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I spoke "Okay"

"You’ll wear it then?" Becky said, her voice lightened but her back still to uess I have no choice"

She turned Her face beamed, and she held up the boxes "Which do you want?"

"The watch, I guess"

"That’s whatto her perky old self, though still rattled Guilt eighing down on hts away Maybe what I’d done rong, but Becky shouldn’t be helping the kidnappers, either

She opened the box and pulled out the plain gray atch, and then took it to her desk She popped a panel off the back "You’ll be pleased to know that it’s waterproof, so you can wear it in the shower"

Yeah That reallyI reluctantly sat back down

She inserted a se of her desk "So, this will let you in to all the places you need to go--your dorm, your classroom, any place you have the contract for"

"Contract--what’s that?"

"Oh yeah That’s not exactly a rule, but here’s the ten-second version of how the contracts work: There are a lot of jobs that need to be done around here There are no adults, which ardeners or even teachers So, every couple of weeks, jobs are posted and we bid to see who does what"

Becky brought the watch to ly--impossible to slide off

"We bid hat? Money?"

"Points," she said, sitting down besidefolded beneath her so she could faceto do the job for, and then they give the contract to the lowest bidder When you get paid, you can use the points to get clothes or food or whatever I think that soames"

"Does everyone have to have a job?" I had no intention of helping this school

"Kind of" She smiled, a little ain, too, which sees are different than they used to be Better--way better For a while, it was every ry, and no one was satisfied because the good jobs would get down to one point, and you can’t co with one point So, people started getting together and bidding as a group For example, all of my friends and I bid on the administration jobs That worked a little better, because I wasn’t co with everyone else"

"People want the jobs that bad?" I asked

"Sure," she said with a laugh "You can get so out, we’re kinda stuck here, so every little bit of fun helps Anyway,deals with other groups--on’t bid on janitorial jobs if you don’t bid on ad"

"So, like a union" My foster dad two faanizer, and he was always on the phone trying to get the uess," Becky said "I don’t know much about unions But in the last year or so we’ve been pretty forroups now We don’t bid on each other’s stuff, and that means that we all earn a lot of points"

"I’ll probably have to join one of those three groups, right?"

"Yep," she said "Unfortunately, there’s a new rule"--she pointed at the security caroup I’roup has the adreat if you joined up" She was s with et me to join her weird union And after what I’d just done to her How did I end up here?

I leaned back in the sofa,all day I tried to think of soet s a littlecaed "Don’t be tardy Wear your unifors or alcohol, not that you could get them in here Don’t destroy property You know--common sense stuff There’s a full list in your manual"

Becky stood up She seemed a little disappointed, but I didn’t knohy Was I supposed to try to talk her into spilling the name of her stupid job club?