Good vs. Evil High by April Marcom

doesn’t want to join our team, no one’s going to make her.
But if something does happen, could we count on you to step in for
Rose?” she asked me.
    “Sure.” But that wouldn’t happen, because
what could go wrong?
    “Let’s get back to our group then,” Coach
Beckham said to me.
    We rejoined the others and Harmony grabbed my
arm. “You beat Rose Jennings. You beat her. I can’t believe it. Are
you running track?”
    “No, I don’t really want to join a team, at
least not yet.”
    “But you beat Rose Jennings. She’s the
fastest girl there is. You’re a track star, Kristine.”
    I couldn’t help but laugh. “Thanks, but I
don’t know about all that.”
    “Everyone grab a jump rope,” Coach yelled.
“You’re going to jump double time for the next ten minutes. Make
sure you put plenty of space between you and everyone else.”
    So we each grabbed a rope from the pile at
the far corner of our square and the rest of second hour was too
hard to even think about talking to either of my roommates. It
didn’t take long to wear myself out completely. It felt great to
have beaten the fastest girl at North Haven High...but
man...physical fitness was not my thing...
     

 
    Chapter
Eight
    ~ Café Cafeteria ~
     
    Cons in every pocket began buzzing when
second period was over. I jumped a mile, as I figured I would every
time it happened until I got used to it.
    We took an elevator up to the next floor.
“See you at lunch,” Harmony said when we went down different
hallways.
    Sassy and I walked into a really cheerful
room with giant yellow butterflies hung along the walls. Four
tables seated the kids that were coming in. The teacher, Miss
Rivers, was a string bean with pointy glasses connected to a loose
chain that wrapped around behind her neck.
    Since I was only there for three days, she
told me to do whatever I wanted while the rest of the class did a
worksheet focusing on some of the great artists of the past. I got
into some yellow clay and made little flowers, which I sprayed with
sticky stuff and dropped into a bowl of gold glitter. It was
difficult with one hand heavily bandaged, but maybe when they dried
I could use them to decorate my bed and wardrobe.
    Then it was lunchtime. “Thank goodness. I’m
starving,” Sassy said as we walked down the hall toward the
elevators.
    “Me too. Do they serve regular cafeteria food
here, like chicken nuggets one day and pizza the next?”
    “Eww.” Sassy laughed. “No, they put together
a kind of soup, salad, sandwich buffet at lunch and a full-blown
buffet from the time classes are over until lights out. That way
you can eat whenever you’re ready.”
    We stepped into an elevator with two other
girls who were talking about what clothes they were packing for
next week when we went south. It sounded like the white suits we
were all wearing weren’t included.
    I waited until we stepped out of the elevator
onto the first floor to ask Sassy about it. “Where do kids get
clothes from when they live way up here? You can’t go shopping,
right?”
    “Well, there’s a secondhand room where girls
drop off clothes they don’t want anymore. You can take whatever you
want from there. But most of the girls in our hall go to Miss
McCree when they need anything and she helps them pick things out
of catalogues and then takes care of ordering it and getting it to
you. I’ve got a few catalogues in our room, though. We could look
through them together after classes and make a list of what you
want. Then I’ll give it over to her. You should have a few basic
things in your wardrobe already, and you can always borrow our
clothes until we get yours. It takes forever, so Miss McCree might
actually have to try and figure out a way to get them sent to you
in the Southlands.”
    We walked through an opening into what looked
more like a café than a school cafeteria. The walls were golden
brown and red spheres hung from low ceilings over each circular
table, providing the soft