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Al waved from a table on the other side of the room. I went over and sat next to him on the bench. He gave me a wide grin, revealing a black flake stuck between his front teeth. I smiled back. He’d gotten me through my first awful night and I’d always remember him for that.
“You got yer branks off. Congrats!” said Al. “Nice to see your smile.”
The red-haired woman from the line brought over her bowl and sat across the table from us. She picked up her spoon and took a bite of the vile stew. So did everybody except me.
“Mornin’, Cait,” said Al.
“I should’ve known you’d be the first to make friends with the pretty new inmate,” she said.
I liked Cait already. “I’m Bryn.” I held out my hand to her over the table.
She shook it warmly with both hands. Not many people compelled me to offer personal information, but something about her made me think I’d tell her everything if she asked. Luckily, she didn’t.
“Bryn, eh?” said Al. “I hope you’ll tellmesome stories now that you can talk.”
“I guess I owe you,” I said.
Cait finished her bowl and eyed mine hungrily. I slid it across the table. She thanked me and dug in immediately.
“You’ll go hungry real soon if you’re too fancy for this stew,” said Al. “It’s all we ever get and there’s only two meals a day.”
“Is it stew or sewage?” I asked, still feeling a bit queasy.
“Call it stewage!” He slapped his thigh and wheezed out a laugh.
I was still hoping I might get out of here before I got hungry enough. If not, I’d have to swallow my pride, along with the prison stewage.
* * *
Breakfast endedand the guards escorted us back to the cells. I ended up across from Cait this time, with Al in the cell beside me. I couldn’t see him on the other side of the wall, but his voice carried as loudly as before.
“Since ya like good stories an’ all,” said Al, “guess what Cait did to land herself in here.”
Cait smoothed back her curly mess of hair, revealing her delicate features. “Al loves to volunteer other people’s secrets.”
“Only the best ones,” he said.
I hoped she’d tell me, but I didn’t want to be nosy. I felt at ease with her, but maybe she only saw me as the stranger that I was.
She held onto the bars of the cell, then closed her eyes, taking in a slow breath. “It’s been a long time since I talked about it.”
“It’s okay,” I said. “You don’t have to.” I wanted to spare her from the pain, though I longed to know her story.
But she continued. “It was three years ago. I had just turned seventeen. I took my first exam and ranked in Class A. I wanted my friend, Lachlan, to rank as highly as I had. He studied hard, but I knew he wouldn’t perform well enough. He was never really the scholarly type.”
She pursed her lips and looked at the ceiling, her eyes glistening in the dim light. “I couldn’t bear to see him rank lower than he deserved. And if his rank wasn’t the same as mine, we obviously couldn’t live in the same quarter or marry—” she cut herself off. “You get the point. He needed a high rank.
“The night before his test, I stole his rank card and some clothes from his bedroom. I chopped off all my hair—he had red hair like mine—so the description on his card wouldn’t be a problem. It worked. I passed for a boy just fine.”
Al snickered, and I understood why. It was hard to imagine her features as anything but feminine.
“I got into the testing center before Lachlan arrived. When he did, they turned him away because he’d lost his card. I took the test and left, confident that everything was working out perfectly.”
Her chin trembled, but she set her jaw and continued. “When I saw Lachlan next, I kept my secret. He was unfailingly honest, and I knew he wouldn’t like what I’d done. I returned his clothing and card without him noticing. I couldn’t take back the haircut, but he didn’t suspect anything.” Her mouth turned up slightly as if she were amused by something unsaid.
“He went back the next day with his card, but they told him he’d already ranked in Class A, so he was forced to leave without taking the test. But he couldn’t stop obsessing over it. He refused to be content with a rank he hadn’t earned. He was convinced he’d done something wrong and would be punished.
“His anxiety was eating away at us both, so I had to tell him. I thought it would ease his fear, but it did the opposite. He was furious and determined to take responsibility for my cheating. He made up his mind to go back and confess to a crime he hadn’t committed.
