Infinite (Unedited)

∞CHAPTER NINETEEN∞

Shaun sits down between me and Melody, and is greeted by her friendly smile and four confused faces.

"So, Shaun needed a place to sit and I offered this extra seat beside us," I give them a warning look. "It was really nice of him to stick up for melody, wasn't it?"

"Mmhm."

"Yep."

"Sure was!"

"Oh yes."

"Well, uh, thanks Aria," Shaun says awkwardly.

"No probl-" My reply is cut off by the speaker.

"Chosen! Welcome! Things have been a bit slow lately I admit, but now it's time to get a move on! We have one test to administer before we announce how many of you are left in the 'competition,'" He does air quotes with the word competition. "Although I'm sure you're all able to figure that out from looking at the attendance," he laughs as if he had just told the funniest joke in the world, and an awkward, forced laugh ripples through the crowd.

"Now, you know that when you start fights you're forced to leave, but still that doesn't give us a definite that you're not prone to violence when angered. The abilities can be very sensitive, and you wouldn't want anyone to have a Hulk-like response," He grins.

"My sister isn't exactly prone to violence but still kinda Hulk-like when she's mad. Which is, you know, all the time," Shaun whispers to me.

I burst out laughing, gaining me strange looks from everyone around me. I sink lower in my seat and avert my attention away from Shaun and back towards the speaker.

"So if you'll make your way to your cylinders, we can begin!" He steps down from the podium and walks off the stage and out the door, beckoning for us to follow.

On the walk down the hall Nate runs up to me.

"So what's the deal with him?" He sends a quick nod in Shaun's direction.

"The deal with him? What do you mean?" I ask.

"He's never even spoken to us the whole time we've been here, and all the sudden he's like what? Your new best friend? Plus, look at his sister. People who are related are similar you know!"

"Woah, Nate, what're you talking about? I just asked him if he wanted to sit with us! It was the nice thing to do, and I wanted to thank him."

"Yeah? He didn't do much to deserve a thank you," Nate rolls his eyes.

"What? Nate, he was being nice to Melody after she started to cry."

"Siblings fight all the time, it's not that big of a deal, Aria."

"Yeah, but-"

"We're here, gotta go, bye," He stalks off into the big, white walled room.

"What is up with you today?" I mumble.

People fan out through the room in search of their cylinder. You can't just choose a random one, you need to use the same one every time. They work a little different for different people I guess. If you try using someone else's, it refuses to turn on and starts counting down from 100. One kid waited for the count down to finish before stepping out, and we found out that after those 100 seconds, it calls the guards; and let me tell you, they're not happy when they have to come all the way down here.

I step into my cylinder and look around. Three tiny, round black disks are attached to three wires coming down from the top of my cylinder. The walls light up and instructions are given as to what to do. I step forward and as it said, let the disks attach themselves to my forehead.