Pernicious

Chapter 7: The Grand Qualifier

Chapter 7: The Grand Qualifier

Immediately Melissa blamed Addie. “We wouldn’t have been late if you wouldn’t have taken so long to eat lunch!”

Everyone started to quarrel and blame each other. After a couple minutes of this, which just wasted more time, Master Ko got our attention and said, “Everyone is the hangar waiting. Go.”

Without further ado we dashed to the hangar. I automatically started to apologize for being late.  

“My note said don’t be late.” Professor Humphrey paused. I stood there with my head facing the floor, now gloomy mood.

“But, don’t worry.” he said, “I’m not going to punish you for being five minutes late!”

A rush of relief came over my body. I felt loads better now. If we wouldn’t @have been able to participate in the Grand Qualifier, just because we were late, I would have been so disappointed in myself.

“Anyway, now that we are,” he looked at his watch. “five minutes and 6 seconds off schedule, we should really be going.”

One by one we all entered the private jet. I wasn’t even sure where we were going or how long the Grand Qualifier would last. Fourteen students and six of the Professors were going to the Grand Qualifier. I recognized some of the students from my classes, but didn’t know any of their names.

We rode in the jet for roughly ten hours. Wow, I thought.. ten hours for just a tryout. Luckily everyone slept most of the way.

“Rise in shine! We should be in Algarve, Portugal in about twenty minutes.” Professor Humphrey spoke into the intercom speaker. “We will be going to the Institute of Portugal. The Institute of Portugal is one of the closest allies of Shergold Academy.”

We landed in Algarve, then took a coach bus for about another hour. I thought that England was beautiful, Portugal was breathtaking, absolutely the most beautiful thing I’ve laid eyes on. I thought it was interesting to have a private espionage Institute in such a big city like Algarve.

The Institute was not what I thought it was. It was located far into a coastal pine forest on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean. I later found out it wasn’t in Algarve, it was privately owned land outside of Algarve.

We arrived at a building that was placed in the thick of the coastal pine forest. It was very modern looking, everything was geometrical. I could see that the institute had large windows and had a very plain white paint coated on the siding as I looked around in the dark. As we walked inside, the interior was very nice, there were weight rooms, a training center, and classrooms. The Institute of Portugal was a lot like Shergold Academy.

We pretty much went straight to bed because it was about eleven O’ clock at night. We got up early the next morning to begin the Grand Qualifier.

What must have been their Headmaster, led us to the auditorium. It had a high ceiling, with a wood floor. We all sat down in the comfy seats. There were at least thirty more students and ten Professors from different schools. The auditorium kind of reminded me of a stadium. Within a few minutes, a few of their workers got the Grand Qualifier set up. Now there was curtains dividing, what looked like, the individual scoring rooms.

These schools were close allies of Shergold Academy, with this many students it’s going to be hard to get a good score at the Grand Qualifier. I started to feel really nervous.

“Welcome to the Grand Qualifier! I am Professor Reboredo I will be one of the judges that will be scoring the Grand Qualifier today. You have been invited here today because you are one of the top students in your school. These schools have been invited here today because the Ica Stones that connect our schools together have been stolen. To win today, you must achieve one of the four of the highest scores at the Grand Qualifier.”