Dangerous

Chapter 4

I woke up to Joanna's voice.

"Good morning soldiers," she said authoritatively over an intercom system, the sound cracking slightly through a speaker in my room. "Classes start in exactly a half an hour, so I suggest you get moving. The second floor hall is still closed for construction, and no one is to enter it under any circumstances. Have a wonderful day, and we'll speak to you again soon."

I sighed loudly, covering my head with my blanket. Butterflies in my stomach mixed with disgust made me feel lightheaded. My first full day at an institution whose mission is to train kids to become killers. My stomach turned again at the thought. Could I really kill someone if it came down to it?

I shook the thought out of my mind.

Sitting on the floor beside my bed was a stack of black clothes. Someone must have brought them in while I was sleeping. I picked up the form-fitting shirt, its weight heavy in my grasp. Upon further inspection, I realized that it had a bulletproof vest built into it. The pants were made of a thin material, and black boots sat at the bottom of the pile.

"You guys get straight to the point, don't you?" I said loudly into the emptiness, my sarcastic tone filling the cold air in my room. I shook my head bitterly. The camera glinted in the corner of the room.

The vest felt heavy on my chest. If I were to go into battle, I honestly felt it would do more harm than good. It weighed me down, making it difficult to breathe. With heavy sighs, I stood in front of the vanity, pulling my tangled hair into a high ponytail. My eyes looked heavy, my face tired. I turned away and stepped out of my room.

The hallway was empty. I frowned in confusion, looking around for Rodney, Paul, somebody. The rooms around me looked deserted. I walked across the hall and knocked loudly on a door. No response. Am I being isolated...?

"Sleeping Beauty is finally awake." I turned around at the sound of Rodney's voice. He and Paul were walking down the hallway toward me, Rodney with his characteristic smirk on his face. "Come on. You're going to be late for your first day of class if you don't hurry up."

"I was waiting for you," I said, annoyance clear in my voice.

"Emotion check, sweetheart." Rodney's tone was light and airy, but the meaning behind his words was anything but. I suppressed the urge to punch him in his crooked nose.

The three of us walked down the hallway toward my first class. Physics, according to Paul. Then English, Algebra, War History and Current Events. The rest of the day would then be spent training in specialized areas throughout the institution.

"Good luck," Paul said reassuringly, patting my shoulder. We were stopped in front of a classroom door in one of the side hallways. "Physics isn't too bad. The teacher is nice."

"Thank you," I said, smiling gratefully at him. Rodney just nodded in my direction.

I opened the heavy wooden door, only to be met with the stares of an entire classroom of students. Heat rushed to my face, and I looked at the tiles underneath my feet as the door shut behind me.

"You must be Jessalyn," a short old woman said, smiling up at me. I just stared blankly at her, and she laughed. "I'm Mrs. Doug. Don't be nervous, sweetie. We get newbies in here all the time." She gently took my arm, guiding me over to her desk.

As she looked for my name on the roster, I took the opportunity to look around the room. I had never been in a classroom before, only read about them in books. The desks were arranged in neat, orderly rows, and the chalkboard in the front of the room was covered in smudged erasings. I avoided making eye contact with any of the students.

A red blinking in the back corner of the room caught my attention. Another camera. Of course. Joanna probably had to know what was going on at every moment.

"Here you are," Mrs. Doug said, handing me a packet of information. "And you'll be sitting in that desk in the back row," she said, smiling at me through her glasses. I took the packet and managed a small smile back.

Most of the students seemed to have lost their initial interest in the new girl, so I walked back to my desk with only a faint blush staining my cheeks. I sat down behind a girl with long blonde hair, hers pulled up into a high ponytail similar to my own. I frowned when I noticed her earpiece. Slim and black, it wrapped around her ear stealthily. It probably wasn't visible from the front. What in the world would she need an earpiece for?

Glancing around the room, I saw earpieces everywhere. Not a single person in the room didn't have one, except for me. Even Mrs. Doug, writing equations on the board at the front of the room, had one, though she tried to conceal it by tucking her shoulder length gray hair behind her ears every few minutes.

I paid very little attention to the lesson. My first day and I was already behind, but I couldn't bring myself to care. No matter how much MMP tried to make this place seem normal to any degree, the underlying sense of danger was still there. Students shifted in their seats anxiously, and I sympathized with them. Any number of soldiers could be sent out at any time.

As selfish as it was, I just hoped one of them wouldn't be me.