Chapter 12

Ruby

Still in deep thought about my visions, I locate my locker and attempt to open it. There’s no combination lock.

I rifle through my bookbag to see if maybe Alice slipped a key in there for me, but there’s nothing except a notebook, a pencil case, and a pouch of toiletries. Inside the pouch is only a hair comb, a makeup compact, and… diet pills.

I roll my eyes and zip the pouch back up again, planning to dump the pills down the toilet the next time I go to the bathroom.

How the hell am I supposed to get this locker open with no combination or key?

Just then, the plump girl from before returns to me and smiles.

“Thank you,” she says. “I don’t know what Mrs. Acker would have done if I forgot to turn in my homework again… How did you know that, anyway?”

I shrug, not wanting to give away my vision. “It’s no big deal. Don’t worry about it.”

“Oh, okay,” she says.

She turns toward my locker.

“Is this your locker?”

“Yeah. I think so.”

“Oh, cool! You’re right next to me.”

The plump girl goes to the locker next to me and lines her eye up with a small red gem on the front. When she lines up her eye, the locker pops open. I don’t want to embarrass myself more than I already have, so I quietly follow suit. Lo and behold, my locker opens as well once the gem scans my iris.

The inside of my locker seems to have been prepared for me already. The shelves are stocked with textbooks, extra notebooks, and folders. There is a mirror on the back of the door and a hook on the inside for me to hang my bookbag on. On the floor of the locker, there is a small duffel bag that looks like a gym bag.

On the top shelf, there is something else.

A small box, wrapped in red wrapping paper.

I take the box off the shelf and check the tag.

“To Ruby, From Atwood,” it says. I open the wrapping paper to reveal a new smartphone. There is a letter inside that reads: “An early birthday gift. Use it wisely.”

Why would Atwood give me a phone? He knows that I could easily use the phone to make escape plans, and there’s no need to use it to call him because we can just use mindlink.

I bite my lip and put the box back on the shelf without taking the phone out.

“You’re a transfer student, right?” the girl suddenly asks, peeking around my locker door to look at me. I nod in response. She looks excited behind her round glasses and brushes her ginger hair out of her face before sticking her hand out. “I’m Nancy. Everyone here calls me Cow, because they say that I have big breasts and no brain.”

I hesitantly shake her hand. “I’m Ruby.” I pause. “They’re probably just jealous, by the way,” I say.

Nancy blushes and smiles meekly, then looks down at my uniform.

“What happened to you?”

I can feel my eyes well up with tears again and quickly turn away to pretend I’m looking for something in my locker.

“Was it Donna?” Nancy asks softly, as though she doesn’t want anyone to hear. “The girl with a blonde ponytail, blue eyes, kinda dresses like a slut?”

I nod and bite my lip again to keep it from quivering. Nancy slams her locker shut and comes around to the other side of me.

“Ugh,” she says, dabbing at my stained uniform with a cloth, “she is such a bitch. She and her little followers are like a bunch of harpies. And her dumb boyfriend, Ethan, with his stupid motorcycle acting like he’s just sooo cool. You should just avoid them.” Nancy frowns as she looks at my uniform, then digs through her backpack and pulls out a cardigan.

“Here,” she says. “You can wear my cardigan to cover the stains.”

“Oh… thank you,” I say, removing my blazer and sticking it in my locker then slipping on the cardigan. It’s warm and soft, and smells like cinnamon.

Nancy shrugs. “Consider it repayment for reminding me about my homework. Just… don’t wear white from now on. A new student wearing white in this school is seen as a provocation of the old order, which is probably why you got targeted right away. Anyway, where’s your navigator?”

I shake my head. “I haven’t met anyone. I didn’t even know I was supposed to have a navigator.”

“Normally,” Nancy says, “your navigator is supposed to meet you out front on your first day.” Her eyes travel up to the box containing the phone in my locker. “It looks like your navigator gave you your gift, though!”

My eyes dart to the phone and then back to Nancy. “No,” I say, “that’s… from someone else.”

“Oh.” Nancy looks confused and a little disappointed.

“What did your navigator give you?” I ask curiously, to which Nancy rolls her eyes.

“Just a bunch of junk. Something that was passed down for decades or whatever, with signatures and messages from all of the seniors. Yuck.”

I can’t help but laugh at her words. She smiles in response as though she is surprised that I even smiled at her.

“Well, I’ll help you today since your navigator didn’t show up,” Nancy says sweetly. “Come on, I’ll show you around.”

She jerks her head for me to follow as she heads down the hall and I quickly grab my bookbag and shut my locker, jogging to catch up. For a short girl, Nancy moves fast.

As we walk back toward the main entryway where the statue of Atwood stands, Nancy chatters on about the various well-known cliques -- the Preps, the Nerds, and the Goths -- and explains to me that she doesn’t really fit in with any of the cliques, but she doesn’t mind. She also tells me about all of the good professors and the bad professors, and explains the best places to go during free periods, like the library and the quad.

Her voice eventually fades into the distance as I look up the flights of stairs to see a man standing on one of the landings looking down over the railing. He looks right at me, and it feels like he’s staring into my soul.

Hello, Miss Ruby, he says to me, using mindlink. It startles me.

Nancy touches my arm and shocks me out of my daze. “That’s the headmaster,” she whispers in my ear, pulling me away. “We don’t see him much. I’ve heard that really bad students who get called into his office never come back to school. I don’t know if they get expelled, or… worse.”

Just then, a handsome boy with curly light brown hair comes up to us. He flashes a grin at me with a row of pearly white teeth. Next to me, it feels as though Nancy shrinks down into nothing.

“Hello,” he says. “You’re Ruby, right?”

I nod, feeling my cheeks flush, half expecting him to throw a cup of coffee on me like the other boy.

Instead, he sticks his hand out. “I’m Earl.”

I take his hand and shake it. It’s cool and firm.

“Your navigator had an accident, so I’ll be your new navigator,” he says with another toothy grin. “But I have a meeting soon, so I won’t be around until later. I’ll make sure to introduce myself to you more formally then.”

I can’t come up with words, so I only nod. Earl smiles at me, then nods politely to Nancy and walks away.

After several moments of awestruck silence, Nancy turns toward me with wide eyes.

“Oh my god,” she squeals. “I hate you so much! You’re so lucky!”