You have ten minutes.  Welcome to the child trials...

The voice echoed in my head.  I could see people screaming and running around in panic, but I couldn't hear them.  You have ten minutes.  Welcome to the Child Trials.  It couldn't be right, but it had to be. Something made me believe the voice, like I knew deep down, he was telling the truth.  We were "chosen," but who chose us?  Certainly not the government, they would've never even heard of me. In fact, no one would've ever heard of me. Why would anyone pick a scrawny nerd like me? There were so many unanswered questions, but if I were to trust the voice, I needed to find a team.

I looked around.  All my First Continental friends were gone so I'd have no help from them. Over by the third set of doors a boy looking around 15 leaned against the arena wall, watching everything carefully. Something told me he was what I needed.

9 Minutes

The boy looked about 15, and was thin like me, but built up with muscle, unlike me. His hair was longer than mine and quite messy, dirty blond in color. He wore jeans and a simple yellow tee-shirt with an blue jacket, open at the front. As I approached, he turned my direction. His eyes met mine.  They were beautiful.  They sparkled a deep blue color, like that of the ocean. Although they were quite beautiful, they were unnerving. They could stare into your soul if they tried.

I stumbled to a stop.  He smiled and trotted over to me.

"Hey, I'm Arnaud, France, and I need a team. Mind if I join you?

"Uhhh, yea, sure. Thank you" I uttered weakly.

"No prob my man. Shall we go find some others and get outta' here?"

"Yea"

8 Minutes

We looked around.  Most people were divided into teams by now. Large teams.  Meanwhile we were a team of two.

"Where are we going to find more singulars?"

"How about we don't?" Arnaud replied, marching over to a duo of girls over by the third set of doors.

The first was obviously athletic. She radiated strength. She wore a simple pair of jeans and a red and white varsity jacket. Her long blond hair covered the school name. She was obviously the American representative.  Next to her, a girl with wavy, shoulder-length brown hair turned to face us.  She had on a purple parka with a black and white striped shirt underneath. She also bare bland grey pants.  To top her outfit off, a speckled grey scarf circled her neck.

"Hey girls, you two look fine today!"

The American girl cracked her knuckles.

7 Minutes 

"What I meant was, my friend uh-"

"Luke"

"-Luke and I are trying to make some 'foreign alliances' if you know what I mean.  Willing to bid in?"

"No thanks Half-Witt."

"Wait!  Danielle, couldn't we give it a shot?  They seem nice and, we're only a team of two, look at that team over there!" The Second girl suggested, butting in and pointing to a huge group of around 20 competitors.

Danielle looked the two of us over.  When she got to me I flinched.

"The second one is too weak.  We take Half-Witt and ditch number two." She said, no emotion in her voice. She was treating us like objects, money, numbers, chess pieces. She had the choice between a pawn and a Queen and she choose the queen. She wanted the best for herself and no one else. Oh boy was I done for. Arnaud had known me only for a few short minutes, he wouldn't defend me. He'd wanted to team with these girls and they wanted to team with him. He couldn't possibly turn it down.

"No!" Arnaud and the second girl said in unison.  "He stays!"  He did defend me.  Why?

"But-"

"He's intelligent" Arnaud continued. How would he know my intelligence level?

"And I like him" the second girl said. That made me feel better about myself, made me worry about Parka girl.  Danielle meant business.

"Fine, but his first mistake we ditch 'im"

Arnaud and Danielle stared at each other.  It was the best we could get.

6 Minutes

"Olta, Olta Shehu, Albania" The second girl declared, bursting through their staring contest to shake my hand, "This is Danielle of the US."

"I'm Luke Koizumi, Japan. This is Arnaud of France. Now let's find a way out of here"

"Any ideas smart guy? Danielle remarked.

"Maybe. Let's visit Antarctica."