Ingenious

Chapter Fifteen

 Tonight is New Years Eve. We have our plans and games set, which means no extra training. It's also the night Maia and I are going to talk to everyone about our plan. We have solidified as much as we could so far, but a lot of stuff you have to think of on the spot. We have enough planned to make a solid argument and that's what matters. I'm a bit nervous, but trying not to think about it.

"Rae!" Maia yells, "pass the banner!" I grab our homemade Happy New Year banner and hand it up to Maia who's balancing on Shawn's hand to hang it up. Tonight will be fun. It's basically a scaled down version of our birthday. Our birthday. What happens when there's another kid? We have no way of getting them... what would they do? I push the thoughts away and leave it for later.

"You do know midnight isn't for another 6 hours," I point out. We just got dinner and I'm ready to eat since I skipped breakfast to save food for later.

"Yeah but we have lots planned," Kacey tells me. "You loved this last year, just enjoy it." I nod and we all sit down to eat plain pasta and a piece of garlic bread. We have several cookies and chips for later I'm anxiously awaiting. "In honour of the New Year," Kacey starts part way through dinner, "what would you guys be doing at home?" We rarely talk about home, but once in a while it comes up. Mainly holidays. It's kind of a sentimental thing. "Me and all my siblings used to do a scavenger hunt and whoever had the most candy at midnight won."

"My family just slept and I'd stay up on my computer," Everett says shrugging. Based on what I've heard, his family isn't very into celebrating. My family is the opposite.

"I'd be at a big New Years party at my house with all my friends and my parents friends and then Bailey would sleep over after," I pipe up. It makes me sad yet happy thinking about those nights.

"That's so much better than the fancy government parties I was forced to go to every year. I had to wear big poofy dresses," Maia says. Her celebrations were very different from all of ours because she grew up in the government life. The kind I wanted.

"Me and my friends would set off fireworks in the park," Ryan says smiling as he remembers them.

"I always just went to the biggest party I could find," Shawn says shrugging. Something tells me he doesn't remember much from those nights.

"And here's to our new traditions. To the new year." Kacey puts up her water glass and we all cheers to it before breaking off into an intense President tournament. It's this old card game that Everett taught us and it gets really intense. At least when we all play it.

After that we play games for hours until it's only a couple minutes until midnight. We only have one clock so if it was off by a few minutes we wouldn't even know.

"1 minute everyone!" Kacey yells as we all watch the clock. "10!" Kacey starts us by shouting when she counts it off in her head.

"9!" We continue. "8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! Happy New Year!" We all exclaim throwing up the paper confetti, Ryan grabs my waist and kisses me. I forgot about that whole kiss someone at midnight. I pull away smiling at him.

"Happy New Year," I whisper.

"Happy New Year," he responds. Soon enough we are all getting ready for bed, but before the lights go off, Maia and I exchange a look.

"Everyone!" I announce, standing in the middle of the room. "Maia and I need to talk to you about something. Before we start, promise you won't interrupt." Kacey looks at me nervously and sits at the end of our bed,

"Okay," she starts, "Rae you're making me nervous." I glance at Maia who joins me with the notebook we've been writing in.

"Maia approached me the other day," I say glancing at her, "she asked me about getting out of here." I see Kacey open her mouth to speak so I speak up, "I explained what you have all told me countless times, but then she pointed something out."