Kara had never had good experiences with friends.

Her first friend had been in kindergarten, when her mother had been happy and healthy. The girl had been named Lydia, a rather slow but still pretty girl that had been held back several years already, and her black hair had fascinated Kara into chasing her all over the playground one afternoon trying to steal it and put it on her own then-blonde head. Lydia had giggled and giggled, and the two became inseperable. However, Lydia soon grew to be boy-crazy, while Kara stuck with her 'cooties' philosophy. The two drifted slowly apart, until they had nothing besides gender left in common. The last time Kara had seen Lydia was that morning, her arm around Alice's shoulders.

In second grade, there had been Jack, the comical brunette boy that used to hang around with all the girls and tease them for the attention. Little did Kara know that Jack's father abused him, so he craved attention. Kara gave it to him, and they would always traipse around at recess arm-in-arm, chasing random people and giggling helplessly. However, Jack went home one day and never came back. Kara never found out what became of him, though she had formulated some pretty good guesses.

Kara had tried once more, in 6th grade, with Andrea, a smart girl who was two years younger than Kara, having skipped several grades. The pair were the 'gienuses' of their grade, until Kara's mother got sick and she was home three out of five days taking care of her through the first few rough weeks. Andrea had been there for her the whole way, helping her catch up on homework until her mother and siblings moved far away with her in the summer of 7th grade. Kara had cried for hours after she left; she hadn't been allowed to tell anyone where she was going, for whatever reason.

So Kara was skeptical when Ben asked to sit with her at lunch. Still, she complied, and they sat down at Kara's usual table which was, as usual, empty just for her.

"Not many people here, hmm?" Ben asked idly, sitting down across from Kara, next to the wall.

Kara snorted. "Just you wait," she assured him. "First come the popular girls, then the boys, then the wannabe popular girls, then the other girls, then more boys...." She trailed off. Ben was laughing.

"What?" Kara asked indignantly. "It's true!"

"No, not you," Ben said, "look!"

Sure enough, in marched the popular girls, all wearing bright pink and milling around in their girlish way.

"What's so funny about that?" Kara asked Ben, who was now doubled up in hysterics.

"I...just..." he gasped, then he started laughing again. Kara raised an eyebrow, but she found herself grinning, and, soon, she was laughing too, clutching her stomach as tears rolled down her face.

When Ben seized control of himself, he took one look at Kara, and started laughing again.

They laughed for no reason for half the period. It was something Kara had never done in her entire life, and there was something freeing in it. She could now see what Ben was laughing at; the way the girls gossiped and flocked around magazines was so foolish and pathetic. They looked like a big flock of pink pidgeons with purses.

"Oh...wow," Ben sighed, brushing stray hairs out of his face.

Kara made a face. "They're so stupid. Alice, that girl right there? She claims that I was the one who set her house on fire!"

Ben looked incredulous. "What?" he asked, his jaw ajar. "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life. She...oh, wow...."

Kara rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I was home with...homework," she finished hurriedly, not wanting, for some reason, to tell Ben the real reason that she knew it wasn't her.

Ben just nodded. "Stupid homework," he added. Kara knew that Ben could see right through her, so she occupied herself with a sandwich.

Ben cleared his throat, and an awkward silence ensued.

"So...er...where do you come from?" Kara asked, tilting her head and letting a wisp of black hair tickle her nose.

Ben grinned. "I come from South," he said, nodding with his head in the general direction of the South side of the dome. "My family and I came to North because we w-wanted new scenery."

Kara nodded. "Yeah," she said. "No kidding. I'll bet all those government buildings got boring." Everyone knew that They had Their HQ somewhere in South, but it could be one of many high-security white buildings housing government things that ordinary people did not understand.

Ben smiled shakily, and Kara knew that, for whatever reason, Ben wasn't telling the whole truth. However, Kara shrugged it off. Did it really matter?

Ben quickly changed the subject. "That science teacher," he said in mock-suspicion, "I don't like the looks of her."

Kara snorted with laughter. "Mrs. Ryerson," she said. "You get used to her eventually."

Ben nodded. Then, looking at Kara closely, he asked, "how old are you?"

Kara blushed slightly. "Fifteen," she said.

Ben raised an eyebrow.

"Honest!" Kara said defensively. "I just...got held back a few times. It's not that I don't understand it, I just never have time for homework."

"How come?" Ben asked. Kara knew what he was thinking; she had just said that she had been working on homework before. She had lied once. She knew he knew it, and he knew she knew he knew it.

Kara shrugged. "My dad...died," she said, "so I do a lot of housework. Cooking and things, you know? Mom's...not one to do those kinds of things."

Ben nodded sympathetically. "I'm sorry," he said.

Kara shrugged again. "We're better off without him," she said truthfully. "He was a pain in the --"

A bell rang, and Kara jumped, startled. Lunch was over. Incredulous, Kara realized that, for the first time in a long time, she hadn't been just watching the clock to see when she could get out of the lunchroom.

"What's that bell?" Ben asked, getting up as Kara did. "Are we late?"

Kara shook her head. "No, we just have to get out of the lunchroom now. Unless you want to get harrassed by the shrimpy sixth graders," she added with a grin.

Ben laughed. "I'll pass," he said jokingly, walking with Kara into the crowded hall.



Kara wandered home that afternoon with a smile on her face. Kara already considered Ben her best friend, and, as far as she knew, he considered her the same. She had learned that his mother worked as a teacher for small children, though he hadn't said much about his father, only that he was nice. Kara had told Ben about her own father leaving, but, for a reason she couldn't figure out, she didn't say much about her mother.

Kicking a stone on the sidewalk, Kara's stomach sank. Her mother. She had almost forgotten about that. She probably had a few more days, but her mother would soon be back to haunt her.

Sighing, Kara gazed up through the tree branches to the painted sky. It seemed flat and lifeless, just like she felt. Her happiness deflated like a popped balloon.

Soon, Kara arrived home. She walked past a white Control Officer car parked nearby without a second thought, but she was rather startled, to say the least, when two men leaped out from behind some bushes and grabbed Kara's arms.

Kara screamed in terror, and desperately fought against the strong grasps of the men. "Let go, let GO!" she sobbed in terror. "Please, I didn't do anything wrong! You're looking for something else!"

"Hold still," one Officer said fiercely, and something in his voice made Kara freeze in fear. "Bethane knows that we're after you. Don't worry about your mother, we'll take care of her."

Kara shuddered. "Why do you want me?" she asked, breathing heavily. Officers only used force with serious criminals, and Kara couldn't think of --

"You know perfectly well why they want you," said a wry voice from the car. Alice stepped out, followed by her mother and father. She had a bruised cheek and a black eye. Kara suddenly felt sick with guilt and nerves. Alice could woo anyone. She'd learned it from her parents.

"I didn't!" Kara gasped. "You know that!"

"We'll see about that," the Control Officer said, and he and his partner threw Kara into the car.

Suddenly, Kara heard a furious shout. Bethane was running along the sidewalk, holding an iron pipe in her clenched fists. "Away from Kara!" she screamed in a voice most unlike her own. Kara had just enough time to see that her eyes were rolled into the back of her head before she leaped onto the nearest officer and a horrible battle ensued.

Alice screamed, but Kara didn't hear her. Her mind went blank with horror. Bethane's hair was a mess, and she looked primal and crazed. That was not her, Kara was sure. She got out of the car in a frightened daze, and grabbed Bethane's shoulder. "STOP!" Kara shouted into the woman's ear, and she froze before sinking to the ground and going limp.

Kara screamed and very nearly fainted herself. "Oh my God," she breathed. "What happened?"

The Officer that had been attacked had a bloodied lip, but he was otherwise unharmed. He was livid, however, and he grabbed Kara with bone-crunching force. "I'll ask you that, you witch!" he roared, throwing her back into the car. He threw Bethane after her, and slammed the door on the both of them.

Kara couldn't cry through her haze of fear, so she shook Bethane's shoulder wordlessly. Bethane stirred, and hoisted herself up with one manicured hand.

"Kara?" she asked groggily. "What's going on? Where -- oh no, how'd I break that nail? I'll have to --"

"We're in a Control Officer car, genious," Kara hissed. "What the hell was that show you put on back there?"

"What show?" Bethane asked, dazed. "I was just in the kitchen, cooking, when I breathed in too much steam or something and now I'm here! Kara, what happened?"

"You're not kidding," Kara murmured as Bethane sat up and adjusted her hair with a concerned expression on her face, completely ignoring Kara. "BETHANE!" Kara shouted, and Bethane leaped a foot into the air.

"Chill," Bethane said disapprovingly. "Just take a deep breath and turn down the freak."

Kara clenched her fists until her knuckles were white. "Bethane," she hissed, "you attacked the officers with an iron pipe! You're telling me you don't remember that?"

Bethane blinked. "Are we, like, on TV or something. Okay, where's the hidden camera. Jig's up."

"There is no hidden camera!" Kara shouted in frustration, receiving a scolding yell from the Officer driving.

Bethane lifted her hand to give the Officer a bit of backsass, but she froze and stared with wide blue eyes at her palm. "Oh, my God," she breathed.

"What?" Kara asked, peering over Bethane's shoulder before gasping herself.

Bethane's hand was covered in the Officer's blood.