She rolls over, the bed below her making it impossible to fall asleep. She found herself counting sheep before her mind fell over to thoughts much, much worse.
Shasti could recall going home and being called worthless, stupid, and retarded for having bad grades. Her mom would call her names. She'd ask Shasti things like, "Do you need to get your brain checked? What, is your medication making you lazy again?"
The teacher at school would make her cry, and they told her she wouldn't get anywhere in life. And then, after, the same exact teacher would talk to her all sweetly, as if they never said what they said. Shasti would sit there and take it, because she knew kids can't talk back to grown-ups.
Sometimes she would go home from school and cry and cry and cry. She knew her mom would scream at her for it, then her mom would apologize later. Other times when her mom would yell at her, Shasti would cry. Her mom would only tell her to keep crying. Delta knows about it.
Delta tells her that it'll be okay, and Delta reassures her that Arley and Delta are trying to work on a way to get them all out of here, along with all the other kids here.
Shasti is hopeful. But... how would they leave? The grown-ups would be angry with her.
The undercover orderly that has been working at the school has talked with her. She hopes the agent can be her mom, though unlikely. Just thinking about going back to her family gave her bad, cowardly thoughts.
She tells herself she has to stay strong. So she does, just for herself, and for Delta.
She closes her eyes and prays Arley, Delta and the other students would return to the school in time. She dreads what will happen if they didn't.