Awkward Stars

Chapter 03

chapter three
emma montoya

Leigh leads us back to the ballroom from our last stop, the Council head quaters. I hear whispers and murmurs that aren't audible, so I ignore them, but Jenna's remark though, catches my attention.

"What happens if we get lost around here?" she exclaims. Tyler and Leigh stop and turn around. Jenna takes the words right out of my mouth and though she is like a sister to me, I'm glad she was the one who asked.

"What's your name?" Leigh asks with a boiling temper. I can see her fuming and fear for Jenna's life. I don't understand why Leigh is so annoyed with us. It's not like we ever did anything to her.

Everyone has a role behind the scenes. You don't get to see everything. The words of my former acting teacher spring to mind. Maybe Leigh just had a terrible day? It doesn't seem that easy though.

"Jenna," she says, now a little more quietly.

"Well, Jenna," Tyler groans. I see his forehead crease while he thinks of a smart reply. "If you get lost, you will just have to find your way back." He turns back around and starts walking again.

I can see Jenna blush red as she tries to hide behind me. "It's not your fault," I try and soothe. "It was just a question." It takes all my might not to snap back at Tyler.

"I'm not going to fit in here," she murmurs.

I don't think about what she just said and the music from the apparently near by ballroom is the only thing killing the awkward silence.

∞

We disperse back into the ballroom and while others find the food laid out on rows of tables that I don't notice before, I stay back and work out a plan to find my parents.

They must know I'm here. And if that's the case, they would have come to the party tonight. The only problem was that I have no clue to what they look like. In Elementary school, we learned a little bit about genetics and how we inherit some of our parents genes. Brown hair "overpowers" so to speak blonde hair, the only other hair color option we have so there is a more likely chance one of my parents has brown hair. They should also have brown eyes that are be kind of small, like me. But of course, there is always the possibly that these genes are coming from grandparents.

Jenna has disappeared, most likely to find food. I make my way to the front of the room and on to the stage to try and scan the area for my parents.

"Hey," I hear a male voice shout. "What are you doing up here?" Tyler.

He appears from behind a curtain and walks over to me. I remember how he sarcastically replied to Jenna's comment, so I hesitate to answer. "Um, nothing. Sorry." I make a move off stage.

I feel a hand on my shoulder and my breathe gets hitched in my throat. "No, no. You can stay up here. I was just curious."

"Oh," I breathe. He releases me.

"What's your name?" Tyler asks.

"Emma," I say. I focus on his gaze.

He smiles. "Ready to tell me why you were up here?"

"I was looking for my parents," I admit.

He nods. "Follow me."

He walks off the stage and I notice no one has noticed our little conversation. I trail behind him both curious and worried.

What happened to the boy who snapped at my friend making her almost cry, though she was sixteen. What happened to the Tyler who was supposed to be considered almost royalty? Why was he being so considerate to me?

Tyler pulls open a door and beckons me in. I remember it as one of the office spaces Leigh showed us. There was a small, metal sign etched with the words "Member Records".

A small door opened up to a giant room. There was a single desk in the middle, but the rest of the room was filing cabinets. I could see folders with colorful tags sticking out give the room the feel of organized mess.

"You can sit at the desk," Tyler offers. I sit and relax in its leather feel.

"What is this?" I jump and ask, hardly regretting it.

Tyler is fishing out a key from when he notices I speak. "You mean the chair?" he grins. "It's leather."

I've never heard of such a material before. All of Mrs. Rivet's dwellings chairs were hand carved wood, by the children she lived with. This leather is so comfortable.

"I like it," I compliment.

Tyler laughs, but I don't understand why. "Good. Now how old are you?"

Doesn't he already know? "I'm sixteen, new here."

"Oh" he replies, as if it explains everything. "Now, you can't tell anyone we're here, because technically I'm not supposed to be helping you."

"So why are you?" I can't help but ask.

He doesn't answer my question. And for some reason that concerns me.

Tyler goes over to a middle filing cabinet and pulls open a drawer. "Any idea on how old they would be?"

In the County, you can qualify for marriage between 21-31 years of age, but having a child requires the parents to be between 25-35. Studies have shown that these age groups are the perfect times to marry and/or have a child. But that means that my parents could be any possible age.

"No," I sigh, suddenly realizing that I won't be finding my parents soon.

∞

I go to sleep after Tyler assured he would try to find them, but I should go have fun. But I couldn't concentrate on anything except for Tyler and my lost parents. Maybe I should just except that fact that I won't find them, but it seems to early too.

And on these thoughts I fall asleep on the most comfy bed I've ever felt.

∞

Hey Turtles,

On the road again! ♫

I know this is a super short chapter, but to be honest, it's the best I can manage right now. For those of you not following me ( you totally should those because I post frequent updates on this story ), I am currently on vacation traveling from state to state and my birthday is coming up in a few days. ( Want to win a prize? Try to guess the date by commenting below!) I will be back to regular updates July 11th, 2015. Thank you for understanding :).

On a second note, I've seen that a few people have added this story to their reading lists and to be honest, that made me so happy I couldn't stop smiling. And with only two chapters and an authors note, "Awkward Stars" had 90 reads! :)

OK, that was a really long update note, so if you read it.... <3

read, comment, vote, share, and follow

-KATHERiNE

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