Sherri wished she could think of something biting to say about Beloit, but all she could think of was the world’s largest can of Hormel chili that sat by the freeway. Instead, she lost her nerve, reverted back to the old, awkward Sherri, and let out a loud, nervous laugh, attracting the attention of Tina, who stood in line at the salad buffet. “Is that Sherri? Bunny Sherri?”

Before she knew it, Bunny Tina, again in her yellow costume, had set down her tray and sprinted toward her in her heels, wrapping Sherri up in a huge embrace that made her feel important, especially in Val’s eyes. “I just knew you’d get the job. I told you, didn’t I? Training is the worst. Like boot camp, but maybe that’s good for you now. It’ll keep you busy so you won’t have time to be sad about your poor mom.”

Sherri still felt tender and raw. She didn’t want to think about her mother, not in front of the girls she’d just met, and not at the resort, a place Sherri had thought of as set aside from the pain of her real life, set aside from everyone’s real life. Wasn’t that the point of a resort? It was a whole separate world. Besides, she worried about what would happen if Gloria learned that she’d lied about her family.

“Training isn’t bad so far, but we just started.”

“Oh, just wait. But you can do it, you can. I’ve got to run, but let me know if you need anything. Anything at all.” Tina meant it—she looked Sherri in the eyes and made her feel protected and chosen.

After Tina disappeared, Val looked at Sherri with a glimmer of compassion in her eye that took Sherri off guard. “What’s wrong with your mom?”

“Oh, nothing,” Sherri said. “She just hurt her hip.”

Val was suspicious. “My mom was in the loony bin,” she said. “They told her to bite down on a mouthguard and then they shot her up with electricity. Now she sits on the front porch all day watching the birds.”

“Seriously?”

“No.” Val sneered. “God, you’ll believe anything I tell you, won’t you?”

After lunch they were shown to their dorm rooms in a cement block building everyone referred to as the Bunny Hutch. It looked like a prison, because it was surrounded by a twelve-foot-high barbed-wire fence; whether that was to keep the men out or the girls in, nobody said.