looking completely confused. "Sage Ramsey."

I shook her hand and offered back "Chloe McKenna."

We both started eating while sneaking quizzical looks at one another. All of a sudden Lolly sat on top of the table and put both her hands against the window looking out to the hall. I was curious but didn't want to be nosy. Instead Sage looked from Lolly to me and as if knowing what I was thinking said, "She's looking for her boyfriend."

"Soul mate!" Lolly snipped back.

I laughed but couldn't help myself now. "Her boyfriends here too?"

"They came here together."

Soon I could see a group of kids wearing black pants and shirts walking in a line down the hall. They were escorted by two guards at the front and end of the line.

"Class B kids." Sage offered.

Lolly banged on the glass with the palms of her hands and yelled out "Lucas!"

Soon enough a boy with red hair darted out of line and up to the glass. He placed his hands where hers were and yelled back "I love you baby!" before one of the guards grabbed him by the arm and dragged him back in line. They kept each other's gazes locked, even as the group of Class B kids entered the dinner line, and again when they were directed to a group of empty tables in the back of the cafeteria. Lolly sighed as she nibbled her food and exchanged looks with her beloved from across the room.

It was comical but in a weird way kind of romantic. I had never had a boyfriend let alone experienced love but again to see some type of light in this dark place was nice.

Dinner was wrapping up and just as I went to throw my trash away I felt eyes on me. Obviously, as the new girl, I was going to get looks here and there but this felt different. Like someone was burning a hole into the back of my head. I turned looking around panicked but instead of seeing what I feared was someone looking to pick I fight I found myself locking eyes with a boy sitting with the class B kids.

He had dark brown hair that hung slightly in his face and deep gray eyes. Eyes that were locked with mine. It was intense, too intense. I looked away and hurried out into the hall. I had never gotten that kind of look from a boy but I had to keep reminding myself. This is a place for kids that broke the law. Lord knows what kind of things they did to get here, especially if they were classified as class B.

I shrugged it off and waited for Lolly to come out. But it was clear she wasn't going anywhere until the class B kids were brought out so I went to my room to grab something.