Fixed by Beth Goobie

and stepped out of the booth. Where was she? Oh yeah — this was the Mind Cleanser in the girls’ dorm. So ... what had she been doing before she stepped into the booth? Nellie did a quick scan of her memory, but drew a complete blank. Oh well, the Mind Cleanser only deleted stuff that wasn’t important. She couldn’t have been doing anything essential. She gave her watch a quick glance. Twenty-seven minutes after four — that left an hour until supper. How should she kill the time?
    “Hey, Nells.” Looking up, Nellie saw Lierin waving at her from down the hall. “C’mon, you goof,” hollered her friend. “You’re missing Star Heat.”
    Star Heat! How could she have forgotten that? Talk about essential! With a grin, Nellie took off down the hall.
    THAT NIGHT , she dreamed of the shorn-headed girl again. This time the girl was lying with the boy, her back to his chest, his arms loosely around her. They were both fully clothed and seemed to be sleeping together for warmth. Then, as Nellie’s dream eyes watched, the girl turned in her sleep and nestled in against the boy, her forehead resting against the curve of his throat. Neither woke, the eyes of both girl and boy remained closed, but Nellie thought she saw the boy’s arms tighten briefly around the girl, and an odd look of — fierceness? happiness? — cross both their faces.
    Nellie felt so close to the shorn-headed girl, she seemed to be breathing in the same rhythm. Then for a moment she seemed to actually become the other girl, and could feel the warmth of the boy’s arms and hear his heartbeat steady in her ear. Immediately she noticed his breath was pretty rank, but then a stink filled her own mouth and she realized the shorn-headed girl hadn’t brushed her teeth in a while either. With a grimace, Nellie pulled back and lost the feeling of oneness with the shorn-headed girl, though she could still see the two lying together in her dream.
    Who were they, and why were they repeatedly invading her sleep? Had Westcott been correct when he’d hinted she was imagining herself in a different situation? But why would she imagine herself with her hair cut off like that, and with a boy she’d never seen? Why not with Phillip, or Alan Webb, Advanced’s most gorgeous senior male cadet? Most of all, why would she suddenly start dreaming of herself this past week, and never before? It had been practically every night.
    As more and more questions fired themselves through her brain, Nellie’s dream began to fade. No, she thought, hanging onto the image of the girl and boy lying together in the dark. Who are you? You belong to me in some way, I can feel it, but I don’t know how. Why ...
    But the dream vanished like warm breath blown onto a mirror and left Nellie running through her usual nightmare of endless twisting passageways with nowhere to go but deeper into the maze, further and further from anything she recognized as herself.

Four
    I T WAS OPEN DORM , a two-hour period scheduled every weekend when female and male cadets were allowed to visit each other’s dorms. Seated cross-legged at the head of her bed, Nellie faced Lierin and Phillip, who were sprawled next to her with their backs to the wall. Appointed secretary of the group, Lierin was balancing a laptop on her knees. At the far end of the room, an occasional figure in Detta uniform appeared briefly on the monitoring screen, scrutinized the three and disappeared again. The twelve-year-olds on the bed ignored them. Engrossed in a research assignment, they were discussing the Goddess Ivana’s birth history.
    “Okay,” said Phillip in a careless tone, scowling at the book in his hands. “It says She was born on the island of Peliones, to some farmers.” His toes tapped rapidly and he gave a heavy sigh. Glancing at Nellie, Lierin rolled her eyes. A thin boy with a variety of nervous mannerisms, Phillip was commonly underestimated by opponents on the target range and at gym meets. Myths and legends,