The bus ride to the prison was bumpy under the watchful eyes of guys with guns in gray uniforms.
Juliet had distaste for what she was wearing, but for a woman who supposedly just shot and killed her boyfriend, it was perfect. She wore tight jeans, a tight shirt that was too small and a ragged jean jacket that looked more than a decade old. Juliet also wore a pair of shiny bracelets she remembered putting on other people before, but never recalling herself wearing them in the past.
Juliet tried to look tough without trying to hard. The woman beside her was glaring through the window while popping her gum.
The bus finally reached the dark barbed wire fences of the prison.
"All right, ladies," a man with dark sunglasses and a bright badge on his chest shouted to them. "You'll get out of the bus in an orderly fashion. You'll get your new clothes and change into those. Once you do that, you'll give your clothes to one of the boxes down there."
Juliet let out a breath. So this was what happened to the women she put away.
The girls got out one by one down the bus under the hawk-like gaze of their new guardians. Juliet already felt really uncomfortable but did not show it. She needed to be tough; she's supposed to be a cold-blooded killer. Not some frightened mouse.
She walked carelessly with her head tilted to the side and a frown on her face. Pretending like she didn't care about anything, especially her situation now.
It was very embarrassing dressing in front of the guards, especially since those guards were male. She could feel their eyes scanning her in a way they shouldn't. But Juliet was calm and she acted like nothing was going on and like she's done this hundreds of times, throwing her street clothes in one of the plastic boxes and handing it to where she was supposed to.
She was calm. She was tough. She can do this.
*
The woman in the cell Juliet was escorted to scoffed when she saw her.
"I thought I'd be getting a cell alone after Margie transferred, Billy?" Juliet's new cellmate said.
Billy the guard gave a small laugh before opening the cell for Juliet to go inside and then he left.
"So what are you in for?" her cellmate sat on the right bed where there were a few pictures taped to the wall behind it. Taking the hint, Juliet claimed the left.
"Police think I shot my boyfriend." She said casually as she sat on her new bed. "They don't got any proof, though."
"Hmm," the woman with dirty blonde hair and a lip piercing smiled. "Same here, only it was my husband. I'm Sherrie."
"Jules," Juliet had long decided that Jules sounded much better than Juliet.
"Jules," Sherrie tried the name out, "my son's name is Julian." She turned slightly and pointed to a toddler with blonde hair smiling at the camera with chocolate over his face.
"He looks a lot like you." Juliet observed.
"Yeah," Sherrie then turned her back to the wall. "Thank God for that. His father was ugly as hell." Sherrie smiled and Juliet took that as a cue to chuckle.
She heard around that Sherrie Adrians was part of the murder gang. And she did thank her lucky stars she was getting on her good side.
*
"Shawn, what are you doing here? I thought Lassiter was supposed to meet me?" Juliet said over the phone as she saw Shawn through the dirty glass.
"Yeah, but he got a little bit busy and I convinced him to allow me to come," Shawn replied, smiling. "So have you made any new friends?"
Realizing that he was disguising "suspects" as "friends", and remembering that they recorded these conversations, she played along. "Not really, but my cellmate is pretty nice."
"What's her name?"
"Sherrie."
"Hmm… so when you get out, are you going to be like one of those hardened by prison girls?" Shawn smirked and Juliet rolled her eyes and hung up.
Shawn had to tap on the glass to get her attention back as she turned to leave.
"What?" Juliet picked the phone up again.
"Lassie told me to tell you to make friends as quickly as you can."
"What does he think I've been trying to do the past couple days?"
"I think that he thinks you're here for the food." Juliet had to laugh at that statement, it was definitely not for the cold chili. "Although, I don't know, I think you're here for the outfit. You look nice in orange."
"Thanks, Shawn," Juliet said tiredly as she was about to hang up the phone again and end the conversation.
"Jules!"
"What?" she repeated with annoyance in her voice.
Shawn glanced down at the other inmates talking to family and friends. Most of them looked like you would never want to cross them in a dark alley.
"Just, be safe, Jules."
"Thanks," she said genuinely and hung up the phone and left.