The Animal Inside

Chapter Eleven: Rising Tensions

The entire student body was in attendance. The Competencia was held in several areas around the Academia, so I was told. At the start, we were all ushered into the auditorium.

The auditorium was a large theatre-type building. There was stage in the centre. It looked to be made from a light coloured wood, like pine. The seats were stadium-like, surrounding the stage on all sides. The front row was level with the stage, and each row of seats was higher as they went up the layers, so everyone had a clear view of the stage. There had to be about twenty rows that ran the perimeter of the auditorium. The doors were at the bottom, near the stage, so we had to hike up the wide stairs to find a seat. We sat about half-way up. The seats were comfortable, upholstered with a red fabric. I sat between Dexter and Lock.

Dexter reached into his bag and pulled out a strange looking device. It was about the length of my forearm, and as wide as my palm. It wasn’t a boxish shape; it was a half cylinder, with the curved side pointed towards the ceiling. Dexter could easily hold the sides of it in his hands.

“What’s that Dex?” I asked.

“Oh, this? It’s just something I invented,” he said.

“You invented it? What does it do?”

“I’ll show you.”

Dex pushed a button on one end, and a screen began to emerge from the strange device. It whirred and clicked. Soon, the screen was fully visible. It was about the size of a normal tablet screen. It lit up with a blue background, and asked for a username and password. Dex pressed another button on the other end, and a keyboard appeared from the device. How a screen and keyboard fit into that small device is beyond me. The wonders of technology. Dex tapped in his username and password, and an empty table appeared on the screen.

“What’s on today Dex?” asked Lock, looking over.

“Not sure. They haven’t announced it yet so it’s not in the system, but it should be up soon,” Dex replied.

“Huh? What are you guys talking about?” I asked.

“Sorry. The Competencia has a particular system in the Academia’s mainframe. Once the competitions are announced, people have a chance to enter. When people put their names forward to compete, they are entered into that system. This device hooks up to that system. It compares the competitors and calculates the odds. The odds are displayed on my device here. I then go around and collect bets. I could hack into any betting network, anywhere, if I wanted to,” Dex explained.

“Wow. And you invented it. That’s amazing!” I said, impressed, “Wait, bets? People bet on the competitions? Isn’t that immoral or illegal or something?”

“Nope. It’s one hundred percent legal, plus the Academia actually encourages the betting. They say it encourages the competitors to do better or something, and it brings up student’s morale and they cheer and get more involved. Or at least something like that.”

“Oh,” was all I had to say.

“Attention students.” A familiar voice echoed around the auditorium thanks to the speakers placed on the walls. Everyone quieted down. I looked down at the stage to see Dr. Ashton, I mean Jason, standing at the microphone.

“What’s Jason doing?” I whispered, more to myself than to anyone else.

“Mr. Ashton? He’s our principal. Why’s he speaking?” Lock whispered in my ear. He seemed to ask that last part to himself.

“Really?” That surprised me. I thought maybe he was like a talent scout or something. Someone who roamed around looking of Supers to bring to the Academia to train. I didn’t think he was the principal.