Xiaohui was in such a shock that she forgot that she is still holding onto ili's hand. When she realized, she released ili's hand like it was a hot potato.
Xiaohui opened and closed her mouth a few tis, unsure of what to say. Since they were captured, she and ili were close, she saw her as a friend, and she believed that ili saw her as a friend as well. Is it possible that the sa girl who held her through the uncertain nights and comforted her, is this scheming one?
ili's eyes t Xiaohui's and that made Xiaohui speak up: "You… How could you? They saved us and you made us look at them like they are criminals. Don't you have any sha?"
"Sha is for the weak. What will that bring ? You can't understand it because you are a nobody. People with money and power run the world. They take what they want and discard what is of no use. What is the point of being ashad? …"
'PAK'
A hard slap landed on ili's cheek, interrupting her next words.
ili held her aching cheek and looked in disbelief at Esma (one of the girls who spoke with Sarah in the study room about not wanting to go ho).
Esma glared at ili. "What will you do when you get ho? Resu your normal life and act as nothing happened? I can't do that because my family will not take in. I am away from ho for a long ti and these people are the first ones to treat as a person since I've been kidnapped. And thanks to you I doubted them and even put them in the sa category as people who took away from my family."
"I am the sa.", Panya said as she stood next to Esma. "ili, this is not about sha, it's about doing what is right. Don't you have any conscience?"
ili grimaced. "How can conscience be useful?"
While Panya, Esma, and ili exchanged words, Xiaohui was stunned. As a poor child attending the school for rich kids, Xiaohui was bullied a lot, and ili's words that she is a nobody rang in her mind and hit a sore spot.
"Do you really see as a nobody?", Xiaohui asked weakly.
"How do you expect to see you? Do you know that my family is so much above yours? Oh, you don't have a family.", ili paused when she saw that Xiaohui's brows furrowed. "Why are you looking at like that? Are you going to cry? Don't tell that you thought how we will be best friends forever?..."
Xiaohui was in a daze. She could not believe that this is ili. She refused to believe it, but ili is right there, saying all these mocking things, treating her worse than dirt. Xiaohui slowly stood up and walked to the back of the room while tears rolled down her cheeks.
Clamor in the room increased with one girl talking over another.
Rosa (a girl from Venezuela) stood in front of the television and whistled loudly to get everyone's attention. "Let's not waste our ti. Sarah told us to find out who is telling the truth and to decide on a punishnt. Does anyone present have any doubts if Aiden assaulted ili or not? …"
The girls took a vote and out of thirty-three girls who voted, it was unanimous that ili lied. That was the easy part.
The tricky part was that the girls could not agree on what the punishnt will be. The ideas ran from slapping her to removing her clothes and kicking her out to abandoning her in the desert.
During this process, ili sat on the sofa by herself. The other girls kept their distance from ili, like they are afraid that she will infect them with sothing deadly.
On few occasions ili looked toward the door, thinking that she should leave, but every ti her gaze would et one of the soldiers from the army of Chaos whose fierce expression told her that she should not move and that made ili abandon her idea of escaping this uncomfortable environnt.
ili was surprised when Xiaohui approached her. "Did you ever think of as a friend?"
ili rolled her eyes. "Of course. You are kind and you shared your food with . Why would I not think of you as a friend?"
"Uhm… what if I didn't share my food?"
"Then I would find soone who wants to…"
Xiaohui walked away because she could not make herself listen anymore. Part of her hoped that she didn't hear ili right the first ti. But now she can't fool herself anymore. Xiaohui took a deep breath and firmly decided to distance herself from ili.
"Why are you wasting your ti on that garbage?", Femi (a girl from Egypt) asked Xiaohui and tugged her hand to the left. "Let's see what is going on there…"
The one who beca the center of attention was Stacy, a mber of the army of Chaos who spoke out first. Girls sat around Stacy and were asking questions…
"You learned skills to join the army? How does that work?", one girl asked Stacy.
"There is a camp where you get to eat and sleep and between those you learn different skills. I am not a strong fighter yet, and there is a lot to learn so they don't approve to go into risky missions, but I am quite good with knives and electronics…", Stacy was answering questions from curious girls patiently while making sure not to reveal any sensitive information.
"What kind of missions?", Rosa asked.
Stacy smiled. "I am not at liberty to disclose that. But you can guess that us coming here and helping you to reunite with your families is one of the missions."
"So, you are helping people, like angels?", a question ca from the back for Stacy.
"We are not angels. But we do our best to not hurt the innocents."
Es was curious: "How do you know who is innocent?"
"We have a few simple rules to follow. If soone does not attack us, we will not hurt that person."
"What ili did, is that considered an attack?", Xiaohui asked.
"Yes.", Stacy responded bluntly. "You girls have no idea how much boss Sarah and boss Aiden did for us, for the community. So people compare them with demons and devils, but for many of us they are Gods who entered our lives and made the Earth a better place."
Zoey, another mber of the army who was standing on the side, added: "They are still working on it, and we joined with the desire to help them out."
The girls' attention moved to Zoey. "Why did you join? Can you tell us your story?"
"Sure. I am Zoey, and…"
During all this commotion caused by ili, Ernesto was on point to secure sleeping bags and toiletries for everyone present.
Stacy gestured toward the sleeping bags and told the girls: "It late. Please form groups of four and five, take a sleeping bag each and a toiletry set and head upstairs. Soone will show you to the bedrooms and every bedroom has a bathroom. You will find a blow-dryer in every room. We hope that you can organize yourself to get ready for sleep. We know that it's not the most convenient, but this is how much we can do for tonight…"
Each of the girls took a sleeping bag and a towel rolled around a toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, shampoo, body lotion, and a soap. So of the girls teared up when they saw these 'luxuries'.
They all got their things, but no one went upstairs.
"Why are you still here?", Stacy asked.
"We would like to apologize to Aiden and Sarah…", Rosa responded.
"They are busy, and they told us to call them when you decide on the punishnt for ili. You still didn't decide.", Zoey reminded them.
"We did.", Es said, surprising Zoey and Stacy.
Zoey and Stacy exchanged looks. They are not aware that the girls agreed on a punishnt. But maybe it happened while they distributed sleeping bags and toiletries.
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