Everyone was finding their groups. It wasn't a matter of preps and nerd here, though. It was a matter of crimes. The thieves were collecting in their little packs, the petties and the car jackers and the pickpockets. The assault kids tended to avoid each other, but every now and then they would get together and have a silent, bloody fight that ended in at least one broken bone. The few arson kids spoke together quietly. They were twitchy and kept looking at the buildings' structural integrity. The mutants peered into the other groups, and sometimes were allowed entrance. The ones who were rejected sat in a silent clump, backs together, alert for assault. The prostitutes were a whining mob, trading hair tips and makeup and clothes and begging for attention. The kids on drugs grouped together by substance.
None of these groups liked the loudmouth ginger. None of them liked the quiet albino. None of them liked the hard-faced Goth girl. Fortunately, none of the victims of their rejection gave a flying fuck.
The three sat together in the lunch hall because no one would join them, and they refused to join anyone else. Badou ate everything the various dining servers put on his tray, then spent the rest of the time asking if he could finish Heine's food. He tried to ask Naoto once. She pointed her plastic spork at him in a meaningful way and said, "You like having at least one eye, right?"
When they weren't eating, there didn't seem to be much else to do. Kids sat around, swam in the lake, hit each other with rocks, and found friends to smuggle them drugs and alcohol. Badou made it his project to climb every tree in the forest, declaring that he was "practicing for my career as a ninja spy." Heine wandered. Naoto wandered as well, and Heine was very careful that their paths never crossed. A few counselors yelled about the buddy system, but Heine was determined. Naoto seemed to walk around the same area every day, carrying a large stick, so it was easy to avoid her. Maybe she was drawing something on the ground. Maybe she was secretly an arsonist. Maybe she was trying to dowse. Who knew?
Sometimes, Heine took Nill wandering with him. She liked the outdoors but she wouldn't leave Bishop's church alone. They walked in silence for the most part. Heine kept his hands crammed in his pockets, elbows tucked against his sides, and Nill would flit around and touch everything. She seemed amazed at every flower and leaf that she spotted.
"You've seen trees before, right?" Heine asked her once.
She looked at him with a very clear expression. Duh.
"Why are you so amazed by it all then?" he asked, even though he knew she couldn't answer.
Nill looked thoughtful for a moment. Then she looked at him seriously. A slow smile grew on her face as she looked around her, then back to him. She looked dazzling as she spread her arms out wide, like the wings on her back, and took in the whole world.
"You still like all this?" Heine said. "Even after all you've seen?"
Nill nodded without hesitation.
Heine snorted. "You're better than I am."
Nill shook her head empathetically and wrapped her hand around his shoulder.
Heine flinched but nodded at her after a moment, a single jerk of his head. "Thanks," he said.
A kid with horns sticking out of his head fell out of the tree.
"The fuck?" Heine yelled, jerking upright and pulling a gun from the small of his back. Nill clamped onto the tail of his vest.
The kid rolled onto his knees and raised his hands. "Sorry! Sorry! Badou said he was a faster climber than me and I said that was bullshit so I agreed to race and I have to practice but then I fell and I'm sorry!"
Heine's gun vanished and he rolled his eyes. "Goddammit Badou."
"Dude." The kid with the horns was staring at the space under Heine's arm, looking like he was finally getting a concussion from falling out of the tree. Heine glanced behind him. Nill was peering out, eyes wide with surprise.
"Um, hi?" the horned kid said. "I'm Yohra."
Nill nodded at him, stepping carefully out from behind Heine. She looked up at Heine then looked at Yohra.
"You've got wings," Yohra breathed. Nill failed to hide her smile. When Heine didn't say anything, she nudged him with her shoulder.
"She's Nill," Heine sighed. "She can't speak."
Yohra's face fell into one of absolute regret. "Aw man, I'm really sorry about that, Nill. Do you do sign language at all or somethin'?"
Nill shrugged and shook her head.
"She makes herself understood," Heine said. Nill smiled up at him but Heine was glaring at Yohra. "You a mutant?"
"Yeah," Yohra said, scraping a hand through his messy hair and hooking two fingers on the horn that stabbed out over his ear and followed the curve of his skull until it ended just past his forehead in a deadly-looking point. "What of it?"
"A lot of that around here," Heine said.
"We kinda gotta stick together," Yohra offered.
Heine shrugged. "She's not here with the rest of the criminals—"
"I can tell," Yohra sighed dreamily. He quickly looked away, turning pink. "I, I mean she's not wearing the shirt."
Heine's mouth tightened into a frown. He tugged the zipper on his vest up, trying to cover the camp's regulation yellow T-shirt. It was completely out of place against all of his black leather and pale hair. He shook himself and turned away. "Come on, Nill, we gotta get you back to Bishop. Nearly lunch."
He heard her hesitate, but then her soft steps followed him. Maybe she traded yearning glances with the kid with the horns. Maybe she didn't. Heine refused to turn and look. He didn't own her. He wasn't her brother. He shouldn't even try to worry about her social life.
Still, when she took his hand a minute later, though he left his fingers limp, he let her hang on to him though the woods.