Recruits (New Haven Book 1), page 9
We arrived at the dorms, so Dante opened the door and pulled me inside. He took his jacket off me and put it back on himself. “Does any of this ring a bell?”
“Not really.” I glanced past him. Tons of Recruits were heading up the stairs, going back to their dorm rooms. All the leaders were directing them. “So, we're going to have a rebellion?” The thought terrified me for a moment. Then it intrigued me.
Dante looked at the crowd. “You better get in there before you get caught.” He looked at me, a smile on his lips. “I won't be there tomorrow, but I'll be at the challenge the following day. It sounds like it's going to be a blast. We can talk then.”
With that, he was out the door. I quickly joined in with the female Recruits going up the stairs. When I got to the second floor, I ran down to my room. Tina was standing outside.
She let out a breath when she saw me. “Where have you been?” She pointed to our room. “Two security guards are in there right now. They say it's just routine, but it feels more serious than that.” He looked at me. “They asked where you were.”
“What did you say?” I asked.
“That you had to use the restroom.” Tina leaned up against the wall. “Where have you been?”
As I filled her in on everything, I tried to get my heart to calm down. I went to go talk to VP Oliver so I could get some questions answered.
I ended up with no answers and a ton more questions.
W hen the security sweep ended, I took Tina with me to find Dee and then went to the bathroom on the top floor. I did a quick check to make sure it was empty before I spoke. Tina and Dee both patiently watched me, exchanging looks between each other when they thought I wasn't looking.
I sat down on a bench. “I went and saw VP Oliver tonight.”
“When?” Dee took a seat beside me.
“After dinner,” I said, crossing my legs. “I wanted to find out more about Dante.”
“Who's Dante?” Dee asked.
Tina rested against one of the sinks with her arms folded. “He's visiting from Kingsland.”
Dee's eyes went wide. “We have visitors from Kingsland?” She smiled. “I've always wanted to go there. Or any of the other cities. I want to know what it's like out there.”
“Me, too.” I'd always wanted to step outside of River Springs, but I never had. They didn't forbid anyone from leaving, but they frowned upon it so much and would always say how much better it was in River Springs. President Randall would say over and over again that we had everything we needed here and that the outside world was dangerous.
He made it sound so terrifying. It had been fear that had kept me inside my whole life. The past few years, intrigue took over. I wanted to know what was outside the walls. I wanted to explore. To be free.
“What did he tell you?” Tina took out a ponytail holder and threw her long, red hair up. The girl could pull off a sloppy ponytail. Really, she could pull off anything.
“Not much.” I sighed. “They keep saying Dante's here to check out Recruitment, but I feel like there's more to it.”
Tina nodded. “I got the same feeling. He kept staring at you all day long.”
Dee smiled and gently squeezed my arm. “Maybe he thinks you're cute.” She fanned her face. “Oh, what must it be like to have two guys swooning over you?”
My eyebrows shot up. “First of all, no one is swooning over me. Second, Dante's interest is not romantic. It's curiosity.”
“I agree with Emmie,” Tina said. “About it being curiosity. But I agree with Dee about Eric. He definitely likes you.”
Ignoring the heat rising in my cheeks, I brushed off my clothes. “Can we please keep focus here?”
“Yes.” Dee looked at me. “But not before you answer one question for me: Do you like Eric?”
“Dee …” I started.
Dee rolled her eyes. “Come on, Em. Just tell me. Your facial expressions and body language tell me everything I need to know, but I want to hear it out of your mouth.” She looked at Tina. “She's never admitted to liking a guy, ever.”
I sighed. “Fine. I think he's hot, okay? My heart races when he gets close to me or touches me. And a couple of times I've wondered what it would be like to kiss him. Satisfied?”
“Completely.” Dee stretched out her legs. “Continue, please.”
Tina shook her head and laughed.
“Anyway, VP Oliver told me that President Randall is watching me closely.”
Tina looked taken aback. “Why?”
“I don't know,” I said with a shrug. “He wouldn't tell me. All he said was that I needed to be on my best behavior and if I made one wrong move I'd be in trouble.”
“Wow.” Dee tucked one of her curls behind her ear. “That sounds serious.”
Tina took the seat on the other side of me. “He didn't give you a hint as to why?”
“He got a phone call about the security sweep before he could tell me anymore.” I glanced over at Tina. “How well do you know Eric? VP Oliver told me not to trust him.”
The expression on her face told me she was genuinely surprised by my comment. “Not trust Eric? Emmie, you can trust him. I swear. I'm not sure what VP Oliver is talking about, but Eric's a good guy.”
Hope. Trust. My world seemed to be relying on two simple words. I folded my arms. “VP Oliver made me promise to be good.”
Dee laughed. “Oh, dear. You may be in big trouble then.” She looked around me at Tina. “Good and Emmie don't usually go in the same sentence.”
I slapped her arm. “Not true. I'm good.” I twisted my lips. “Most of the time.” I sighed. “When it counts.”
Curiosity usually got the better of me growing up. I tried to listen to my parents and not to get in trouble, but I had a hard time knowing when to back down. Plus, Derek liked to push my buttons, so it had become a habit to push back.
“Uh hmm,” Dee said. “Only when it counts. But that's why I love you. Life is more fun with you in it.”
I glanced at both of them. “You should know, he's watching everyone close to me, so that includes the two of you.”
Tina groaned sarcastically. “Oh, so now I have to be good, too?”
“Sorry,” I said. “Unless you want to get a new partner.”
“Speaking of partners,” Dee said, sitting forward, “did you know Amber has a little sister?”
She'd never once mentioned a sister to me, nor had I seen another girl with their family. “What?”
Dee nodded. “She said something about her today, but I could tell it was a slip. She instantly changed the subject and snapped at me when I tried to bring it up again.” She furrowed her eyebrows. “It's been weird being around her so much. She was always so polite growing up and got along with others. Now she seems … different. One second she's happy and content, complimenting me on my hair, and then the next thing I know she'll freak out, yell, and tell me how much she hates me.”
“She sounds bipolar if you ask me,” Tina said.
“No,” Dee said, shaking her head. “It seems more complicated than that. I can't really pin down the problem, but there's something not right. Every now and then I'll see this weird twitch in her eyes. It's like she's not herself for a brief second.”
I'd have to have Derek look into it when family day came around. They hadn't mentioned when that would be, but I crossed my fingers it would be soon. I needed my dad's advice on everything.
Dad could probably look more into the Kingsland and President Randall situations. My brother could also check it out. He had access to documents that most people in the city didn't. Getting my answers depended entirely on whether he'd be willing to help me out. He usually liked to cause me more grief than be of assistance.
But just like me, curiosity usually got the better of him. If I dangled enough bait in front of his face, Derek would snatch it up in a heartbeat. Especially if it meant using his programming skills to do something he shouldn't. I'd learned most of my bad habits from him.
Maybe I wasn't as good as I thought. For now, all I needed to do was pretend to be good.
I also had to trust that VP Oliver and my family would help me out. It made me wonder if you could ever really trust someone, especially in dire situations. The only thing I could do was hope.
T he next day we ended up at a maze. There were five different colored flags placed throughout the maze that each group had to get. They gave no other rules beside retrieve the flags. They had four entrances to the maze, so they had six groups of two at each entrance.
“You may enter,” RL Steven said to us, rubbing his head. “See you on the other side.”
All the groups ran in, going in all different directions. After talking with VP Oliver, the security sweep, and hardly getting any sleep, I was all worked up. All my common sense had left. I just wanted to get it over with. I stopped Tina, Eric, and Luke right when we entered the maze, but made sure we were out of RL Steven’s sight. “Let’s work together. I think four heads are better than two.”
“I don’t think that’s allowed.” Luke shifted uncomfortably where he stood.
“They never said anything about not working together,” I said. “They just said go grab the flags.”
“She’s right,” Eric said. “I think it’s a good plan.”
Tina eyed me. I knew she was thinking we needed to be on our best behavior, but I didn’t care. And I was sure the look on my face expressed that.
“Okay,” Tina said with a shrug. “How should we start?”
“We’ve already lost time just standing here,” Luke said, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
“Well, everyone else is running around like crazy, with no strategy.” Eric ran his fingers through his hair. “Let’s work this in sections.”
“I like that idea,” I said. “Let’s start with the front left and then work our way over to the front right. If you can, try to keep track of how we’re turning.”
Luke immediately took off, so we all followed him. He seemed nervous, constantly shifting his head back and forth like he was waiting for someone to catch us.
“Maybe we should look for anything that sticks out, so we’ll know if we’ve been down a row before,” Tina said as we were walking. We turned right onto a different row and she pointed at a dent in the hedge. “Like right there. There’s a small hole. If we see it again, we’ll know that we’ve been down here before.”
“Good thinking,” Luke said to Tina.
We made a few more turns and came across a row with yellow flags scattered about. Luke and Tina each grabbed one.
“One down, four to go,” Tina said as she shoved our flag into her pocket.
“We need to head right before we go forward too much,” Eric said, making his way to the right.
We worked together like that, section by section. We found the red flags and then the greens flag a little while later.
Eric glanced over his shoulder at us. “There was a flag in the front left section, one in the front right section, and one in the back right section. That means there’s probably one in the back left section.”
“Where do you think the fifth one is?” Tina asked.
“I’m guessing the middle or toward the exit,” I said.
Luke scratched his head. “But we should’ve passed through the middle already, right?”
“Yes,” Eric said.
We passed a lot of other groups as we worked our way through the maze. Most of them looked frantic. Some looked annoyed. A couple looked defeated. It was funny that something like that maze should have been a simple task. It wasn’t that complicated. But put a bunch of teenagers in a maze who'd had controlled lives and chaos ensued.
We soon found the fourth flag, blue. One left.
“Exit?” I suggested.
Tina nodded. “It’s our best bet. We should’ve been through all of the other sections already.”
We wandered to where we thought the exit should be. We were right that the exit was there, but we were wrong about the flag.
“Where could it be?” Luke’s voice was laced with frustration.
Tina shook her head. “I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense.”
I looked up at the sky, trying to clear my head and think. A bird flew overhead, flapping its wings with grace, making me think of the little blue bird the other day. I needed to focus, so I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
My eyes flew open as a thought came to my head. “How tall do you think these hedges are?”
“Maybe eight or nine feet?” Eric said. “Why?”
“How much can you lift?” I asked him, looking at his arms.
Eric smiled. “Definitely a tiny girl like you.” He clasped his hands together and bent down. “Hop on.”
“You’re a smart guy to say I’m tiny,” I said, putting my foot in his hands and my hand on his shoulder.
“I aim to please,” Eric said, lifting me into the air.
I grabbed onto the hedge to balance myself as Eric held me up. I looked over the top of the maze and glanced around.
“You see anything?” Tina asked from down below.
“A bunch of wild teenagers running around,” I shouted down to her. “Oh! Thunder Thighs is screaming at Skinny! I wish you could see this, Tina!”
“Who?” Luke asked.
“Shhhhhh!” I said, waving my hand at him. Thunder Thighs and Skinny were in hearing range.
“How did you get this far in life without knowing left from right?” Thunder Thighs flailed her arms as she talked.
Skinny shrieked, pulling at her frizzy hair. “I know my left from right! I was just going where you were pointing!”
“You went the opposite way of where I was pointing!” Thunder Thighs yelled.
Skinny let out a scream and stomped her feet on the ground. “This maze is just so confusing! There are so many twists and turns!”
Thunder Thighs slammed her fist into the hedge. “That’s what a maze is, dummy!” She pulled out some of the leaves and threw them in Skinny’s face. Skinny let out another scream and then stormed away, brushing out some leaves that landed in her hair.
“Take your time up there,” Eric said, not trying to hide the sarcasm in his voice. “I can hold you up all day.”
“Good. It’s a beautiful view up here.” I sighed in frustration. “I don’t see any flags we don’t have. I can see all the other ones.”
As I was turning around to tell Eric to bring me down, something in the very top right corner of the maze caught my eye. Forgetting that I was being held up, I leaned in so I could get a better look, setting us off balance. Eric tried to move with me, but it was too late. He stumbled back and forth a little and soon my feet slipped from his hands. He tried to catch me, but I just ended up falling into him, sending us both to the ground. I landed on top of him, knocking the wind out of me. Rolling off him, I lay on my back and gasped for breath.
“Emmie, are you okay?” Tina asked, running to my side. She bent down next to me and brushed some hair off my face. “Slow, easy breaths.”
Eric grunted next to me. I reached over and took his hand. “Sorry, Eric,” I said between breaths.
“Next time, tell me when you’re going to move, okay?” Eric said, squeezing my hand. “Luke, what were you doing that you couldn’t help?”
Luke’s face went red. “Oh, uh, sorry, I was just …”
Tina’s face was a little red, too. “We were just talking to each other and didn’t realize what was happening until you were already falling.”
I smiled. “Don’t worry. We’re both alive. I have no broken bones.” I turned to Eric. “You?”
Eric ran his hands down his torso and then his legs. “Everything’s intact.”
“And on a positive note, I found the last flag,” I said. Side note: Eric was still holding my hand.
“Where?” Luke asked, all the excitement back.
“The very top right corner,” I said. “They’re on the bottom of the hedge, tucked in a little. I could barely see them, but they’re there.”
“Let’s go get it,” Luke said.
Eric stood and reached out his hand, helping me up. He gave my hand a quick squeeze and then let go. “Point us in the right direction, Emmie.”
We weaved our way to that corner rather quickly. The purple flags were tucked in on the bottom, barely visible.
“They made these flags hard to find, didn’t they?” Luke asked. “I hate to admit this, but that was a brilliant idea, Emmie.”
“Why thank you, Luke,” I said with a smile, placing a hand over my heart. “A compliment coming from you is something I’ll treasure for the rest of my life.”
He rolled his eyes in response.
We were soon at the exit. Luke, Tina, me and then Eric walked out, all smiling. We stopped outside the maze, reliving our experience. RL Steven sat on the ground a few yards away. Surprise flashed in his eyes when he saw us all standing there talking. Crap. I didn’t think about the fact that we should’ve spaced ourselves, so we didn’t come out at the same time. I think we were all so excited that it went well, and we finished.
“Already done?” RL Steven checked his watch. “That only took you an hour. Who came out first?”
“Does it matter?” Eric asked.
RL Steven’s jaw twitched in annoyance. “Yes, it does matter, Eric. I need to make note of who was first and who was second. Ties aren’t allowed.”
“Luke stepped out first,” I said to RL Steven. “So that puts him and Eric in first place. Tina and I were second.”
RL Steven pulled out a piece of paper to write it down. “Okay, so Luke and Eric came out first, followed by Tina and Emmie.”
Before anyone else could respond, I spoke. “Yep. That’s what happened.”
All three of them looked at me, but I shook my head. It didn’t matter the order. Besides, after looking around, we were the only ones out of the maze. I didn’t want to be first again. That would cause more attention on me than I wanted. Plus, it would mean a lot to Luke to come in first.
