Free Imprisoned by Christine Kersey

here and I wanted to get through it alive.
    A lot more people had arrived to work out while I’d been in the middle of torture Morgan time and there weren’t many pieces of equipment available. Then I saw one elliptical that wasn’t being used and hurried over to it. Another girl reached it a moment after I did. I recognized her from the bathroom that morning. She was the one who’d made me move to the back of the line for the shower.
    “I was here first,” she said, which she and I both knew was a lie.
    Anger at all that I was going through emboldened me. “No you weren’t.”
    Her eyebrows went up. Evidently she wasn’t used to being challenged. “What did you say, new girl?”
    “My name’s Morgan. And I said I was here first. Not you.”
    She looked at the people who were nearby and I realized we had an audience. Great . Then she leaned toward me so only I could hear. “I’ll let you have it this time, Morgan , but you’d better watch yourself.”
    I watched her walk away, but rather than feeling victorious, I felt alarmed. The last time I’d stood up for myself it was to Lori and I had ended up here. What have I done now?
     

Chapter Eight
     
    “That took some courage.”
    I looked at Harley, who was using the weight machine next to mine. “What do you mean?”
    “That Beth is a bad seed. I wouldn’t cross her if I was you.”
    Exhausted, sweaty, and hating life, I scowled at him. “What am I supposed to do? Let her bully me?”
    He shrugged. “You can do what you want.” Then he turned back to doing leg lifts.
    I was already worried about what Beth was going to do to me. I didn’t need someone else reminding me of the danger I could be in. I’d been here less than twenty-four hours and already I’d made an enemy. That was even faster than with Lori. I was breaking all kinds of personal records.
    I looked at the clock and saw it had been nearly two hours since I’d checked in. I was supposed to meet with a counseling group at eight o’clock so that I could be “re-educated”, but I was sticky with sweat and wanted to shower first. After wiping down the weight machine, I tossed my towel in the hamper, then took the elevator back to my floor.
    When I went into my room, Alyx was sitting at her desk working on homework. She turned to me when I walked in. “How was it?”
    “Awful, if you want to know the truth.”
    “Which part?”
    “Well, the only part that wasn’t was your friend Livvy being nice to me and showing me around. Thanks for that.”
    Alyx smiled. “You’re welcome. I know how sucky it is to be new and not know anything.” She paused. “What did you think of Austin?”
    “Who?”
    “The guy who runs the gym.”
    “I hate him with every fiber of my being.”
    Alyx looked shocked. “Why? What did he do to you?”
    Embarrassed that he’d basically accused me of slacking, I said, “I just thought he was a jerk.”
    “This is the muscular, good-looking guy?”
    Then I remembered that Alyx probably worked with him. “He’s muscular, yeah.”
    She seemed to be thinking. “Yeah, I guess he can be a bit bossy sometimes. But he’s basically a nice guy.”
    “Maybe to you.”
    She turned back to her homework. “I’ve got a lot to do.”
    “I’m gonna take a quick shower before my counseling thing.”  I paused. “Where do they meet, anyway?”
    She turned back toward me. “On the ninth floor where we have school.”
    “Okay. Thanks.”
    After my shower I felt a bit more human. When I arrived on the ninth floor, I saw a board posted with several sheets of paper. Each one had a room number and a list of names. I found my name on the sheet for room five. It was the same room where I had my English class earlier that day. Since I knew exactly where that was, I was able to walk down the hall with confidence.
    A moment later I reached the room and saw that the desks had been pushed to the sides and instead eleven chairs were arranged in a circle. Several kids were