All eyes were on Kane as he walked freely down the halls. He ignored the stares and all his inmates and headed toward the cafeteria, followed by Officers Bellamy, Harper and Miller.
"I can't believe they let him out of SHOE," Harper whispered.
"It shouldn't be long before we have to throw him back in there," Miller retorted.
"You guys want to see who can get him back in SHOE the fastest?" Bellamy smiled devilishly at them.
"You're on!" Harper beamed.
"You guys are being ridiculous. Leave the guy alone!" Officer Monty came up from behind them, eavesdropping on their conversation.
"Hey, if you don't want in, then butt out!" Miller snapped.
"You guys are acting like children," Monty pushed his way past them, making his way to the main office.
Kane finally made it to the lunch line and grabbed a tray, handing it to Nyko, who was serving in the kitchens. Nyko gave him a dirty look before slopping some kind of gray, soupy mess onto Kane's tray along with a cup of pudding. Kane looked back at him with a lifeless stare. Kane moved down the line and Nyko continued to eye him darkly.
"If you ask me, he should stay in SHOE until the end of his sentence. Better for the rest of us, right?" Lincoln stated, coming up behind a few more people in line to collect his lunch.
"Mhm," Nyko grunted, slopping them same food on Lincoln's tray.
"Let's say we mess with him until he breaks?" Lincoln suggested.
Nyko only responded with a smile and nod in agreement. Then Lincoln continued down the line.
Kane sat down at an empty table but was shortly accompanied by Sinclair, who sat down across from him.
"How've you been?" Sinclair asked.
"Fine," Kane stated shortly.
"I want you to know that I think it was unjust for them to throw you in SHOE for what you did. You were only trying to do the right thing," Sinclair complimented, but Kane's lifeless expression was unchanging .The two continued their lunch in silence.
A slop of gray food was suddenly hurled across the cafeteria and splattered against Kane's face. Sinclair jolted upright in surprise, but Kane did not acknowledge it but to wipe it off.
"Hey!" Sinclair shouted. Kane reached across the table and grabbed Sinclair's wrist.
"It's fine. Don't worry about it," Kane whispered to him. He spotted Lincoln from across the room smiling smugly, wiping his gray slopped hand on a napkin. Everyone else at his table had burst out into laughter.
Officer Harper started for Kane's table and swiped her hand against his tray, throwing it to the ground.
"Oops. I'm sorry," Harper faked an apology – as though she didn't mean it. She joined the rest of the lineup of Officers along the lunchroom wall as they struggled to hold back laughing. Lincoln's table burst into rib-cracking laughter as they watched Kane pick up his tray and attempt to pile the gray slop back onto it. He placed the tray calmly on top of the trash can and exited the cafeteria with a less than amused face at the young officers.
"Hey, Kane! You forgot your pudding!" Bellamy called after him.
Later that night, Kane went to his bunk where he met up back up with Sinclair, who was reading in his bed. A sour smell had filled the air and Sinclair was wrinkling his nose at it under his shirt that was pulled over his face.
"Where have you been all day?"
Kane pulled back the covers to his bed and found moldy pudding smeared all up and down his mattress.
"Well, now we know where the smell is coming from," Kane responded.
"Ah, geez. Those guards said they were doing a bunk check today! It's no wonder they took so long! It had to be them!"
"Don't worry about it Sinclair," Kane put a hand up to calm him. Down the hall they could hear banging, followed by agitated shouts of anger. Kane smiled as he stripped his bed.
"What was that?" Sinclair sat up in his bed to look down the hall.
"I may have made a few adjustments to the Officers' chairs in the break room and the Grounders' beds."