September, 1964
"I hear Bloody Face is comin' here." A voice whispered.
"Bloody Face?" a second voice whispered back, sounding uninterested.
"That guy, you know, who skinned and beheaded three girls. He's batshit crazy." the strawberry blonde girl grinned and glanced over at her chestnut-haired friend, who bit her lip and squinted at the next sentence in her Agatha Christie novel.
"We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad." The blonde rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair, blowing some strands of hair out of her face.
"Really, Birdie? Quoting fucking Alice's Adventures in Wonderland?" she asked, almost laughing in her annoyance. She was able to tolerate Birdie simply because they were two of the sanest people there.
"It's one of my favorite books." The chestnut-haired girl, Birdie's, eyes darted up at her friend, who smirked. "I need glasses."
"We've all known that. But back to Bloody Face- he's kinda good-lookin', but not in a tough way, in a baby-fat cute way."
"You think any guy with a pulse is good-looking." Birdie stated, turning the page. She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and glanced up at the warden who had just entered the room, returning with some girls who had gone to the bathroom. The blonde followed the warden with her eyes, then looked back at Birdie.
"There ain't no problem with that."
"I'm not saying there is, I'm just saying." The strawberry blonde grinned, shaking her head and chuckling at her younger friend. Birdie squinted at her book again, holding it closer to her face.
"You truly are mad, you know that? You are."
"Penny, I don't give a shit." They were silent then, as one of the wardens had shushed them and another group of girls who had started whispering loudly during their scheduled "quiet time." One of the crazies, as the two had dubbed them, stabbed herself with a knitting needle and began to wail loudly until a warden whisked her out of the room.
"So I think he comes today." Penny whispered even quieter than before. Birdie lifted her head and glared at her on account of being interrupted again.
"Who?"
"Bloody Face, who do you think I'm talking about?" there was a strong exasperated tone to Penny's question and Birdie sighed.
"Well, we'll know when we have common time. Then I'll tell you if he's good looking." a smirk spread on her face.
"I hate how they keep boys and girls separated at the beginning of the day. Like, we all know I'm eventually settlin' one of these boys, just a matter of when."
"You wanna have sex with Bloody Face?"
"Why not?"
"Like you said earlier, he skinned and beheaded three girls. You're crazy." Birdie went back to her book, turning the page and squinting at the first sentence of chapter three.
"That's why we're here, darling," Penny pulled out her pack of cigarettes, shook one out, and lit it, grinning. "As the famous author Lewis Carroll once wrote, 'we're all mad here.'"
