Juvy part 5

“Stay away from Juvy,” a voice behind me said. I turned and was surprised to find that the words had come from a handler. He looked sad as he said, “You don’t even know half of what you’re getting yourself into.” I straightened my back and said, “I can handle anything.” More sadly, the handler said, “I hope so. I hope you can handle what he’s hiding.” He turned and walked away from me. I watched him, my head spinning with thoughts. What did he mean? Was he talking about what Juvy had done? I didn’t care what Juvy had done. But as I thought about the handlers horribly sad expression, something in me told me that there was more to this story than I knew, and I needed to be careful. I needed to hole on to the only thing they couldn’t take from me: my heart.

Juvy walked up behind me and put his hands on my eyelids. “Guess who?” he said, not even trying to change his voice. “Why don’t the handlers yell at you ‘get back to work’?” I asked. “They always do it to me,” I muttered. He laughed, “Yea, there’s some advantages to being me. Much more disadvantages, but still.” He started playing with my hair again as I continued plowing. “A handler just told me I should stay away from you,” I told him casually. Juvy looked angry as he said, “He should mind his own business.”

“He looked really sad,” I added. Juvy sighed and said, “Yea, well, I would be pretty sad too if my job was to make sure teenagers didn’t escape from a camp.” I laughed lightly but I knew there was more to this than he would let show. I figured that when someday arrived, he would tell me. “So,” he continued, taking one of my hands off the plow and rubbing it against his cheek, “How are you liking this plowing job?” I took my hand back and continued plowing. “You shouldn’t do that,” I said, “my hands are dirty. You’ll give yourself acne.” He shrugged, “Yea, well, I’ll probably get acne anyway. Its not like they give us Proactiv every night and say ‘use it wisely.’” I smiled half heartedly. I heard laughing and looked up to see a big group of hiking kids laughing and pointing as they looked in from outside the fence. Juvy noticed me staring at the kids and said, “Whoever thought of putting a hiking trail there was way out of their mind.” He walked over to the fence and punched it in towards the kids. They kept laughing as they ran away down the trail. I sighed, wishing more than anything to switch places with them. “You’re a tough girl, aren’t you?” Juvy asked me. Surprised by the question, I turned to him, grinned, and said, “Very.” He gave me half smile and said, “I’ll see you at dinner, Girl.” I watched him walk away feeling very confused. The handler had been right. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

© 2009