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"This isn't how it's supposed to be. It hasn't been like this for over ten years. Hell, not even 20," said Jinx. He stormed over to me and grabbed my shoulder, spinning me around.

                I know I was told to stay out of this guy's way. But he wasn't staying out of mine.

                "Is there a problem?" I asked.

                "Oh, no," Rock muttered when I said that. I heard people throughout the giant cafeteria start muttering small things. Shit. I shouldn't have said anything.

                He leaned forward and grabbed a fistful of my shirt, then yanked me out of my seat. He pulled me up to his face and glared at me for a minute.

                "The only problem, sweetheart, is you talking back to me," he growled. He let go of my shirt and roughly shoved me back into my chair before walking out of the room.

                Everyone was completely silent. The entire room. No one moved.

                "Girl, you's absolutely fuckin' insane," Shag finally said.

                "And absolutely fucking lucky," said Red.

                "If any of us had said anything like that, we'd still be getting beat senseless," said Blaze.

                "Oh shit. I get it now. That's what you meant in line. You're the one who made the food," Big said.

                "I, uh... yeah," I said.

                "HELL YEAH!" some dude screamed from the back of the cafeteria. Everyone broke into chatter again, the room resuming to its normal noise level.

                "Damn, if they liked you before, they really like you now," said Jake.

                "Shit slaps," said Corey.

                "Slaps? What kind of fucking words do you guys use?" Blaze asked.

                "He's from Canada," Sam quickly said. That was the stupidest fucking excuse I'd ever heard, but I couldn't have come up with a better one.

                "Oh. Makes sense," Blaze said, starting on his food. Me and the trap guys all suppressed our laughter, completely amazed that that excuse worked.

                We ate our lunch, everyone much happier with this food than whatever they usually got on Fridays. Throughout the meal, the Center guys would occasionally chuckle in disbelief that I'd spoken to Jinx like that with no consequence.

                Considering how amazed they were that I wasn't getting repeatedly kicked on the floor, I decided I shouldn't do that again. Ever.

                It was yard time after that. I watched eight of the guys play some basketball while Rock was the referee. I was sitting on the side of the court in the dirt, my back leaned up against the tall chain link fence sporting coils of razor wire at the top. I barely noticed Ray walk over.

                "Can I sit?" he asked. I nodded in response. He plopped down next to me and started plucking some blades of grass. "You've got some guts. You know that?"

                "I gathered that from everyone's reaction," I said.

                "You're new. You don't know how dangerous that was," said Ray.

                "I won't do it again," I replied.

                "Good. But if you do and you get away with it? For a second time? Man. Everyone's going to be kissing the ground you walk on," he answered.

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