The Warrior Gene

Chapter 5

I sit motionless not able to move or breathe I don't know what to do. I finally come to my sences and walk to the stage when I stand on the red line I look to my fellow teammates and I see the four people I'm supposed to lead and I'm horrified by the thought of their lives being in my hands. I search the audience for my mom and my eye finally catches her. Her eyes are watery with tears of joy and pride the seat next to her is empty it was meant for my dad but for some unexplainable reason he is missing.

We are dismissed and we go back to our seats. I can barely breath through the rest of the ceremony, Alec has to nudge me for me to realize that Kaitly has been assigned to her team I applaud her and then I go back to my zombie like state. The ceremony lasts for another hour and a half but it goes by in a blur. I'm so out of it that Kaitly has to shake me for me to come back to my senses.

Another hour is spent congratulating everyone and saying our goodbyes to our parents. My mom gives me a hug with tears in hers eyes "I'm so proud of you and I'm sure your dad will be too" she says as she lets me go and wipes tears from her cheeks.

"Where is he?" I ask.

"Sweety I'm so sorry and I'm sure your father has a good explanation, and I promise I'll find out what it is." she says a bit agitated.

I know my dad is going to hear about this later.

After an hour of crying mothers and cheering dads the visitors are asked to leave. We say our final goodbyes. We won't be seeing our families for four months unless there is an emergency or extreme family crisis. Of course we can always talk though the phone but it's not going to be the same as physically being with them.

The same woman from before walks on stage. "Students an escort will now round up your team and take you to your dormitory apartments. Please refrain from speaking with your fellow team mates until you are in your dorms that is all."

She walks off the stage and disappears in the crowd immediately. After a few minutes have passed a short brunette woman comes to get me with the rest of my team following behind her, we leave the auditorium.

"Hi my name is Ester and I will be your guide as we walk through the unfamiliar parts of campus. Although you have been attending Lore academy for an entire year now I guarantee you've seen less than a quarter of it due to the fact that most areas are off limits to freshman but now that you guys are sophomores all areas of the school will be open to you."

We reach a large metal gate that we are unable to see through or over.

"So you're saying that the school is bigger than what we've already seen?" Asks Lennox

"Yes actually a lot bigger." Ester says as a matter of factly then she slides her wrist into a scanner and a pale blue light scans her wrist turns green and the gate begins to open.

"Will we be able to do that?" Asks Nyle

"Oh yes you each will get a student ID key injected into your wrist it doesn't hurt in the slightest but it allows you to enter all the student areas, it will keep track of all your meals and purchases from the school stores and it will also act as a tracker in case one of you were to go missing or were to end up somewhere your not supposed to." Ester says

"Cool." Nyle says

"Ok so to your right is the cafeteria and the fitness center. We encourage a healthy diet and frequent exercise. To your left is the sparing gym where you can go head to head with fellow teammates or other students, right next to it is the infirmary. we thought it would be a good idea to keep those two close." Ester tells us about each building as we pass them by. Eventually we reach the area where all the dorms are but we are taken by surprise when we find out we won't be getting small apartments in a huge building filled with rowdy teens but instead each team is getting an entire house to themselves we walk as we pass row upon row of identical houses I'm glad to find that our house is one of the first ones so that means it will be nearly impossible to get confused or miss any classes.

"So this is where I will leave you guys home sweet home, inside you'll meet your last teammate the pure blood of your team, remember they don't know who they got assigned to so make sure to introduce yourselves. Im sure he or she is just as excited to meet you as you are to meet them. And with that I must leave you to introduce more students to the academy goodbye." Ester leaves us standing at the front of our house.

"So do we knock or do we just barge in?" Asks Nyle in a sort of half joking half serious way.

"I don't know, why don't you ask our leader?" Says Clarity in a overly sarcastic voice.

They all stare at me and I can feel the blood running to my cheeks.
"Listen guys I didn't ask to become a leader and to be honest I don't want to be one. but we didn't get to make our own beds they were made for us and now we have to lay in them, rather we like it or not so for right now lets work on getting to know each other and maybe becoming friends and then we can worry about the titles and athorities later." I say to them with my very sweaty hands in my pockets.

"Ok good enough for me." Says Nyle as he heads for the door.

They all head for the door but Alec stops right next to me.

"Good speech very um........ cheesy." He says as he jabs me in the side with his elbow. "You know they were talking about how they were going to beat you up if you got all bossy right away."

"Great I'm now even more disliked than I was before. At least you got my back right?" I ask Alec hoping for some encouragement.

"Yeah you got me. As long as you don't start bossing me around." He says jokingly.

We all walk into the house at the same time and the first thing we see is a boy with light brown hair and dark eyes.

"Hi my name is Kai Dominico."