GONE, GONE, GONE ( ORIGINAL )

TWO

AS ANGELICA PULLED INTO THE DROP OFF, KIA'S NERVES WERE REPLACED WITH GIDDINESS. She had been looking forward to college for years. Especially Haven; it was the nicest music college in Indiana, and her mom had gone there years ago. It was different, too. Kia had heard so much about it from her mom, and it sounded amazing.

"Are you ready?" Angelica asks as Kia grabbed her bags from the trunk. Asia was in Angelica's arms, playing with her necklace.

"Yeah, yeah I am." Kia states confidently. Quickly, she hugs her mom and kissed Asia's forehead, before a girl came up to her and began (very loudly) telling her instructions.

"You need to report straight to the auditorium; you will see signs pointing towards it. You'll have an assigned seat, so be sure you listen for that."

Kia looked at her weirdly. "Why do we have assigned seats in the auditorium?"

"Issues last year. It's girl-boy girl-boy, so please, keep the noises quiet. If you know what I mean." The girl winked, and this is when Kia decided she did not like her.

<>

Eventually, Kia made it to the auditorium, following the many signs pointing towards it. There were two tables by the doors; one with a sign saying A-M and another saying N-Z. Reluctantly, she made her way to the first tables line. After about fifteen people, she was at the front.

"Name?" The woman asked, not even looking at Kia. She sighed.

"Kianna Johanson. I go by Kia, though." The woman crossed of her name.

"Mhmm. Row 5, seat 6. Next!" She thanks her, before entering the auditorium and looking around for her seat. Surprisingly, there were only a little over fifty people in there, and there was fairly even number of boys and girls.

"Wow," Kia mumbled to herself, "Mom was not kidding when she said it was small."

She found her seat and sat down, no one next to her yet. There was a girl one seat away, who noticed Kia sit down and immediately turned to her friends and starting whispering as her friends snickered. Great, Kia thought. I just got here and I'm already being made fun of.

Soon enough, someone who Kia later learned was Dean Valdez, walked on to the stage. There was still no one to the right of her, but a boy named Liam was to her left. He was very kind, and obviously shy, but enjoyable to talk to nonetheless.

"Welcome everyone!" Applause. "Especially the new class of 2021! Hopefully." She mumbled the last part, but Kia still heard it.

"Now, we have an interesting system at this school. Its important, so please listen carefully." Suddenly, a boy slid into the seat next to her, looking slightly out of breath.

"What'd I miss? He asked Kia. She scrunched her eyebrows and turned to him, feeling her face heat up as she looked at him. What the heck?

"Um, not much." She paused. "I'm Kia."

He smiled. "Carter."

"Now, in your acceptance letter, you may have noticed we didn't give you a dorm. Instead, we put one of these ten colors: navy blue, purple, red, green, pink, yellow, orange, white, turquoise, or gold. These are the colors of the ten houses on campus. You are in one of them, along with six other people. Every house will be a musical group. Some of you sing. Some of you dance. And some of you play an instrument. Combine your talents, and come up with an amazing act. There will be a battle between every house every two months. At the end of the year, whichever house wins the most competitions, gets $7,000 to split in the group!

"We are lucky enough to do this since there is only seventy people in our school. We are very, very, very careful about who we let join our school. Don't blow it; you were chosen out of close to 1,000 auditions. You have talent, so show it.

"If you have any questions please come to my office at any time, except the weekends. Or Mondays. God, I hate Mondays.

"Anyways, please look at which house you are in in your letter, and go find it. The front doors match the color that is printed in your letter. Good luck!"

As it got louder and louder in the auditorium as everyone left, Carter turned to Kia.

"What house are you in?" Kia glanced at her paper.

"Turquoise. You?" She responded, butterflies suddenly fluttering in her stomach.

"Red. Exciting!" He said sarcastically. Kia laughs, and she began to leave the auditorium, Carter close behind.

They walked in awkward silence, Kia suddenly too nervous to say anything. She'd never been like this around someone before, so it was weird.

As Kia spotted the turquoise door, she suddenly spotted the red one right next to it.

"Hm, how ironic." She commented. Carter laughs.

"Guess it's meant to be." He winks, making Kia's face heat up again. She waved goodbye before walking towards the turquoise door. What was going on with her today?

"Hello! You're in the turquoise house?" A girl who was standing by the door asked. Kia nodded.

"I'm Kia." The girl smiled.

"Briana. A few other girls are inside, so you can go inside and meet them!" Briana states before opening the door so Kia could slip inside.

She set her bags where a few other bags were, and walked towards where she heard voices. In the living room, she found three girls. Two were sitting on the couch talking, but one of them was doing a handstand.

One of the girls on the couch noticed Kia and smiled. "Hi! I'm Veronica. This is Shelly."

Shelly waved as the girl doing the handstand fell over. "I'm Reagan."

"Kia." She states, already excited to get to know these girls.