[COMPLETED] The Academy For Genetically Gifted Children Book One: Genesis

Kai

Chapter 19: Kai

Kai was right about Josh being a problem. Word got out that his friends were orphans, although he had no idea how. That was besides the point though, because now Josh and his sidekick Marcus were doing all in their power to antagonize him.

In Wilderness Class it was bad enough; he had to pull out his rubbing stone at least five times during the period to stop himself from going full-ninja on them. Layla helped sometimes, soothing him with her words, but he saw her hanging out with Ben more and more, who also was in their class, much to Kai's dismay.

Wilderness Training might have even been his favorite class without everything else that was going on— Mr. Klick taught them really useful things, like how to make a fire, send smoke signals, and even how to use sunlight to make water. Kai had a feeling it really would come in handy one day. At least he had lunch hour to look forward to after class; food never failed to cheer him up.

The alarm bell rang and Mr. Klick reminded his students before they left, "Don't forget your paper on how to use the constellations as a guide map! Three pages, hand-written, at least!"
A loud, collective groan was let loose, and Mr. Klick shouted down the hall as the students left the building, "Make it five pages for the whining!"

Kai sighed inwardly, and it didn't improve his mood any when he saw Layla and Ben heading to the Dining Hall walking suspiciously close to each other. He ran to catch up, and scooted right between them.
"Wow, what a bummer right guys? Five pages worth on constellation mapping, Mr. Klick must be out of his mind," Kai said.
Ben gave him an annoyed look. "Yeah, very bummish." Then he turned to Layla and said, " As I was saying, you're welcome to come over anytime and study."
She blushed in response.
Oh this is not happening on my watch, Kai thought.
"That's probably not a good idea," Kai began. "You could both get kicked out! You'd be breaking Academy rules and with more students being dismissed...as I said, bad idea."
Layla clearly wasn't listening though. "I'll think about it, Benjamin, thanks."
Benjamin? She called him Benjamin. This just keeps getting worse.
They reached the Dining Hall, and though reluctant to leave Layla, the hamburgers were calling to him. Kai took his usual seat beside Rion, who was apparently in an intense conversation with Andi and Annie.
"I'm just saying, sacrifice and knowledge should never be in the same sentence together," he said. Andi and Annie had grim expressions.
"What's going on?" Kai asked.
Rion's eyes darkened. "Well... Andi did some research on Annie's computer and she thinks she figured out what the Academy emblem means," he replied.
Kai stared at them. "Which is...?"
Rion nodded to Andi.
She gave a big and uncharacteristic huff. "Oh, alright," she said. "But I'm not 100% sure, I need to dig a little deeper. From what I've read there are three different symbols in the emblem. The first looks like two triangles with a spear running through it, which means sacrifice. Then, the tip of the spear meets the second symbol, a 'C' turned sideways, which is a latin symbol meaning great. Lastly, those two symbols are encompassed by the third one, which looks like an eye. The eye is often referred to as 'the all-knowing eye,' referencing knowledge or the hunger for knowledge."
Annie finished by saying, "So, if you put all the symbols together, it means 'great sacrifice for knowledge.'" By this point even Layla and Ben had stopped talking to listen in.
Kai suddenly thought back to the latin words written under the symbols, 'Scientiae Progressu.'
"Okaay... so the emblem basically states that science is progress and that there is great sacrifice for knowledge?" he said.
"Exactly," Annie and Andi replied in unison.
"The sacrifice part doesn't sound all that great," noted Layla.
"No, it definitely doesn't," put in Ben.
Layla suddenly looked around.
"Hey, Annie, where's Darcy?"
A look of sudden remembrance crossed Annie's face. "Oh, she's at the infirmary. We were in our Weapons & Archery class today and she accidentally shot an arrow into her own foot. Poor thing didn't even notice until someone pointed it out to her. She spent half the class walking around with an arrow sticking out of her shoe! A few kids even passed out at the sight of it." Annie's nose screwed up in disgust.
"Awesome!" Kai and Rion exclaimed.
Andi said, "Well, at least it was a puncture wound; they usually bleed less profusely."
While Layla mumbled, "Poor girl." They all returned to eating, keeping their thoughts about what they learned to themselves. The wicked cool story about Darcy couldn't even keep Kai's mind off of the somewhat dark meaning to the Academy's emblem. Chill out, he told himself. Sacrifice isn't necessarily a bad thing. I used to sacrifice myself all the time, putting myself at risk fighting bullies like Josh for the other kids.
The alarm bell rang, signaling the end of lunch hour. Then a voice came on the speakers—not Director Perrez, though, a woman this time.
"Would those students that were on the first plane to arrive at the Academy please make your way over to the Training Center for your first session. Do not worry about your classes, your Instructors have already been notified about the training. I repeat, those who first arrived at the Academy please head to the Training Center at this time. Thank you."
Kai and Andi looked at each other.
"That's us, I suppose," Andi mumbled.
"Good luck guys! I'm sure it'll be fun," Rion said encouragingly as he raced off to class.
Layla give Andi a quick hug and said, "Mmhm, tell us all about it later. I know we'll be having ours next."
"Do I get a hug too?" Kai called, but Layla was already walking away.
He sighed. Of course not.
They made their way over to the Training Center, but it seemed like forever away.
"I'm surprised it took this long to get the whole training thing started," Kai told Andi on their walk. "It's been two weeks since the meeting in the Mass Chamber; I thought we would have started sooner."
"Indeed, the Academy staff must have just been setting everything up," Andi replied.
They didn't talk much the rest of the way, both were filled with butterflies in their stomachs. Kai liked to think of them as wasps, though, because that seemed much tougher than butterflies.
By the time they reached the familiar underground dome they had found three weeks ago, Kai's nerves—wasps—whatever, had disappeared. You can do this, he told himself. It's in your blood.
Having no idea where that thought came from, although he could sense it was true, he turned to Andi and said, "Well, here we go."

And they stepped inside the dome.

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