Smiling Oak's Academy for the Insane.

"I don't miss them."

I thought to myself as I sat alone at the lunch call.
To be honest, I did hate Smiling Oak's, due to boredom, but being there was better than Harolscore High, or Pency Prep, as all the kids called it. I wasn't the center of attention at Smiling Oak's. I wasn't Miss "Popularity". There weren't guys crawling on me and trying to have sex with me, or girls hating on me or trying to sabotage me. Well, except for Skull, but she never tried to hurt me... not right away, anyway. I was as attractive as any other young woman there. This satisfied me greatly.

Innocence and the crew sat at the table with me. Innocence sat across from me, Skull and Harlequin sat beside her and Basher sat beside me.

"He ya, pal!" Harlequin said. That was the first time I heard her speak, I think.

I waved back.

"Having fun?" Basher asked sarcastically for no reason.

"Nope." I said.

Skull glared at me, already downing her Turkey sandwich, and breathing like an old obese man.
Harlequin slurped her sliced pears in light syrup, dripping the juices onto her chin and licking her long nails savoringly. Do you think that sounds right? Because it looked a million times worse.
Basher didn't chew her cupcake, nor the cherry on top of it.
Innocence didn't eat at all. Instead, she slid a piece of notebook paper across the table to me. "Read." I couldn't come close to understanding it. Seriously, she spelled it out in Webdings.

"Okay. What the hell is this?" I said.

Basher started cracking up. "I told you, Miss Innocence. She wouldn't get it, and she clearly doesn't belong here."

"That's because she hasn't been here for an ever." Innocence snatched the paper from me. "It says," she cleared her throat, "Dear young "insane" women,
If you can read this, you have the potential to escape Smiling Oak's." she began to whisper, "If you want out, play sick at 11pm eastern standard time on Friday night."

I was puzzled. "Then what?"

"Not aloud." She said in her normal tone.

I lifted my eyebrow. "Hm...Okay..."

"Look," she went back to whispering, pulled me by the collar and narrowed her eyes, "if you know anything else, meet us in the academy at two. Clear?"

I nodded, still puzzled.God, I was stupid that day.

"Good." She shoved me back, her eyes still narrow. Here eyelids were darker than ever when she narrowed them, and there was a hint of red in her brown eyes. "Now it's time to eat." She sounded young and happy, like a five-year-old playing with their toy cars, but she had the same look on her face. Then she looked down at her sandwich to find it half-devoured by Skull.
Innocence slammed her cupcake in Skull's face. "You bitch."

"Why'd she call it the 'academy'" I asked Basher as we walked around the courtyard during "recess" (It was pretty much the only time of the day that we were allowed outside, and today it was particularly sunny and flowery. Bees were buzzing and sunflowers were high, some taller than us.

"Well," Basher said, answering my question, "everyday, we learn something new in there. Like last week, Skull learned why you're never supposed to yell at Innocence for an extended amount of time, especially while she's got a certain look on her face."

I laughed. "What happened?"

She shook her head, lower her voice and continued without answering my question. "Each day, we learn about who is..." she made an 'X' with her fingers. "You remember yesterday, right? I know you heard us talking."
She was talking about when they were in the 'academy', talking about who was terminated and missing. It seemed so wrong.

I nodded, still puzzled. "Why do you do this?"

She shook her head again, as if she had no hope in me. "You'll get it soon."