Chapter Two

If my life was a book, this moment would be the end of the chapter. It's perfect: the cliff hanger, the smirk that Cathleen was giving me, the very surprised and probably very stupid face I was making.

I immediately closed my mouth and leaned back in the chair casually, even though my head was screaming with questions, "Interview me for what?" I asked.

That's when Professor Hoolay shoved himself into the room. "Miss Cordell! I told you to stay in that chair! And what on earth are you doing in Mrs. Morsie's seat?!"

I was about to roll my eyes and throw an insult at him, but then Cathleen spoke. "It's alright Calvin." she said, still keeping her eyes glued on me, "I can handle this. Please leave us."

Professor Hoolay looked like he wanted to protest, but he just bowed and walked out of the room.

Cathleen closed the door and sat down in the hard chair that I was supposed to stay sitting in. She pulled a pen out of seemingly nowhere, and began to scribble on her clipboard.

What is she doing? I thought, Is she gonna say anything? And what is she doing here? "Um…" I said after a while of silence, "Look, so it wasn't me who blew up Professor Hoolay's car, I was in deten-- er I mean… I was going to the bathroom when it happened, so I just found out that it happened and--"

"Miss Cordell, there is no need to lie to me, you're not gonna get in trouble either way."

I stared at Cathleen's sharp features. She must've had them surgically done, because there was no way it was natural. Her eyes were gray and her cheekbones were like knives. I could see the muscles on her arms rippling as she continued to scribble on her clipboard. She was extremely tall as well. She must've been around seven feet tall.

"Right…."

"Do you know why I'm here, Miss Cordell?"

"Er…. to interview me?" Isn't that obvious? She already told me.

"Not necessarily." She said in a way that made me want to punch her right in the nose, "I am here to grant you freedom. Or at least, more freedom that you have even now."

"What do you mean?" I asked, starting to get interested.

"Well you see," Cathleen said, "You are a special girl, Sage. A very special girl. You are part of a rare group of people who…. How do I put this? Who can change for the better." I must've been making a confused face, because she sighed and stood up. "You have the ability to become super. As in super-human." She walked toward me, and I stood up as well, "With a little bit of work, you can become one of the most powerful beings on earth."

I stared at her, "This is a joke right?" I said, "This is one of Hoolay's ways to punish me isn't it? I'm not falling for it!" I yelled at the door, "You tried but you failed! You're not gonna get me this time!"

"This is none of Calvin's tricks, let me assure you that. Calvin is far too much of a goon to think of anything like this."

That's when I started to like this lady. Anyone who called Calvin Hoolay a goon obviously knew her stuff. I turned back toward her, my eyebrows raised, "Why would you offer me power? What's in it for you?"

"That's a good question, Sage." Cathleen sighed, "Let me just say: if you are with me, then you can be with no one else, and that's good enough."

I paused for a moment thinking. Let's weigh the pros and cons for a moment. If I say no, then I have to stay here, Professor Hoolay would probably scalp me and eat me for lunch, and I'd get to live with the fact that I turned down possibly the greatest offer of a lifetime. If I say yes, then I get to leave this awful place, live with the most powerful and rich person alive, and Professor Hoolay will never be able to give me detention again.

"I'm in." I said.

I followed Cathleen out of the school and to a hover car that wasn't anything less than perfect. It was pearly white and there were two men in all black suits standing by it.

As we neared the hover car, the men in suits opened the doors in perfect unison. Cathleen climbed into the front of the car, and I climbed into the back. For such a big HC (hover car), the passengers compartment was surprisingly small. I sat down on the leather seats, and the HC began to move. I looked around the compartment for a bit. There were tons of makeup tools, a few chick flick magazines, an old gum wrapper. That's when I saw something that was actually interesting. An MP3 player!

I grabbed it, stuffed the ear pieces in my ears, and turned on the first song. It turned out to be some weird K-pop song in a different language. I immediately turned it off. After scanning through the rest of the songs, I came to the conclusion that this MP3 player belonged to a six year old girl. I then pulled out a tiny piece of dark green metal from my pocket. "Good music." I whispered to it, then stuffed it into the charger slot.

Processing…. Showed on the screen of the MP3 player, then a new album of music showed up. I clicked the shuffle button, then looked out the window as "Another One Bites the Dust" started to play.

The drive was very long and kind of boring. After about two hours worth of driving something eventful finally happened. They drove up to a giant mansion, also pure white. I could see a giant swimming pool as well as a basketball court. The whole place was surrounded by a huge fence. As we drove up a gate opened and the HC drove up the driveway.

That's when I noticed a group of people about my age sitting in the front lawn. By the look of it there were two girls and three boys. One of the boys was on what looked like a hovering slab of metal.

The HC drove past the group of kids who paid it no attention, and into a garage. Before I could even blink my door was opened by one of the men in suits. "Er…. thanks." I mumbled, climbing out of the HC. I was not used to having people do stuff for me.

"This way Sage." Cathleen said, beckoning to a door at the end of the garage.

I followed her through the door and into a giant hallway. There were many doors lining the hallway, but Cathleen must've known this place well, because she chose a door toward the end of the hall and opened it. "After you." she said.

I walked through the door and into a room that was obviously a dining room. There was a giant golden table that stood right in the middle of the room, and several smaller wooden tables surrounding it.

"This is the dining hall." Cathleen said, walking in and closing the door behind her, "We have dinner here at 7:00, but you can come here and eat whenever you want besides that."

I cleared my throat, "We?"

"Oh yes." Cathleen said, "There are a few others here who could resist."

Resist what? I thought, but decided not to ask in case Cathleen thought I was asking too many questions.

"Anyway," Cathleen said, walking toward a pair of giant wooden doors at the end of the dining hall; me following her, "I think I'm going to have Alexsandra show you around. She's really friendly and I think you'll get along with her."

How do you know? I thought, You don't know me ,you crazy woman.

"Any questions?" Cathleen asked, looking at me with cold grey eyes.

"Um, just one." I said, "Can I have my dog?"

"Oh! Yes. I'll have one of my maids go and get him this evening. You should have him by tomorrow."

"Thanks." I said, trying to fight back a grin. No more foster care, no more Professor Hoolay, I get to live with the richest woman alive, and I get to keep my dog. Best day ever.

"Uh…. so what do you have?" I asked the waiter.

"We have almost anything you would like, just name a food, Miss Sage."

"Um, but like, what would you think I would like?"

"Sorry, but I don't know what you would like."

"Yeah, but just guess."

"I'm not good at guessing."

"Just try."

"I'm sorry, but if you'd like to think about it, I could come back."

"No, just na--"

"Ooh!" Came an unfamiliar voice, "Get the ham and cheese sandwich with a side of chocolate milk! It's the bomb!"

I turned toward the source of the voice. It was a girl with long blond hair and large hazel eyes. She was wearing a fancy purple dress and was carrying a blue handbag that seemed to be bulging.

"Hello Max." she said to the waiter after running towards us.

"Good day Miss Alexsandra." Max the waiter replied, "Would you like me to prepare your food?"

"Oh, no thank you, I already ate. I just came here to say hi to the new girl! Hi new girl! I'm Alexsandra. What's your name?"

I could hardly keep up with what this girl was saying. "Uh, I'm Sage."

"Wow, that's a pretty name! Like I already said, I'm Alexsandra. When Dr. Morsie told me that she wanted me to help show the new girl around, I was like 'woah really?!' And she was all like, 'yep! You're perfect for the job!' and I was like, 'oh my gosh! Thank you!' and she was like, 'no problem!' But anyway, here I am! I should show you the library first! Ooh! I know! I'm gonna show you the dressing room first! C'mon!" With that, Alexsandra grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the dining hall.

"And this is the hallway to all the bedrooms. I don't know which one is your room, but Cathleen will show you later. That's pretty much all there is to show you in this compound…. I think I'll--"

There was the sound of loud laughter from behind us, and Alexsandra whirled around to see what was causing the ruckus. It was the kids from the front of the building. Three boys and two girls.

"Hey Alex!" One of the boys yelled, "Where were you? Dario was going nuts on his hoverboard again!"

"Oh, hey guys!" Alexsandra said, "I was just getting ready to give a tour to the new girl! Speaking of which, this is Sage!" Alexsandra gestured to me, and the other kids waved. "Sage, this is Dario, Aiden, Bailey, Jace, and Olwyn." I waved in a kind of awkward way.

"Welcome to the group Sage." Aiden said.

"Er, thanks." I said, eyeing each person in turn. Dario had dark hair, skin, and eyes. He was also holding a metal board the shape of an oval. Aiden had long, wavy red hair and looked like the kind of person that would surf. Bailey had long brown hair and white eyes. She kept on looking at Dario in a way that made me think that she liked him. Jace had brown hair as well, and was leaning against the wall like he was bored. Olwyn had short black hair and red glasses. She too looked bored.

"Hey do you hoverboard?" Aiden asked. It took me a while to realize that he was talking to me. "Uh, no I don't. I've never seen a hoverboard before."

Dario grinned, "After dinner, we have to fix that."

"Speaking of which," Aiden said, "Let's go get some dinner! It's freaking 6:56!" Aiden ran down the hall towards the dining hall. Everyone laughed except me and Olwyn, who just grinned, then we all started walking after Aiden.

Cathleen was waiting by the doors with Aiden. As we walked up they cut off their conversation and looked at us.

"Ah, good you're here." Cathleen said, smiling, "Let's get started shall we?"

Everyone nodded and we all walked into the dining hall. The table was already set with foods that I don't know the name of. We all sat down, Dario and Olwyn sitting beside Cathleen, and me sitting as far away from her as possible. Alexsandra sat next to me and chatted all through the very delicious dinner.

After we ate Cathleen stood up and beamed at everyone. "Thank you for a very good meal everyone. And let's all thank our new recruit Sage for gracing us with her presence!" Everyone clapped. "Well then I guess you all are excused. Have a good rest of the day and I hope to see you all tomorrow."

We all stood up and made our way to the door. When I was about to walk out Cathleen called my name, "Sage? May I speak with you for a moment?"

"Uh, sure." I said, stepping out of the entryway and turning to face Cathleen.

Cathleen waited for everyone to walk out of the dining hall and closed the door. I was starting to get nervous, being alone in a closed room with this woman wasn't on my bucket list.

"Now Sage," Cathleen said, "I hope you had a good first day here. I know it was kind of boring, but tomorrow you'll be able to do a bit more. Also, I'm gonna have Frank lead you to your new room. He's waiting for you just outside the door."

"Um, thank you." I said, starting to walk towards the door.

"Oh, and Sage?" Cathleen said. I turned around and looked at her, "Yes?"

"I sense there's something special about you." She said, "Train hard okay?"

"Ummm, okay." With that I walked out the door and followed Frank to my room, thinking about what she said the whole time.