The Labyrinth Trials

Chapter 2

Waiting is always the hardest part.

Waiting in a line that continued to fester with wild and inconsiderate conversations, Sophia blocked out the rest of her classmates. Their words were completely oblivious to her.

She didn't care for them anymore.

All she cared about was getting inside the stadium, finishing the tests and then going home without a care in the world.

Her eyes kept wandering over to search for the clock, to discover that they had been standing here for a good ten minutes since she'd arrived in line, and that was after everyone else. Tapping her fingers together, she wondered impatiently about the time. When are they going to let us inside? Surely they would have set the stadium up earlier?

Finally, as if somehow magically her thoughts had been voiced and put to action, the line began to grow smaller and smaller as the teachers finally granted permission for the year 9s to enter the stadium. Kids were shoving and pushing each other in order to reach the best spots on the bleachers, while Sophia idly took a seat on the first set of bleachers, with Bella on one side, Caleb on her other. She didn't talk to him. She found that since lunch, Caleb seemed to be almost embarrassed of himself.

Sophia, if she had to admit, was slightly satisfied. Serves him right for being such a jerk to me.

Although he wasn't the best friend, Sophia couldn't say she hated him. They had known each other for a long time, and she guessed she was just used to the way he behaved.

For a form level of thirty students, they sure knew how to make noise. The excited screeches of fifteen-year old's could be heard a mile away, as their voices were thrown back and forth around the stadium in a painful echo.

Fortunately, there was not too much time to waste, and the scouts were just as eager as the kids were to get stuck into it.

"Attention everyone! May we please have your attention?" the voice of a tall, dark haired male spoke into a microphone, loud and clear, demanding authority. Almost immediately the hubbub of excited teenagers died down, and everyone stayed silent to listen to what the man had to say. Sophia turned her listening ears on. Better listen up if I want to know what to do, and not embarrass myself.

"Thank you. Before we move on, I must introduce myself, as well as my colleagues here today" the man trailed off, turning to gesture at the line of six people standing beside him, not one of them even comparing to his height.

"My name is Daniel, and I will be your head coordinator for the Labyrinth Trials test today. Here with me I have Janett, who you will all be supervised by when it comes to weaponry handling" he gestured for a woman with short blonde hair. Her face was narrow, and her chin was pointed and small, and Sophia thought it was almost anime like how blue her eyes were.

Her cheekbones pressed ever so delicately against her skin, and her overall complexion was pretty neat. Sophia even thought she caught a few seedy comments from the boys up the back, which she expected nothing less than. Like they always say, boys will be boys.

After running through a brief introduction for the other assistant scouts, Danial breezed over a more detailed explanation of what Mr. Haliotus had told the class that morning. He let us know about how scout tests worked, and how the tests would be structured, and how they would be assessed. It was nothing less than what Sophia's understanding of it was; pointless training for a pointless trial that everyone pointlessly enjoys watching. Or to some it up, a waste of perfectly good studying time.