For a minute, no one said anything. Not me, not Amy, not Nicole, or the little girl at the edge of my bed, who was named Leslie I discovered. Tears filled my eyes and ran down my face, still, no one said anything. I covered my face in my hands and felt the little girl crawl up beside me. "Don't cry June! We love you, and I'll help you with the baby if you want." But then she was removed from beside me, I looked up to see what had happened but all I saw was Nicole carrying Leslie out over her shoulder and Amy was leaving the room close behind her. A few minutes later my door swung back open and angry Nicole came barging in. "You took my little Layne's freedom! How dare you! Burn in Hell!" "Mum! I've had the baby for two months and I've only been here a week, how could it be Layne's!" She sat back a moment and actually thought about what I said before making further notes on the subject.

"It's another boy's. His name is Greg Stalk." "...Stalk? Does his father's name happen to be Gene?" I nodded my head, not sure where this convorsation would go next. "That boy? No, no! He was such a good little boy when I knew him! I grew up with Gene, up until the point he cheated on me with Jen his wife. They had five kids and the oldest was Greg, he use to baby sit Amy when she was a little girl." I didn't have anything to say, so I kept my mouth shut. She looked at me, waiting for a response she wasn't going to get. "Aren't you going to apologize?" I shook my head, "No. Because I did not ask. Greg asked me, and I only agreed because he seemed pretty embaressed when I didn't reconize what he was trying to do. So, no mum. I will not apologize." She didn't say anything else, she just stood up and left the room.

The next morning no one came in to wake me up, no one brang me break fast, no one even walked by my room. I slowly pulled back my blankets and walked very unsteadily to the door. Quietly opening it. I walked all around the house and found no one, before I actually let myself panic I walked into the kitchen, searching for a note or some sign of them coming back. Finally, I found a little slip of paper on the kitchen chair that I claimed as my own. "Dear June, we went to go get some food. Be back soon." I crumpled the note and sat down in the chair, allowing myself to rest. I picked up a strand of my now blonde hair and ran my fingers through it, twisting it this way and that. Attempting to braid it, then failing and trying again. It felt like only three minutes had gone by but when I looked at the clock, it had been over two hours that I had sat there playing with my hair.

I heard a loud bang and jumped up to the door to see what it was. Nicole was unloading Leslie and Amy from the car, but what was the bang? Then, Nicole grabbed the door and slammed it. Another bang. When they walked inside I had run to my room and was now pulling the blankets back up over my head, hoping they would think I hadn't woken up yet and they would come up to check on me. But no one came still. Finally, little foot steps stopped infront of my door. I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping the door would open but nothing happened. The foot steps made no more steps, and the door made no  signs of being opened or even touched for that matter. After a while, the little foot steps wondered off again. I let out a sigh and sat up, "You're not even going to come wake me up?" I screamed at them. Soon enough, Nicole walked in my room. "June. I've decided that you staying here would not be the best choice for the girls. I don't want them to be influenced or, damanged by having an unmarried, young, pregnant woman in the house. You need to leave."

"You're kidding right?" Nicole looked down and shook her head. "I have no where to go! I'm eighteen almost nineteen, I can't go live in an orphanage!" "Maybe you'll be lucky and find another family." "No. No, I will not go live with another group of people that I'm going to get attached to and lose. I'm done." I grabbed my jacket from Layne's chair and walked out of the room, out of the house. Leslie called for me, but I just shut the door. I only walked about three miles before I began to get tired and dizzy, that's when I lost my dinner from the night before. I looked up and saw a muddy figure running twords me, running fast. So fast I turned around and tried to run away but soon stopped to puke again. Hands touched and rubbed my back and the muddy figure squatted down bside me. "You alright June?" I looked up at the person and tried to make out their face between the mud flowing down it and the rain pouring on it.

"Layne?" I asked, confused. The figure shook his head, "No. It's me, Gaven." I screamed in horror as he wiped the mud from his face. I started to back away but he grabbed onto my shoulder, "Maddie it's alright I love you!" "I don't love you though!" I waitied for him to hit me or something but nothing happened. He only let my shoulders go and dropped his head. "You want to come back with me Mad?"

After a minute Layne let me go and we walked out into the living room and sat down on th couch. Then, there was a knock at the door. "I'll get it," I nodded my head and Layne walked over to the door. There where guards standing there trying to look inside. "Uh...Mum! I need you to come here..." Nicole came out of the bathroom and walked over to the door. The guards began talking but they were too far away for me to hear anything so I walked over to the door with Layne, who put his arms around me as soon as he saw me. "Miss Dorn. We need your son to go with us to war. We don't have enough men to fill the camps so we need your son to help. He is of age and qualifies for the job." Nicole didn't say a word, neither did I. Nicole stood there for a moment and then burried her face in her hands and began to weep.

"We will be back in the morning to retrieve him. Have a good sleep ma'am." How can we sleep when the boy we love is going off to die in the morning? He can't take this, he'll die.  Me and Nicole both knew it too. The guards waiting for a response but didn't get one so they walked away. Nicole didn't say anything but walked up the stairs and shut her door and didn't come out for the rest of the night. Layne wouldn't look at me, he wouldn't talk because every time he tried to say something nothing would come out the way he wanted it to. Nothing made this okay, nothing could ever make it okay. "Come on. Let's go to bed and sleep while we can." I agreed with Layen and followed him to his room. He pulled down the blankets and lay me down on the bed and then layed donw next to me. He began to kiss me, my neck, and then he stopped. "Are you pure?" He asked. I wanted to say yes, but I'd be lying to him if I did. "...No." I said as softly as I could, hoping he thought I said yes. "What!" He flung himself across the bed to get away from me and stared at me like I was some sort of disgusting creature.

"What? Layne what's wrong?" "You...You're filthy!" "No it's okay Layne." Now I was crawling across the bed to get to him and kiss him again but he shoved me away and leaped off the bed. "With who." He demanded. "A boy named Greg...Greg Stalk." Layne nodded his head and then slammed his hand into his forehead. My head began to spin and I felt sick. I began to run for the bathroom but only made it a foot away from the bed before I gave away my dinner on Layen's floor. I expected him to run away in even more disgust but instead I felt him wrap his arms around me and  rub my back until I stopped. He got up and left the room for a minute and I thought for sure he wasn't coming back but a few moments later he came back in with a towel and wiped the puke from my mouth. But as soon as he was done, I began throwing up again. He sat there with me through it all though.

"Are you okay?" He asked. "I, I don't know." Then, I passed out in his arms. When I woke up in the morning he was packing his things and getting ready to head out the door until I called out for him. He turned around and smiled to see me up. He dropped his things and rushed over to me, "Were you going to leave without telling me good bye?" He laughed and wrapped his arms around me and kissed me. "I was going to let you sleep. You needed some rest." "So you were going to leave me?" "I guess so." I tried to stand up but didn't have the strength or ability so I fell back down. Then, the sound of cars coming twords the house and Layne looked at me in a good bye way. He kissed me on the forehead and walked out of the room. I screamed after him and forced myself onto my feet, running down the stairs after him. "Don't take him away from me! You can't do it! Don't leave me Layne!" But by the time he turned around the soilders had his shoulders and were hauling him into the large box shaped car.

I screamed and then began puking again, I felt horrible. Last thing I remember was Layne blowing a kiss back to me and waving, then I passed out. When I woke up I was in Layne's bed, covered up in blankets and a sweaty body that soaked through the sheets. "Mum!" I screamed before puking onto the circle rug on the floor next to the bed. Nicole came rushing in with a bucket of steaming hot water and a cloth. She quickly, seeing what state I was in, rushed back out and brang in am empty bucket and a cold drink of water. She soaked the cloth in the boiling water and placed in on my forehead. It was so painful I began screaming at the top of my lungs until she took it off. "Sorry sorry sorry!" "It's okay mum." "I called a doctor and he's going to come in and see what's wrong with you. He'll be here soon."

A few hours later there was a knock at thedoor and Nicole went running to open the door. Soon enough there were foot steps coming up the stairs and a young man stood in the doorway, looking at me. He looked at me a moment andthen sat on the bed next to me. He poked my stomach and stuck a wooden thing in my mouth. "You're pregnant." "Wha...What?" "You're pregnant. See you guys later. You're due in six months." Then, he walked out.

Before I could ask anything Layne grabbed hold of my hand and said, "No matter what you hear in the middle of the night, you can't scream, or run, or cry. Don't do a thing, just let me take care of you." I nodded my head and layed back down. I heard the door open but didn't open my eyes to see who it was. Then, I felt Layne's body get up and block infront of me. He told me not to do anything so I stayed still, trusting him to take care of whatever was here. Then, it struck me. What was this town's horror? My eyes flashed open and I saw the same black cloaked people walking around in the room with numbers painted on their backs. "Oh my God..." I whispered as Layne shoved me further to the wall, covering me with the blanket and his body.

"Have you seen her?" I heard Gaven's voice say. I dug my face through Layne's arm and managed to see through the cracks between his body and arm. There was Gaven in A Watcher's cloak with number ten and eleven. They were looking for me, and I guess Chelle wasn't the only town with Watchers either. Prim, and maybe some others have them too. They didn't seem to want Layne or his family for anything, they were just looking for me. When they left Layne turned around and wrapped his arms around me, "Don't worry, I won't let them find you." I nodded my head and lcosed my eyes, watching Gaven's frantic eyes searching the room for me again. Then, he looked at me, reaching out for me. I opened my eyes and flung my arms away from Layne. Layne sat up as I twisted all around the bed, trying to get the feeling of Gaven's grabby hands off of my body.

I kicked and smacked at the air until Layne sat me in his lap and held down my arms and legs until I settled down, "June! I told you, they're not going to get you! I promise!" He dried the tears that were dripping off my chin and kissed me on the lips. "It's alright." I sighed and layed back down for the last few hours of night that we had. In the morning we were awoken by Layne's mother storming into the room and peeling the blankets off of us. "June, in the kitchen. Now. Layne. You to." Layne and me ran down to the kitchen and sat in chairs, waiting for mum to come in. When she did, there was a bottle of liquid in her hand and she was wearing an apron and rubber gloves. "Alright June. Come sit here in the chair." Slowly, I got up and sat down in the chair that was infront of her. I felt a wet feeling in my hair and realized she was pouring the liquid in the bottle on it.

"What are you doing?" "We are dying your hair blonde so The Watchers don't reconize you." I didn't say anything else, I didn't even know what dying hair meant. Was she going to burn all my hair off? Dying hair...Ew. I shook my head in a twitchy kind of way as the cold stuff ran down my neck. "Oh! Sorry about that dear. I'll wipe it off with a towel." I didn;t even bother to respond because again, I had no idea what she was talking about. Layne sat in the chair across from me, his patient eyes waiting. Watching. After a long time she tapped my shoulders and told me to stand up. Then, she walked me to the bathroom and told me to get in the shower. I watched as she walked out of the room and I peeled my shirt off the top of my head and then slid my pants off down my legs. One by one I put my feet into the large tub. Then, I turned the knob and it began raining in the spot I was standing, I was so startled I screamed. Layne rushed into the room, me being naked seemed to not bother him the least bit.

He walke dover to me and turned another knob that made the rain warmer. Then, he smiled at me and closed some sort of wall between us. I pressed my face up against it and watched a blurred vision of Layne shut the door. Then, I ran my fingers through my hair and let the warm rain continue to fall on me. I stayed in there for nearly an hour before someone opened the door and opened another door that trapped me inside the area that rained. Layne stood there, smiling. Then he held up a towel and wrapped it around me. "Mum!" He yelled as she opened the door behind him. She held out another towel and began scrubbing my hair with it. "When this is dry, you'll have blonde hair like mine." But, when it was dry it was not blonde. It looked more like straw and mud stuck all together. Mum ran her fingers through my hair and then looked at my face, "You don't like it?" "No, no mum! I like it but, I thought it would be like yours." She half smiled and then replied, "Your hair was too dark to make it like mine."

Layne walked back in the room and dropped his jaw and didn't say a word. Tears filled in my eyes and I covered my hair with my hands. "You hate it don't you!" I screamed. Layne rushed over to me and pulled my arms away from my head and grabbed my shoulders so I would look him in the eye. "no, no. June. You look beautiful. I was amazed by you beauty, I think you look wonderful." He brushed my bangs away from my face and kissed the top of my cheek bone. He grabbed the back of my head and pulled it into his shoulder.

She closed the door and then took a key out of her pocket and locked him in. "Hey!" I said, almost yelling. "You can't do that to him!" "Sure I can. And I can do it to you too." She said. Then, she grabbed my arm and lead me up the stairs into the room she locked Layne in. "You stay here till dinner!" She yelled. And with that, she hurried off and slammed the door. I screamed and threw things across the bed room and then suddenly stopped. This looked like an older boys room. Was it John's? I coulnd't remember what the bed room Layne had shown me earlier looked like so I began picking up the things I threw and putting them back where they belonged. I slowly sat down on the bed and brang my knees tight to my chest, letting little air into my lungs. I closed my eyes and began to rock myself back and forth, thinkning of Gaven. Gaven, why did I ever leave you? Are you alright? Gaven, I miss you! I forced back the tears in my eyes and removed the thoughts from Gaven that were beginning to come back into mind.

Finally, the door flung open and Layne's mother stood there. Looking at me sternley. "I thought about what you said. I have decided that I do need to stop treating Layne like a child. I guess I just don't want him to grow up. You know?" I nodded my head, having no clue what she meant. And then, she broke down in tears. "I just miss my John!" She cried. Then, she rushed for my arms that desperatley clung to my sides. Afraid to comfort her. I patted her back with my left hand for about a minute and mumbled, "it's going to be alright," to her. She jerked away and then wiped off her face with her long white sleeve. "I'm alright dear, don't fret." Like I was going to. I thought to myself. She patted my head and then unlocked Layne's door.

I was expecting someone to dart out of the room and run away from this crazy woman. But, instead. No one moved a muscle. Mum just began to weep. "My Layne! He's gone too!" My heart began pounding and words didn't make sense anymore. I ran into the room and looked around only to find an opened window and bed ssheets tied together, leading out of the window. "Layne!" I screamed out the window. In another spit second I felt my feet hit the hard, dark ground outside of the window and felt my feet take off running down the roads. "Layne!" Louder now. "Layne!" I screamed until I heard a soft laughter behind me."Looking for me?" I turned around and saw that same autumn colored hair boy smiling at me. I felt relieved and angery all at the same time and ran into his arms, hitting his chest with my fist as hard as I could. "I thought I lost you, you loser! Don't ever ever ever, do that again!" I screamed at him, waiting for him to scream back.

But instead, I heard a very soft, sweet voice that I had never heard before. "It's alright. I'm here. I'm safe. I won't ever leave again, I promise." He hugged me tighter and kissed the top of my head. Then, he took my hand and we walked back home. When we opened the front door mum had settled down and Amy was eating pieces of watermellon. Mum didn't even say anything, she just looked at us and became more relaxed. "I'll see you guys in the morning. Goodnight." Then, she went to bed. Layne tood there, shocked I guess. Shocked because for the first time in his life, his mother didn't scream and cry like her baby boy had just went through the downtown part of town. He kind of smiled and then we went upstairs into his room. He turned me around and told me to hold on while he changed. So, I waited until he was done and then changed myself. Him, covering his face with a pillow.

I yawned and climbed into the bed with him. Tucking the blanket into my side for warmth. Layne was behind me, snoring until I smacked him. "What?" "Stop snoring you pig!" "Gees, sorry." And the rest of the night was silent. Almost too silent until the birds made some sort of an awful screeching noise. I sat up straight and would have screamed if the hand wouldn't have covered my mouth. I followed the arm to the body it was attached to. It was just Layne. He held his finger to his lips and looked at me. After a long time he took his hand off my mouth and kissed my cheek. "What happened?" I asked. "Just stuff." But I could tell it was so much more then what he was trying to fool me for. But, I lay back down and rested my head against his chest. It wasn't worth worrying over if Layne wasn't going to tell me. He was clearly not telling me for my own saftey.

Layne's mother looked at me for a moment and then headed upstairs. Layne took off his brown jacket and threw it to the floor and then waved his hand for me to follow him. "So," He began, shoving an apple piece in his mouth that he stole from his sister I believe. "Hey! Layne that's mine!" She squeeled as he rolled his eyes and walked away from her. "What rich person you want to work for?" He ask, pulling out a list of names. "Uh, well. I don't much mind." He threw back his head as if he was going to laugh but soon looked back at the paper. "The three nicest people on here would be, Mrs. and Mr. Polx, Mrs. Brutus, or Mrs. and Mr. Fric. Your choice." I looked around for a moment and then grabbed the paper from his hands. He reached forward to snatch it back but he couldn't reach it. "It says that they're the meanest of all these people!" I shreik. "Why are you trying to get me to go there!" I say, frowning at him.

He cocked his head to the side and then began to bite on his finger nails, "I don't know." The little girl sitting at the table lid off her chair and ran out infront of me and Layne. "He did it because he's a big fat meanie head." She said. She crossed her and arms and began to shake her head violently. "Okay, well. Can you tell me who the nicest people are?" I ask. She rolled her eyes and grabbed the paper, forcing me to bend down to look at it. "You see this girl right here?" I nod my head. "She's the nicest. I don't know how in the world to pronounce her name. But she's nice." And with that, she dropped the paper and stormed off upstairs. Layne picked pieces of apple from his teeth and spoke through his teeth to me. "She's a brat, right?" I shrugged my shoulders and he grabbed my wrist. "Come with me." He guided me upstairs and into an empty room. We stood there for about ten minutes before I finally asked what it was.

"This was my la mere and pere's room." I couldn't decide on what 'pere' and 'la mere' meant so finally, I asked. "It means mother and father. Dumb ass..." This was the moment that I finally got fed up with him and smacked him with the back of my hand, leaving a red mark. "You sir need to watch what you say!" I yelled. He glarred at me and then made a low growling sounds, don't ask why this scared me, but it did. I turned on my heels and ran down stairs, his foot steps being not even a foot behind me. I screamed as I slipped on the hard wooden floor in the kitchen and landed on my face. My head hit the floor and I turned on my back just as he sat on me. "Get off!" I yelled, squirming under neath him. "You are so childish!" I screamed. He stuck his tongue out at me and began to let the spit slid out of his mouth and hang it over me. "Ew! Layne!" Then, the spit dropped. Landing on my eye. I screamed, knowing how childish my next action was and screamed as loud as I possibly could, "Mommy!"

Everyone knows that no girl that is about to turn eighteen should still be using the word mommy. Layne jumped off of me and stood by the counter and his mom walked in. "Layne! What did you do!" Layne shrugged and got himself a glass of milk. His mother bent down and held out a hand to me, "I'm sorry. Layne is very, very, childish." "Am not!" He argued back. "Layne! You are nineteen years old and you still do this crap!" She screamed at him. He wrinkled his nose at her and then put down his glass. "Mum!" He yelled at her. She looked sharply at him, "How else am I suppose to act!" She rolled her eyes and him and looked back at me, "My names Nicole by the way. You can call me mom, mum, mummy, mommy, la mere. Doesn't matter. I apologize about my son, he may look handsome but, he doesn't act like he is. This is how he was treated his whole life so he doesn't know how else to act."

I nodded my head even though I didn't fully understand why he had to act so stupidly. I grabbed the towel that Nicole had handed out to me and wiped the spit from my face with it. When she left the room Layne did something that couldn't have confused me more. He ran over, wrapped me in his arms and kissed me. Not a short mommy kiss, but a long, real kiss. After a long time, he finally broke the kiss and looked at me. Neither of us said anything. After a moment he leaned back in to me and kissed me again. This time even longer. I could feel the inside of my body start to tingle as it spreaded through out the rest of my body. Then, therte was a quiet but harsh, "Ew." From the other side of the room that made me and Layne jump away from each other. Layne rolled his eyes and tucked me back in his arms, "Go away Amy." "Um...You shouldn't be kissing on your girlfriend in the kitchen. It's nasty." "Go away Amy! You're seven what would you know about kissing!" Then, she rolled her eyes and walked out of the kitchen.

She closely resembled her mother but nothing of the little sister resembled Amy. Amy had thick straight autumn hair that, like her mother's, hung just to her jaw and curled underneath of it. But the little girl from earlier had bright green emerald eyes that glistened and thin dark brown hair that reached all down her back. It took me a while to realize that again, Layne was kissing me. I quickly squeezed my eyes shut and hoped her hadn't seen what happened. Foot steps came twords the kitchen but Layne didn't pull away. I tried to get my body out of his grip but nothing happened. I opened my eyes and saw Nicole, standing in the door way. Arms crossed. She took a breath and then walked over to Layne, grabbing his ear and jerking him away from me. His eyes got wide beore he realized what had happened and then he moaned. "Muuuuum!" "Don't you mu me young man." And now I understood why Layne acted like a child, he was treated like one. She sent him to his room.

I ignored the cries behind me as I turned my slow walk into a sprint. It was fall and all he leaves were falling, catching the curls in my hair and getting stuck. Leaves covered the ground and a rock that was infront of me. I took another step and trippeed over it, landing on my front. I took a minute and rolled ovr on my back and looked up at the sky, ""Why don't you take me now?" I said to myself. I heard crunching ahead of me and I looked up to see what it was. A boy aout my age stood threw, his bow and arrow drawn, aimed at my head. "What's your name." He asked as I slowly stood up with my hands up as if I was being arrested. "June. June Day." I said, lying. He looked at me suspicously and then, slowly, drew down his bow. "June Day? I've never seen you around here. Where you live." He said, looking aroundas if someone was watching us.

"My family died in a fire. I managed to escape and I didn't know where to go so I just ran." He studied me from head to toe and then stepped twords me. "Well, I'm Layne Percher. Sorry about your losses." And with that he turned around and headed off. "Wait!" I screamed after him. "You're just going to leave me here!" He smiled and walked back twords me and grabbed my arm. "I wondered if you'd let me walk away." This boy had autmn colored hair and brown eyes that match the color of milk chocolate. He was charming and had a deep, soothing voice that calms you down. We had only walked about a mile until we came to a small town that had ashes every where and was dark. Everyone there was poor and had ragged clothes and dirt on their faces.

"What town is this?" I asked as I looked at the children with their worn clothes and dirty bodies as we passed each one. "Prim." He said, not even ignoliging the people around him. "Why is everyone so dirty?" I asked in a hussed voice. "We just had a coal mining expolsion. Lots of fathers and brothers were killed in there and no one has food now." "So, how's your family?" "We lost my older brother John in the explosion. I'm too young to work in the mines and my father left us for another lady in Norm. I go out illegally in the woods every day and hunt." "Have they ever caught you?" "No." We came to a door and he threw a bag he had been carrying over his shoulder and opened th door. "Hey mum! I got us some food and a girl!" A young looking woman peered down the stairs. She had blonde hair that only came to the bottom of her jaw and curled under.

She walked down and grabbed the bag and looked at me, "Who's this?" "Her name is June. I found her in the woods, her family is dead and she had no where to go. I figured she could stay with us. Maybe work for the Careers and make some money for us." She looked at me, eyes wide. Her eyes were a rich brown like Layne's but huge. "You're willing to work for the Careers?" "Who are the Careers?" I asked, confused. "The rich people up north of here." I tilted my head back to think and then nodded, showing my aprooval of working for them.