The 6

Chapter 5

Kay guys I won't keep you long but I entered this book into the Wattys and I'm really excited!!!
Chapter 5:
Summary:
The Awards ceremony is underway, when a certain person is picked as the female recipient
Ezra's P.O.V.

"Portia Cru"
Her name echoed through the plaza. Portia had turned paler than a ghost. With those words, Elca had managed to turn Portia's good day into a bad day. I nudged her, bringing her back to reality. Portia slowly stood up, visibly shaking in fear. She, unsteadily, made her way up to the stage. Once she was up there, the representative once again turned to face Portia, placing his hand over his heart. Portia reluctantly mirrored his actions.
"I, you say your name"

"I- I, P-Portia Cru"

"Promise to do my best"

"Promise to do my best"

"To follow all rules"

"To follow all rules"

"And to learn as much as possible"

"And to learn as much as p-possible"

Once more, the representative turned towards the crowd and raised Portia's hand while shouting "I present to you, your female representative, PORTIA CRU!"

Portia hurriedly sat down with Asher, still looking quite pale.

"And now comes the section of the ceremony in which we ask for any lucky volunteers who would wish to also attend Elcademy. "

I, of course, raised my hand hurriedly, after all, what kind of friend would let their bestie be pushed in an unfamiliar situation without them? I was quickly spotted and then escorted to the stage. Soon after, three others joined me on the stage. I didn't bother to look around to see who else took the plunge, I was too busy thinking about what I had gotten myself into.

C'mon, Ezy, it can't be that bad, I mean did you hear about all of the prestigious professors who are going to teach you? The eternal optimist in me offered. Yeah, but almost nobody has ever come back too, remember Calvin? The also eternal pessimist in me countered. Calvin was my neighbor, also an orphan, who happened to be selected to recover the Elcademy scholarship. He was always looking on the bright side of things, and his aura consisted of rainbows and sunshine, much like Portia on a good day. At least, that was until he attended Elcademy. Calvin promised to come back after one year, maybe two, and mind you, he always kept his promises. But he never came back, that is until I, somehow, ran into him. He almost looked broken, defeated. He no longer stood tall and proud, now hunched and untrusting. Calvin spoke meekly, almost like he just wanted to just disappear, when he spoke at all. Not to mention, he almost looked grey, his cheerful self locked away, with the key thrown into oblivion. All this after attending Elcademy.
Didn't give me the best first impression, if you know what I mean.

Soon, I was drawn out of my thoughts by the representative motioning for us to also sit behind him. I practically ran to sit by Portia, and once seated, I finally took notice of who joined me.

Besides Portia, Asher, and I, sitting with us were Donny (SQUEEEEE! MY SHIPS), Mason (AAAAHHHH MORE SHIIIIPPPSSSS!!!!!), and, surprisingly, Niko (...that 'it'...). After a while, consisting of more blah blah-ing from the representative, we were shown to a room behind the stage. There we were each given a relatively thick packet of papers and instructed to read it, and in a little bit, Elca officials will be here to transport us to Elcademy. Then, the representative left the room, and left us to our own devices.

Skimming through my packet, I noticed some irregularities in the rules. For one, class attendance isn't mandatory, but being on time to class is. And there are little to no rules concerning behavior, almost like they didn't expect or need them... strange... And in a section about the schedule, there was a period of the day that we always had at the same time every day, including weekends, called Calling. And it is mandatory to attend and be on time to Calling. Not to mention, on weekends instead of classes, we had something called Training. What we were training for, I have no idea, but it did make me wonder.

Deciding to set these irregularities on a back shelf in my brain, I looked around the table that we were all sitting around, and saw that besides me, Niko was the only one that was done reading the packet.

Ugh.. I'm not even going to attempt conversation with that 'it' I thought while I turned sideways in my chair, leaning against the armrest with my feet over the other one. Quite a comfy position, if I don't say so myself. One by one, the rest finished reading, with Asher taking up the rear, stating, "I just wanted to make sure I could keep track of all the rules!" after a tease from Donny.

"Anyway, so was I the only one that noticed some strange parts about the rules?" I asked.

"Yea, the whole thing with being late and not having to attend classes got me confused."

"What about the whole thing with Calling?"

"Not to mention training!" The others chimed in.

"Alright guys, I think something's up here-" I started but was interrupted by the 'it' itself, Niko "No dip, somethings up, this is Elca we're dealing with." I rolled my eyes and responded, sarcasm dripping from my voice, "Gee thanks for your helpful comment, Niko. Anyways, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, stay on your guard and keep an eye out for anything strange, kay?" A chorus of "m'kays" rang out from the rest of the group.

Shortly thereafter a stern-looking man appeared and ushered us through a back door, into a train compartment.

Then we were separated into pairs by the stern looking man and the groups were as follows:

Portia and Mason (MY SHIPS!)
Asher and Donny (OTP! OTP! OTP!)
And... sadly...
Nikolai and I (Kill me now! Kill me now!)

Well... this is just wonderful, ya know? Then the SLM (short for stern looking man) brought each of the pairs into a separate compartment in the train. Once there we were instructed to "do whatever we wish just don't leave, and know that are security cameras which are constantly monitored and are equipped with microphones."

Well, this is just... wonderful.... did you catch my sarcasm? I mean who wouldn't want to spend a train ride for an unknown amount of time (fairly long based on the fact that there were two beds in the compartment) with a person who you hate and hates you with little to do, right? Again, sarcasm! Anyway, dreading this ride, yet resigning to my fate, I sat down on a couch, got comfy and prepared for the worst.
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
A/N
IM SO SORRY I FEEL LIKE A TERRIBLE PERSON I SAID I WOULD UPDATE FASTER AND I DIDNT I FEEL SO BAD
But seriously guys, my life has been very hectic, shortly after I published that last chapter I had to go on a mission trip with no phones mind you and then I had swim team and a play and rifle and just a while butt ton of stuffs, ya know? So yeah no guarantees when the next chappie is gonna be just know there will be another one plus the cliffhanger wasn't so bad, right????
Anyway,
Tschüs!!!!
-Rachel (thatfaustlygirl)