Chapter 22 (redone)

After breakfast, my Team separates from the rest of the lunch room crowd for the meeting that Wynn called. We file out of the cafeteria, attempting to avoid the rest of the students in the crush. I fall behind, and Llare takes my hand and Aiyamar’s. His tall, muscular frame effectively clears the crowd. When we’re all finally together, Wynn addresses us.

“Everybody here? Good. Well, I want to start off by telling you all that you’ve been a wonderful Team.”

Because of my Power, I sense a bit of unease among my Teammates. The last time a Team Leader said this to them, he’d left and never come back.

“Really, you guys are amazing,” Wynn continues. “I would list all of your good qualities, but that would take too long,” he says in his usual flat tone. I’ve learned that it’s better to focus on what he says, and not how he says it.

The girls all giggle and bat their eyelashes at the compliment (except for me; I’d like to think I’m more mature than that). Eyrad, Llare, and Kyle unanimously thought “I know.” Boys. I guess all of them have ego problems, and not just Kyle.

Wynn continues. “I’ve heard excellent reports from all of our Instructors…and even the Leaders themselves.” He pauses. “And because of such, we are now officially Team 009.”

For a moment, there is absolute silence as we all digest this. Well, they digest it while I try to figure out what’s going on. In six months, I haven’t learned half of what goes on here.

Kyle answers my unspoken question. Each Team is numbered according to rank. We just moved from 010 to 009; ninth in precedence for the Third Faction, so twenty-seventh for the whole School.

Oh…I could have figured that out, I grumble. Because there are so many students here (over 15,000 if you don’t include the Instructors), we are all separated into “Factions”. The First Faction has breakfast before the Second Faction, which has breakfast before the Third Faction, which has breakfast before the Fourth Faction. So, they continue on a strict time schedule. It’s sort of like time zones, with each Faction approximately two hours apart from the next. There are also the ranks to keep track of. They go in descending order. So, the lowest Team in the Third Faction is still higher than the highest Team in the Fourth Faction.

When Wynn’s news sinks in, my Teammates celebrate loudly. Aiyamar squeals and accidentally loses control of her Power, causing the room to brighten. Eyrad whoops and floats a couple inches off the ground. Wynn smiles the tiniest smile. If I read his mind, I’m sure he’d be proud. I notice that he has a very nice smile when he chooses to display it. Most of the time, though, he just has an unreadable expression.

So I guess this is really good? I direct to Kyle.

He rolls his eyes at me in mock exasperation. Uh-duh, Krys.

Turning his attention back to the Team, Wynn speaks again. “All right you all, calm down. I am not finished. And, uh, turn it down please, Aiya,” he says. The room immediately darkens, almost apologetically.

“The Leaders have chosen our Team to represent the Third Faction at the Assembly.”

Excited whispers run through the room. I can’t contain myself, so I run over and crush Kyle in unadulterated excitement. He staggers a little and catches both of us, squeezing his arms around my waist. You might want to lay off the caffeine for a while he says with a laugh. You sound like Lorik, I retort.

You probably don’t know what the Assembly is. The short way to describe it is a huge reunion, where everyone affiliated with, or who has ever attended the School gets to meet each other. The average attendance is about 70,000 people. Only about 15,000 students live at the School or train here like it’s a boarding School. The others are called “world-schoolers”. For some reason or other , they can’t train here, so they get personal Instructors that act like Tutors. But everyone goes to the Assembly.
…

I can’t concentrate in any of my classes. I can’t concentrate on anything because I’m too excited/nervous/scared-to-death about representing the entire Third Faction at the Assembly.

Poor Lorik nearly gives up trying to teach me anything. Eventually, with a lot of patience on both sides, I do manage to learn how to “steal” energy from living organisms.

Why? I ask him.

Well, you can go ahead and pass out in the middle of a hostile world if you want to, he says sarcastically. And once you get captured and killed by the enemy, I’ll stop getting so much grey hair.

I make an annoying face. What grey hair? Dude, you’re blonde. Ash blonde. Your hair looks a little grey anyway.

It takes the entire lesson before I master the technique. When I do at last, he gives a gruff nod by way of congratulation.

Hanayni is even more serious than Lorik, if that’s possible. No matter how fast I pick up a new technique, she never once offers a word of encouragement to any of us. Even when Eyrad survives all three scrimmages, she doesn’t say anything. It’s like she doesn’t notice how hard we’re working.

Even Madara criticizes us mercilessly on each and every little mistake. By lunchtime, I’m completely depressed. As I walk down the hall to the cafeteria, I notice my hands shaking.

“Don’t sweat, Krystal,” Ikah tells me briefly, before she slows down to walk with Kelta. This is only the second in a very short line of nice things she’s said to me. Usually, we ignore each other. It’s like a mutual unspoken agreement; I don’t like you, so bug off.

A tall, plump woman stops us in the middle of the corridor. She’s Istalcia, the Head Water Instructor for the First Faction. There are so many different Instructors for each Faction and Power. Some are private Instructors, others lead classes of students. Some do both; the students here are all part of various outlandish situations, so they have to cater to them.

“We’re all having lunch in the office,” she says simply. She has a high voice, but not annoyingly so. With her black hair, round, dimpled face, and well-fitting clothes, she looks adorable. Cute is the word that comes to mind, even though she’s easily over six Earth feet tall. Still, no matter how cute she is, she’s irritating me for not explaining a little more.

Cryptic much? I remark to Aiyamar.

She nods, but doesn’t offer any more information than our messenger. I hate it when people do that, and they do it an awful lot here.