Ward 48

Chapter 1 [Edited]

"Nicole! Widen your stroke! You'll be faster that way!" Nicole's swim team coach yelled at her as Nicole did her warm-up freestyle.

"You got it coach!" Nicole replied.

It was about 4 in the morning. Most people would be asleep, but Nicole was on the OFCS, the Orchid Fields Competitive swimming team. So, having 4 am practices was normal.

"Lucy! Keep your legs straighter! Stop lagging!" the swim coach again.

The sounds of the splashing pool echoed throughout the acoustic gym until about 7 o'clock in the morning. After almost three hours of swimming, the members of the OFCS finally got changed in their locker room.

The clanging and banging of the dull gray lockers was only a background noise to the lively conversations that the girls were having. A girl with long black hair seemed especially excited as she walked briskly over to a girl who was putting on her shoes.

"Hello Lucy!" Nicole said cheerily.

"Hi to you as well," Lucy replied. "What's got you feeling so well this morning?"

"Lucy? Did you forget? Tomorrow is our states tournament!" Nicole bounced, pointing to her black shirt with white words on it that said: Got Science? Orchid Fields Science Olympiad 2016 with a picture of an atom model in the middle.

"Oh yeah! That's right!" said Lucy.

"So, do you have all of your events ready?" Nicole asked. She rambled on about the different events and what they had to do in order to win, until they heard the bell for a long day of school. As soon as they sat down, the atmosphere changed drastically. Instead of the loud, noisy homeroom that they usually walked into, everyone was whispering. The tension in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

"What's going on?" Lucy whispered to Nicole, her brown eyes looking puzzled.

"I don't know. Let's find out." Nicole replied as she walked over to one of their teammates, Kayla.

"Kayla! Do you know what's going on?" Lucy asked.

"You know Sven, Nash and Robert?" Kayla said worriedly.

"Yeah! I haven't seen them though," Nicole noticed.

"Well, apparently, someone dared them to go in the hospital and come out. They didn't, and now everyone is freaking out," Kayla stated, pointing to the picture of an abandoned hospital.

Nicole put a hand over her mouth. Sven might have been annoying, but he was a person, and their best shot of winning against the best school in the state, Twins Town High School.

The silence was broken by Lucy asking how this happened.

Kayla put a hand on her chin and thought about it. "I'm not sure, but they were supposedly kidnapped, or worse,"

"Then, how do you explain-?" Nicole asked, before she was cut off by the bell, signaling the start of classes.

"Sorry guys! I'll see you after school! Let's work hard to beat Twins Town tomorrow!" Kayla yelled as she ran off with her backpack and flute.

The whole school was usually loud, and the teachers often complained of the noise level. But, this is the first time that something exciting had ever happened in the boring town of Orchid Fields, and it was something big, but potentially dangerous. So, naturally, everyone kept quiet. On a normal day, Nicole couldn't hear herself in the hallways, but, now, even Rithvik could hear himself, and he was really quiet.

When Nicole got to Algebra II Honors along with Lucy, their teacher, Mr. Walker tried to brush it off and continue to teach. As the day progressed, even their usually collected English teacher, Mrs. Yasmin, was sweating buckets. It seemed that the kidnapping had affected even the most composed of people.