Born 01 - Born

little girl ignores her and tightens her grip on me. The nurse shrugs.
    I can't place her age. She is ageless. She acts like the older women in the towns but she looks my age.
    I look down at the girl who is curled into me. "I think she's about twelve at the most."
    Her eyes don’t rise to meet mine. They stay fixated on the girl. "You sure you wouldn’t be happy with the other younger girls? They all live together. They have TVs and video games over there."
    I see her little head trembling.
    Gloria's eyes meet mine again. "Give her a little time. She'll be begging to get away from the lot of you hormonal women."
    I want to tell her I'm not a woman. I'm not.
    She uses her wrist card to bring us through a large metal door and suddenly the air is warmer. It feels like a nice night with the fire lit, but a cool breeze blows in the window. Not stuffy, but cozy.
    I almost jump as other girls are walking about as we turn a corner. I see swollen bellies and rosy cheeks everywhere. They look like Gloria. Shiny and clean. I look down at my hands and frown. Will those spots of dirt ever come out? Will I look like these girls if I stay here?
    The area we are in looks amazingly bright and clean. Everything is white. It's styled like a house I saw in a magazine at the cabin. There are couches and plush pillows and a fireplace with glass over the hearth. There is a kitchen like I've never seen before. It looks like a restaurant from the same magazine.
    Girls are sitting and eating at small tables in the kitchen or on the couches. Some are walking and rubbing their bellies. They're all dressed in white robes, pants, and tops. Everything they're wearing looks fluffy, almost. The entire open kitchen and living room is surrounded by glass. A small garden is on the other side. There are windows on the other side of the garden. It must be a private garden and surrounded by the building we are in, except the roof. Real sunlight filters in from the roof of the garden.
    Out of the corner of my eye, I see her.
    Gloria is talking about a room where we have to spend a certain number of hours a day listening to music, a gym, and a pool. I don’t care about any of it. I see her.
    She is sitting at a table. Her hair is the first thing I recognize. It's dark and shiny in a way that looks like she's run oil through it. Her white skin is bright and clean. Her lips curl into a smile as she speaks to the blonde girl next to her. I can't imagine the transformation she has undertaken in such a short amount of time. She looks like a person from a magazine. She looks like she belongs in the white room with the white girls everywhere. I notice suddenly everyone is white. There are no other nationalities. The borderlands are diverse. This is the only group of all white people I've ever seen. It's creepy.
    The girl curls into me.
    The girls in the room start to take notice of me. Their eyes look haunted as they see me. They bite their lips and try not to cry. I see it in their faces.
    Anna's dark head turns slowly. Her eyes recognize me and pain crosses her face. I give a subtle shake of my head. Her lips tremble.
    "So where do I sleep?" I ask.
    Gloria's lips curl into a big grin. "This way." She points to an open hallway. I walk through the room, never letting my eyes fully take in Anna again. I float across the room and ignore her, even though I know exactly how many running steps it would take me to cross the room. I know how long it would take to stab the cooking knife on the counter into Gloria. I know how much force it would take to break the glass that surrounds the room. I know how long it would take for me to climb the drain spout leading to the roof.
    What I don’t know is how fast the girl could do it all. I know how Anna would do. I can see the fight in her eyes, even though I'm not looking at her.
    I follow Gloria down a long, wide, white hallway with wooden benches that stand out against the white everywhere. They are covered with white pillows and nestled next to huge potted plants. The greenery is bright compared to the white pot the plant is in. The brown dirt inside of it makes me miss the forest.
    "So this will be your room, and since you have her, you won't be getting a roommate."
    She opens a white door and reveals a room with two beds covered in soft looking blankets. There is a closet that's open with white fluffy clothes inside. They are robes and gowns and fuzzy looking pajamas that I would have worn as a child. I imagine the