CHAPTER 6
“How’d they get you?” Bebe asked. It was my second week working the cinder-block piles. Autumn had arrived suddenly, cooling the desert furnace and making the sky turn an unbelievable shade of blue.
“How did who get me?”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw V snicker. She and Bebe had some kind of weird friendship—constantly insulting each other affectionately—and because Bebe and I were roommates, I ended up spending a lot of time around V. Unfortunately, everything I did seemed to irritate her.
“Cassie, this is our ignorant newbie, Brit. Have you met?”
“We’ve howdied but that’s all. Nice to meet ya.”
“You too.” Cassie was from Texas, strong like a ranch hand, and great to work near on the quarry.
“Red Rock, darling,” Bebe explained. “How’d you get here?” she asked again.
“My dad drove me. How else would I get here?”
“An escort, of course,” Bebe said.
“Like a date?” I asked. V laughed again, right in my face this time.
“Now don’t laugh, V,” Cassie said, giving me a sympathetic look. “More like a kidnappin’. That’s how they got me. They came for me in the middle of the night and hauled me away like a stray dog or somethin’. They even handcuffed me. I thought it was some kind of abduction, until I caught sight of my folks watchin’ from the window.”
“They did it because you’re…..gay.”
“Well, they think I am.”
“Are you?”
“I’m bi. But don’t get all squirrelly on me. You don’t hit on every guy you meet, so it’s not like I’m gonna come after you.” She was right about that. I didn’t hit on any guy I met. I just crushed hopelessly after Jed.
“It’s nice to see that Cassie’s given you her introductory homophobia lecture. Forgive her,” V said. “She can’t help herself.”
“Yeah, well, half the girls in this place act like they think I’m checking them out all the time. And most of them ain’t even cute.”
“But you were kidnapped and brought here? That’s awful, Cassie.”
“Darling Brit,” Bebe interrupted. “It’s called an escort, and it’s standard operating procedure.”
“So your parents did that too?”
“Parent, singular. Dad’s out of the picture. And Mother, well there’s no Four Seasons within a hundred miles of this place. She wouldn’t be caught dead here.”
“Are your parents rich, Brit?” V asked.
“That’s none of your business.” I could tell that V’s were. She had that money smell to her.
“Don’t get all OC on me, newbie. I ask because if you have money, you’re screwed. Insurance pays for the first three months of your stay. If you’re poor, then suddenly at three months, boom, you’re in level Six and out the door. Cured by the miracle of Scam Rocks. But if your family has the money to keep footing the bill, that’s an entirely different set of circumstances. You could be stuck for life.”
“Don’t be so dramatic, Virginia. Until you’re eighteen,” Bebe said. She looked at my panicked face. “When you’re eighteen, you can check yourself out.”
“How long have you all been here?”
“Six months,” Cassie said. “My parents aren’t rich, but they’re desperate to straighten me out.”
“Four months,” Bebe said. “But you can guarantee I’ll be here or at some other school a while. I’ve been at boarding schools for years. Of course, this is my first RTC.”
“RTC?”
“God, newbie,” said V. “It’s a residential treatment center. They call it a school, but it’s a loony bin, a bogus, bullshit, behavior-modification boot-camp warehouse for unwanted misfit teens.”
Argh! Sometimes I really wanted to hurl a brick at V, to knock that all-knowing expression right off her face. My dad would never shuttle me off to boot camp. The thought of it made me want to cry. “My dad doesn’t want me warehoused!” I said defiantly.
“Right,” V said. “He just sent you here to rest up. Sure he did.”
“It wasn’t the dad,” Bebe pointed out. “She’s a Cinderella story. The stepmom sent her here.”
“I’d reckon your stepmom reads LifeStyle magazine,” Cassie said.
She did. There were stacks of them in our kitchen. She claimed she liked the recipes.
“Red Rock advertises in the back, promising quick results to cure the surly child,” Bebe said. “You can’t totally blame your stepmom, though. They make this place seem like a therapeutic Club Med.”
“That’s why they encourage the escorts instead of drop-offs. They don’t much appreciate parents seein’ this place in its skivvies,” Cassie added with a sly smile.
“That’s also why they monitor your mail. To preempt any complaints you may have,” V said. “There’s this whole section in the brochure warning parents to expect their kids to complain about how badly they’re treated here. Our lies are part of our sickness. It’s pretty clever. They really know how to cover their asses.”
“Oh my God, it’s a total gulag.”
“That is the first smart thing you’ve said, Brit.” V tapped me on the forehead. “Of course, every gulag has its secrets, escape routes, and codes.”
“What do you mean?”
“There are ways to subvert the power.”
“What?”
“Patience, newbie. You’ll learn,” V said.
“All will be revealed,” Bebe promised.
Cassie put her hands together and bowed forward like a Tibetan monk who knew the secrets of the universe, and we all cracked up. It was the first time I’d laughed at Red Rock. But then the guards heard us having too much fun and separated us.