When Tristayne enters the room, my heart beats so loud that I think everyone will be able to hear it. All of us are ready to go to class, but not ready to be yelled at. It was hard to hear Clara be so angry with us. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her as mad as she was last night. I told Ty not to do it. I told him he’d get everyone in trouble. He said to me that Sailor and Yve were gonna leave no matter what.

“I have to keep them safe Evita. They’ll just find another way to leave. They’re going to get killed without my help. Plus, she has to have some freedom, right? It feels like she’ll leave all of us behind if we don’t help her sometimes.”

I don’t think that’s true though. I think that they wanted to give her a good birthday because they’re going to have to leave soon. They wanted to do something nice.

“Who wants to start?” Tristayne asks. He seems calm. It’s kinda scary. The three of them look at him. He won’t make Yve talk first. They probably talked to each other last night. I don’t think he yelled at her though. He never does. He’s always calm with her. Somehow, she looks like she's more nervous than the boys are. Tristayne has always been sympathetic. He thinks about our emotions first. I guess they all do in a way. He just takes a second to hear what people have to say. Milo doesn't want to, but will if he has to. Clara... she only thinks about herself.

Or maybe Clara just talks like what I think a real mom would be like. None of us would know what having a mom is like. Except for Sailor. He doesn't talk about his, though. I think moms would be people who yell at you because they love you a lot.

Milo just wants to hit something. I'm not sure if that's how dads are. Maybe Sailor could tell us how they're supposed to be. I've heard that trainers are basically your parents, but it feels like that's not true. I mean, they raise you, but they aren't your real parents. Milo doesn’t ever hit people because he knows it’s wrong. There’s anger inside of him though. I think it’s something from his past. Losing a loved one because he just wasn’t angry enough with them. I wonder why he's the way he is.

“Ty,” Milo hisses. “Let’s start with you.”

“I—I, well,” He takes a deep breath in. All he says is what he told me. Yve and Sailor needed a safe way out. They would have done it no matter what. It’s just human nature to rebel. But Ayhirian? I don't think so. Humans like to get adrenaline rushes. We make fun of it a lot, but I think we’re jealous. We don’t want to do crazy stuff for a rush. It's like we just exist.

Clara rolls her eyes. She heard it all last night. Milo will feel the same probably. Unless he interrupted Sailor a lot. I wouldn’t be very surprised. I see him start arguments but not even finish them. If you aren’t the one being yelled at, it’s kind of annoying. I don’t get it.

“How about you Sailor?” Tristayne sits down and puts his arms on his legs.

“I was thinking the same thing as Ty. I wanted to do something nice for her.”

“Other than get her a gift?” I see the edges of his mouth start to curl up, and his eyebrows raise. “I distinctly remember you giving me something to put on her bed. I would have assumed that would have been plenty.” Sailor runs his hand through his hair nervously. He isn’t lying to Tris. None of them were thinking. I think that maybe Sailor wanted to leave too. He and Yve are sometimes the same person. They're so in tune with each other that it's weird.

“I felt like I had to do more.”

“Okay here is what ‘something more’ constitutes as,” Clara interrupts. “Ty. Destruction of property, hacking government equipment, interfering with communication systems, accomplice to a crime. Yve and Sailor. Leaving the facility, turning off your tracker, hiding your identity, accomplice to a crime. Yve, you could be punished more severely. So far you have gathered fifteen strikes on your record from taking to blame.”

“Sailor has more than I do th—”

“Altogether, these are punishable by death. I hope the three of you know that.” Yve hangs her head. She doesn’t say anything more, though. What happened to them out there that has her so freaked out?

“Alright, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way,” Milo begins. “What’s your side of the story?” She stays silent. I can see her eyes dart around trying to come up with something to say. There’s something she wants to tell everyone, but she struggles to say anything. Clara clears her throat, prompting her to say something. Anything.

“I don’t want to—no, I can’t talk about it right now.” She stares straight at Tristayne. Asking him to help her. Milo narrows his eyes at her. It looks like none of us are really sure what exactly happened out there. Except for Yve, Sailor, and Tris. I think, other than that, I’m the only one that knows that it had to be something terrible. She also hates being around Clara. She just wants out of the situation.

“That doesn’t matter. We’ll keep the three of you right here until something is said. Evita is getting off because none of this is her fault. You’re going to talk or not move from that seat.”

“Keep me here,” she says flatly. “I don’t care.” Rage fills Milo’s eyes, but right as he’s about to add onto his comment, Tristayne puts his hand up.

“Her end is something we need to keep quiet for now. I will tell you later Milo.”

“What about me?” Clara puts her hands on her hips. Tristayne stands.

“It’s an Urbe matter.” He says sternly. I was right.

“Are you defending her right now?”

“No, but I think the kids get the point. What they did was reckless and stupid, and there are a thousand ways things could have gone wrong. Reminding them that they could have died over and over is enough. They’re going to be anxious about getting found out. Let them go.” I want to ask what else could have happened to them other than execution, but I’m too scared. I don’t want to fuel the fire.

The adults start arguing with each other, so I move my focus to the other three. Yve and Sailor are whispering to each other and Ty is trying to listen to what they’re saying. Neither of us understand English except for a few phrases. I don’t hear even one word I know. I don’t really care, though. I just want to leave. Suddenly Tristayne turns around and looks at them.

“After training, all of you immediately go back to your quarters. Ty, no electronics. Sailor, no training after hours. Yve,” He takes a deep breath. “No being out after dark.” I can see her heart sink. Without saying anything, she stands up, grabs her bag, and starts to walk out the door. Milo grabs her arm.

“Milo.” Tris growls through gritted teeth.

“We’re not finished here.”

“Yes,” She tells him. “We are.” I’ve never seen the defiant look she’s giving him. The sight of it makes him loosen his grip. I wonder why he’s so startled by her. Before I get the chance to think more about it, she slips away from him and heads out of the door. Once she’s gone, he looks over his shoulder at Tris.

“You baby her too much.” Tris sighs.

“Milo, you know why I do.”

“You should all get going, honestly. I have things to do, and so do you.” Clara tells all of us. Sailor, Ty, and I head out the door. I stay near the door, listening to the argument. Instead of waiting for Ty, Sailor speed walks in the direction of his classroom.

“That was really anticlimactic,” Ty says flatly. I nod, and we keep going.