Gifted

Chapter Three Cecelia

Wow. I slept well. Really well. I've never slept better actually. I sigh as I feel the warmth of the sunlight pass over my face and—wait.  I  never opened my blinds. I open my eyes and see, to my surprise, not my room, but a big room with a huge amount of beds. And in every bed there's a person.  The room is white, with black tiled floor,and a window with black curtains that are pulled away from the windows over every bed. As I  look around , I catch a glimpse of the girl next to me, I realize that I know her.
"Emily?"
I accidentally say out loud. She goes to my school. She has dirty blond hair and blue eyes. When we are in the hallways sometimes together, she seems really calm even in the worst situations. We have science and math together. She's really smart and keeps strait A's and A+'s, like me. She has a smile on her face, like she fell asleep happy, I wish I looked like that when I fell asleep! Well, maybe I do. I am startled out of my thoughts when Emily wakes up. She looks around, and after a few seconds, notices me.
Cecelia? What are you doing here? Where am I?
I look around and reply:
"Honestly, I have no idea where I am or why I'm here."
After a few seconds of silence, Emily groans.
"What?"
I ask
"We were taken."
She replies.
"Well, of course we were taken but where? And why? And by whom? Whadda they want from us?"
I ask, suddenly feeling a bit afraid. Emily puts her head in her hands and asks:
"Don't you know the legend?"
"What legend are you talking about? The legend of Perseus, of the Creation of the World? What legend?
"Don't you know?"
Asks Emily.
"Well, no. "
I reply. She sighs and after a moment says:
"There's a legend that 0.3%of the population disappears on their  12ᵀᴴ birthdays. Nobody knows why, or how, and nobody can stop it. Parents are generally overprotective during the time that their kids turn 12. Weren't yours?"

I look down at my feet, because I don't want to tell her that my parents are dead. Which is when I notice that I am wearing not my pajamas, but a white silk shirt. It's cropped a little at the stomach, and is sleeveless. My pants are white jeans, and my shoes are black leather combat boots. I look back at Emily, and realize that she is wearing the same thing, except her pants are green, like her shirt,and her boots are brown, not black. She sees me looking at her, and looks down. She also notices that she is not wearing her pajamas. She groans and looks at me, and puts her head in her pillow. A few seconds later, I hear a partially muted "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!"
My mind goes back to the legend, and something returns to me from the night before. The dream I had, about transforming into some kind of bird. After Emily stops screaming, I ask:
"Did you have a dream about transforming into an animal last night?"
After a moment, Emily replies;
"Yes, I did, how did you know?"
"Because I had one too."
"Really? What did you change into?"
"Some kind of bird. You?"
"Some kind of wolf fox thing. "
"So that must mean that- well- I guess that I can do something that has to do with a bird maybe? And maybe you can so something that has to do with some kind of a wolf kind of thing?"
"That would make sense,"
Replies Emily.
"So that means that every person in this room can do some weird thing that connects to dreams about animals? That's kinda to crazy to think about. I mean like, its not really possible. "
"That's what I think. Even though it doesn't make sense that we can all have the same dream.. I don't  think its scientifically possible."
Just then we are interrupted by a plump woman walking in the room with a megaphone. She quickly put the megaphone to her mouth and yells:
"Get up kids! Follow me!"
All around us, kids are  jolted out of their sleep and stand up. They look around, confused, and then a large portion of them just lay back down on their beds, and start screaming in their pillows.  Emily and I exchange glances of incomprehension and stand up, and follow the mob of tired 12 year olds out of the room and into a cold hallway.