Chapter 2

I wake up on the couch. Weird. I don’t know why I slept there. The sunlight streams through the windows and I have to squint and let my eyes adjust for a moment. My stomach grumbles and begs for food. I pat it and yawn, stretching my arms above my head. There’s probably still some more pancakes left from Wednesday. Even though they’re burnt, they seem like a good option now. The TV is playing a commercial that I’ve seen plenty of times before.

“I ate the bones?!” A clueless guy says at his empty chicken piece box that reads ‘boneless chicken’. I swear the characters on commercials have an IQ less than 10. And they’re blind. The wide-eyed man continues, panicked. “I ate the bones! I ate the bones!”

I chuckle to myself and I get up to flip it off. Then it all comes back to me.

“Darn....” I rub my eyes and run my fingers through my hair. My watch reads 7:30, and I have absolutely no idea what I’m supposed to do. Do I call the police and tell them that I’m now an orphan? Do I call Yasaman? Should I tell the Mr. Lin, the neighbor next door? Does Dad’s girlfriend know? Wait. Dad doesn’t have a girlfriend. Shoot.

Despite everything that’s going on, not a single tear comes. My eyes stay dry. Dad was like a good friend to me, not really a dad. He was rarely there and when he was, he was busy with work. Maybe that’s the reason why.

Robotically, my body carries me upstairs to change my clothes and get ready. I mean, what else do I do? I stroll into my room and cringe at my reflection. My mirror reflects the circles around my blue eyes. My hair is surprisingly not super tangled, but I grab a brush anyway and brush it out. I grab a fresh pair of jean shorts from my small closet and slide them on. I put on a white shirt with a peace sign on the top right. I grab a scrunchie and tie up my hair in a high ponytail.

I skip to the bathroom and splash my face with water, then go to brush my teeth. The toothpaste runs out and I toss it in the trash can. My dad hides the stuff somewhere... Ha! I pull a tube triumphantly from a drawer and squeeze a huge glob onto my toothbrush. Scrubbing harder than usual, I spit out the soap. I laugh a little as I gargle the water in the back of my throat. I wipe my face with a clean towel and beam at my reflection like it’s my wedding day.

I start walking down the stairs and hear the doorbell ring. Vaguely wondering who it could be, I dash over and open the door.

A tall man in a suit that isn’t from the military or police or something I know stands there. He has a big nose and thick eyebrows, which are the first things that catch my attention. He has a sharp chin and his jaw looks set. His dark eyes read nothing and his hands stand perfectly still at his side. I immediately nickname him Ugly Statue.

Ugly Statue is surrounded by a couple of others that wear the same black uniform with a little pin on it that looks like a sideways eight. More like an infinity. There is a long bar that cuts it in half, lengthwise. There are two ladies and three men total. I almost snicker.

Ugly Statue speaks. “Good Morning, Samantha Sampson.”

“Sup,” I say, bored. This is weird.

Ugly Statue doesn’t even react. “We are here on behalf of the Infinity League. Last night, as you may or may not know, a science laboratory containing classified information was destroyed.”

Gosh. This guy must be in his mid-thirties. He’s actually pretty hot.

“One of your guardians was killed in it, and we give you our deepest apologies.”

“Thanks,” I say flatly. This guy must be nuts. Do I look like I’m in misery? I was having the time of my life until you guys showed up.

“About that, if you will come with us, we will be introducing you to a couple of people. You will be part of a group of kids who will help us solve this...case.”

“What case?” I ask curiously. I immediately rename him Hot Statue.

Hot Statue motions to one of his colleagues. A lady steps up and hands me a manilla folder with the same infinity sign on it. There is the long bar that cuts the infinity in half, lengthwise, again. Weird.

Glancing up, I ask, “Am I supposed to look at this?”

Hot Statue speaks with the same monotone voice, “Not here. You may do it in the vehicle with the others.”

I inspect the rest of his crew. “What others?”

Hot Statue seems a little annoyed, but it’s hard to tell. “May you just come with us to make this less complicated?”

“And what if I say no?” I say, raising an eyebrow and cross my arms. I’m not about to just walk out and go with some group of people that I don’t know. They seem a little phony.

“That isn’t an option, Miss Sampson. What if we told you your father wasn’t dead, but in fact, still very much... alive?” Hot Statue lifts his eyebrows.

Now he’s got me listening. “What?”

“Come,” he says, beckoning me to go into a truck with completely blacked out windows. It’s huge and looks a little like a van a government group would use. But you never know what tricks kidnappers have up their sleeves.

I look at Hot Statue, and back to the car. I finally plant my feet firmly on the ground and look at all of them. “No.”

Hot Statue sighs. “Holcomb.” The other lady walks up and grabs my shoulders. I try to knock her off, but her grip is strong.

“What- GET YOUR DIRTY HANDS OFF ME!” At least that’s what I try to say. I only get the word “What” out before the sound from my mouth completely silences. I try to scream but nothing comes out. Just my panicked breath and silence. The lady called Holcomb pushes me over to the black car. It doesn’t look super inviting.

My eyes dart to her hands, and I see a strange little device in them that is pointed at my head. She is pushing a button on it. That must be what is preventing me from speaking. I bring up my leg and kick her rock hard stomach. Her grip loosens a bit and I jerk away. My feet break into a run and head straight back to my front yard. The people shout to each other and chase after me. I jump up onto our front gate which connects to our roof and climb up. Did I mention I love climbing things and am an expert at it?

My fingers grip the hard, rough roof and pull me up. I see a baseball that my friend and I got stuck up here a week ago. I pick it up and chuck it as hard as I can. Hot Statue dodges it, and Holcomb who is right behind him, gets it square in the face. She falls back and I hear tumbling. Hot Statue is already tailing me. I run across the top and around the corner towards the back of the house. The roof ends and I see the neighbors roof across from me. It’s about ten feet across, but I need to get away. I back up and sprint as hard as I can.

“STOP!!” Hot Statue yells. At the last second I turn around and stick out my tongue like a two year old.

I bend my legs and spring off with height that I can usually only reach on a trampoline. I straighten out my body like Superman. I’m flying. Like a plane. I hear Hot Statue and Holcomb gasp behind me. I also gasp. I have no clue how to land. The roof approaches, and my mind flashes to the movies. I bring out my legs and roll sloppily the moment I hit the hard roof. I spring back to my feet, my knee slightly bruised. My legs dash forward and I steal a glance back at Hot Statue who is gaping at the distance I just jumped across. I smile widely and run.

The loudest thunk! Comes right behind me, and I see Hot Statue land with perfect ease on the roof.

I climb like a monkey as it gets steeper. Hot Statue and his friend Holcomb, who has recovered from the fall, are running after me. I skid to a stop as the roof ends in a huge drop. I’m such an idiot for going this way. Suicide is not something I ever plan to do. Hot Statue steps closer.

“Don’t move,” he says, as if he doesn’t want me to jump off the edge. That idiot. Does it look like I want to jump? There’s nothing else to jump onto!

He pulls out a little pen from his pocket and aims it at me. “Don’t...move...”

He presses something at the back and a beam of light shoots out and hits me square in the chest. My body freezes up and jerks forward. My muscles tense up and shake. I fall forward. Holcomb catches me before I do a faceplant. She puts her hands on my shoulders again and gets me off the roof. My body still recovers from whatever the little stick-lightsaber was. I try to twist free again, but another person comes up and opens the door as she shoves me in.

“What the...” I shout, refraining from swearing, the moment she lets go of me, but the doors already have slammed shut. “What on Earth!”

I can see out the windows now. The people stand outside punching in data on a little tablet that looks like a super skinny version of an iPad. They discuss something in inaudible voices. I refrain from banging on the window. It’s useless.

A voice behind me speaks in a surprised voice, “Wow, you put up quite a fight. Second place, though. Kevin still beat you.”

I freeze and turn around. About a dozen kids stare at me. One of them snickers, and another one with bright blue hair cocks her eyebrow as if she is saying, “This girl is not supposed to be here.” They all sit on two long benches that go up against the sides of truck. It’s well lit in here and it has enough room for me to stand up. There’s another uniformed guy standing against the back, who looks amazingly like Hot Statue. The kid the farthest away from me is the one who was talking. She is a short asian girl with unnaturally blonde hair (I can see the dark black roots) and bright eyes that sparkle like stars even though they’re dark brown. She’s wearing a neon yellow shirt, which is painful to look at, and sparkly purple shorts. She is grinning from ear to ear. She speaks again, “If you had climbed the roof even higher and jumped onto them or did some ninja moves and then knock one of out cold like Kevin did,” she gestures to a blonde towhead sitting across from her, “You might have come in closer.”

The blonde towhead, Kevin, raises his eyebrows and crosses his legs. I can tell he is really tall. The girl who was speaking to me speaks again, “Hi my name is Patricia Xu. Everyone calls me Pat.”

I nod. Everyone stares for a minute. The kid named Kevin rolls his eyes, “Well, what’s your name?”

“Umm...” I stutter.

Another kid with really dark brown hair next to him speaks, “Kevin, she’s still in shock. Give her a moment to calm down.” I try to hide my surprise. The dude had a British accent. It was deep and pure. Awesome. He was wearing a plain brown shirt and jeans.

Kevin rolls his eyes. “Mark, I was just asking.”

I shake my head. “Uhh... No. I’m... uhh... fine. My name’s Sam. Sam Sampson.”

A girl with bright blue hair that is sitting next to Pat gushes cheerfully. “Awesome! My mom’s name is Sam! Well, Samantha, actually, but you get the idea. My name is Kate Stuart. I was the third one to get shoved through that same door! But I came in fourth for the struggling-to-get-free part. Oh well. It’s not like anyone told us there was a competition. Pat thought of that!”

Pat’s smile widens even more. I smile back, still standing. Pat pauses. “Oh, you can sit here next to me.”

I raise an eyebrow since there isn’t any room on that hard, metal bench. It takes her a second to realize it, “Never mind. You can sit over there next to Kevin.”

I nod and sit down. It seems like these kids are having the best day of their lives. Don’t they realize we just got kidnapped or something? I clear my throat. “So what’s this all about?”

Kevin speaks up. “Oh, this? I think you can recall that last night a science laboratory blew to smithereens.” I nod as he continues, “Well, umm...at least one of your parents was killed in it. And now you don’t have parents.” He hesitates. “That’s why we’re here. I asked one of the dudes outside and he said that the other kids who still have parents aren’t being recruited for whatever this is. Umm... we’re supposed to do something. I don’t know. They said they’ll tell us more when we get to the Infinity League Facility.”

Kevin reminds me of the smart and popular kids at my school. They just know him because he’s smart. Yet, Kevin doesn’t seem like an intelligent kid.

The car starts up and Hot-Statue-look-alike finally speaks. “One more stop to pick up a kid named Baker Thomas. Then we’ll head over to the Infinity Facility.”

The truck fires up and we lurch forward. I still don’t really know what I’m doing here. I start by making a conversation with Kevin.

“So, did they pick you up this morning?” I ask him shyly.

He nods, “Except the knock on my door came at 5:30 in the morning. You got lucky. Pat and the other girl Kate,” he motions to the the girl with the bright blue hair, “were already here. Oh, and the quieter one, Lily, I think she’s Japanese, was also here solving a rubix cube.”

He sits back and stares at his feet, “Our parents aren’t dead.”

“I know,” I say. “By the way, how did you find out all this stuff?”

“Well,” He chuckles and claps me on the back, “The dudes and I had exchanged some words of wisdom...and did I mention I came in First Place?”

The British guy, Mark, reaches over and taps my leg, “To be honest, he pulled out a gun. He threatened to shoot them.”

His face is dead serious. I gasp. “Really?”

His expression doesn’t change, then he smiles. “No, though he wishes he did.”

A girl with long red hair next to Mark looks over. “I would have pulled out a gun if I had the chance. The people scared the wits out of me.”

I nod, “What’s your name?”

“Grace,” she says. “I think our parents are friends at work. My mom told me about someone with the last name of Sampson.”

“Huh. That’s cool. Well, I guess it’s nice to meet you. I mean, it’s nice, but in this location,” I wave my hand, “not so much.”

“Yeah, my mom would have literally kicked those dude’s butts, but because of the explosion....”

“It’s okay,” I say. This girl seems a little sensitive. Her eyes are starting to get a little red and puffy. Mark notices and wraps his arms around her shoulders. She bursts out crying and buries her face in her abnormally big hands. Pat looks over and shouts, “Gracie, Kevin, Mark, and....” She pauses and stares at me.

“Sam.” I remind her.

“...yes! Sam. I’ve got lollipops!”

Kevin is the first to respond, “No thanks.”

Mark shakes his head. Pat looks over at me, but I shake my head. Grace glances up and nods. Pat tosses a cherry flavored Tootsie Pop and Grace manages to catch it even though the shot was about three feet short. I guess long fingers do have their moments to shine.

Pat sits back comfortably and closes her eyes. “Since Kevin, Mark, and Sammy--”

“Sam,” I correct her.

Pat carries on, “--don’t want a lollipop, well, too bad. There’s more for me.” I can tell she’s trying not to break out laughing. Her lips are twitching yet unnaturally relaxed, and her jaw is slightly open. The position her body rests is too perfect.

Kate, with the bright blue hair, reaches over and pokes Pat in the stomach.

Pat jerks up and slaps Kate’s hand away, laughing her head off. Tears are streaming down her cheeks and she’s wearing the world’s largest smile. Kate guffaws with her and the quiet girl, who I think is Lily, gives a tiny smile. She’s holding a completely solved rubik's cube. She scrambles it up with her nimble fingers and begins to solve it again without looking.

On the same bench, another girl with curly hair sits next to another boy who dresses like a gangster. His clothes are torn and he sags a pair grey pants with a heavy chain on them. His brown hair needs to be cut and his face has lots of acne. He’s one person my dad would definitely not want me to date. Not like I’m dating anyone right now.

I lean over to Kevin, who is staring at Hot-Statue-look-alike, and ask, “Who’re those kids?”

“Oh, that girl is Kelli. We picked her up from this gigantic mansion. There’s a good chance she’s really rich. Oh, and the other kid, that’s Keith. He swore a lot when he got shoved in here. Otherwise, his looks basically tell you most about him,” he adds on with an awkward grin.

I nod. “So the small asian one that has in interesting taste in clothing is Pat. The one with the wacky hair is Kate. The redhead is Grace, and the one that looks like Goldilocks but lives in a mansion is Kelli. The guy in need of a serious haircut is Keith, Mark has a british accent which is... cool, and you’re Kevin.”

Kevin nods and that adds, “You forgot Lily. The quieter one with the rubiks cube.”

I laugh and feel the truck lurch to a stop. Silence sweeps over the truck. We all stare out the window as the uniformed people, led by Hot Statue, walk up to the front door. The house is average, and is painted a nice blue. The front door is brown and there’s a pot of cream colored flowers by the front.

Hot Statue knocks on it. The door opens and a tall boy with sandy colored hair opens the door. He’s not super muscular, but he’s not a stick either. He’s in-between. The boy wears a green shirt and brown shorts. He blinks at the uniform people and speaks.

I can see his mouth moving, but can’t hear a thing. He mouths the word, “No,” and goes to shut the door. Hot Statue sticks out his arms and holds it open. The boy seems to get the point. He opens it back up and stands up straighter. He says something and I see his right arm swing behind the wall. It looks natural, except I notice his muscles slightly tense. He must have grabbed something.

Hot Statue seems to have noticed and steps back to defend himself, but the boy brings up his arms, and swings a metal baseball bat at Hot Statue’s chest. Hot Statue is thrown to the ground and his companions rush forward. The boy goes ballistic and goes swing-happy with the bat at the intruders. He knocks a lady out cold and then swings again to hit the one called Holcomb.

Holcomb seems prepared and reaches to grab the bat. The boy seems to realize this at the last moment and lets go of it. It flies, spiralling wildly like a possessed boomerang and smacks Holcomb square in the face.

“OOHHHH!!!!” I hear the kids cheering, “GGGOOOOOO!!!!”

I keep my eyes glued. The boy takes off running towards the truck. The two uniform people left standing pursue him and my eyes widen when I see both of them pulling out pen-like objects. Two light beams shoot out towards the boy. He somehow manages to dive to the ground and barrel towards them. The pens seem to run out of energy and the lights dim.

The boy leaps and tackles the man first, punching him hard in the nose. The lady comes and tries to pull him off, but the boy brings up his fist and smacks her in the neck.

Then another beam of light shines and hits the boy in the back. We all look to see where it comes from and see Holcomb, with a bloody nose and fiery eyes, aiming her pen-lightsaber.

The boy convulses and goes limp, dropping to the ground. He tries to get up, but Holcomb forces his head to the ground. With the help of the four others, Holcomb lifts him up and opens the door.

“AARRGGGHHH!!” He hollers as they close the door. He doesn’t seem to notice us. Hopefully I didn’t look like that. He lifts his fists and bang on the window. “HEY!!”

Pat’s eyes sparkle and she speaks as-a-matter-of-factly, “Dude, that was awesome! I thought Kevin was good, but that, sweeps everything off the floor. First Place. Sorry Kevin, you’re officially stripped of your title.”

The boy freezes and slowly turns around. His light eyes scan the room. Was I like that? Probably. The boy stands up even straighter, “What?”

“You are First Place. You’ve got to admit that was pretty awesome.” Pat says rolling her eyes like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, “It’s the struggling-to-get-free-competition.”

“Ummm...” He seems to have lost the ability to speak, so I can’t tell if he’s nervous or if he’s just in shock. He keeps a straight face and keeps his hands at his sides, which tremble slightly.

Before Kevin says anything I blurt, “Well, what’s your name? Or are you nameless?”

Mark shoots me a disapproving look but remains silent. The boy blinks at me, as if remembering something, “Baker Thomas.” He glances around the truck. “What’s everyone doing here?”

Kevin speaks again, “Last night, a science labora--”

Baker holds up his hand. “Know about it.”

Kevin blinks and continues, “Well, yeah. You are now an orphan doo-da-doo-da-dum. Now you are here because of that. They’re taking us to the Infinity Facility to solve a... case. We’ll find out more. Later. Otherwise, we’re perfectly safe.”

Baker doesn’t look convinced. “How can you be sure?”

Kevin’s eye’s widen in surprise, “Look at their uniforms, their weapons, the guy that is just like a statue--” Aha! Someone else agrees with me! “--and here’s a folder about the Infinity League.”

He tosses it like a frisbee, and Baker catches it with ease. He opens it and skims over the papers. He wrinkles his forehead and tosses it back to Kevin, “Okay. That still doesn’t mean I agree to whatever this is.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Pat cuts in. “I’m Pat. That’s Kevin and Mark and Sam and Grace. And this is Kate and Lily and Kelli and Keith.” She points to each one as she speaks. “You can sit next to Sam and Kevin.”

Baker doesn’t move an inch. He just sticks his hands in his pockets and looks out the window where the people are tending to their injuries. “They deserved it,” he scoffs.

“Yeah, glad you realized,” The Kelli speaks for the first time. Her voice is sweet and sing-song. If you’ve ever seen a Disney Princess movie like The Little Mermaid, you know what her voice sounds like.

Baker rolls his eyes and stiffly trudges over to sit down next to me on the end of the bench. He thunks down and stares straight ahead. His face is slightly red. I don’t dare to speak to him.

The chatter grows again as the truck fires up. Kevin starts to talk to Mark about video games and Grace chats across the room with everyone else. Baker and I are the only two who are silent.

I glance at him, he’s eyeing Hot-Statue-look-alike with a glare that could strangle the devil. He turns around and stares out the window and I stare at him. Then the windows black out and the outside world is gone. Everyone goes silent.

The Hot Statue look alike stands up and walks to the center of the room with another one of the super skinny ipads. He eyes everyone and then looks to his ipad.

“When I say your name, raise your hand,” He barks. “Patricia Xu.” He pronounces her last name a lot differently than she had said it.

Pat raises her hand and adds on, “Oh yeah, you pronounced my las-”

“No talking.” He demands, staring her down. She doesn’t do anything but sit up straighter.

He looks back to his tablet and resumes roll call, “Lily Ishii.”

Lily raises a quiet hand. Hot-Statue-look-alike taps something into his tablet. “Katherine Stuart.” Katherine raises her hand. “Kevin Klein. Keith Davis. Kelli Foster. Grace Marks. Mark Thompson. Samantha Sampson. Baker Thomas.” We all raise our hands silently.

Hot Statue lookalike nods. He puts down his tablet and looks at all of us. “My name is Sergeant Heath. I am the head of the Infinity League. You have all been called to help us with a project called Project X. Unfortunately the name of the group is classified until further progress has been made.” He snaps his fingers and a glass wall lowers from the ceiling separating the two sides of the room. It lights up and figures start popping up.

“Whoa,” I breathe. I hear Baker do the same. The entire glass wall has lit up to be a huge, see-through screen like in the movies. Only, this is real.

Little icons pop up on the side and the rest of the screen goes blank. Sergeant Heath taps a little circle icon near the top. The circle spins and flies to the center of the screen. It expands until it has become mess of words and videos. They spiral and smash together in the center, like there’s a black hole. Then it expands and covers the whole screen. A little bottle filled with green liquid pops up in the middle.

Sergeant Heath points to it and speaks, “This is a serum that contains chemicals that are capable of things that were considered impossible until now.”

“What?” Mark says, “What’s impossible?”

Sergeant Heath shakes his head. “I’m afraid that’s also classified information. And now since it has been created, it poses many threats.”

He taps the screen and a bunch of people’s faces pop up. I don’t recognize any of them. Descriptions of the people pop up under their faces. They all say “Terrorist.”

“Terrorists,” Sergeant Heath says prominently. “If they got their hands on this, it would be the end of mankind.”

“Get their hands on what?” I ask.

“The Project.” Sergeant Heath answers. “I apologize for the inconvenience, but it will be classified information for all of you until, like I said, further progress has been made.”

“Then why are we even here if we don’t even know who and what we’re working for? “ I ask crossly. “This is absurd. It’s still considered abduction of innocent children. Can I borrow a phone so I can call 911?”

Sergeant Heath pauses for a moment, deciding what to say. “You children all share something in common, whether it be good or bad, it will help us. Our job is to get to the bottom of this case by finding out the specific people who are doing this, and destroying them. It’s the only chance we have for human survival. Now, we will be heading over to the facility. We’ll get there in about 26 hours.”

“WHAT??!!” The entire trucks seems to scream. My mouth drops open. I see Keith across the room stand up with his hands balled up in fists at his side.

“Ain’t nobody gonna take me BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP!!!” I try to ignore to his potty mouth, but he is bellowing at the top of his lungs so I try to concentrate on the floor instead.

He goes on shouting “bleeps” for what seems like an eternity, and I look over at Baker who raises an eyebrow at me.

“What do I have in common with him?” He whispers, and we both chuckle quietly. I rub my hands together.

“Well, what do we have in common?” I ask, pointing to him and then back at myself.

He shrugs. “I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out.”

“Ahem,” Sergeant Heath says. “We videotaped your performance when you got brought here. Those people were our fighters, extremely trained. If they had actually tried, you would all, in reality, be dead.”

He taps another icon on the side of the screen and one by one our faces pop up. He speaks again in the same monotone voice, “We won’t, however, watch the ones where no one fought. No one can benefit off of those.”

He taps a couple of the faces and drags them off the screen. I see Pat purse her lips when her face gets dragged off, as well as Lily’s and about three others.

“We will do it in order of who had the best performance. First,” Sergeant Heath booms, “Baker Thomas.”

Baker perks up and then realizes that his video is about to pop up. He looks slightly annoyed and finds sudden interest in his hands. Kevin smirks.

The video whirs up, but after the first few seconds, I realize there isn’t any sound. The scene replays what Baker did with every detail of it. I resist the urge to laugh at the sight of the Uniform People getting pommeled, their faces contorted every time a punch greets them. The video clicks off just as the lightsaber-pen hits Bakers chest.

The next video clicks on, and I recognize my house. Sergeant Heath booms again, “Samantha Sampson.”

Pat’s eyes narrow. “No. Kevin got second.”

Sergeant pauses the video by tapping the screen and turns to Pat, “I realize that Kevin did knock out more agents than Samantha did. However, his work was sloppier than Samantha’s. Samantha also happened to have better technique than the rest of you.excellent technique. And technique is something the rest of you lack.”

Baker frowns slightly, but otherwise still concentrates on his hands.

The video starts playing.

I’m mouthing wildly in the video and trying to twist free. I see myself turn around and kick Holcomb in the chest. She flies backwards. I don’t think I kicked that hard. Like a monkey, I spring up onto the roof and pick up the baseball. I chuck it at Hot Statue, and I snicker as he dodges it and it hits Holcomb in the face. She tumbles backwards bringing down about the rest of the people in a domino effect. Double whammy. Wow.

The camera shifts as I run and jump off the roof onto the neighbors’ house. The whole room seems to gasp and gape as I fly across and roll onto the other roof. My form looks just like Superman’s, except for the fact that my fists aren’t like his are. Baker’s eyes widen. He nods in approval at the screen. I try to hide my face as I blush, afterall, I didn’t think I looked that cool and professional until now.

The video finally reaches it’s climax as I’m cornered on the roof and shot in the chest with the beam of light. It ends.

The whole room goes silent. Kevin sits back, shocked. “I guess you deserved second place.”

I laugh and another video clicks on. Sergeant Heath booms Kevin’s name. The video pops on. I see Kevin getting escorted to the truck, not struggling. He appears to have given up all hope. Then without warning, he twists free and whirls around, whacking Hot Statue in the face with the back of his fist. Holcomb runs up to grab him, but he turns around and whacks her in the neck. I can see what Sergeant Heath meant by sloppy. Kevin thrashes around violently until three agents are knocked out cold, including Holcomb. Hot Statue’s friend pulls out the lightsaber pen and hits Kevin in the chest. The video clicks off.

Sergeant Heath reaches for another video, then stops. “Actually, looking at the time, I think we need to eat breakfast. It’s 9:31 am.”

He taps another icon on the screen, and the screen slowly fades until it is off. It rises up until it is completely in the ceiling. I have no clue how it fits in. Sergeant Heath walks over to the wall and opens up a panel with a bunch of flickering buttons inside. He clicks a green one.

The ground splits open and a flat board rises out of the crack. The ends of the board fold down to form table legs. Sergeant Heath presses the green button again and a slot opens up in the wall. Little packs starts shooting out as if they’re being fired by a machine gun. Each one lands perfectly in front of each person. I pick mine up.

It’s a measly brown paper package with the size and looks of a sugar pack. The label is written in bold letters: Scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast.

I glance over at Baker’s and Kevin’s. They both say the same thing. I raise an eyebrow and flip the package over: Just add water.

“What’s this supposed to be?” Kelli asks in her sing-song voice. “A joke? This is tiny!”

I roll my eyes. “Flip it over.”

Kelli flips it over and reads it aloud, “Just add water. Hhmm. Where’s the water?”

The moment she says it, water bottles drop from the ceiling. I look up just in time to see the holes they came from close up. Sergeant Heath closes the panel with a bam! The room is awkwardly silent. Pat looks at her package like it’s a bug from an alien planet, while Keith is already trying to tear it open.

I pick up my package and tear it open. I pour the contents out onto the table. It looks like a pile of sawdust. Kevin watches me and does the same. We open our water bottles. I carefully tip the water bottle and let a small stream of water out.

It falls and hits the pile. It bubbles a little then dies down until it looks like a pile of wet sand. I grimace.

I look at Sergeant Heath. “We’re supposed to eat-”

BOOM!! Then pile in front of me explodes in a mini mushroom cloud. I cringe and wave the smoke away. The whole truck is watching as the stuff behind the smoke comes into view. I gasp along with Pat and Baker.

Where the pile of dust was is a plate with hot scrambled eggs, juicy bacon that smells like heaven, and a slice of golden brown toast with the butter already melted on it. The section of the table next to my plate opens up and a fork, napkin, and knife pop up.

“Wow,” I breathe, staring down at my food. My empty stomach roars like a lion.

Before I know it, the room fills with explosions and smoke and soon everyone is digging in to a delicious meal.

I shove a slice of bacon in my mouth and chew it like it’s a piece of bubble gum. Baker slowly chews his piece of toast, examining it as if it’s a newly discovered species of beetle.

“So how do you like the food?” I ask him with a mouth full of bacon.

He shrugs, “Do you think it’s even real?”

“What do you mean?” I ask and look down at my food, then back to him.

“I’m just wondering if it’s real, processed, or poisoned,” he states, shrugging again.

I gulp down my food. Is it poisoned? I hope not. The smell of the bacon all of a sudden seems, different.

Sergeant Heath looks up and let’s out a laugh, “Oh, I can assure you, it is perfectly safe.”

He picks up a pack of his own, poofs it into food, and starts digging in.

Baker and I look at eachother and then start digging in to the most delicious breakfast I’ve had in a long time.

---

It’s been five or six hours since I first stepped inside this truck. And trust me, it’s awful. There is absolutely nothing to do. For the first hour or two, we all talked about the food and being dragged here, and that’s about it. None of us were willing to open up to each other quite yet.

After that, everyone pretty much ran out of subjects to discuss. We just sit around examining the interior of the truck some more, or even just discovering new details about our shoes that we’ve had for so long.

Normally, I would find interest in the scenery outside. Like the time when my dad and I took a six hour trip to someplace, I stared out the window the whole time, and never got bored. My dad said it was always amazing that I could find interest in the dullest subjects.

“No,” I had told him, “It’s just that no one else finds interest in the most interesting subjects.”

But now, the windows are blacked out for an unknown reason, and now I really have nothing to find interest in. The car rumbles on and on.

I lean back and rest my head on the hard black wall. Sergeant Heath who has been on his tablet the whole time, stands up.

He doesn’t need to since he already has everyone’s attention, but still he raps on the table with his knuckles. “Attention.”

He clears his throat and flattens out the creases in his uniform with his hands. “To keep you occupied for the duration of the trip, we will be handing out test booklets to each one of you.”

“Who’s we?” Grace asks in an innocent voice.

“Ah, well--I meant to say, ‘I’. I will be handing out the booklets.” He pulls out a fifty foot thick stack of papers. Okay, maybe not that thick. He speaks again, “Each one of you will be graded and put into groups based off of your performance. Two children in each group. You will share a room and at the facility. Now, these tests test not only your intelligence, but your personality and tastes. Therefore, the person you partner with will either be someone you will get along with, or someone you can learn a lesson or two from.” He starts handing out the booklets which are about six inches thick. My mouth literally drops open.

The booklets plop down in front of each person. Kate’s eyes blink as if saying, “You’re kidding, right?” Sergeant Heath passes out five pencils to each person. “You may begin now.”

I have the deja vu moment where you’re taking state testing and you know that you’ve only got one shot to score high. I glance over at Kevin who has already opened the booklet and started writing in it. Taking a big breath, I open it. The first page is completely blank except for the directions on the top. I’m caught by surprise. The direction is Draw a picture of yourself.

I don’t know what to do. So I pick up a pencil and start drawing the best picture of myself from memory. As I’m drawing it, I realize I don’t really remember every single detail about my face. The shape of my nose is impossible and my eyes look off. I don’t even bother trying to remember what my ears look like and cover them up with my hair instead.

I flip to the next page. Write a poem about yourself.

This is awkward. I’ve never been fond of writing, but somehow the words come naturally to me. I pick up my pencil and start writing.

If stars fell from the sky, I’d shoo them away. If I’d had a choice, \I’d choose night over day. _I’ll jump if you jump,_ but only if you go first. Just so I’ll do what’s best, while you do what’s worst. I hate being apart, But my fear is set in stone. I’m afraid of everything, but I’m afraid of being alone. And when it’s the right time, To take my life and change, I’ll do it the right way, But never get my mind rearranged.

I don’t bother rereading my poem and skip to the next page.

This goes on for a long time. There’s a lot of questions about what I think I am or even what color I wish the sky were. Then just as I’m halfway through the packet, they start asking questions like If you were to have one power, what would it be? The questions start to get more bizarre as I get farther into it. It feels like it’s never going to end.

---

I slam the booklet shut and throw the pencils down onto the table. They clatter and roll around as I raise my hands in the air in a victory pose. I have officially finished the booklet. I smile and look around the room to see other people, only halfway through their booklets, looking in awe at me. Even Sergeant Heath looks up in surprise.

“Anything you want to change?” He asks raising a thick brow.

I shake my head. “I’m done.” Wrong. I’m totally done.

Baker glances sideways at me and continues sketching a picture in his booklet. “Aren’t you going to take your time like the rest of us?”

I’m about to answer but Sergeant Heath interrupts, “You may now have something to eat Samantha.” He tosses me a paper that has a bunch of snacks listed on it.

Weary eyes gaze intently at the paper in my hands. “I’ll have a vanilla ice cream sundae with some french fries.”

Sergeant Heath nods and presses two buttons on the wall. Two tiny packs shoot out and land in front of me. I lick my lips on purpose.

Everyone suddenly wants to finish their booklets.

I chuckle a little and decide to wait. It’s polite to eat only when everyone else is ready.

---

I don’t know what time it is, due to the lack of a clock, but do know that the sundae and french fries tasted delicious. I did what my dad taught me. You eat the sundae, but dip the french fries inside.

Yasaman always said it was disgusting, but it actually tastes really good. Who knew?

I didn’t see it, but afterwards, the dishes were dragged off the table and thrown into something. I actually never saw it happen. I just heard a loud sscchhwwkkk! and the dishes were gone. Kevin was the one who told me.

Sergeant Heath pitied that we got bored, and gave us each tablets so we could watch movies. He told us that there was every single movie there so we could watch whatever we wanted. I wasn’t surprised however, that the rated R movies were unavailable.

I wind up watching The Avengers. It happens to be PG-13, and I wonder if my dad would approve. Probably not. It’s a great movie. I wonder if what I’m about to be dragged into will be like it. I just hope I don’t die.

The movie finishes and I put down the tablet. Kevin yawns and glances over at me. “You having fun?”

“Well if you count being fun as getting shot in the chest with a beam, shoved into a van, and then brought into something that you don’t know about, then yes. You could say that.” I say sarcastically and yawn. “I’m just tired now. Do you have a watch?”

Kevin cocks his eyebrows. “Umm…aren’t you wearing one?”

I blink and look down at my wrist. My black watch is staring up at me in the face. “Oh. I totally knew that.” My cheeks flush. “Well, to answer your question, it’s almost 9:30.”

“You asked that yourself.”

I yawn again. “I did? Oh sorry. I’m really out of it right now. I need to rest.”

Kevin let’s out a quiet chuckle. “You do look tired. You should sleep.”

But he doesn’t need to tell me. My eyes are already drooping and I lean my head back. The quiet hum of the van is soothing and I quickly recall the day’s events before shutting my eyes for the rest of the night.