Chapter 20: The Dog Prince
Past
Most of the kids on Jeremy’s bus were part of Group Two, the ones he slept with in the dormitory and sat with during the headphone sessions.
No-one on the bus talked. No-one looked out of the window. No-one acted like a kid.
Jeremy turned to the boy sitting next to him. ‘Hi.’
It took the boy a while to reply. ‘Hello.’ His eyes were frosted glass and he hid a yawn behind his hand.
Jeremy tried to think of something to wake the boy up, something that wasn’t loud guitar music. ‘Want to play together during free time?’
‘There is no free time.’
Jeremy nodded. ‘Not really, but maybe we could sneak a bit in between activities, or before we go to bed or something.’
The boy sighed. ‘There is no free time. There’s never any free time.’ Then he closed his eyes, leaned his head against the window and went to sleep.
Jeremy stood up to see the other kids on the bus. They were all either napping or sitting with the same blank expression. It was pointless to talk to them. Jeremy sat back in his seat, suddenly tired. He should take a nap too, but the bus arrived at the Lab almost as soon as he shut his eyes.
