"Luna!" Nevx wakes me up hitting my arm. "Come on, get up, it's 8!" I sit up. I hold back tears as hard as I can because if I start I will not be able to stop. Plus, I now know I can't trust these people. Taylor told me. She warned me.

I sit up rubbing my eyes. Sleep did not refresh me at all. I look up and realize Nevx, Zayn, and Abbot are staring at me. They want to know if my memory is back. I glance at each of their faces. All eager for an answer. 

I shake my head, "No guys, No."

Abbot steps towards me. "Nothing?"

I shake my head, "No. Nothing." It's true I don't remember anything. 

Nevx lets out a disappointed sigh. Like it was in my choice to not remember.

"Any dreams?" Zayn questions his leaning against his bed with his arms crossed and his feet crossed also.

I shake my head. "Nope, nothing." I glance up at his face, he believes me.

"It's fine. There is still time." Abbot claims.

I look at my feet. "Yep." 

"Well since it's not back I suggest you make sure no one catches onto this," Nevx says quietly. I look at her puzzled. She raises her eyebrows, "Because if they find out you snuck out, you and Zayn will get kicked out of the program." 

I put a hand on my face rubbing my forehead. "Yeah, that's right."

Nevx nods. "Well, when you're ready, I'm going to show you how things work around here until you remember."

I stand up. "Ready." I am eager to get out of Zayn's presence until I figure out exactly what happened with him. I need to keep my distance. He was the only person I know who was there when this was happening, and now I know he is lying. 

She nods, "Okay, let's go." We step out the glass door we take a right. We walk past 4 other rooms identical to ours. All with boys and girls changing, laughing, some still sleeping. At the end of the hall, we take a right and end up in the girl's bathroom. We go in the back to the showers. The water is ice cold. After a couple of minutes it heats up, and I wash my hair and body. It feels amazing. My tense muscles finally loosen. 

After what seems like a minute Nevx speaks, "Luna, you almost done?"

My lips turn up. "Oh yeah," I switch the handle, turning it off. "Sorry I'm used to them automatically shutting off."

"I don't care, just finish up." Her voice echoes on the walls.

When I get out she hands me a tight black shirt that has the program logo which is blue and white. Then hands me an id card with my name and next to it is says, trainee. I look at her puzzled.

"You'll see." She answers.

We go to the cafeteria. There are probably 300 people there, all dressed in nice outfits. The girls in shirts and the men's shirts tucked into skirts, or pants. Most of the women wear high heels and earrings. I feel out of place. 

Nevx leads me through the line, which serves about 100 different types of food. Eggs are the only food I recognize other than pancakes. The eggs are made about 10 different ways. Each looks delicious. Then she leads me through a maze of tables. She walks faster making sharp turns and harshly throws her tray down. We land at a table filled with people from our room, and a couple of other people I don't recognize. I set my tray next to Nevx on one side and soon after Abbot sits on the other. I guess to keep me from talking to anyone who's not safe. But I'm not even sure Abbot's safe. I find myself staring around the room. It is essentially a school cafeteria for rich people. Who are all these people through? Only 4 tables among the probably 60 others are full of people part of the program. You can tell because we all have on the same shirt. Who are the rest then? I scan the room and see the whole back of the room is a ginormous window. It looks like we are in the sky. I start to get up to see where we are and how we got up this high.

When Nevx grabs my hand and pulls me down. "Sit," she demands in a whisper.

"I just want to see how we-" She fully jerks me down. "Between me and you, the old Luna who has lived here for a month would not gawk at the cafeteria she has been in a million times." She whispers, her face so close to mine. I hate how she says the old Luna like that's not me. I am the same, Luna. I could not have changed that much. Could I? But she is right. I need to play it safe.

"So what would the old Luna do while she ate?" I ask.

"I don't know. You sat with Zayn a lot, me and Abbot, September," I look around. Who is September? "Or some of the other people in the program you were friends with. Maybe I'm off to say this to you, but from what I saw you really liked it here. Maybe even loved it."

I feel a pit in my stomach. Loved it here? Loving it would be betraying Haven and Taylor. Loving Aleph? There's no way.

"I highly suggest you say close to either me, Zayn, or Abbot. You can trust us." She lets go of my arm, which I forgot she was even holding onto. It leaves a red mark. You can trust us. I repeat in my mind. What a lie.

I decided to listen to Abbot's conversation, Zayn sits across from him, and there is a boy on the other side of him and a boy next to Abbot.

"No way!" Abbot's mouth hangs open. He is sitting upright. Meanwhile, Zayn is hunched over the table. He looks tired. I can tell he didn't get much sleep.

"Yes!" The boy at the end across the talk shouts. Because the room is bustling with plates and chatter.

"I knew it! There is no way they could just send these people home without doing something. Luna said so also yesterday. Right?" The boy looks at me.

Everyone looks at me. Zayn who has been staring at his food darts his head up. I have no clue what they are talking about even or who this kid is.

I nod my head and clear my throat. "Yeah." I decide to say as little as possible because I am at the risk of saying something wrong. Everyone still looks at me though.

Zayn cuts in, "Oh come on, Fischer," He puts emphasis on the name. Fischer. "We all know there is no way they send people to a different town then the one we came from if we fail the test."

Okay now I know what they are talking about and I have a name. Thanks, Zayn. I peer at him giving and nod my head as a way of saying thank you. He bobs his head once. As a way of saying your welcome. I look at the boy who is blond like Abbot also but his hair is not as long but it is buzzed instead. Fischer, I say to my mind nagging it to remember this time. On the other side of Nevx, a few seats down is Lemma in a group of 4 girls. I can tell I have to stay away from them just by the way they sit on the bench. Lemma. I make a mental note. She does not like me. Stay away from her. 

Lemma's group all stare at Zayn and giggling... Lemma makes eye contact with me and is practically shooting fire out of her eyes. But I will not break it. What happened between us?

I turn to Nevx, who is shoving spoonfuls of fluffy eggs in her mouth."Do you think Lemma is safe knowing? I don't think she would be upset if I got kicked out."

Nevx grins "Yeah, she could not care less. But she definitely would if Zayn got kicked out."

I take a bit of my food and look at Zayn. You better make it through the next test because when you are out, I'm out; my mind says to him. I also think about what I am going to say when I get him alone to figure out what actually happened at that party.

+++

I enter my old and new classroom. One whole wall has a window rather than a wall stretching across it. It's breathtaking and great to get a better view compared to this morning. There is a desk stretching down the middle of the classroom. We sit on one side, on the other side is where I'm going to guess the teacher will be. Then a man in his 40's strolls in. He has on a loose shirt and even looser pants. He has an afro of brown hair. He starts writing on the huge whiteboard across from us. I sit between the Fischer, the boy from breakfast, and Abbot. Nevx tried to get the seat next to me but Fischer plopped down before she could. When his head was turned Nevx gave him the middle finger which almost made me laugh. I look at the clock on the wall. Which is the only thing I have seen so far that looks similar to the one in my house. It's 9 o'clock.

I turn to Abbot "What's his name?" I whisper, nervous someone will hear. Abbot looks at me, still a little shocked. "Abbot?" Maybe he didn't hear me. He shakes his head.

"Yeah so sorry. It's just... that's really crazy. We have been here all day for a month and you don't know his name."

I smile. "Ok, I don't need a whole guilt trip."

He laughs, "He lets us call him Bryan."

"Alright, let's get started!" Bryan says as his way of shushing everybody.

The room becomes silent. "So we started out with 30 of you guys now we are down to 26. But don't get too excited it only gets harder from here." He smiles. Bryan walks to the left side of the room. "So as you know we focused the first month on knowledge, we learned about the town's history,"

Don't remember.

"And the different jobs and how that benefits the town,"

Don't remember.

Bryan walks down the table and passes me. His footsteps light and cheery.

"We learned about what jobs here look like so you will be ready if you pass the test at the end to figure out your line of work."

Nope. Nothing. Don't recall.

"This month we are going to focus on you. Getting to know you. Understanding who you truly are. Finding your potential. Any questions about this next section?"

Before I can control it I raise my hand. In my peripheral vision, I see Abbot and Nevx giving me death eyes. Zayn looks more interested to see what I could possibly ask. 

"Uh yeah, Luna." He points to me.

"What happens if we pass the whole training but don't want to stay in Aleph? Can we go back to our old town?" That was too passive-aggressive.

He laughs, "Luna we already talked about it... I don't know. You would have to talk to someone higher up."

I smile and shake my head. "Yeah, of course, my bad I just... forgot." I put down my hand, still shocked it was up in the first place.

His smile is so warm. He is one of those people who looks kind. "No problem, hun. Okay, I'm going to hand out some paper. Please fill it out as honestly as possible. And you know the rule. What happens in the class stays in the class."

He walks up and hands me a stack of papers. I look at the stack. What does he want me to stand up and hand it out? I'm so nervous about blowing my cover. I look at Abbot.

"Take one pass it down." He whispers under his breath. I instantly take one and pass it to Fischer on my other side. I read the paper.

Question 1. Name? Ok, that's easy.

Question 2. What are your biggest flaws? I sigh. Too many to name. Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is I'm not tough enough and I let people push me. But should I trust it? Trust these people. Whoever's eyes will read this? I write: Let people take advantage of me. It says flaws, should I write another? How much do I really want whoever reads this to know about me? I decided to leave it at that. I can leave my other ones to myself.

Question 3. Have you ever had anything weird or supernatural happen to you?

I answer No. This is weird.

Question 4. Has anything weird or supernatural happened in your house?

What? This is really weird.

No. I write again.

Question 5. The best quality about yourself?

I shake my head. I don't know. I don't really sit around thinking about how great I am. I'm not a leader or a follower. I'm not necessarily kind or cunning. I think what would Haven say? He always tells me how understanding I am. Understanding and dependable, I scribble.

The test goes on. Who influenced you personally and for good or bad?

Taylor, I print. I don't answer the 2nd question.

The test goes on asking questions about our town.

And that's the end of the test. I set down my pencil and glance around, about half of everyone is done. After 10 more minutes, everyone finishes.

"Ok go ahead and take out your notebooks for the rest of class." He tells us.

Everyone whips out their black notebooks with the same logo that's on our shirt on the front of it. I check around my chair. I don't have a notebook anywhere and don't remember seeing it this morning. I get Abbot's attention. "I don't know where my notebook is."

He looks at Nevx and mouths, "Luna's notebook?"

She shrugs.

"We'll find it after class. Don't worry they are just to take notes in. You can just copy mine when we find it." Abbot assures me.

After that, Bryan goes on about our soul, and we are going to find our soul over this next month. And our souls live eternally, really at that point, I just completely spaced out. I have become a master of spacing out from going to my school for 12 years and living with Taylor. Soon enough it's 1:00. We get up to go for lunch. My legs cramp from sitting for so long. Once Nevx, Abbot, Zayn, and Fischer get all their things together we head to lunch. As we start walking I realize we are going in the opposite way of the cafeteria. Nevx and Abbot and trot their way through the halls cracking jokes. Fischer chuckles loudly. At whatever Nevx mumbled under her breath.

"Where are we going?" I whisper to Zayn. I have tried to talk to him as little as possible. But he is the only person to ask right now.

He has been looking at the ground. "The deck." I nod. After a minute we navigate our way to a silver machine that is two doors closed. There are about 10 of them along the wall. Abbot takes his id out of his pocket and scans it on a black box next to the button with arrows going up and down. They press the up button and it opens. I didn't realize how tight it is inside until we all squeeze in. I would not come to hang out with a friend here but for the time being, it's okay. There are buttons with numbers inside from 1-70. Only about a fourth of them are lit up. Is it broken?

As if reading my mind Zayn says, "The lit-up buttons are the only floors we are allowed on." Abbot presses 70. Soon I feel us hurling up into the sky. There is a pad with numbers above the buttons, we started at 34 and now and at 66, 67, 68, 69, 70.

The doors open and we are on top of the building. There are glass panels around the edge that go up to my chest. It is a wooden deck. It's massive. On one side there are couches and chairs, the size of my room. On the other is a food bar. And beyond it. I'm breathless. I keep blinking thinking after every blink it might just disappear. I walk up to the edge. There are buildings this tall for miles. It's beautiful. This has to be 1000x the size of Ferris. I start laughing. A couple of the buildings are around this height, but most are smaller. But still huge. Probably around 40 or 50 stories. All made out of glass. Abbot walks next to me.

"This is... Amazing." I'm taken back.

Abbot stands so close to me, "I remember when we first got her they took us on a tour of the building, your reaction the first time was just as taken aback."

I smile. "I'm sorry, it's just so... I just can't...."

He sets a hand on top of mine, "No it's good I grew up here so I need to be reminded of how amazing it is. When you live here you just get used to it." I nod.

"Yeah," I say even though I can't imagine getting used to this.

He takes his hand off of mine. "They say that before we had all the towns. Aleph was called New York City." He takes a breath out. "Ok, we should get food because this is going to start getting suspicious."

I grin. I turn to Abbot "Can we sit there?" I feel like a little child. He agrees and he and Nevx come with me and he sits on completely oversized ridiculously comfy chairs. I didn't know clean was a smell until I sunk down in it. Zayn comes next and sits in the furthest seat away from me. Then Fischer and the girl from this morning follow.

"Can we talk for a second about Bryan's lesson this morning?" Abbot announces to the crowd.

"Shhh, What happened in the class stays in the class." Nevx mocks leaned all the way back on the couch.

Fischer chuckles, "I wonder if Bryan is related to Jess? I heard that Jess makes all her relatives work under her."

A girl sits down who I have never seen. Or I'm sure I have before. Her hair is dark red and thick. And chopped at the shoulders."Can you go 2 minutes with spitting out another theory?" She is smiling.

Fischer laughs "You think I get to choose what comes out of my mouth?" He straightens his glasses.

"But seriously," Abbot speaks "What did you guys think about the test?"

I shrug. I am too scared about saying the wrong thing. I turn to Nevx trying to get out of answering. "Can you go with me for a few seconds?" She picks up on my face cluing her in.

We get up, and when we are far enough I ask, "Can we tell Fischer?"

She tilts her head "He's trustworthy and would never hurt you or anyone but he can not shut his mouth. I say we hold it off as long as possible." She puts 2 sandwiches on her plate.

I nod "Who's the girl? Can we trust her?"

Nevx shakes her head in disbelief.

"What?" I ask trying to figure out what I said wrong.

"It's weird you guys were good friends and you don't even know your name." She pauses, "It's September."

"September," I repeat.

We walked back to the table, on the way back we pass a couch with Lemmas and the same girls from this morning. I just look at my tray and act distracted as we walk past. One of them makes a comment and the rest of them laugh. It was probably about me. Before I know it has been an hour and we need to go back to class.

On the way down September gets me alone in the back "Luna. You alright? You seem... off"

I smile, "Yeah, no I'm fine. Why?"

She sighs, "Just yesterday. You scared me you were acting off all day."

I try to keep my voice steady, "Yesterday?"

She smiles. "Yeah, I mean you just acting weird, well like today."

I put on my most convincing voice. "Just off days, I guess." And shrug.

She pushes a piece of her red hair back. It reminds me of the leaves next to the pond behind the showers. "Yeah, that's what I was thinking just wanted to double-check."

I force a smile "Yeah of course."