Amateurs

Chapter 1 - Introductions

Beep, beep, beep. Sienna groaned. She had just pulled an all nighter studying for her biology exam, which would determine 20% of her grade. The alarm did nothing but remind her that she should have been sleeping, and her time was up. She felt like she was hours away from her doom.

Honestly, she wasn't very worried. For as long as she could remember, she had been a science whiz. That was why she was attending the most prestigious university in America. That and her grades, but that didn't really matter at the moment.

Her phone dinged, her friend Terry had sent a text. Good luck on ur test today! I'll see u later- if you make it out of there alive... She laughed. Real encouraging, she replied. Sienna and Terry had met in an... interesting way. All the way back in high school, someone had been taunting Terry after school, and Sienna had kicked him in the groin and shoved him against a fence, telling him to knock it off. In a much stronger way. She was definitely a hothead. Not to mention she had also had years of kickboxing training.

She quickly changed and brushed her teeth, although she had to wait nearly a half an hour for her roommate, Hanna, to finish her morning routine before she could get into the bathroom.

The test was relatively easy, and Sienna left the science room, passing Professor Cumberfield, who smiled at her as he walked quickly out of the room. He was her favorite teacher in the school. Kind and intelligent, he was like a grandfather to her, especially since her parents had- well, she didn't even want to think about it. She swallowed the lump in her throat and continued down the hall.

She saw her friend Cato walking a bit ahead of her, also toward the cafeteria and jogged to catch up. They had been friends since the beginning of freshman year, since they had the same math class. Cato was pretty tall, with blond hair and blue-gray eyes. "Hey, District 2!" she said playfully as she caught up to him. She loved taunting him about his name, since they were both obsessed with The Hunger Games. He groaned. "When will you stop with that?"

"Oh, never. I thought that was clear," she joked.

"Hi, guys!"

~~~~~

Cato closed his laptop and looked around his room. He had been doing extra math work, which a few years ago would have appalled him. Now, though, it seemed like the right thing to do. He went to Harvard, and he was being turned into a crazy devoted student. But he was grateful to be there.

Cato had always been great at analyzing problems and solving equations. His friends would tease him and call him "the human calculator." But he knew his skills were worth something, and he had stellar grades, so he applied to his dream school.

Now, over a year later, he was in his sophomore year of college taking advanced math and engineering classes, among other things. Cato wasn't sure why, but he had a feeling that something bad was going to happen today. He went over his schedule quickly in his head. The main event today was a project for his engineering class, but he had finished it the day it was assigned. Still...

Later, Cato headed to engineering with his project. His teacher, Professor Penn, entered the room. He seemed perfectly normal, but Cato could tell something was off. That was his other talent. He could read emotions. It wasn't in a superhero way, he couldn't tell exactly what people were thinking. However, he could recognize when someone was hiding something. And he was sure that the professor was keeping a secret. But what?

He walked to the cafeteria lost in thought until he heard a voice behind him. "Hey District 2!" Oh geez. Sienna was never going to quit saying that. But she was really nice. Well, when she wasn't threatening to beat people up. He had lost count of how many times he had had to restrain her from punching someone in the nose. "When will you stop with that?" he asked.

"Oh, never. I thought that was clear."

"Hi, guys!" said a voice. He turned around and saw Terry, the third member of their trio. Terry was tall with short black hair, dark skin, and gray eyes. They were grinning. "Hey, what's up? Sienna, I see you made it out."

Sienna laughed. Cato didn't even try to understand.

~~~~~

It was a 46 hour drive from Seattle to Harvard. Terry and their family had decided to drive there (or more accurately, Terry's parents had) so they could be together one last time before Terry went off to college. "You're going to do great at Harvard," their mother had said. "It's going to be a great fit for you." Terry, too excited to even roll their eyes at their mom's mom-ish remarks, was flipping through the Harvard brochure.

Now, Terry was sitting in their dorm awake at 2 in the morning studying for a math test. Harvard sure was exciting, but definitely tiring. Being at a top 5 college in the U.S came with a hefty workload to say the least. It was times like these when they relied on their friends, Sienna and Cato.

Terry had met Sienna when they were being bullied in high school for being non-binary. A kid had come up to them after school and berated them with transphobic slurs and curse words. Sienna had spotted Terry being bullied and ran to help. Sienna then kicked him in the groin and shoved him against a fence, telling him to knock it off. Terry was in awe of the short, reddish brown haired, freckled superhero that had come to the rescue. After that, Sienna and Terry had hit it off and became best friends. Eventually, after they had both been in college for a few months, Sienna had introduced Terry to Cato, her other best friend, and the three of them became almost inseparable.

Now, they were all in sophomore year at Harvard University and some of the brightest students there.

Terry looked around and their gaze settled on the clock. It was 7:30! Where had the time gone? Terry bolted out of their dorm after sending a quick message to Sienna, and ran to math. An hour later, Terry walked (if you could call the slow, sluggish, dragging of feet, walking) out of Math. They thought the test had gone pretty well, considering the fact that they had crammed in studying the night before, and were ready for the rest of the day.

While walking down the crowded Harvard hallways, they spotted their friends, Cato and Terry. They ran up behind them and called out to them, "Hi, guys!" Sienna and Cato both turned around and greeted Terry. "Hey, what's up? Sienna, I see you made it out." Sienna grinned and Cato looked positively bewildered.

~~~~~

The group entered the cafeteria, and had barely sat down when someone burst through the doors. It was Professor Cumberfield, looking pale, panicked and carrying a megaphone. Everyone stared at him. He looked like he had just run a mile. He raised the megaphone to his mouth, trembling, and said, "Everyone, move orderly to the nearest exit. We are evacuating. President Amelia Miller is dead."