I glare at him with pure disgust. He smiles back. He’s awful. He’s wretched. He’s pure vermin. He’s cute. But I all ready hate this boy. “So. Did you have fun today?” He asks me in a mock tone while positioning himself next to me and putting his hands out towards the campfire. I’m about to spit out something vile and nasty but stop at the last moment. I must pick every word carefully here. I clear my face of all emotion and begin to reply.

“I’m sorry,” I say, coating my words in false sugar. “But I’m not supposed to speak to strangers,” and smile at him and scoot away.

“Ah,” he says. “But you know me.” And then he lowers his voice. “So tell me,” and he pauses to look at my name card. “Tell me Kora, uh... ma,”

“I’m sorry. Do you need me to help you read it? Remember I comes before E except after C,” I say, giving it right back at him.

“Well I’m Giv. Giv Williams.”

“Kora Majd,” I say. “My mother is Greek. My father is Persian.”

“I see a story there?” He asks as if I would tell him.

“No,” I say coldly and look away. Suddenly I feel his breath at my ear and I feel myself automatically pull away. “Why are you here?” He asks in nothing more than a whisper, thats carried away by the winds. I let the act down for just a second because I’m genuinely confused.
“Why. Do you care. So much?” I ask, staring into the strangers eyes. They are deep blue and I can see the flames lap up and down in them. I close my own eyes and shake my head. I’m about to tell him to just forget it. To leave me alone. Whatever school boy crush he seems to have developed for me will only get us killed. Though they make it seem like a fun summer camp we all know this is nothing but an institution. There are no second chances where I come from. Its no different here. “I can tell that you are different. That you might not be here on your own free will. I just am curious to know more about you.”

“Curiosity killed the cat,” I whisper and I get up, but then realize that no only do I have nowhere to go but I can’t go. So I sit back down and let the fire consume me, everyone’s eyes suddenly on my because of my quick movement. I watch the fire crackle and sputter at times but it quickly regains its power. It rises up into the sky, powerful and mesmerizing. And I look at all of us, huddled around the campfire, like best friends. The fire is the fear in us. Created by them, controlled by them. And though I hate myself for it I don’t want this boy beside me to die. Though he is tall and muscular he also has a childish ora about him. I’m all ready in too deep with this kid. I all ready have some sort of emotional connection that I cannot afford if this new place it going to be my life. We can’t both get out. So I might as well just hope that its someone else that has to do it and not me. I know that he’s been observing me from a distance a lot. For all I know he could be a spy, though I highly doubt it. But still, it wouldn’t be the first time the government set a spy on me.

Its because I see what the others don’t. Its because I have the brains to see what most people either don’t or chose to overlook. So I turn by head to the boy and lock eyes with him. And then I shake my head just once and pray to the heavens above that he understands what I’m saying but that no one else does. I think he recognizes the motion, even if its not completely understood, because he looks away from me and scoots away. So I’ve pushed someone else away from me. And I can’t feel bad about it. Because that head nod I just gave him, that signal, that passing of information, may be the only thing left that can save his life.

Because now he knows.