The lights illuminated my room at 7am; as always. My eyes snapped open and I sat up and stretched my arms and back. I looked through the glass walls of my chamber and saw that everyone else was doing the exact same thing as me.

Everyone had the same chamber. I like to refer to them as cells, but the officers insist that it’s a chamber and I guess when your life is on the line you might as well just go with what they say. So there, our chambers are all the same, it’s a small box that holds one bed and a dresser. That’s it. There aren’t any windows, however, three of the walls are completely glass. The only wall that’s brick is the one that shows the outdoors, everything else is glass. That means that if you’re getting changed everyone can see you. But it’s okay, they tell us that it doesn’t matter because we’re all the same anyway.

I changed into some brown cargo pants, a white t-shirt and a blue vest. Hell, everyone changed into that. You had to from Monday to Friday. On the weekends it was The Test. You had to wear your own clothes on the weekends. If you make the right choices, you move up, if not, you either move down, or don’t move at all. It seems like a simple test, but a lot of people hate letting go of their strange clothing.

I heard my lock snap open and I knew it was time to get out. I opened my door, stepped out, turned towards the exit and stood there as I waited for approval and for the rest of the people on my level to get their asses out too. Thankfully, we all knew the drill, so I was only standing there for about 45 seconds. I smiled at my friend when he walked out; Jeffree.

Jeffree was a cool guy. I mean, we all knew he wasn’t going to get out alive (Hell, he even knew it), but he was still cool. Jeffree has an awesome sense of humor; totally sexual. Jeffree is also a transgender. He doesn’t like the term drag queen since he’s never a boy. His hair is pink, his eyebrows are pink and perfectly plucked, he eats very selectively so as to keep his muscle and fat down so that he keeps a good body proportion... Sometimes I wonder how I was considered not masculine enough; I’m plenty more masculine than Jeffree will ever be!

An officer walked by us and made sure we were all wearing the proper clothing before letting us walk off in single file to the cafeteria. We all walked silently in complete synchronisation. I felt like I was some sort of man made robot.

Breakfast is always the same; butter and toast with a glass of orange juice. If that isn’t enough for you, then you can take some vitamin pills. Although, not many people take the pills, this place is known for practicing medicine on us. Usually they only do that to certain people and you know when it’s happening to you, but people are still scared.

Jeffree and I sat together at a table with two other girls.

“Hey,” I greeted. They smiled at us.

“Morning!” Kerli greeted as she picked off the crust from her toast like she did every morning. Kerli was a cool girl too; at first glance she doesn’t look strange at all, but on Saturdays and Sundays it’s very evident. She’s got the nicest blonde hair you could ever want, and these gorgeous eyes; it’s a shame her 18th birthday is coming up and she doesn’t seem to be in any mood to change.

“Hey boys,” Alicia greeted. Alicia was evidently strange; her hair was short, and she had more muscle than a girl was allowed to have. The tattoos didn’t help her situation either. She’s been trying to grow her hair out the whole time, but last year she got really upset with the officers and cut her hair as an act of rebellion. Unfortunately, she’ll have to wait for it to grow out again before she can ever even consider being let out. Lucky for her she’s still 16; she’s got time.

“Where’s the slut?” Jeffree asked.

“Ashley is still on her level. Some girl didn’t wake up on time and she had to get the lecture from the officers and she still has to change and then they all have to get approved and... yeah, I don’t know when she’ll be down,” Alicia explained.

“Why do you always refer to her as the slut?”

“Because she looks and acts like one,” Jeffree replied with a shrug.

“The same could be said about you,” Alicia retorted. Jeffree laughed.

“I’m a major whore and we all know it! Unfortunately for you I’m proud of it!”

“Unfortunately for you your pride will come back and bite you in the ass; you’ll never get out,”

“Listen, we all know that my rainbow don’t bend,” Jeffree explained. We all chuckled a bit. We all loved how Jeffree just didn’t give a fuck about anything, even if he was going to get executed at 18. He’s made it very clear that he’d rather die than live his life being something that he’s not.

“Ugh!” groaned a familiar female voice as Ashley slid next to me.

“Ash... is everything—“

“Fucking bitch takes 10 minutes to change! God damn... How hard is it to wake up on time? Like seriously! Ugh!” Ashley vented as she bit angrily into her toast.

“Haha! Chill out... Who was it anyway?” I asked her.

“I don’t know her name, but she was young. Probably got here a few months ago; she seems to think she’s on top of the whole damn world,” Ashley groaned as she rolled her eyes. We all nodded. We all knew the type. A lot of the younger kids think they own the place; they think their hot shit or something. I don’t know why, but that’s just the attitude they’ve got.

Although this morning Ashley was in a shitty mood and being completely bitter, she’s not a bitter person. She’s only a bitter person if there’s a given reason, but not a whole lot sets her off. In fact, pretty much everything turns her on. Jeffree wasn’t joking when he called her a slut; she is. She’s probably the biggest slut here.

“You better eat faster, Ash, the officers are starting to kick people out so we can get ready to ‘see the light’,” I told her.

“Just pretend the food is some guy’s meat stick, I’m sure you’ll gobble that shit down pretty fast,” Jeffree mocked.

“Go to Hell,” Ashley spat.

“There’s nowhere to go; we’re already there,” Jeffree commented. At that moment the officers came by to force us to leave. Ashley quickly shoved the rest of her breakfast down her throat and chugged the orange juice down as we all headed back to our chambers before being led down to ‘see the light’ at 8:30. Seeing the light meant sitting in a circle and discussing why you’re strange and discussing problems and being lectured on how to be normal. It sucked, but it was useful; unless you were Jeffree who was absolutely convinced that they were just feeding us a load of BS. Needless to say, Jeffree was always sarcastic and never really paid attention at the meetings.

“Mr Jackson,” said a deep voice from behind me as I was walking back to my chamber. I turned around and saw an officer there behind me. I stood straighter.

“Yes sir, what can I do for you?” I asked. I know, don’t remind me of how totally scripted that response is, because it’s exactly that. Scripted. That’s how you always talk to an officer. Always. No matter what.

“I want you down in the meeting room 15 minutes earlier than usual, your chamber door will be unlocked at the given time,” he told me.

“Understood sir,” I replied. Yes, I was curious as to why I had to be there earlier, but you don’t question the officers. You do as they say when they say it. They’re always right.

When the time came for me to head down my door snapped open and I was quick to get out of there. I wanted to be punctual and on time; keeping a clean record always looked good. As I walked past Jeffree’s chamber he eyed me with jealousy. I just laughed as I continued on and as I looked into everyone else’s chamber it was clear that they also wished that they were me; walking about outside of the chamber. To be quite honest this was the closest thing to freedom I have ever felt.

I got down to the meeting room and was greeted by a woman in a grey suit with glasses resting on the bridge of her nose. It was Mrs Stein. She was probably in her mid-fifties, and she was the one who helped us See The Light. She smiled at me brightly.

“Mr Jackson, nice to see you on time,” she said. I smiled back.

“It’s not a problem,” I told her.

“Are you wondering why you’re here?” she asked me. I nodded.

“Little bit,” I chuckled. She smirked as she pointed across the room where there were two boys sitting on a bench with their hands in their pockets or wrapped around their bodies. One looked more nervous while the other looked more or less pissed off.

“Meet Bill and Tom, they’re going to be your assigned little buddies,” Mrs Stein told me.

Oh fuck no.