"Hey! Hey, Veronica! It's me, Alana!"

Veronica jumped, startled out of her thoughts. When she looked up, she was still surprised at seeing her classmate, despite Alana telling her who she was a few seconds ago.

"Huh?" Veronica asked. "Alana?"

"Yes, it's me," Alana said. "Your parents wanted me to come talk to you, because, you know, the whole 'you can't visit twice' thing."

"No, I didn't know," Veronica said, surprised. "What's that all about?"

"Oh, the police just have this theory that it's a criminal organization," Alana rolled her eyes. "They don't want a lot of communication between their prisoners and 'potential conspiracists'."

"Uh, wow."

"Yeah, this whole thing has become a big mess."

"Veronica, who's that?" Alice called, from the bottom bunk. "Is it a friend?"

"I wouldn't say friend," Alana said before Veronica could answer. "More of... and acquaintance? I mean, we don't know each other that well..."

Alana looked uncertainly at Veronica, who shrugged.

"We can be friends," Veronica said.

"Oh, that'd be... that be nice," Alana sounded like she was desperately trying not to sound happy. Veronica didn't know how to respond to that.

"How-How are things outside?" she asked instead. It was the question Veronica has wanted to ask for weeks. She really missed being outside, seeing her friends and family, solving this weird mystery...

"Well, curfew keeps getting tighter," Alana said. All the giddiness from before was gone, replace with professionalism. Alana seemed to expect her to ask this, which Veronica guessed made sense. "The fines get more and more expensive, and the police seem to be getting more and more aggressive. Certain streets are getting blocked off, more police around, most of the stuff you saw, but ten times more intense."

"Oh," Veronica said. "Huh. Hey, can you tell me what Martha, Jenna, Jared and Michael are doing?"

"Well, I don't know who Martha is, but as far as I can tell, all Jenna, Jared and Michael are doing is going to some place to hang out," Alana told her. "I don't know what they're doing, though."

"Oh, okay-."

"Although..." Alana continued lowly. She didn't seem to want someone to overhear. "They've been hanging out with Jeremy more. Jeremy Heere."

"O-Okay?" Veronica didn't know how to take this information. Was this supposed to be shocking or something? It was a bit of a surprise, but not that much. "I don't-."

"And they've been hanging around some woman," Alana finished. "She looks mid twenties or something.

Okay, now THAT was a surprise.

"Huh?" Veronica asked. "A-Who is it? Who is she?!"

"I don't know," Alana checked her watch. "And I wish I could tell you more, but I need to go."

"W-What?"

"Look, I have five minutes and spent two and a half talking to you," Alana explained. "And now I need to use the other half to talk to Evan. So it was a nice talk and I'm glad you're alright, but I need to go!"

"What, Evan's in here, too?" Veronica gasped.

Alana nodded. "He didn't take it so well. Poor guy."

Veronica nodded back. She didn't think Evan was weak, per say, but she did know that he had anxiety. This was stressful enough for her, she couldn't imagine what it must have been like for him.

"Wait, if you need to talk to him, why'd you visit me then?" Veronica asked.

"I-Well, you know... you're closer..." Alana said. Somehow, Veronica didn't think it was the whole truth. After all, Alana, who was usually VERY punctual when she had a schedule, was still here, talking to Veronica.

"...You'd better go do that," Veronica said, gently. "I'm sure he needs you're company more than I do."

"Er... Yeah, I know," still, it was a couple more moments until Alana sighed and spun around, probably looking for Evan. Veronica was already missing her company.

"...You must have a lot of friends, huh?" Alice asked. Veronica looked around, startled. She had almost forgotten Alice was here; Alice was stayed silent longer than Veronica would have thought possible.

"Huh?" Veronica asked. "A lot of friends...? Well, I guess."

Now that she thought about it, Veronica realized that practically nobody had come to visit Alice. Alice had always talked about some guy (Alistair? Alan?) who was her supposed 'best friend', but he never came to visit. Alice had said that she didn't really expect him to, but she never told Veronica why. Veronica had never heard her talk about anyone else.

"Why don't your parents visit?" Veronica asked.

"I don't have parents," Alice sighed. "I'm an orphan."

Oops

"Oh... I'm sorry."

"It's alright."

There was an uncomfortable silence.

"Alice, uh, I'll be your friend," Veronica offered. "I mean, we already are friends, of course, but I'd love to hang out with you after all of this."

It seemed to take a couple moments, but then Veronica's offer sunk in and Alice's head snapped up. She looked hopeful.

"Really?" she asked. Veronica nodded firmly.

"Yeah, I wouldn't mind," she said. "And if you wanted, I could introduce you to my other friends as well. I think you'd get along with Martha."

Alice clapped her hands, looking excited. "That sounds amazing! I'd love to! Do-Do you really promise."

"Yeah, sure," Veronica shrugged. "I promise."