The girl sitting next to her mimics an ape call and scratches under her arm.
"Stop it," I mutter.
The girls turn toward me and scowl. "What was that, freak?"
I don't get a chance to respond before Raquel speaks up. "Hey, Domino, you thirsty this morning?"
The room explodes in laughter, and heat rushes through my body. Only five girls pulled me from my bed last night, but right now it feels like a hundred people are laughing at my expense. My fork shakes in my left hand, and I feel myself rising. Why am I standing? What am I going to do? Run? Cry?
And why am I still holding my fork?
Mercy yells something about deep throating and Raquel makes a crude gesture toward her mouth. The laughter grows in volume until it's inside me, eating my insides like an army of maggots. They have to stop laughing. I can't hear myself think and it's too early and they're going to wake up Wilson.
Poppet tugs on my empty hand, the one without the fork, and I look down at her. She's begging me with her eyes to do something.
Hurt them, Wilson says, rising from his slumber. That's what she wants.
Is that what she wants?
Is that what I want?
No. No, no, no!
Mercy throws a balled napkin, and it hits me in the left breast. That makes everyone laugh harder. So hard they're pulling in great heaping breaths and pinching the bridges of their noses. Aren't I hysterical? The girl who drank water straight from the place they piss.
Cain picks up his closed fist and slams it four times against the kitchen counter.
One, two, three … FOUR.
The girls are stunned silent. Even I don't know how to react. It's the girl with blue nail polish, the one whose hand is bandaged, who speaks first. "I'm going to tell Madam Karina about that Cain. You can't go trying to intimidate us just because we're having fun."
"God, what a monster," someone else adds.
Though I'm fuming, I sit down. Poppet squeezes my knee under the table, and I let her. Cain is a mystery to me, but I know enough to realize that outburst was out of character.
The girls start to yell over one another about Cain the monster until Mr. Hodge waddles into the room. "What's going on? I could hear your yapping two stories up."
Everyone ceases talking.
"That's what I thought. Nothing in those skulls except cold, dead air. Not when someone asks you a direct question, anyway." Mr. Hodge takes a cup of coffee from Cain and scratches the underside of his belly. "Well, what are you doing stuffing your faces? Placements are up early today."
The girls lunge from their chairs and storm out of the room at once.
Poppet grabs my arm and we run, too.
Chapter Seventeen
Placements & Payments
I'm not sure why we're running, but it's like herd mentality. The ten of us rush into the entertainment room and watch the digital ticker above the bar. It's blank, just like it was last night. I wouldn't even have noticed the thing had I not been sitting at these stools with Katy.
A moment later, there's a beeping sound, and the board glows with a red light. The color fades, and three names scroll across.
1. Raquel
2. Mercy
3. Georgia
Raquel bursts into a dance and whoops loudly. The rest of the girls glare, but none so much as Mercy. Raquel turns on Mercy and points a finger directly between her eyes. "Better watch your back. I'm creeping up, chica."
Mercy grabs her finger, and Raquel yelps with pain. The girls pull and shove against each another until Madam Karina enters the room. Then everyone falls silent. She holds in her right hand a stack of pink envelopes. In her left are three violets.
The girls line up, Mercy at the front.
Madam Karina whispers words to each girl and hands each her envelope. Mercy, Raquel, and Georgia-the girl with blue toenail polish-each get a violet as well. I'm last to receive an envelope. Before Madam Karina hands it to me, she takes me by the shoulders.
"I'm proud of you, Domino," she says into my ear. "I just knew you'd be great."
Her words sink into my belly like chicken and dumplings. When she leans back, there's a smile on her face that swallows me whole. She's proud of me. She thinks I'm great. Try as I might, I can't build walls fast enough to keep Madam Karina out. What's more, I don't want to. When she releases me, my rational mind returns quickly enough. I'm no different to her than the other girls, I remind myself. Why would I be?
A memory of my mother slinks in. Soft hands, softer words, guiding me down the basement stairs in our house. I can't take my eyes off her, my mother. She's so charming, so convincing.
Wilson jerks the memory away, and I'm thankful.
The girls have slinked into separate corners of the room to open the pink envelopes. After Madam Karina leaves, I do the same. Inside mine, I find two sheets of paper. The first includes but a few lines.