The shrink clapped his hands together and began.
“Now then, since we have a new member, we are all going to go around and say something about ourselves. Since Shane is late, we are going to start without him. Where is his roommate...Ah. Christopher, tell him he has a penalty and will not be able to come to lunch today.”
“Okay.” The guy I took to be Christopher said.
“Shall we start, then? Amanda. We'll start with you and carry on counter clockwise and we will finish with Emily. There was eight people sitting, not including me. Shane made ten. “Say your name, your age, and something about yourself.”
“Hello, my name is Amanda, I'm seventeen, and my favorite colors are white, blue, and every color in between.”
“I'm Giovani, I'm fifteen, and I'm a proud Mexican-American.”
There was a huge pause and I looked over, a girl with blue and black hair was leaning over and her eyes were closed. The guy on the other side of her kicked her in the shin and she shot up, eyes flew open and she slammed her foot into his leg. He winced and mouthed 'introductions'.
“Adara. Seventeen. Tired.”
“Adara, that doesn't count. Something about yourself that isn't going to change after you get some sleep.” He chuckled at his own statement. I wasn't going to call it a joke, because it just wasn't.
“I hate this douche over here.” She said, jerking her thumb towards the Doctor. I fought back a laugh but let out a smile.
“Penalty. No lunch or dinner with the rest.” He said, temple bulging again.
“I'm Christopher, I'm eighteen, and I'm much friendlier that Adara.” The guy said, the one she had kicked. The Doc let it go, probably because he was pissed at her.
“Maxwell, here. I am sixteen years of age and I believe in,” he paused dramatically, “extraterrestrial life.”
Oh, come on. This guy needed a serious shopping spree to somewhere else besides Gap or Sears. Gross.
“They see me rollin...” The guy next to me muttered. Whoa! He wasn't there a second ago. I turned to look at him, and boy was I glad I did. He was one of the sexy crazies I was talking about. Jet black hair, ice blue eyes and snake bites...He pulled them off, though. A lot of people who got them shouldn't have, but they actually looked good on him. He was muscular, but not all gross and 'roidey. He had on a black tee-shirt and dark-wash skinny jeans with a white belt. He had on guy-liner, but suceeded in not looking gay. He looked, if you will excuse my feeble attempt at Hood speak, fine.
“Sophie?” Doc interrupted my ogling.
“Aww, you ruined the surprise.” I pouted. “Sophie, sixteen, and I believe you, Doc, should suck it.” I said, popping my hands in towards my crotch area, but not hitting anything. You should know the motion.
“Penalty. No lunch or dinner with the rest of the Patients.”
“I still can't eat with anyone anyway.”
“Fine, no meal.” He said, and moved on.
“I'm Shane, I'm eighteen, and I agree.” The guy next to me said, smiling.
“Since you already got a penalty for being late, you will have no dinner or breakfast with everyone either.” The Doctor said. He was very uptight, I realized.
Introductions continued, and I discovered that Amanda was convinced she was an angel from Heaven and condemned and screamed at people who 'sinned'. She was sent to this Institution because she was trying to send her sister to hell. If you catch my drift. Similar stories came from the others in group, and we had to tell about things that really bothered us. My long list of phobias stood out. Clowns, large fish, water, snakes, blood, rejection, there was like twenty more that weren't as serious, those were my major phobias. Group took about two hours, and finally wrapped up. I was taken to my room while the others wandered off to lunch, except for those with penalties. They had to go to their rooms, too.