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"Sixteen cans," Ritchie said with disgust "How are thirteen people supposed to survive on sixteen cans of food?" He was standing and eating, anxiously shifting his weight side to side It le and writhe in the sunlight
"Cally We had one bad drop, it’s not the end of the world," Will said
Ritchie huffed and rolled his eyes, as he turned his back to Will
"Look at howat the two gangs on either side of them The Loners were sandwiched between the Skaters and the Freaks, black hair on one side, blue on the other There were close to fifty Skaters, and roughly a hundred Freaks Both gangs were still eating, still tearing open new loaves of bread, and opening new cans of food The Loners couldn’t afford to open any more cans until tomorrow
Other than Ritchie and Will, they had lost all of their best fighters in the escape Belinda was slow Mort was half a cripple Lucy herself was new to running in the drops, and she’d tried her best, but she’d only et one can of stewed toht in every drop the Loners ever took part in, they hadn’t fared ed Belinda gently
"It’s okay, Bel," Lucy said
"You know Freddy, that boy I told you about?"
"The Nerd you kinda sorta started dating?" Lucy said with forced levity
"Yeah" Belinda’s voice went softer "Back in the processing facility, he said I could join the Nerds if I wanted …"
"He’s probably just flirting with you," Will said There was an edge of irritation in his voice Lucy looked over and saw that Will had been listening to theuys ca over from the Skaters One had his head shaved except for black polka dots of hair, and the other had the top of his head shaved like he’d gone bald Both of thes that Lucy had seen Skater girls selling They’d cut V-necks into their crew neck T-shirts They walked right up to Ritchie
"Wassup, bruiser," one of them said
"You were pretty impressive out there today," the other said
"Oh, yeah? You think so?" Ritchie replied
"What is this?" Will said to Lucy She could hear Will’s anger building
"Listen,Skater We could use a solid fighter like you"
"We got a half-pipe, rails, we have lots of in-gang coirls," Polka Dots said
"Girls?" Ritchie said Even though Lucy didn’t like the idea of losing Ritchie, she couldn’t help but find it cute, the way Ritchie’s voice went up when he said the word girls Like a hopeful little boy
"Oh, yeah, bro Tons of chicks Unless you’re dating a Loner, y’know, I don’t knohat you got goin’…"
"Fuck no," Ritchie said Lucy went back to not finding anything about Ritchie cute
"You’ve got to be kidding otten to his feet and strode over to Ritchie, pointing his finger in his face as he yelled "Are you serious, Ritchie? Skaters? You don’t remember our run-in with them in the commons? One of them set your arm on fire!"
"I had a jacket on," Ritchie said
"That’s not the point You think you can trust them?"
"Hey, that was a special situation," one of the Skaters said
"How’re you gonna skate your half-pipes e broke your boards?" Will said
"We’rehis are men," Will said
The Skaters put up their hands and backed off
"We’re gonna bounce Think about it, huh?" one of them said to Ritchie before they walked off
Will focused back on Ritchie "What do you think you’re doing, man?"
"You’re mad at me? Look at Leonard," Ritchie said
He pointed across the quad to where Leonard was standing by the Geeks Leonard had a lock of purple hair clipped into his ohite hair, and he was checking hiirl held up for hi, happier than Lucy had seen hiet it," Will said "Does Leonard not re a knife to David’s throat? Belinda, did you forget that the Nerds a crazy here You don’t want to be Loners anymore, just like that?"
Silence settled on the quad, and at first, Lucy thought that Will’s words were so powerful that they’d brought a hush over the crowd, but then she saw that a group of the kids from the outside had just walked onto the quad They all had white hair, like Loners For the first tiuns They stood by the hallway, squinting up at the sky The one with long hair and one red eye stood at the front of the rest