Forgotten word:  Lachrymose (adj.) Given to tears or weeping.

Meta's POV.

Institute 71: 

Rather than finishing at the usual time, the school continued like a marathon until about 5:00.  I was so tired I didn't feel like eating the crap they gave us. My the first night, I was feeling steadily more drained. After dinner, I slumped to dormitory #7 with the others. Craven was there barking orders like a sergeant major ordering everyone around. The room felt like a rusting machine for sleeping in. Institutional metal bunk beds lined three walls. It looked like I share this spaced with Zoe, Collin, Hannah, Valerie and most of all Brooklyn.  The whole space felt like I was in a machine for sleeping in. As I entered there was a wall cleaning robot still finishing.  

"Does everyone get a mixed dorm?" I asked Valarie. Valarie looked over to Collin's bunk and smiled. I noticed Colin had curious photos of Sister Sledge, Gloria Gaynor and Donna Summer pinned up on the underside of his bottom bunk.  A strange and lonely touch of humanity on this otherwise barren cave. 

"In a word no. The doors are locked each night to make sure. I think the Wardens didn't like the idea of having to help the boys themselves .FYI The use us to get them in bed at night and out in the morning." Valarie said. 

"Don't they think we might..." I said trying not to look at Valarie. 

"You  Book-blind." Craven said.  I looked over.

"Meta. My name is Meta" I said as Brooklyn rolled passed me. 

Craven's faced looked very serious "Don't care. Book-blind has Wood and Rocky boys had their medication?" 

This caught me as weird. I had seen this before the Warden's treated us like young moms with Brooklyn and Collin as our toddlers in push-chairs. I should have said 'why don't you ask him yourself?' but he had his hand on his Taser.  I noticed the Brooklyn was popping his codeine like a tictac. 

"Yeah," I said. 

"Yes, Warden." Craven said moving forwards he walked up very close to me and looked down over his chins at me.   "that's strike number two yellow girl. We all know what happens at three." 

"Yes, Warden." I said, "he has done." 

"OK door locks in five minutes. Lights in twenty. You got something to read Yellow?" Craven said.  There was a small shelf next to my upper bed. I noticed there were some books next to it. The space had been Lee's. Now it had books and I wondered if this was an act of kindness or a dumb slight? 

Soon Craven had gone and the sound of the electronic door lock snapped shut.  The sound echoed and seemed final like death. 

That night I didn't sleep well. It was a strange bed and I had the most peculiar dreams. I saw faces I had never seen before. The thing which most bent me was the little girls face. The weird view of joy and terror. There was something unworldly about it. I woke up in the middle of the night In the dark. I opened my eye  I thought could see glowing lines in the walls. 

In the morning we were all woken by a loud metal bell.  Hannah showed me a sink we all shared to wash at. While I washed I found something in my mouth. I spat it out. It looked metallic like a filling. There was a huge amount of blood too. I washed my mouth out and began cleaning my teeth. While I did,  I glanced at my arm and noticed something strange.

"WTF is that?" I blurted out loud. fortunalty no one heard me. 

On my bare forearm, just beneath my skin, I noticed a mark. It was straight like a road. Like someone had made a tattoo in the night. It was all kinds of gross. I tried washing it but it seemed permanent. Desperately pulling the yellow over-all on I made certain not to let my arms be visible. I was used to hiding my self. My birthmark covered my back and the side of my neck. You get good at hiding like that.

 After that Valaire and I helped Collin and Brooklyn get out of bed. Brooklyn was fiercely independent. Collin couldn't even sit up without help. He was like an old frail man, his body thin and emaciated. This was the mirror of his mind. Strong and dense with humour. Brooklyn came over and helped him get is trousers on. Then we left to cope with our day. At least I told my self I would go back home tonight. Sleep in my own bed. 

*********

Institute 71: Teaching Area 5/English

In the afternoon I had gone to the English class. I don't know what database I was in but It was the wrong class. The teacher was a thin woman with an up turned nose. If the nose was any higher you would have thought it was a snout. She seemed kind but you got the sense she hated her job.

They had been reading Shakespeare's Richard the third. I had been pretending to follow it. Sometimes I wondered if I was looking at the right page.

"You new girl." The teacher had said. "Read the next page. Start the top of the page."

"I" I be began "That am cut." I looked at the word that wasn't cut. The apostrophe was odd. " I that am cutted" I tried.

"Curtailed" the teacher said very firmly.

When I'm under pressure like this I begin to fall apart. "Of this fare pro-pro-shion" I said.

I could hear some giggling around me. I must have been red enough to outshine a strawberry.

At this point, the teacher grabbed a her taser box. Her face stern like an elderly aunt with consterpation. 

"For Christ sakes. This is the standard government text. I know they teach this in proper schools. Don't tell me they didn't cover this at your old school. You're going to try harder or by hells hammers, I'll make you. " she said coming up.

Then  grabbed my arm and noticed the armband. She rolled her eyes.

"And what idiot sent you to this class? Learning disabled is down the corridor!"

I held up the class time table. The teacher buried her eyes firmly in her thick bushy eyebrows.

" Go and sit in the corner and shut up."

 She then turned to Valerie who was on a table next to me. "And you pay attention. Did you take your meds today? I said pay attention."

Valerie   got a stun shot in her arm. Valerie twitched.

"Then eyes front. I'm going to recommend you go back on the regular injections."

Seeing what happened I got up and stood in the corner.

"Turn around," the teacher said and I rotated to look at the corner. "Brooklyn. Can you continue? Richard's speech."

"I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion, " Brooklyn began.

"Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,

Deformed, unfinish'd, sent before my time

Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,

And that so lamely and unfashionable"

Now with nothing else to listen to I was caught by Brooklyn's voice. Can you like someone for their voice? It was deep and resonant. He read wonderfully. It was like he was an actor reading only to me.

"That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;

Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,

Have no delight to pass away the time,

Unless to spy my shadow in the sun

And descant on mine own deformity:

And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,

To entertain these fair well-spoken days,

I am determined to prove a villain

And hate the idle pleasures of these days." he continued.

"So what is Shakespeare telling us about the villain ?" The teacher asked no one responed. "Hmmm? His deformity of purpose comes from his deformity of body. A healthy mind gives a healthy flesh. How to do you think this makes him feel about the well-formed healthy princes? Well disposed or badly disposed?" She continued.

I had to stand there for part of the lesson. The other students were given work to do and the teacher took my printed time table. She crossed out the number and wrote another one. She told me to join the remedial class down the corridor. I left and almost immediately a red light came on next to a camera. For a second I could hear what sounded like a group of people whispering urgently to each other. I shook my head banging my hand on my ear. Moving my head around like a search like I noticed the voices were stronger from a WiFi box. I looked at it trying to see if there was a speaker nearby but I couldn't see anything.

A large warder appeared within seconds. He had a forehead which looked like he had an argument with a hammer and lost.

"You. What are you doing? You're not allowed in the corridors during classes." He said looming over me.

I stood frozen, "Err... The teacher from my class sent me to somewhere she called remedial? Warder. I'm new. " I added by way of apology.

The warden took the printout from my hand and looked at it. I could see him quickly checking my at my armband.

"Next time follow the Downs kids. Yellow." He said thrusting the paperback in my hand.

I followed his eyes to the classroom.