Gifted

Chapter One

9:00 am

Brooke's POV

It was a gloomy day. I walked through the normally cheery front gates of Juniper Lake High wearing a pair of jeans and a grey hoodie. I strolled into the courtyard and saw the other students huddled in small groups talking in hushed tones. What's going on..? About 10 yards away, I saw my friends. Ella, Sarita and Jackson were waving me over. I quickly jogged over to them. They looked nervous..

"You know that today is the day the four students disappear right..?" Ella whispered. Oh right... I thought. Every year, 4 seemingly random students disappear out of nowhere, but because of our schools award winning academic program, it's still somehow able to attract a great amount of new students each year.

"I wonder if anyone I know will disappear this year..." Sarita said with fear as her eyes clouded with grief for her freind who went missing last year. Ella put her hand on her shoulder as Sarita turned and began to cry into her shoulder. Jackson looked at me nervously. Sarita straightened up and wiped her eyes, now red and puffy from crying. We looked at each other with pure, undiluted fear and a single, grave thought echoed through all of our minds "What if it's one of us this time."

Sarita's POV

I sat at my desk as the teacher gave a lecture on trigonometry, uuuuuuggggggghhhhhh I thought. Trig is sooooooo damn boring, can't it just be over? I wanna to go play Dungeons and Dragons already.. Friday, it was Friday, that meant later on tonight, I would be laughing my ass off with the club. But then again... What if I dissapear, or what if someone in the club dissapears! I bit my nails in distress. I couldn't help but remember Brielle... She was one of those who went missing the previous year, she was also my friend. I want to know what happened to her but... But I was scared, if I found out she had died in some terrible way I would only grieve more. I glanced at my friends who were all in my class, they didn't look much better. The loudspeaker crackled and the class went silent "Will Ella Monroe, Sarita Tonteson, Brooke Harrison, and Jackson Crawford report to the principal's office immediately."

Grumbling, I got up, "Thosteson, its pronounced Thau-ste-sun" I muttered under my breath. some of the more popular boys snickered as I walked out of the classroom.

"Ooooooohhhhhh, she's in trouuuubbbbblllleeeee." Jake Palmer taunted from across the room.

"Can it Jake" I snarled, I wasn't in the mood for his stupidity, I was too busy wondering why in the hell I was being called to the office. But underneath the annoyance I was scared. "Four students, always four" I heard someone whisper, and my fear amplified by 10. We grabbed our stuff and walked out of the classroom towards the office.

Jackson's POV

As we all walked down the hall towards the office, a million thoughts raced through my head. Why are we being called up? Are we the ones to disappear this year? WHAT IF WE DIE?! I tried to keep myself calm while walking the painfully long walk all the way across campus.

We walked into the office side-by-side and the secretary quickly ushered us into the principal's office. After depositing our stuff outside, we sat in the chairs in front of his desk. My heart was racing as we waited. Four glasses of orange liquid sat on his desk neatly in a row. Sarita's head bobbed as if she was going to pass out and came close to knocking over one of the full glasses. Her eyes widened and she shook her head and straightened up. The principal showed no sign of noticing her unusual behavior. I pushed my glasses up as the principal began to speak.

"Hello Jackson, Brooke, Ella and Sarita," the principal began. "I'm gonna get right to the point to make this easier on you guys.." the principal said. "I have called you here to inform you that you have been chosen for an amazing opportunity only given to 4 students each year! I'm sure you've heard rumors about 4 students "disappearing" each year, but I can assure you that they do not "disappear" at all!"

What was he talking about? I heard those students died, their parents were distraught! What the hell was he talking about? I glanced at the others, Brooke looked rather excited, Ella confused, and Sarita was narrowing her eyes the way she does when she's trying to figure out one of those brain teasers that make you look between the lines. I decided too hide my fear and confusion with enthusiasm. The principal smiled at us, I couldn't tell if it was just me but his smile seemed a bit creepy.

"Those children go to a top-of-the-line learning facility called "gifted" of course we have to keep this secret or everyone would want to go!" he gave us an overenthusiastic smile, it looked rehearsed. "So, naturally, their parents are sworn to secrecy, and they seem to vanish off the face of the earth!" He gave us that overenthusiastic smile again.

I was still freaking out, I wasn't gonna let go of those freaky rumors that easily.

"You will be given more information on this school tomorrow, for now go home, pack your bags and tell your parents that you will be taking part in this amazing opportunity!" he smiled once again, and once again there was something off about it. I decided I didn't trust him, his smile was too forced, too enthusiastic, something just wasn't quite right...

I glanced at the others once again as I stood up, Ella still looked slightly confused, Brooke slightly scared, and Sarita...Sarita looked deep in thought.

I stood up and she spoke, "Sir, do we have a choice in participating in this... this "gifted" program?"

A dark look crossed the principal's face for a millisecond but the grin returned just as fast. "Ill go more into that tomorrow, and even if you were, why would you not want to?"

I felt disturbed by these words, he made it sound as if we were prisoners. And that look... I could never trust that look...its one of the tell tale cliches in a book that a character is evil. We walked out of the room and the door slammed shut behind us.