Variant

She stood up and I followed her to the door. “I’d take this over philosophy any day.” I handed my aesthetics textbook to Laura and took the new one. Applied Field Surveying. “At least this is a practical skill.”

Jane walked at my side in the hall. “There are a lot of practical skills that I never have any intention of practicing. Are you really going to use field surveying?”

I laughed. “When I get out of here, I’m going to open a field surveying business.”

Jane hooked her arm through mine. “We could start it together—half surveying, half aesthetics.”

“We’ll make a billion dollars.”

I laughed. I still didn’t know quite what to make of Jane. We hung out almost all the time, and it wasn’t at all uncommon for her to put her arm in mine or take my hand. And while I was definitely not complaining, I had no idea if it was more than friendly.

All the cultural norms of dating were foreign to me—when should you hold hands? When should you kiss? When were you officially a couple? But those norms had to be even more foreign to her, since she’d been in this school almost her entire teenage life.

The dance was tomorrow night. Maybe that would shed a little light on things.

When we got to the cafeteria, Mouse was standing at the front of the line, arranging a stack of paper boxes and brown sacks on a table.

I peered down at the handwritten label on one of the boxes. “What’s this?”

Mouse picked up the one I was looking at and shoved it toward me. “Schedule changed. Eat it up in your room.”

Jane picked up a bag. “What’s the new schedule?”

“Paintball,” Mouse said. She winked at me. “Maybe we’ll meet again out there, Fisher.”

“I sure hope so.”

We left the table and I followed Jane down the hall. A TV screen, mounted high on the wall above the drinking fountain, showed the change of plans. No afternoon classes, just paintball. We had only forty-five minutes to change and get out there.

Jane sighed. “I already didn’t have enough time today.” She and Carrie had volunteered to be in charge of decorating for the dance.

“We’ll have plenty of time,” I said. “I can stay up and help.”

She scrunched up her face and looked back at the TV. “It’s going to be a late night.”

“I don’t have anywhere to be in the morning. I can sleep through field surveying tomorrow.”

Jane laughed. “I almost slept through it today.”

We headed for the stairs.

She held up her fingers at me like a gun. “Try not to get shot a hundred times today. I don’t want to hear you whining all night.”

“I only get shot so you’ll come heal me.”

I ate my lunch—a chicken sandwich and coleslaw—at my desk while Mason got dressed. I still had my crummy, non-camouflaged sweats, but I was determined that would not stop me from playing better. Lily and Mason had taught me a little more about tactics, and I hoped to be able to try them out.

“Check this out,” Mason said, tossing me a heavy plastic tube. It was about three inches long, and I saw it was actually two canisters taped together and slid inside a larger cylinder.

“I bought two of those after the last game,” he said. “Just got ’em this morning. Paintball grenades.”

“You just throw it and it explodes?”

“No, they’re pressurized. One canister is air and the other’s paint. Pull the pin, throw it, and it’ll spin around and spray. Wipe out everyone in a bunker.”

I smiled and tossed it back to him. “Then I hope we’re attacking bunkers.”

“They only came up for sale this month. I bet the other gangs have some, too.”

“Is it just a one-shot thing? That’s got to be pricey.”

“You can refill the paint, and buy new air cartridges.” Mason walked to the door. “I’ve got to find Lily before the game. Do you think you can find your way out to the field by yourself?”

“Is it the same one?”

“No, other side of the school. Just hurry and you’ll be able to follow somebody.”

I dressed quickly, picturing the game in my mind. Maybe the school was trying to train us to be soldiers and maybe it wasn’t, but I didn’t care—I felt like paintball was helping me prepare for escape. I was learning how to move silently through the forest, how to hide, how to watch for attackers. Maybe that would come in handy soon. I hoped it would.

I was only four or five minutes behind Mason, but most of the school was already empty. I could hear some voices down the Society’s corridor, but I didn’t see anyone until I got all the way downstairs.

“Hey, Bense!” Becky was coming out of her office as I passed. She was dressed for the game, too, though she didn’t seem to be as enthusiastic about it as some. She wore camouflage, but just the most basic, cheap stuff you could buy, and she hadn’t upgraded her gun. That was one of the first things anyone did. Her hair was still perfectly styled, and she held her mask in her hand as she walked.

“Hey,” I said. “You heading outside?”

“Now I am,” she said with a huge smile. Huge smiles were Becky’s default. “Just had to finish up a couple quick things.”

We walked out the front doors and down the steps. There were a few people on the edge of the forest, but not many. I checked my watch to make sure we weren’t late. We still had ten minutes.

“It’s cold today,” she said.

“If I was back home it’d be snowing.”

“Do you miss the snow?”

I shrugged. “It’s better than here. But I bet you have hellish summers.”

Becky slung her gun over her shoulder. She hadn’t removed the strap—even I had done that.

“It’s not too bad, really. We are in the mountains, after all.”

I had nothing against Becky, but it felt strange talking to her anywhere other than in her office. The Society didn’t like me and Isaiah probably wouldn’t want us chatting. Then again, maybe Becky was still trying to recruit me. Maybe her talking to me was an assignment.

“Are you excited for the dance?” she asked.

“I guess. Seems a little ridiculous, though. Don’t you think?”

She frowned. “I think it’s nice. We’re trapped here. They could just as well not let us have any fun.”

“Maybe. But maybe if things were worse more people would be trying to escape.”

Becky didn’t answer. We finished crossing the lawn and entered the edge of the forest. I could see the other students gathered together a hundred yards farther in.

“Then I’m even more glad we’re having a dance,” Becky finally said.

I started to laugh, but she quickened her pace, hurrying off toward where the Society was gathered.

Isaiah was already standing up on a rock when I arrived. He tore open the envelope.

“The scenario is Fly the Flag,” he read. “Each team has its own flag. You have to take it to the pole in the center of the field, raise it, and defend it for five minutes.”

“Those grenades will come in handy,” I whispered to Mason. “Let them get there first, blow ’em away.”