Hummel's Home for Non-Conforming Adolescents
Chapter 1: Introduction
There were rumors.
Their origins were unknown, and they were seemingly passed through the whispering of the wind in the trees, floating down onto the ears of the disheartened and giving them the impossible hope that there was something more out there than the miserable existences they led. They were but a fairy tale the boys believed in because believing in something better was all they had.
Three such disheartened, miserable boys ventured into the cold night air in rural Ohio with nothing but the hope these rumors inspired - no direction, no resources, and no idea what would happen to them.
Among them was Blaine Anderson, with his once-bright spirit that had since been drained of all hope, and his eyes that hadn't genuinely gleamed in years.
Blaine had been too young when he was marked to be jaded, but had a plethora of memories from the past six years to prove that the deck was certainly stacked against him and others like him, and that he could expect nothing from a world that sequestered him and made him feel worthless. It was a funny thing, feeling worthless. He had always been raised to believe he was important, that his feelings mattered. But the one lesson he had learned from the moment he was taken away was that things never turned out the way he had planned.
From the time Blaine first suspected he was gay, he was innocent and naive enough to believe that he could never be marked. Surely he would be clever enough to hide his urges. Surely his parents would never turn him in. He had seen the thick, black NC tattoos on the arms of the boys working jobs around town; they were always uncovered and impossible to ignore. The two simple letters indicated an irregularity, an abnormality. To be marked NC was to be ostracized for all of adolescence and beyond, was to be removed from the general population and placed into an endless routine of unfair labor and horrible living conditions. To be marked NC was to be stripped of basic human rights.
Blaine looked down at the inside of his forearm, just below the crease of his elbow, where he could make out the bold, incriminating letters that stained his otherwise flawless skin, even in the dark.
NC.
Non-Conforming.
Law dictated that any male or female between the ages of ten and eighteen caught expressing or acting on homosexual urges would be marked and detained with the purpose of correcting the homosexual behaviors before adulthood. All preteen or adolescent NCs were placed in government-run group homes where they were put to work and underwent relentless therapy in the hopes that their undesired thoughts and actions could be eradicated by age eighteen, at which time, if the home had done its job properly, they would be released out into the general population. The release rate was lower than was ideal, but even those who were not allowed to reintegrate into society found themselves significantly happier than they were as teenagers.
Conditions in the adolescent homes were not well monitored or regulated, and most NCs lived in squalor. They were treated poorly, and most lawmakers and government employees turned a blind eye. The home Blaine had lived in for nearly six years was among the worst. He had endured year after year of the harshest conditions and treatment, and at first, he only survived by keeping the rumors in his heart like a spark of hope. Years later with no sign of reprieve, though, and the hope had all but gone. It had taken a new housemate to reignite the spark to encourage Blaine to actually leave the home.
Blaine had hardly been the mastermind behind their escape - not that it had required a mastermind at all; the security in and around the homes was minimal at best. After all, why would anyone want to leave only to be placed in another home? Still, the moment Blaine heard rumblings of the plan, he committed himself wholeheartedly to following through. Anywhere else had to be better than where he was now, he tried to convince himself.
In the end, it was miraculously easy to leave. They probably needn't have waited until nightfall, even, though the cover of darkness did allow them to walk farther than they would have been able to in the daylight. It surprised Blaine that they made it what must have been close to five miles before the glare of headlights zeroed in on them. The boys scattered and ran, though it was futile because all three would be caught and relocated within a day anyway.
As little as he usually had to eat, Blaine was thin and not as in shape as he would have liked to be, and he found himself out of breath within minutes. The vehicle caught up to him instantly, and he stopped in surrender, accepting the inevitable. As he was loaded into the back of a van with no windows and no view of the driver, he wished for the well-being of the two other boys who were the closest thing he'd had to friends since grade school. He hoped that wherever they ended up, it was better than from where they had come.
Based upon stories his ex-housemates had told about their own transports to homes, Blaine counted himself lucky that he had not been gagged, tied, or blindfolded for the ride. Perhaps his captor had forgotten or couldn't have been bothered.
He took advantage of the feel of the cool air blowing through the vents onto his face and the softness of the cushion below him, for he knew he would not be afforded such luxuries for the remainder of his time in a home.
The van drove easily along for a few minutes until the smooth road underneath transformed into a rough and bumpy path that carried on and on, twisting and turning for miles.
Just when Blaine thought the ride would never end, the van came to a stop and he was removed from the car.
Tall, old trees surrounded him, and the drive beneath his feet was made of dirt. A large yard sprawled out behind the two-story house that loomed in front of him. The house looked innocent, but Blaine knew better, for there was a well-maintained, illuminated sign just to his right that read:
H2461
But below that, quite unusually, was another line:
Hummel's Home for Non-Conforming Adolescents