"Aye, you're all still here!" I say with a grin upon returning to my seat.

"Wow, didn't expect you to make it, Aria. What with all that anger and hate you posses," Jen teases.

"Look who's talking," I smirk.

"Rawr."

"185," smiles the speaker. "You know what that means? Only two of you are gone!
That's way better numbers than we expected! Good for you!"

The audience claps for a while, and then let's him speak again.

"Now, though, something different is going to happen. Instead of loosing more people, sixteen more will be joining, two of each age! Now before you start shouting out questions, I'll tell you why. We wanted to see if the results would be different if the, um, contestants, were kept separate from the group. So, these sixteen excited teenagers are finally being let out of isolation!"

What if one of the Twelves is Hanna? Or the Fifteen is Laura? Or maybe a Fourteen will be Anna? I dance impatiently in my seat.

"Makes me think of The Hunger Games," Melody peeps up.

"Why..?" I ask slowly.

"Two of each age, or "district" maybe it'll be one guy, one girl each!"

"Yeah, you never know," I start to laugh. "But let's hope that's the only similarity."

Melody was right. It was one boy and one girl of each age. I watched quietly as the people walked on stage, nervously introduced themselves, and then went down to the floor again to find a seat in the crowd. Nineteens, Eighteens, Seventeens, Sixteens, Fifteens. A few I recognized from school, but most were strangers. Then the Fourteens came, the boy first, and then Anna. Anna was here. I stared at her for a while. She looked different, older.

"Isn't that Anna?" Shaun asked from beside me.

"Yeah, yeah it is," I turn to look at him and see Nate a few seats down still looking annoyed. My attention turns to Nate for a few seconds before I look back at the stage. Why is he so mad? Did I do something wrong? I hope not.

"Anna!" I stand up and yell her name.

Her eyes light up when she hears my voice. She turns to the boy and grabs his arm, then dashes over to us.

"Aria!" She says happily. "And Jen and Carrie! Hi! Gosh, I've missed you!"

"We missed you too," Carrie smiles.

"Hi, I'm Anna," she says to Nate, Jason and Melody

"Nate."

"I'm Jason."

"Melody!"

"Shaun?" She turns to him.

"Hi Anna."

"Hi...?"

An awkward silence follows, and I can tell Anna is confused as to why Shaun would be sitting with us.

"Uh, who's this?" I nod to the tall, black haired guy standing quietly behind her.

"That's Erik. He's really shy," Anna answers for him.

"Hey," Erik gives a small smile and moves a piece of hair out of his ice blue eyes.

I smile back. "What do you think of this place?" I ask. "The guards call it Glaxe."

"It's... Big. Also loud," he answers quietly.

"It certainly is!" I laugh.

"Can we sit?" Anna asks, pointing at the two empty seats beside me.

"Oh, yes of course!" I take a step back and plop myself down in my seat.

The rest of the newbies come and go. A few of them seem to have friends here, but some just wander the crowd looking for a seat beside a stranger.

"Just for fun," The speaker starts talking into the microphone again, "I have some questions for you. Raise your hand to answer please."

"Ooo, a pop quiz?" Anna asks excitedly.

"You always were way too enthused by school related things," I grin.

"These questions are personal opinions, and there is no one taking score," the speaker clears his throat and pulls out a white lined paper.

"Aw man. So it's not really a quiz," Anna's face falls a bit, and Erik smiles at her.

"It wouldn't be fair if it was a quiz. You'd beat everyone," he whispers, earning a smile back from Anna.

"First question!" I look back up at the speaker. His grey streaked black hair is gelled back, only adding to the effect of his cowlick.

Cowlick. What an odd phase. It must have been so insulting to the first person told they had one. Excuse me sir, but did you ever notice how your hair appears to be licked by a cow? Surely they could've come up with something better than that.

"What do you think the abilities really are?" He reads slowly from the paper, his grey eyes squinting at the words.

Several people raise their hands, some waving them wildly. I don't though. As much as I love expressing my very opinionated opinions, I don't really like talking in front of large groups.

"You there," he points at the left side of the crowd. "A Thirteen, blond hair."

The boy stands up, "They're superpowers of course! Flying, laser vision, mind reading!"

"Okay, good. What about you?" He points right at our row.

I whip my head around to see Anna with one hand sitting on her lap and the other in the air. She stands up and smooths down her pink blazer.

"I believe they're enhancements upon natural human abilities. You've already made our brains more efficient. Most likely by giving us the ability to use more of our brain capacity, since humans normally only use a very small bit of our brains. Correct? I assume you'll be able to make us stronger, faster, better eyesight maybe? Hearing?"

"Very good! That's quite smart of you," the speaker praises.

"Thank you," she smiles and sits down.

"Show off," I cough.

She grins evilly at me. "Well, I do try."

I roll my eyes teasingly and grin at her.

"Ready for the next question?" His gaze sweeps over the crowd, making sure everyone is paying attention. "What do you believe the purpose of the abilities are?"

"For fun!" Someone shouts without being called on.

"Okay, anyone else have any thoughts? How about you?"

A nineteen stands up. "Experimentation," he says confidently. "I think you wanted willing test subjects."

"We've been doing this for hundreds of years sir," the speaker contradicts him. "You'd think if we really wanted test subjects we wouldn't use fifty year intervals."

"Maybe," the boy shrugs.

"Did you notice he was the only one the speaker said was wrong? Even though people have had so many varying opinions?" I whisper to Shaun.

"Yeah, I noticed. Weird."

"Or suspicious," I mumble.

A few more people answer before he asks the next and final question.

"Why do you think the abilities are only given for a limited amount of time?"

Without thinking I throw my hand into the air. A few seconds later the speaker points at me and asks what I had to say.

I stand up slowly and nervously. Oh bad idea. Too many people. Too many eyes watching. I swallow and start to talk, "Because we reject them after a certain amount of time. It's not natural to have abilities, so they won't stay. The memory enhancements stay longer, so we got them first," I awkwardly sit back down.

"A... Well thought out opinion," the speaker says.

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Hey guys! I just wanna say... THANK YOU FOR 4K READS!!! Oh my gosh, I never thought I'd have so many people read my book!!!
Now I want to know what you guys think of the questions asked. :)
What do you think the abilities really are?
What do you think the purpose intended is?
Why do you think they can only keep the abilities for a limited amount of time?
I'd love to hear what you all think so please give your opinions!!
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