53. Boredom (Prussia) [part 2]
xXx
Being under lockdown sucks.
For one, you were stuck in a solitary room in the Detention Center for a whole twenty-four hours. No entertainment center, no computer, no phone (not that your parents even bothered to get you one anyways), and no communication to the outside world. Food was brought for all three meals, but they sucked shit. And the only form of entertainment was in the form of (vandalized) children's books, a bunch of board games (all multi-player), a stack of papers, and a box of pens. Located to the sides was a small bathroom stall, a simple bed with a blanket and pillow, a small couch, and a water fountain.
You scoffed. At least they gave you a light switch so you could choose when to sleep.
"I'll be back tomorrow morning at eight to bring you breakfast," Ludwig said through the telecom on the other side of the door. And then he left.
Sighing, you looked around for a clock to tell what time it was. You finally found one integrated in the bathroom wall. It read: 8:00 PM.
So basically, you had twelve hours to kill before Ludwig came back to break the boredom.
Great. Just great.
xXx
After three hours of reading the same children's books over and over again and drawing meaningless doodles on paper, you decided that you couldn't take it anymore. Tossing the books to the side and marching straight to the locked door, you tried opening it by turning the handle. No success.
As you inspected the lock, a voice suddenly blared on the telecom, "Hey! It's Alfred! You there?"
"…yeah, I'm here."
"Awesom—I mean, that's great! Hey, I don't think you ever told me your name."
"I haven't," you replied. "Hey, can you tell me what the keypad on the other side looks like?"
"You trying to break out?" When you didn't answer, Alfred chuckled. "Fine, I'll tell you. But you have to tell me your name first."
You hesitated, but said, "It's [Name]. Now tell me how many numbers are on the pad, and how many buttons there are besides numbers."
"[Name]. That's a pretty name. Uh, there's ten numbers, 0-9, and there's an enter button and a cancel button."
"Thanks. Do you know where Ludwig is right now?"
"He's off campus for his night job, so his cousin and his cousin's girlfriend are taking over security. The pansy rich-boy you don't have to worry about, but the lady's pretty scary with her frying pan."
As you worked the lock with your pen and hidden credit card, you smirked. "Frying pan? You wouldn't know this by experience, would you, Al?"
Through the telecom, Alfred laughed nervously. "Of course not! I just—hey, you just called me Al!" His voice sounded happy.
You paused in your work. "So?"
"No, it's just…never mind. Did you figure out the lock yet?"
"Yeah, I'm just having a little trouble with getting the pen to catch."
Alfred whistled, but the sound came out as a screech through the speaker. "That's probably the fastest time anyone's ever gotten. It took me six hours in before I figured it out. Of course, I don't think anyone will ever beat Romano's and Feliks' record. Those guys are lock-picking menaces."
"…do they do regular checks on this room?" you asked, just as something in the lock clicked and beeped. Putting a cautious hand on the handle, you slowly opened the door. No alarms…good.
"Great job," Alfred congratulated, grinning from ear to ear. "It's only 11:00 and you've already committed your second offense!"
"What was the first one?" you asked, quietly closing the door.
"You tried to pick a fight with Gilbert. Not that that's bad, you know." He gave you an impressive look. "But dang, you're a level four case? I'm only a two."
As you followed Alfred down a hallway to a door that lead outside, you asked, "What do levels have to do with anything?"
"Levels have to do with a lot of things. The higher the level, the more dangerous the student. There's six levels in all, and each level is treated a certain way. As far as I know, there's only two level 6's and a few level 5's here. A lot of us are in 2 or 3. What did you do to get a 4?"
"I killed someone," you said jokingly.
Alfred simply shook his head. "You'd be a 6 if you did."
You stared at him for a moment, and then said nonchalantly, "I get into fights. That's it."
"You must be really good then, if you've been sent here because you fight." He rolled his eyes. "Everyone fights here."
"Oh really?"
"Yeah, you wouldn't believe ho—shit!" he hissed. Quickly, he looked around and pulled you into a shadowy alcove and shushed you.
You were smart enough not to protest. Footsteps sounded alarmingly close, and you could hear voices talking nearby.
"…and then he gave me a flower," a female voice said happily. "That boy is so sweet. I've always wondered if he and Lovino were really twins when they're so different from each other."
Another voice, a male's, replied, "They were raised differently, that's all there is to it."
"Ha, ha. You would know about that, Roderich. Wasn't your family and the Vargas family close?"
"Yes, they were. But we separated from them a while back. In fact, I hadn't seen either of the twins until Ludwig started working here."
Alfred and I tried not to breathe as the footsteps grew closer. Suddenly though, they stopped.
"Uh oh! Did you remember to call Ludwig?" the woman asked.
"No," the man said in surprise. "Come, we should do that now. Room checks can wait."
"Okay."
As the footsteps and their owners slowly faded away, you finally pulled away from the hiding place and looked around.
"Were those two the night guards?" you asked.
"Yep," Alfred answered. "Like I said, the dude's not as scary as his girlfriend." He sighed. "Looks like I can't stay to give you a tour, [Name]. Sorry about that, but I don't feel like getting assaulted by a frying pan again. You don't have to worry. They don't check the Detention rooms."
You laughed. "It's no big deal. Is there some place I can just sit down outside?"
Alfred thought for a bit. "You could go to the roof. But I think there's someplace else you'd like better." He smiled. "Do you like climbing trees?"
xXx
The breeze that wafted through the tree leaves felt wonderfully cool against your skin. Above you, the stars were like glitter against a satiny, velvet sky and below, crickets chirped a gentle lullaby. Peace and quiet lulled you into a sense of calm that you hadn't felt in a long time.
Times like this, you wished that there could've been more opportunities back home. Maybe if your parents had backed off a bit and let you be for a while, then you wouldn't be stuck here in this godforsaken camp for the rest of your school life.
"…stinking West had to go and put me under confinement," a raspy voice suddenly said below you. Startled, you nearly fell out of the tree. But somehow, you managed to orientate your body on the high branch enough to peer down through the leaves and see…
It was Gilbert, the arrogant prick! You leaned forward to listen to what he was saying.
"Damn it, what do I do now?" he huffed, leaning against the tree trunk. "Argh! This is so not awesome! It's all her fault. Just 'cause she's a level 4 she thinks she can just do anything she wants. That bitch."
Surprisingly, your anger didn't overtake you. Instead of leaping down at him like a madwoman, you just sat back and tried to relax while ignoring the albino below you. Unfortunately, this was impossible with him shaking the tree so much—
Wait, he was shaking the tree? Holy crap, Gilbert was climbing up!
xXx
