I was shocked by his kindness. No one had ever said anything like that to me before in my entire life. I wiped my face with the sleeve of my Supernatural hoodie, erasing any traces of my tears. Suddenly, the boy laughed, a loud, boisterous sound.

"What's so funny?" I asked quietly. He stopped laughing and said, "I just realized that I don't even know your name." I chuckled. "It's Reese," I said. "Jared," the boy introduced himself, extending his hand to shake mine. Upon second thought, he added, "Turner. Jared Turner." "Oh." I quickly gave him my last name as well.

"Whoa, as in, Carrie Daniels' sister?" Jared exclaimed. "Yeah," I said, cringing a bit. Everyone always associated me with Carrie. "How do you know my sister?" "I go to her school," Jared replied. "We met when we did the Miss Merry Christmas thing together."

"You're saying you go to my school?" He blinked. "Oh! I didn't know you went there, too. For some odd reason, I guess I thought you and Carrie went to different schools." I laughed. "No, we both attend Asher High. Unfortunately." Jared rolled his eyes. "Amen to that."

"So, do you want me to give you the grand tour of Cope?" Jared asked, sweeping his hand upwards with a flourish. "Yeah," I said, standing up quickly. "That'd be great." "Okay, let's go," Jared said, and offered me his arm like they did in the old days. I rolled my eyes but took it. Jared led me out the door to our bunker, shutting and locking it behind us.

The bunker itself was actually a pretty room. There were two bunk beds against the far wall, and a flat-screen TV was anchored on the wall opposite that one. All of the walls were painted a lovely dark purple color, but they had paint splotches of all different colors on them, as well. From what I had seen of him so far, I suspected Jared was to blame for that.

Underneath the TV, a large sofa sat. On the sofa were many throw pillows and a few warm, fuzzy blankets. On all of the walls, I noticed that strands of Christmas lights were strewn all about.

To the left of the sofa, on a separate wall, there was a small closet and one small dresser for our clothes and accessories. Beside the dresser, tucked into the corner, were shelves of cubbies for us to keep our personal belongings in. The last feature of the room was a small door right beside the one that we had left through. I had peeked inside it before Jared and I left.

The small closet space contained an abundance of things. There was one section that was filled with electronics - tablets, Ipads, Ipods, Iphones, smartphones, Kindles, extra chargers, and stereos. I assumed they were for anyone who wanted one. Beside the electronics, there was a small container that held a variety of CDs for the stereo, and an extra antenna in case the one on the stereo didn't work and someone wanted to listen to the radio.

There was also a collection of extra chairs, both actual chairs and beanbags. On a large shelf in the closet, there was a row of stuffed animals, probably for the littler ones that came through. Lastly, I had noticed a large collection of board and card games.

Outside in the hall, Jared swept his hand to indicate the extravagant hall we were walking through. "Once people get up and around, this place will be bustling," Jared said, leading me down the corridor. "Foot traffic isn't horrible, but you do need to watch where you're going, especially during the times when everyone is out at the same time, like breakfast time. Speaking of, breakfast is at seven every day. Lunch is at noon, and dinner is at six-thirty. It's not pretty when you're late to any of the meals, and everyone is required to attend. We should be done by the time that breakfast is ready."

I nodded, taking in all of the information. Looking around me, I saw that the walls of the massive hallway (which continued throughout the entire building, the design never changing) were brightly multicolored and were decorated with animal print wallpaper. A few pictures of COPE'S founders were hung on the walls, but other than that and the wallpaper, they were bare. A few tables here and there held vases that contained roses, magnolias, and other flowers. The carpeting was a garden scene, complete with trees, flowers, bushes and other greenery, statues, and birds and other animals.

Jared took me down the hall until we were out of the section of the building that was for the rooms. First, we came upon the section for food. "That's the kitchen," Jared said, pointing to a room filled with pots, pans, food, and cooking utensils. Three old women were inside the kitchen preparing pancakes and French toast for our breakfast. I noticed a few kids, younger and older than me, cooking as well, and turned to Jared with a questioning look.

"They let the kids that like to cook help out sometimes in the kitchen, too," he explained. I smiled. Jared led me out of the kitchen and straight into the dining room, which was adjacent to the kitchen.

It was a large room with one huge table in the center of the room and hordes of chairs crowded around it. "This is where we eat meals," Jared said. "They do a morning prayer before we eat, but you don't have to participate if you don't want to. It's just so that some of the kids here that lost their faith due to whatever happened to them can work on regaining it."

I nodded in understanding. "I think it's respectful to bow your head and whatnot," I said. "I just don't necessarily believe in that kind of stuff." Jared smiled. "I do. But hey, either way." I nodded and we exited the dining room.

The next room that we visited was large and contained lots of school paraphernalia. "This is our one and only classroom," Jared said. "So, basically, our school." "Ms. Welsh teaches here every weekday and we attend school for four hours every day, one for every basic subject, and you can stay after your four hours if you want more practice or to learn more. Also, Ms. Welsh can teach special classes sometimes, too, and you can stay after for those. There's a Creative Writing class, a Mythology class, and there's some typing classes and some psychology classes."

"Damn, this teacher sounds overworked," I commented. "Watch your language, little girl," Jared said sternly. I rolled my eyes. "But, I agree. I don't know how she does it all." I started to walk around the classroom, but Jared grabbed my shoulder gently and pulled me back.

"Listen, Reese, I will not tolerate disrespect from you. You'll find out why and the consequences later." "Yeah, okay," I said, smirking. "Pit stop at Mount Doom?" Jared sighed. "You're lucky we're just now getting to know each other, child." I flashed my cutest, most innocent smile, and began to walk around the classroom.

The walls were painted in a pretty lime green color, so unlike the plain white walls of the kitchen and dining room. I didn't like it as much as the color of our room, however.

Well, colors.

There was a huge globe perched on top of a small table in the corner of the room that looked like someone had made it out of paper mache. There were also multicolored, labeled cubbies full of Sharpies, notebooks, pens, pencils, loose leaf paper, and other school supplies for us to use. There was a small section at the back of the room that Jared said was for reading or sitting around when we had nothing to do.

It contained a zebra-striped carpet, several bean bag chairs, and two large futons complete with fluffy throw pillows. All around the large room, strings of fairy lights were strung up.

Jared caught me looking at them and said, "They're not on right now, but tomorrow, when we go to school, she'll turn them on and the lights off. It's really beautiful. And look." He pointed to the ceiling, and I saw that there was a fully luminescent solar system stuck to it. A sun and a moon were in it, too.

"They glow in the dark," Jared supplied helpfully. "I'm not sure if you noticed, but on our ceiling in our room, there's lots of glow-in-the-dark stars. Amanda, my old roommate, was afraid of the dark. Not sure if the stars would be your kind of thing but yeah, they're there."

I smiled widely. "Are you kidding me? I love glow-in-the-dark stars! I love this room. Ms. Welsh must have my taste in decorations." Jared smiled.

"I don't think a lot of people realize this, but the real reason why the fairy lights and the ceiling decorations are there is because so many of the kids here are afraid of the dark. Ms. Welsh teaches a lot of PowerPoints and movies so the lights need to be off a lot. Most of the younger kids never had anyone to tell them that the dark can't hurt them or check under their bed for monsters, so they're scared. Plus, some of the older kids are scared of the dark, too. I was for a long time, but I'm not anymore."

I smiled. "That's so nice." I had never been scared of the dark before, hell, I went off sneaking around in the dead of night. But hearing Jared talk about it had put me on edge. The rape had happened in a dark room.

As if reading my mind, Jared put an arm around my shoulders and said, "Don't worry. There's already a night light plugged in in our room and if it ever goes out and I'm not awake, you can always wake me up and I'll change the bulb for you or give you a flashlight to set in the corner. Never be hesitant to wake me up if you need something in the night. And, I know this might be moving a bit fast for you, but you're always welcome to sleep in my bed with me if it makes you feel safer."

"Thank you," I said sincerely. He gave my shoulders a squeeze, and we walked out of the classroom.