Battle of the Alphas

Battle of the Alphas (Chapter 2)

Chapter 2

Delia exited her alpha-pod. It had dropped her directly in front of her destination, the Alpha Hall, probably because she was so late. She pulled her long, wavy red hair into a high ponytail, and closed her eyes. She was more nervous than she’d been when she’d opened for Justin Bieber at Madison Square Garden. She held her gold locket tightly in her hand, and kissed it for good luck. She finally opened the doors to the Alpha Hall, and walked inside. She looked around. It seemed as though at least 80 or 90 girls were already here. She looked around for somewhere to sit, but most of the tables were already occupied. She finally saw one table in the back of the room that had a few seats open. A short, black haired girl was sitting there already, her back turned to Delia as she bobbed her head to a song on her iPod. Delia made her way over to the girl, and sat down next to her.

            “Hi, I’m Delia!” the black haired girl turned slowly toward Delia. She didn’t smile, but returned the greeting.

            “I’m Mary.” She said, half a smile creeping up her face. “What did you get in for?” she asked, cocking her head to one side.

            “Oh, I’m a musician and singer.” Delia replied, hoping the girl wouldn’t recognize her.

            “Oh, that’s cool. I’m a dancer, singer, and I surf. You look really familiar… have we met before?” Mary asked, her eyes began to scan Delia up and down as if looking for something that would answer her question.

            “Um… you probably just recognize me from a few concerts. I’ve opened for some artists you may have heard of.” A look of amazement passed over Mary’s face. Oh god, Delia thought. This is it…

            “Wait, NO WAY! Were you the girl who opened for Justin Bieber at Madison Square Garden? I was THERE. Like, actually. You were that girl, right?” Suddenly, Mary jumped onto her chair, and, to Delia’s horror, began belting the lyrics to her single for everyone in the room to hear. Girls began to stare at both of them, but mostly Delia, as if they finally realized who she was, too, but then their gaze would be pulled back to Mary, as she danced and sang every word to Delia’s song, and not only was she in tune, she sounded like a cross between Rihanna and Ariana Grande. This chick could SING.

"SIT DOWN!" Everyone fell silent. Mary froze on her chair, Delia didn't dare breath. Had she just heard what she thought she'd heard? She was pretty sure that the voice who had just shouted across the room was an Australian accent, coming from a fierce looking woman with black sunglasses. Mary slowly bent her knees, as if trying to achieve a sitting position without Shira noticing. Delia stared at Mary, who seemed calm, cool, and collected, but Delia swore she saw a flash of fear shoot across Mary's face before she finally rested in her chair. Delia exhaled, and Mary let out a deep breath as if she'd only just remembered to breath. Shira cleared her throat.

            “Well, now that I have everyone’s attention, at least, I hope.” Shira narrowed her eyes at Mary, who stared back, her arms crossed. The two stared at each other for what seemed much too long, and it wasn’t until Shira turned away that the awkward silence was filled by Shira’s voice once again. “Let me start off with welcoming all of you to Alpha Academy! You are the 13th group of girls to join me here at my school for only the most gifted dancers, musicians, writers, inventors, and now, athletes as well. I decided to welcome athletic prodigies to my school this year, because I’ve felt that throughout the years, woman are looked at as weaker in many athletic fields, and I, Shira Brazille, wanted to change that.

As you all probably know, 13 is considered a very unlucky number, so I’ve decided to make changes this year to my school that will hopefully make all of you feel very lucky for getting accepted this term, but before we start out with positive additions, I have some bad news for you all.” A vicious, devious smile seemed to spread across Shira’s face as she continued speaking. “Girls, look around. What do you see?” Every girl in the room looked around, and a few raised their hands as if waiting to be called on to reply to Shira’s question. “Well, hopefully you all noticed that there are 30 girls without chairs in the Alpha Hall. For those of you who know about the Alpha Hall, you will know that there are 20 tables, with 5 chairs, each table representing 1 of the 20 houses here on Alpha Island, therefore, I seemed to have made an error this year, and over-accepted by about 30 girls. Instead of sending out letters to 30 unlucky girls, explaining to them how I was so sorry they would be unable to attend my school this year, I decided to make it a little more… interesting. All 130 of you girls, over the next 3 weeks, will compete for the coveted 100 spots. 10 girls will be sent home each week, and after these 3 weeks have gone by, I will continue to expel girls at random who fail to live up to Alpha standards.” Everyone was silent. Nobody dared show a sign of sadness. Everyone knew what came next. War.