If any of those people said the word “Hey,” that cost a merit. If someone said, “Hey, cool it,” two merits were lost. “Hey, cool it, bed,” meant that in addition to losing two merits, the offender had to stay in bed for two hours. If he left his bed and someone said, “Hey, cool it, bed! Hey, cool it,” that was a loss of three merits. But if someone said, “Hey, cool it, bed! Hey, cool it, county,” that cost four. And “county” meant the boy would cool off in the county jail.

Tommy felt like throwing up.

There were lots of things to do around there, Charlie Jones said. He expected the boys to put in their time and behave themselves. “Any of you boys think you’re too good or too smart for this place or try to run off the state of Ohio has another place for you. The Training Institution of Central Ohio is called TICO for short. And if you get sent to TICO, you’ll sure as hell wish you were right back here. All right, now get your bedding in the storeroom and then go to the mess hall for chow. ”

That evening Tommy was sitting on his bunk wondering who had gotten him into this and why he was here. He didn’t give a shit about merits and rules and zones. As soon as he got the chance, he was busting out. He/hadn’t been on the spot coming in, so he didn’t know the way out, but he noticed there was no barbed wire or walls around the camp, just woods. It shouldn’t be hard to get away.

As he passed the mess hall, he smelled good cooking. Hell, no sense jumping into the fire until he knew what was in the frying pan.

One of the other new boys in zone 1 was a little lad with glasses who couldn’t have been more than fourteen or fifteen. Tommy had noticed him in the line-up, wondering if he’d blow over in a breeze. He was struggling under the weight of his mattress and bedding when a tall guy with long hair and weight lifter’s muscles tripped him. The kid bounced back up from the ground and butted the big guy right in the stomach, knocking him over.

Musclebound looked up surprised at the kid standing over him with his tiny fists clenched. “Okay, you little prick,” Musclebound said. “Hey!”

“Stuff it up your ass!” the boy said.

“Hey, cool it!” the big guy snapped, getting up and brushing himself off.

The little kid had tears in his eyes. “C’mon and fight, you big bastard.”

“Hey, cool it, bed!”

Another boy, scrawny but taller and two or three years older, pulled the little kid away.

“Back off, Tony,” he said. “You’ve lost two merits already, and now you gotta stay in your bed for two hours.”

Tony calmed down and picked up his mattress. “Hell, Gordy, I wasn’t hungry anyway.”

In the mess hall, Tommy ate in silence. The food wasn’t half bad. But he was starting to worry about the place. If they let the big boys rag you and take your merits away, he knew he would have to be very careful of his temper.