1 SOMEONE MUST HAVE BITTEN OFF HER NOSE. David remembered her. Julie Tanaka. She used to be gorgeous. He’d spent an entire semester of biology class fantasizing about her. She was perpetually tan and had a physique that always rendered David speechless. But now she looked like an old sewer rat. The tip of her nose was gone, like a piece of string cheese with the end chomped off. Her arms were spindly, and her bony joints jutted out like thorns. Her skin was brittle and dry. Her white hair was dirty and frayed. He studied Julie’s eyes. They were full of hate. She seemed hungry to get a little payback for what over a year in this place had done to her. She’d get her chance any minute now. David surveyed the quad. Hundreds of kids stood along the perimeter, staring up at the massive gray veil that obscured the sky. The dim daylight that passed through the translucent canopy cast dull shadows across David’s lean face. He took stock of his competition. Some kids hopped up and down or stretched their muscles. Others wrung their hands. They were grouped by hair color. The blue-hairs stood together at the south wall, the reds at the east opposite the yellows, and so on all around the quad. But David had no group. He had only his brother, Will, at his