Gifted

Chapter 8

Rita and Amber sat in an empty room, in front of them was a desk and several organized stacks of paper. Amber’s fingers were drumming on her leg, creating a soft, continuous, series of thumps. There was a creak of a door and they turned around immediately. A man walked in, he was wearing a white lab coat and a pair of glasses.

“No need to worry, you are not in trouble, this is a standard procedure.”

The girls stayed silent as he walked across the room and sat in the chair behind the desk, he stared at them for a moment before grabbing three stacks of paper. He handed them one each and kept the third one for himself, he cleared his throat an opened it to the first page. He read as the girls followed along on their own packets.

“You are taking part in the gifted program, this itself is an honor and it will be treated as such. Our staff expects you to be on your best behavior, you will act mature and follow all of our rules. Failing to follow these rules will result in severe punishment. The rules will be given to you before you leave, now then, let’s get back to the packet. Here’s how your schedule will look, tomorrow, when everyone arrives, we will give you a tour of the lab. We will show you where the classes will take place, the location of the cafeteria, the gym, the computer lab, the supplies store, the so called ‘mall’ where you can buy uniform upgrades along with combat boots. When the tour is done you will be showed to your room, you will have it to yourself and ‘sleepovers’ are not permitted. Your luggage will be brought to your room and you will have two hours to unpack and settle in, when you are finished, you may want to take a shower in the bathroom attached to your room, afterwards, we will have an assembly. The staff will introduce themselves and we will explain the in-depth rules and answer any questions, you will be given your temporary uniform and be sent back to your rooms for the night. Before you sleep you will have 1 hour of free time, no more, no less, to socialize with your new friends. This plan will get you through the rest of this day, we will explain your daily schedule during the assembly. That is all for now.”

Rita looked at her packet, so much was planned for tomorrow, they would be so busy, but they would probably have less crowded schedules after all of the hustle and bustle of moving in. The man stared at them for a moment, he looked genuinely confused.

“I sad that that is all, why have you not left?”

Rita jumped and nodded without a word, she stood up and rushed to the door, nearly knocking down a chair in her haste. Rita looked back at Amber who hadn’t moved a muscle. Rita wanted to drag Amber out of the room before she could get the both of them in trouble.

“When”, Amber began slowly, “Are we going to leave this place.”

The man looked startled that she had spoken, he leaned backwards and responded.

“You can leave now if you like, the doors right there, go and play with your friends.”

“Not the room, this lab. When are we going out into the real world?”

“That is confidential information, child.”

Rita tapped Amber on the shoulder and motioned to the door when he turned around, Amber sighed and nodded; she got out of the chair and sulked out of the room, staring down with intense hatred. The second the door closed behind them she perked up, and smiled at Rita, her anger forgotten.