Chapter 6: Visiting Day

Visiting Day came five weeks after the Welcome Trial, and my family was the first car through the south gate.

I knew the car from the top of the east tower. I knew the dent in its bumper.

I came down the stairs fast and found Polly already waiting at the bottom with her arms crossed.

"I'm coming with you," she said.

"You don't have to."

"I know I don't."

The gate yard was crowded with parents and cousins and gift baskets.

Dunstan was standing in the middle of it with his hands in his jacket pockets, glaring at the red stone walls.

Bea sat in the back seat with the door open and her feet on the gravel.

Zachary stood beside her.

"Cassie!" Zachary said, and then stopped, because I hadn't smiled.

"Hi, Zachary."

"You look different," he said. "You look good. Healthy."

"I sleep eight hours now."

Dunstan turned around.

"You've got a lot of nerve," he said. "Mom hasn't slept in a month."

"Mom made me a cup of something bitter every day for eighteen years. She'll live."

"What does that mean?"

"Nothing. Why are you here?"

He pulled a phone out of his pocket and held it out.

It was mine.

"Mom said to bring you this. She said you could have it back if you come home."

I took it.

"Then I'll take it, and I won't come home."

His jaw hardened.

"Don't be stupid, Cassie. You don't belong in a place like this. You're a Beta. You said so yourself."

"I said nothing."

"The registrar's line said Beta."

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