The Nerds stood in the center of the quad. Their arms were interlocked and they formed a protective circle around Kemper in the center of the quad. It looked to Lucy that, even though they’d replaced him as leader during the coup when they’d stolen David, the Nerds still cared for the guy.
The orange crane arm towered in the sky, and a cable was extended from its tip, all the way down to Kemper who was strapped into a body harness. He held the disembodied thumb scanner from the graduation booth, and a rubber cord led from it up to the man in the motorcycle helmet, who stood behind the razor wire fence at the roof’s edge.
Kemper held the thumb scanner up for the crowd of other gangs that had gathered around the perimeter to see. The thing was an awkward block of metal that had been wrapped in protective layers of duct tape.
“So, basically it works like it always did,” he said with a self-satisfied giggle. “When you get a nose bleed, you test yourself on here. Hold your thumb and wait. Instead of getting a reading on a monitor, they’ll get the results up there.”
Kemper pointed up to the man on the roof, who had the graduation booth’s screen perched on a folding chair at the ledge. It had a circuit board and bushel of stray wires on the back of it. The man tilted his helmet down at Kemper and gave him a thumbs-up.
“Okay, thumbs-up, that means you’re good, and so… that’s it. Pretty simple, right? Unless you get the thumbs-down. Then, I guess… I don’t know, better luck next time.” Kemper laughed. “I’ll keep thinking on this whole setup though. Maybe… Maybe I’ll stick around out there and noodle with some other ways to make graduation more—”
“Kemper,” one of the Nerds interrupted. “You gotta go.”
Kemper pursed his lips, then nodded. “Right. Okay. Well… Bye-bye, everybody.”
Kemper gave the man a thumbs-up. The crane started and the cable jerked him upward. Kemper waved to his gang. They cheered for him. He raised his fists in victory. A little higher up, his stare became fixed on one spot. Lucy followed his gaze to Violent.
Kemper waved to Violent, and smiled at her. Violent’s face was still as stone. She gave Kemper no emotion back, but it didn’t seem to bother him. The two of them held eye contact for a long time, way too long for it to mean nothing. Kemper ascended by cable, smiling the whole way, cheerful until the very end. He rose twenty feet above the quad’s walls, before the crane arm began to turn, and he was slowly swung out of view.
Lucy looked over at Violent again. When other people’s dye jobs had faded over the hard times, Violent had maintained hers. Her hair was a deep shade of red. The rumor was that Violent soaked her hair in blood once a week. Some said she drew the blood from the boys she hooked up with. Others said that the Sluts had to donate their blood every Sunday, and Violent would boil it all in a big steel soup pot that she stirred with a rusty knife, until the blood was a dense crimson sludge that she would smear through her hair.
A year ago, Lucy probably would have believed those rumors. But she’d seen Violent cry. She’d seen her care about her friends. Violent wasn’t some vampire bathing in blood. She was another kid stuck in here like everyone else. Still, she was doing a lot better job of surviving in this place than Lucy was. Violent was the leader of her own gang of fighters, and everyone in school was scared of her.
Violent snapped her eyes over at Lucy. Lucy looked to the ground out of instinct, then felt stupid for doing it. She gradually lifted her eyes again. Violent waved her over.
Lucy looked to the Loners around her and then slipped away from Will and the others as they were starting to take bets over whether Kemper would actually stick around outside the walls like he’d said or get the hell out of Colorado and never look back.
As Lucy got closer to Violent and the Sluts, she got more uncomfortable. Violent looked so mean. Her electrical tape eyebrows were cut into particularly angry arches today. She had scabs on her knuckles. A bone in her forearm jutted out like it was broken; it must have healed that way.
“Juicy Lucy,” Violent said with a smile. She fixed Lucy with a drawn-out stare. “You look scared.”
“No.”
“You’re not hard to read. It’s in the way you carry yourself. But that’s fine, you should be scared.” She gestured toward the Loners. “How long do you really think that’s gonna last?”
Lucy looked back to Will and the tiny group. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s not just me. The whole school’s talking. No one thinks the Loners are gonna make it to the next food drop.”
“Is that all? You want to tell me I’m ugly too?”
Violent sighed. “Look, you handled yourself well in the Nerd’s hallway. That’s a fact.”
Lucy wasn’t expecting that. It wasn’t every day that the toughest girl in school gave you a compliment. Lucy was surprised at the pride she felt. She stood a little straighter. Violent looked all around Lucy’s face like she was disgusted with each detail of it.
“Jesus Christ, you’re not great, all right? You’re shit. You got lucky. Don’t start thinking you’re something. But you kept your head screwed on when everybody started to die. And that’s good.”
“Do you have a point?” Lucy said.
Lucy swore she heard Violent growl softly.
“I already made it. Your gang’s going away,” Violent said.
“You’re going to have to pick another team soon. Now, you can go play games with the Geeks, or hide inside books with the Nerds, you could go to any of them. But, you go Sluts? It won’t be fun. I’ll make you work, girl. It’s gonna hurt. But I promise you this. When I’m done with you, there’s nothing in this school that’ll scare you anymore.”
Lucy felt chills pebbling the skin up and down her body. She didn’t know what to say.
“I’ve got one open slot. There’s this Freak, she used to be a sprinter, track and field. She’s fast. Could use a girl like that.” Violent frowned. “If I don’t hear from you by tomorrow night, I’m giving your spot to the Freak.”
7
SAM GLIDED THROUGH THE POOL WITH phenomenal speed. He was alone. A shark in a tank. Full of power. All muscle. All instinct. Fueled by a fresh feeding. He loved this pool. It was his place to escape, his place to sort out the problems. There were always problems.
There was going to be a food drop today. It was Varsity’s only real shot at taking control again. The last drop had come out of nowhere, and his gang hadn’t been prepared. They’d looked like chumps. He’d spent half of the drop having to yell at his guys two or three times to listen to him. They acted like they didn’t know who was in charge. And then there was the whole bullshit with them not backing him in front of that Saint.
Things had gotten so messed up somehow. No, not somehow. It was that epileptic chihuahua, Will Thorpe. One lucky kick and that uppity Scrap knocked down everything Sam had built. It took a year to make Varsity that strong, that tight, that obedient. It took a year to pile up that much food. And in the end, all Sam could do was watch as the entire school stole from him, and filled their pockets with his food, right in front of his face. Buzzards. They plucked those bleachers clean.
Something plunked into the water in front of Sam and bumped into his head. It was a basketball.
Somebody threw a ball at him?! Chlorine stung his eyes, making him more agitated. He looked up, in search of the dead man that hucked a Rawlings at his head. Instead, he found a hundred of them.
All of Varsity stood at the pool’s edge, lining the entire perimeter. Sam tensed up. He didn’t like this.