Marley learns pretty quickly why everyone here walks around like they're in a zombie movie. In fact, he's pretty sure that he won't be much different here pretty soon.

Why? Well, that would because every day it is the same. Exact. Thing.

Wake up, take a shower, breakfast, Supervisor Hookler, school, lunch, freetime, bed, repeat.

They don't serve dinner, he learned. Just two meals a day. Breakfast and Lunch, if you're hungry after that then take food with you—except for, taking food with you is against the rules.

The only excitement is that every once in a while you get called down to a torture room to get—you guessed it—tortured for your weakness. It hasn't happened to Marley again, mostly because he's only been here a week, but he can sense it coming. Like oncoming doom, intense music playing on repeat in his mind because it's going to happen eventually and he can't do anything about it.

About the only inconsistent thing is whether or not Nero will be sleeping in the room with him or disappearing off somewhere.

He has only actually slept in the room with Marley two times since their little chat about rules, and Marley has always tried to be one that keeps his nose out of other people's business. However, his nosy nature is getting harder and harder to hold back as he wonders what is really going on.

It crosses his mind that Nero could be sleeping over with someone–his girlfriend, perhaps. Eli... she seems to be the one he's closest with—but then, if he really did that this much then wouldn't he have gotten caught by now? They do room checks, surely he wouldn't have been able to get away with it this long. However long he's been here.

Maybe he just doesn't like being in there with Marley? And he'd rather risk punishment than stay there with him? Wow, that hurts. Marley knows that the guy doesn't like him but to prefer a visit to Director What's-His-Name then holy shit, maybe Nero's disdain for Marley is worse than he'd first thought.

Now before you jump to any conclusions, the only reason Marley's so obsessed with this is because he hates being alone in there. Alone in general, he just can't deal with.

It's cold, it's lonely, it's dark, and Marley hates it. He calls his mom a few times, and she makes him feel a little better, but he still has the sleepless nights and the shivering from the cold air. The thin sheets do little to warm him and it sucks.

He tries not to be pessimistic—no, really, he does—but this is awful and there is no way around it. No matter what he tries to tell himself: at least his every move isn't under constant scrutiny, at least he lives with someone who isn't scared of him, at least here he can take as long on schoolwork as he likes because they let him go at his own pace, at least he can eat as much food as he wants without being judged by his father...

But he'd be fine with the constant scrutiny if his mom was there, that someone he lives with happens to also hate his guts, he doesn't understand a single thing they try to teach him, and all the food in the world could never make up for Chef Anita's egg casserole.

It sucks. It really, truly does. There's no way around it, he can't kid himself. This is a terrible situation.

Out of all school subjects, Marley has only ever been good at one. That one happens to be, predictably, economics. He has always excelled at that because he has been taught it his entire life.

Everything else, though? English, math, world history, science? Nope, absolutely not and never. He has always needed extra help with those—extra help that he's not getting here.

That lack of extra help is why he's currently sitting at a desk, glaring down at a paper while running his hand through his hair in frustration. Why? Well, probably because he's shit at world history and there is nobody here to help him.

Seriously, why does he need to know this? He has the basics down, genetic mutations that gave certain people special abilities. Said people couldn't be trusted, causing a war that resulted in about half the planet becoming uninhabitable.

The Nocona family rose up, everyone combined under one government, anyone with the mutation of super powers were put under the needed procedures to be controlled and they were peaceful and they all held hands and sang kumbaya and blah blah blah-

But everything else? Nope.

"Hey, do you need help?"

Marley looks up at the quiet voice and spots a familiar redhead, standing a foot away from his desk and looking at him. She hasn't been talking to him a lot—she's the nicest out of Nero's little crew, though.

Yeah, from what Marley can tell, he does actually have a crew. Ben, Eli, Lola, and someone else Marley doesn't know the name of. It also starts with an L, though, he knows that.

"Depends, do you know 11th grade world history?"

She thinks for a moment, then, "I'm pretty sure I passed that, we can give it a try."

She takes a seat beside him and leans over to look at the textbook he'd been previously reading from. It was distributed by 1-A so there are many unknown stains on it and it is missing quite a few pages.

They're a few minutes in when Marley comes across the part about his family. There aren't any picture of him so far, but his father and his predecessors, definitely.

"The Nocona family has ruled over the Westhem for generations. King Allorn Nocona was the first to propose the idea that all abnormal people should be put in facilities..." Lola reads aloud.

It's awkward, hearing his family name in a history textbook, especially when it's about his father and it's regarding a large trouble in his life right now. His own family is the reason he's in this place... if that isn't irony, he doesn't know what is.

Marley doesn't realize he's frowning until Lola points out, quiet as always, "Are you okay? Not to pry, Your Highness..." she trails off, like she didn't properly think through what she was going to say.

"Yeah—Yes, I'm fine." Marley replies, not about to tell her anything that could clue in to disagreeing with his father. He can't do that, not in the public eye, that would really put a blow in their family's reputation. The Nocona family can't even agree on basic laws? What does this mean for the future of our nation? Some random ass politician shares his views, at 10.

Lola frowns at him, and Marley doesn't like feeling transparent, so he looks back down at the textbook.

The whole page is basically talking about Allorn and such, the facilities and why they are best for the Westhem. Wow, this book isn't biased in the least. Marley is getting sick of this, real fast.

He comes upon a page that has a picture of him on the side.

Oh dear god.

"Marley Nocona is the heir to Allorn's throne, and has vowed on multiple occasions to keep almost every law put in place by his father. Including the institutions for abnormal people, and most of all the procedures already put in place." Lola continues her reading, glancing at Marley front the corner of her eye. Why is she even reading this out loud? Marley doesn't appreciate it one bit.

Marley must have been wincing or something, showing his true feelings, because Lola frowns at him. He looks down at the book again.

"Is that true?" She asks, leaning forward a bit, "Are you going to keep up everything your father has done?"

Marley sighs, leaning his head on his hand, elbow resting on the table. "That doesn't matter." He responds, chewing on his cheek. Even though he's always lying—being who he is, there's no way around it—he doesn't want to tell this girl anything but the truth. It's just something about her.

She doesn't say anything for a while, and he moves back to writing something down on the worksheet. It's a guided reading thing, and there are no words to describe how much he absolutely hates those.

"I think it does." She says a few moments later, "I think it matters a lot, actually. It is the future of the entire Westhem, after all." There's a bit of conviction in her voice, something he's not used to hearing from her. She's usually quiet, he didn't think she could actually get her voice to go too much louder.

Don't tell her, Marley. Your father would never forgive you. If she told anyone—if it got to the news, there would be all kinds of backlash.

Then again, his reputation is already tarnished. It's not like his father could be any more disappointed in him, anyway.

"Honestly, no." He replies, then, just to worsen the situation, "I don't agree with most of his decisions."

Her eyes fractionally widen, and Marley's pretty sure that's a Big Decision he just made, telling her that, but he doesn't have too much more to lose anyway. Well, maybe he does. His mom. Sushi. That's about it.

"Well then why haven't you ever done anything about it?" She asks, and Marley's not stumped on that one in the least but telling her the reason would be admitting weakness and that's one of the Nocona rules that he has a hard time ignoring.

"I don't know." He replies, which isn't even a real answer but oh well. It's none of this chick's business, anyway. He's already revealed too much. He shouldn't have to explain himself to the likes of her to begin with.

They work in silence for a while after that, and she looks at him a lot. He doesn't acknowledge it, and before he knows it school is being dismissed and he's walking out the door to meet Leilani for lunch.

It's usually outside their residency building, and then together they'll walk to lunch together. She has other friends, and all of them are pretty awkward around Marley. She seems to be getting more comfortable around him, which is good. At least he's made one friend, whether she genuinely likes him or not.

Sure enough, when he arrives she's waiting for him and they each begin making their way to the cafeteria—or, well, the feeding trough, as she called it one time.

She links her arm with his, and they're walking down the sidewalk.

"So! I was thinking," she says, "you're unable to die and all that."

"...yes." He replies, even though he's not even sure if the whole unable to die thing is true. There's nothing that's immortal. He thinks.

"But, if someone... like... squashed you. Like dropped a gigantic block of metal on you, how would you recover from that? There would be nothing left."

Why does she think he knows the answer to that? "I don't know, pretty sure I'll find out here soon." AKA the next time he gets called down to Rellik. Well, maybe not the next time. It just depends on how long he'll be here.

She hums, brows pinched together, and they finally reach the feeding trough.

They have a spot towards the middle of the place, which is pretty unfortunate for Marley because that means quite a bit of staring.

After they get their prison food, Marley sits down next to Leilani at their usual table and eats his food in silence. Nobody talks to him and he doesn't start any conversations, Leilani's busy speaking to some girl across the table.

As he sits there, he can't help but feel like there are eyes on him. It's not an unusual feeling, but he still feels the need to look around and see whose attention he's caught.

He doesn't have to look far, seeing as his eyes land on a table across the lunchroom pretty quick. The one tucked into the corner full of people Marley recognizes as Nero's group.

They are all staring at him. Like, the entire table. Which is only about five people but it's still a bit unnerving. Nero is glaring at him which isn't surprising in the slightest, but the rest of them seem to be curious. Maybe a bit conflicted. Eli also looks mad, but he's decided he doesn't like her too much so he doesn't particularly care.

Him spotting their staring doesn't stop them at all, so he looks away because this is awkward at best. He doesn't like them looking at him. Yes, them specifically. Everyone else he can deal with but he's somewhat intimidated by that group—something he doesn't admit too easily. They just unnerve him, he can't explain it.

Eventually lunch ends, thank god, and he can't get out of there fast enough. Leilani follows him, and the rest of the day is spent in the same boring routine.

He can't help but to think about how weird that lunch ordeal was, but decides to brush it off. Whether it's for an ease of mind or a real belief that it was truly nothing, he doesn't know.

Nero sleeps in their room that night.