Page 29 of Undone
I thought about each of these girls who the Baelese had chosen to keep alive. They were all American, of course, but of different races: White, Asian, Hispanic, black, and Middle Eastern. Now that I thought of it, the younger boys in Primo Town were all of different heritages too. I put that thought aside to ponder later.
“Okay, I’m Ms. Remy. We have to stay in our bunks, and we won’t be able to see anything, so we’ll have to do this by talking. What were you learning last in math or science?”
“Multiplying,” said Macy.
“I was learning cell stuff in science,” Gaby said.
I smiled to myself in the darkness. As a kid, I prided myself on the multiplication tables, and as a college student I loved cellular biology.
I got started by going through the basic multiplication rules, then focused on twos. This was tough without being able to write or show anything. I would have to verbally quiz them, like spoken notecards. We did that for fifteen minutes. I didn’t want to keep them up too late.
“We’re going to focus on a different subject each night,” I explained. “And we’ll end with vocabulary. I’m going to tell you a story. If I say a word you don’t know, interrupt me and I’ll give the definition.”
I tried to think of a middle grade or young adult book I really loved that they might not have read yet, and I decided onCinderby Marissa Meyer—a neat, futuristic sci-fi take on different fairy tales. Each night I’d tell a little of the story, trying to throw in as many big words as possible, until it was time to sleep.
After about fifteen minutes of storytelling, it was so quiet I thought for sure they’d fallen asleep. “Girls?”
“You’re not stopping, are you?” Savani asked.
“Yes, we need to get to sleep,” I whispered.
“Aw!” The moment a few of the girls uttered this sound of disappointment, the door flew open, and several of us gasped.
“What is going on in here?” the female guard asked, shining a bright flashlight.
I covered my eyes. “One of the girls was having a bad dream.”
“I-I’m sorry, Miss,” Gaby stuttered. Wow, well played.
“Go back to sleep,” the woman ordered. Her words washed over me with a calming sensation that made me snuggle down into the thin mattress and close my eyes. When the guard turned and left us, an unnerving sensation of spiders crawled over my skin and I cracked my eyes again. She had just mind-controlled us.
The space around me filled with stifled fear and nervousness, and I wondered if everyone else realized what had happened too. I waited a long time before saying, “We have to be super quiet and careful from now on.”
“Okay,” the girls whispered.
“Good night.”
“Night, Ms. Remy,” they muttered sleepily.
I didn’t relax until I heard them all shuffling around to get comfortable, then going still and breathing regularly. Then I smiled to myself as I turned onto my side. It wasn’t much, and it was far more reckless than I’d normally be, but for the first time since the Baelese attacked our world, I felt like I was making a difference.
