Selection (Book 2 of P.O.E. chronicles)

Chapter 8 New blood

“So, Gwen is it?” Tom said as we walked down the corridor, the beginning of a smirk hanging on his face. I rolled my eyes at his attempt to provoke me and gave a meaningful look at his hair.

“Yes Henrie. By the way I am loving your new hair.” I retorted; Tom chuckled but made no further comment. I felt a little uneasy walking beside him with our new look; I had always been sure of who I am and what I represent, but the new identity and hair had thrown me completely off.

“You look good.” Tom said after a while of silence, as if reading my thoughts. “We could barely recognize you; which meant people who don’t know you probably won’t at all.”

Sighing I nodded. Blushing a little at his first sentence. It was like he was complimenting me! Then I mentally slapped myself; what on earth am I turning into? Just because I look more girly doesn’t mean I have to act girly.

“What do you think it’s out there waiting for us?” I asked, kicking a loose pebble on the smooth concert floor and watched it bounced in front of me. “And what’s it like in POE Academy?”

Tom stayed quiet for a bit and I stole a glance at him; he really did look quite different, so much more mature, and also slightly creepy. I suppressed a laugh at the last thought. He would probably kill me if he knew about it.

“Honestly? I don’t know.” He said, then smiling as if remembering something nice. “But as long as we all stay together, we will be fine.”

I blinked. “That was the most positive thing I had ever heard you said.” I stuttered a little, my brain slightly overwhelmed by the sudden display of affection from Tom.

As if realizing what he just said Tom coughed and the signature frown was back on. I rolled my eyes; who was he fooling?

We walked the rest of the way in silence. Tom was too embarrassed to talk again after his little slip of emotion. I stifled a laugh at the memory and stole another glance at him.

“This is you.” Tom said as we halt in front of a door marked with metallic numbers of 213. I nodded and waited for him to go; however he just stood there.

“Um…I guess I will see you later?” I said uncertainly after a few seconds; I didn’t think it would be a good idea for Tom to be seen with me when I open the door, we weren’t meant to know each other.

Looking like he had just snapped out of a dream Tom’s whole body jolted and his right hand flung upward to scratch his hair.

“Okay, um, right, er good luck.” He mumbled quickly before literally running away. I blinked his sudden departure. What just happened? Was I being too mean? I was only trying to keep our cover.

Shaking my head I took a deep breath and told myself to calm down. Gingerly I place my hand on the door knot and twist, opening the door.

“There she is!” someone exclaimed loudly as I peeked through the door, startling me so much that I jumped into the room like someone had electrocuted me. The room was small and bare, illuminated by a single light bulb in the center of the ceiling; a group of seven was standing in the middle of the room about a meter away from me.

“You scared her.” A girl with red hair and bright blue eyes reprimanded the oriental boy to her right, who shrugged at her without taking his eyes off me.

Feeling uncomfortable under the stare of so many people I scanned their faces quickly trying to find the person in charge. Judging from the name on the slip he must be Chinese, and I assume he would be older, probably in his thirties. I was surprised to see that most of them looked quite young, around my age apart from two men, and one of them were Chinese.