Specials

Chapter 8- Discoveries

It was a week after the encounter with Kia and Sarah, and Dawn, Chameleon, and James still were the only three on their team of six for The Games. They had met a nice boy, Alex, but he was on a different team already. He was to be their competition, it seemed, but only if they could find three other members to fight with them in The Games.

"I bet we'll have to sit out," Chameleon complained, her skin a gloomy blue. The three were in the library during their free time. The school's library was quite grand, as big as or maybe bigger than the cafeteria, and filled with millions (or so it seemed that many) of books. Books about wars and history. Books about love and hatred. Books that were trashy young adult novels. Books that had been given a hundred awards. And nestled between the rows and rows of books were little clearings. Some of the clearings had simply more books, while some had comfy chairs alongside tables laden with even more literature, and some had desks upon which computers available for student use rested. Overall, the library was a blissful paradise for many students, and it was where Dawn, Chameleon, and James spent much of their free time.

"Oh, don't be so pessimistic, Chami! We're bound to find someone!" The library always put Dawn in a good mood, but even she sounded slightly uncertain as she ran black-gloved fingers over the spines of books. She missed the sensation of the touching, the feeling of certain things (like books) and she longed to rip her gloves off and to stroke the spines lovingly. But Dawn knew that would probably end up blinding her friends, so she resisted the urge and kept her gloves on.

"Guys, I think Sarah and Kia were lying to us," James piped up from his perch at a computer. It turned out that the flame-haired boy was quite good with technology, something he hadn't known before he came to the school.

"Yes, James, you say that every day," Chameleon sighed.

"No, but this is proof!" James beckoned the girls over and they peered over his shoulder.

"What are we looking at?" Dawn asked. The text on the screen seemed to feature names, thousands and thousands of them, accompanied by numbers and pictures.

"I hacked into the school's database. Those two girls said that they had a bad skill set. Well, it says here that they're nearly at the top in all of their classes!" James exclaimed. "But it's funny... They don't have schedules that go during the day... Huh."

"What are they best at?" Chameleon asked, yellow with piqued curiosity. She appeared not to have noticed James' remark about the day time classes, only focused on teammate potential.

"Stealth, Evasion, and Lock picking for Sarah," James said slowly, eyes widening in disbelief. "And Social Infiltration, Molecule bending, and Merging 101 for Kia."

"What?!" Dawn gasped. "Those can't be real classes!"

"Those sound like... Like classes for villains!" Chameleon cried, pink and orange in confusion and surprise.

"Th-that's because they're part of... Of the night class," James murmured.

"That means..." Dawn breathed.

"This school doesn't just teach heroes," James finished her sentence. The three sat in silence for a few minutes, very aware that this was something that they shouldn't have seen, until James had the common sense to shut the computer down. A sudden agreement seemed to pass between them, unspoken, that this should never, never, never pass their lips. They sat in silence for a few more minutes, before they heard a scuffling footstep behind them. They all looked up, a little startled, nerves still on edge, to see a small, dark haired and dark skinned girl nervously edging her way into the clearing.

"Uh, hi... I heard that you guys were looking for a team member? For The Games?"