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E
E . J . S CHW A R T Z. J . S CHW A R T Z

shower heads being one bonus of this place, acting like I was
a normal human being.
If I didn’t love her before that, I did after.
“You guys remember Alyssa?” Donna asks as she read-
justs her wide yellow headband. She said she cut off her front
bangs in fifth grade and when the hairs grew back, straight

up, she started wearing headbands over her ears and around
her forehead to hide the sprouts. Then after six months, head-
bands felt more comfortable that way and she’s worn them
incorrectly ever since.
I wonder if Donna knows she’s the ugly one too, the way
I am next to Rowan.
“Alyssa,” Donna says her name again. “Short. Stumpy.
Slurred her s’s?”
The Gray girls nod and I do too. Alyssa was a Blue girl a

month ago, released back into the wild after we threw her a
go-home-and-don’t-come-back party, decorated a cake no
one wanted to eat.
“Remember how she faked her period so they lowered her
goal weight, and she gained the last five pounds by stuffing
quarters in her underwear, then got out on early release?”
Rowan nods, but I’m in the dark. Maybe this was during

the three weeks Rowan was here before I checked in. She seems
so sure of Alyssa’s deception, like she played a hand in helping
her escape.
“Back up. How do you fake a period?” I ask. Very few
things slide past the nurses here. I suspect Nurse Hart would

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