Straight faces encircled me; front, back, left, right. They were standing in a circle, their shadowed eyes boring into my own, lips barely moving as they spoke;

“You look like a rat,” said one.

“Like a rat that got run over,” another added.

“Smell like one, too,” their voices turned into mere static as they hit my ears. “I bet that’s why he hit you, isn’t it?”

It continued on and on and on. Yet my face maintained expressionless, and I kept my mouth closed.

‘Nothing but white noise,’ I thought to myself. Drilled it in my thoughts. ‘Nothing but white noise, nothing but white noise, nothing…’

Half an hour went by before I was freed from the circle, switching places with another girl. Jess.

You should know that me and Jess have been friends since childhood. How could we not, when our mothers - best friends themselves, had forced us together from the second she took her first breath?

But now, as she was standing in our midst, we were nothing but strangers.

Her eyes held mine, empty at first. The insults started up again.

“Hey, Jess, what are your plans after school?”

Jess’ mouth remained closed.

“You do have plans, don’t you?”

“Or would you like to end up just like your father?”

The boy next to me nudged me, hard. “What, are you not going to say anything?” He urged me.

A pool of dread formed in my stomach, and I resisted the urge to swallow. All the eyes were on me once again, Jess’s included.

That cold wave washed over me, keeping my body upright and my face straight. Numbing me down to my core.

My throat conveyed nothing as I said, eyes on the boy instead of Jess - my one weakness;

“She can’t end up like a man she has never known.”

When our gazes locked again, she cracked. Just the tiniest bit. A twitch of her lips, a shimmering in her eyes. It was enough.

The men in white had taken ahold of her before she could respond. Grabbing her by her arms, they dragged her away.

“Any form of emotion will mean further punishment.”

Yet Jess’ facade had broke. She struggled in their hold, trashing her legs uselessly, begging; “Please, no, I barely did anything wrong-“

But the guards just pushed her through the open school-doors, bodies stiff as one said;

“Well done, sweetheart. Just earned your mother’s eviction too.”

With that, the door closed, and our group broke apart.

The realization came minutes later;

Jess had lost.

There was one less competitor to go.