"Lay off, Jace. It's you first day, you don't want to make enemies," Hodge, my caretaker, said as he forcibly pulled me away from the gigantic man with a scar running down the side of his face.

"He started it…" I mumbled under my breath. Hodge sighed.

"Just don't go get into any fights, especially with him," He said. He sounding tired, but I couldn't care less. I was the one in prison, "They call him the Beast around here,"

"I could take him," I muttered, Hodge groaned loudly and stopped walking.

"Jace, I put a lot of effort into getting you here. They are a lot more relaxed here than in other under-aged prisons, so don't screw it," We started walking again. He was right though, here we were allowed to walk without guards and took lessons on getting our life back on track. I snorted at the thought.

I looked around, just as I thought, no girls.

Just as I began to give up, a flash of red caught my eye. I turned to see a girl about my age sitting in the corner in the room. She was intently staring at a sketchpad on her lap. She was exquisitely beautiful with curly flaming red hair that was pulled back into a rough ponytail, strands of hair falling in her face. She had a hard a jaw that pulled her mouth into a frown and a sprinkle of freckles over her dainty nose.

She was wearing the classic orange prison jumpsuit with the arms tied around her waist and a black tank top.

As if sensing me looking, she looked up at me and I was struck at how striking her emerald green eyes were under her long lashes.

For a second we both just stared at each other before she focused on her sketchpad again and I had to leave.

"This is your cell," Hodge gestured to a thick metal door with the numbers '56' printed above it. Home sweet home, "I have to go now, but I've arranged for Alec, you're cell-mate, to come meet you here and show you around,"

He assured me I would be fine before leaving. I heaved opened the door and strode in, not sure whether it was a good or bad thing that it wasn't locked.

One side of the room was bare, a metal bed built into the wall and a small desk whilst the other was almost completely opposite. Covered from ceiling to floor with posters of bands and splattered with luminous paint, the bed was a mess of sheets and the desk cluttered with CDs. I had no idea that this was allowed.

"Yeah, they'll take you to design your room sometime next week," I heard a guarded voice behind me say; I turned abruptly to see who I assumed was Alec standing behind me. He looked slightly older than me and taller. He had dishevelled black hair and bright blue eyes and was inspecting me carefully.

"And I thought they had done this for me," I said, sarcastically. Alec's shoulders slumped in…relief? He crossed the room and lay on his bed, his hands behind his head. He was looking fixedly at something on the ceiling,

"So what you in for?" He asked casually but, I could tell he was dying to know.

"It's a long story," I said trying to avoid the subject.

"My family was on the streets, I was desperate. A couple of mates and I stole from this big fancy house, I was the only one that got caught," He was trying to sound calm, but his voice caught, "I've told you my reason, it's you're go,"

I sighed, running my hands through my hair.

"I was framed." I blurted, sitting on the edge of my bed, "It was never my fault,"

"What happened?" Alec asked sitting up and staring at me.

"It depends," I said, "Do you want the real version or the reason I'm here?"

"Err-" Just before he could answer a loud bell rang alerting us that lunch had started.

"I'll tell you later," I lied. We walked out of our dorm to see hundreds of other students leave their dorms too. I could only count about five girls so decided to ask Alec about it.

"Looking for a hook-up?" Alec teased and I playfully punched him in the arm. He stiffened before realising I was joking, "Well, the girls and boys used to be split up into two separate centres but, they soon realised that it wasn't helping anyone to get on the right track," I gave him a confused look.

"Basically, all the guys complained," He finally blurted, I laughed, it made sense.

"Why do I get the feeling you weren't one of those guys?" I asked and he looked uncomfortable.

"I dunno- I just, it's not right," He said, I got the feeling he was lying. We joined a large crowd all going towards the lunch hall, "Anyway, to the disappointment of many, only the girls who chose to come could go and not many did,"

"Why not?" I asked.

"You're forgetting this is prison, a lot of guys came here for raping or worse. Some girls don't want to live with that," He said and I immediately felt stupid. We walked further, not talking.

"That's Kaelie, or more famously known, the Viper," Alec finally said, I turned to see a tall blonde girl wearing her orange jumpsuit with all the buttons on the front undone; you could see her black lace bra easily, "If you want a fling, go to her. She's shagged nearly all the guys here but, after that she never looks at them again,"

"Has she done it with you?" I asked, watching her walk as though she owned the place. Alec didn't answer as soon as I thought he would so I turned to see him look uncomfortable again.

"No," He finally spluttered, I shrugged not wanting to question him.

"Who's that?" I asked pointing at a shorter girl trailing behind the Viper, "And does everyone have a nickname?"

"Pretty much, that's Aline, Echo. She's like Kaelie's bitch, the biggest wannabe ever. Everything that the Viper does, she does too. Sometimes even guys," I looked at her in slight disgust, sure enough the buttons on her jumpsuit were open too.

We finally reached the hall after shoving through a hoard of people. It was a giant room with hundreds of small round tables all crammed with people. The windows all had bars on them but, it was still quite a spacious room. I waited with Alec while he got food, deciding I had lost my appetite.

Alec found us a table near the side of the hall with one girl and another guy on. We sat down and I inspected them, the girl had long black hair as dark as black ink and a ton of eyeliner applied, she looked a lot like Alec. She was slumped on her chair, playing with her nails. The guy was leaning on his hands, clearly bored, his silver hair falling in front of his eyes. Something about him made me nervous, of course, I didn't show it.

"Izzy, or the Whip, and Sebastian, Blackeye, meet Jace," Alec introduced us. I noticed that unlike everyone else, Izzy had completely ignored the orange jumpsuit thing and was wearing her own clothing, it looked expensive.

"Blackeye?" I asked after they had greeted me.

"I got punched on my first day here and it bruised, I also have dark eyes," Sebastian said, laughing.

"Speaking of names, what's yours Alec?" I asked partly wondering when I'd get mine.

"I'm sort of known as the 'emo'," He said, making bunny gestures with his fingers, "Not many people know me so they haven't given me a name,"

"They?" I asked. At this point the Whip, who I had thought wasn't listening, leaned forward.

"They're kind of the bad boys," She grinned, "They all wear leaver jackets and they've done it with all the girls,"

"All the girls?" I asked, for some reason I was thinking of the red-head I saw earlier.

"Well, obviously, not me," Izzy leaned back, trying to look nonchalant and focusing on her nails, "And of course, Fox is a big no-no,"

"Fox?"

"Look there," Blackeye said, discreetly pointing to a table in the corner I hadn't seen before. There the red-head sat alone, ignoring her food and staring at her hands. I breathed a sigh of relief, I'm not sure why, "She dates the leader of them all, if anyone so much as opens a door for her he'll make you regret it," He said morbidly, I clenched my hands and exhaled, I needed to distract myself.

"So who's the boss?" I asked.

"He's really creepy. No one asks but, it's obvious that he's in here for doing some really sick stuff," Alec said, lowering his tone. I leaned in, curious.

"What sort of stuff?"

"Some say he tortured innocent kids for no reason, others say he murdered every person that ever looked his way. All we know is that his parents paid a lot, and I mean a lot, to get him here. They don't usually let murders in," Alec continued, I swallowed suddenly uneasy. I had so many questions I felt I could burst. How much did Hodge do to get me in? How am I supposed to sleep when someone like him lives here? Why does the Fox date him?

"What's his name?" Is the only question I could ask.

"The Beast," The Whip whispered, I gulped, loudly. They all heard and looked at me strangely.

"You didn't-?" Izzy asked.

"No! I mean, we didn't say anything to each other but, I got the feeling he didn't like me," I didn't exactly lie; I was just a little vague.

"Yeah, well it's best you don't get in his way. It's not pleasant," Blackeye said sullenly.

"Oh yeah, I had almost forgotten that Sebby didn't used to know how to make good friends," Izzy teased, ruffling Blackeye's hair. He didn't look the least bit pleased that the Whip has brought this up, in fact he looked uncomfortable.

"What?" I asked.

"Sebastian used to be mixed up in that gang but, he developed a thing for Fox and, well, you can fill in the gaps," The Whip said, at this Sebastian's facial expression looked almost painful.

"Isabelle," Alec warned, for some reason she listened so stopped taunting Blackeye and instead got her iPod out and ignored us completely. Alec frowned at her and picked at his food.

"So what about you?" Sebastian asked politely but, I could tell he was trying to change the subject.

"What about me?"

"How you finding jail to be? Missing any family?" His questions were innocent enough but, I didn't want to answer.

"Yeah," I answered bluntly. I could tell Blackeye was going to ask but, another bell rang signalling we should leave.

"I guess we'll see you tomorrow for community service," He finally said dragging Izzy up with him, "It was nice meeting you,"

"You too," I said. I was about to leave with Alec when something caught my eye. I turned to see the Beast firmly gripping the Fox's upper arm, forcing her into a room on the opposite side of the hall.

For some reason I couldn't look away when the Beast followed her in looking every bit as menacing as he was described earlier.

I know, I know! I really shouldn't be writing another story when I have so many others that aren't finished, I just couldn't help myself.

I don't own anything!

Oh, and what do you think about the nick names thing? Is it confusing?