I had just turned ten when two weeks later a minibus pulled up in front of the Westfield Youth Hall. Athena and I stared down at the vehicle from our dormitory window; it was bright white, freshly painted. The clean color of the bus was out of place with the heavy awnings and small windows that suffocated our town. People rarely came to Westfield at all, let alone the Youth Hall. We had been tucked into a secret little corner of our world, where some dark, magic spell kept the other women away. 

When I was around five, I feared that a wicked witch was trapping us inside the borders, and blocking others from coming in. We were taught that witchcraft was bad, and that it meant you had sold your soul to the devil. I was told that we don't believe in the devil here because we do not believe in any gods. Still, if witchcraft had been real once, and nobody remembered killing the devil, then he must still be out there watching, waiting, wondering when he can steal our souls. All I knew was that if someone came to me and asked for me to sell them my soul, I would run away and find Athena, and then we would tell a teacher and get the devil in trouble. By the time I was six, I realized I had nothing to worry about. We learned about the devil with "he" pronouns, and the men lived on the other half of Eden. We were safe.

The bus opened its doors and out walked three girls. One of them was little, probably only five years old, and she was gripping the left hand of the tallest girl. The little girl was of Asian descent, and it made me wonder who her parents were, and what crimes they had committed to be subjected to the life of a birth-giver. There weren't a lot of women in Westfield of Asian descent. That was how we learned to say it: Asian descent, Hispanic descent, African descent, Jamaican descent, and European descent. Athena and I were both of European descent. I read in a book once that those were called races, and they were used to discriminate, but that didn't make any sense to me. Races were for running, not how you looked. Cady was another girl in my dorm, and she was of African descent, and she was the most beautiful person I had ever seen. Her dark skin and thick hair always made me a little bit jealous. I was so plain compared to her. Her real name was Elizabeth Cady, but it was so long compared to everyone else's that we just called her Cady. My name was just Lane. Even my name was nothing next to hers.

The tall girl off the bus was of European descent. She had light blonde hair tied up in a curly bun at the top of her head. She was probably fourteen or fifteen. I was perplexed as to why she and the little girl had come. We were always allowed to choose when we would switch cities— that was our own decision. I always wanted to leave Westfield, but I never would. Athena and Cady and everyone I'd ever known lived within these two miles. I didn't know the world outside. If I had the courage to leave, and if I knew somewhere else to go, and if I thought Athena would come with me, I'd be gone in a heartbeat. So why would these three girls come here? The little one was so young I doubted she had any say in this decision. Who sent her here? And the big girl, she had to be nearing eighteen, and she would get to become a full woman in our society in just a couple of years. By coming here, she left all her friends and world behind her. She was so close to the end; I hoped she wouldn't get stuck in Westfield.

The third girl off was somewhere in between the other two. She looked like she could be my age, but from the way she walked, I thought she was older. She had long brown hair like mine, except hers was much darker, and longer, and far more tangled, so really not like mine at all. She was biting her lip as she stared up at our building, but I saw a small smile creep across her face, and her eyes lit up with a determined fierceness I had never seen in anyone else before.

"Why do you think they came here?" Athena asked me in a whisper. We felt like we were breaking the rules by watching them. Nobody ever came to Westfield— it felt so private, so intimate, like our little eyes were invading something they were never supposed to see.

"I don't know," I said quietly. I could barely even think about the words coming out of my mouth. My eyes refused to leave the third girl. She carried herself with more confidence and personality than all of Westfield combined. Something about that drew me in, it was so different than what I was used to.

The dinner bell rang right after, so Athena and I left the window and met the rest of the girls we knew in the dining hall. I looked around for the three newcomers, but they were nowhere to be found. I knew for a fact that they weren't there because everyone would have been staring, and I couldn't possibly miss the third girl. When we went back upstairs after the meal, she was sitting on a bed in the back of the dorm. There were usually nine of us who lived there, and we'd had an extra bed ever since Simona left for a big city. This new girl was our new tenth.

"Are you lost?" Cady was the first to speak after we all got over our initial shock. We knew that she wasn't lost because none of us had seen her before, but to assume someone chose to transfer to Westfield was even more unfathomable.

"No, actually," the girl said comfortably, "I'm here to stay."

Cady smiled at that; the girl was sitting on the bed right next to hers. Simona had been her best friend before she left, so now this girl was in the spot that should replace the hole. I was jealous of Cady. She was the prettiest, and now she got to be friends with the new girl. 

"That's great!" she exclaimed, "I'm Elizabeth Cady, but you can just call me Cady. That's what everyone else does. Or Lizzie, that works too." Simona was the only girl who ever called her Lizzie.

"I'm Greer," the girl smirked.

"Well, it's great to meet you Greer. I'm sure we'll be great friends," Cady laughed and sat down on her own bed, right across from Greer, who just smiled and didn't say a word in response. Cady talked to the new girl all night, who never said anything of value back. Instead, she would make eye contact with me and laugh whenever her new best friend was pushing too far.

We did not speak one word to each other for the next week, but when we finally got the chance to talk without Cady breathing down her neck, Greer turned to me and said, "Well, Lane, it seems you're the only thing that's keeping me sane."

"That rhymes," I laughed, not sure how to act in front of her. She was so much better than I was, more poised, more likable. It was no surprise that she was drawn to Cady. Within weeks, the two were inseparable. Slowly, our eye contact faded, and Simona was replaced. It was that simple, as everything was in Westfield.