Superior

Chapter 37

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Caleb

Nessa tugged at my tie, straightening it and tucking it into the pinstriped blazer I was wearing. It felt like a noose around my neck, but I tried to ignore it. I could survive a few short hours in discomfort.

"You ready?" Nessa asked, her eyes glinting. It was finally the big day, the day of the ceremony—and more importantly, the day of the rebellion. The one hundred candidates had arrived the late the night before, and were immediately brought to a hotel near the residential building. Today's agenda included a small introduction ceremony in the East Room on the first floor, then a large, widely publicized formal initiation on the front steps of the Capitol Building. If the Pro-Inferiors had their way, though, the second ceremony would never happen.

"Yeah," I lied distractedly. "Are you?"

"Of course," she murmured, stepping away from me. As Miracle's consultant, Nessa's work in the ceremony was done behind the scenes; she handled the reporters and publicity aspects of the event. And because of that, she had to head downstairs before Miracle got suspicious. "You know the plan, right?" she whispered.

I nodded discreetly. "I've got it."

"Great." A smile broke out across Nessa's face, smoothing out the tense frown lines etched across her features.

"Nessa, are you ready to go?" Nessa whipped around to face a guard who had just appeared in the doorway. He, too, was dressed formally, and stood up straight, his expression solemn.

"Ready," Nessa replied, smoothing the front of her pantsuit.

As the pair walked out the door, Nessa looked back at me and grinned. Be ready, she mouthed.

Delaney

"Would you quit that?" I glared at Abby, who was pacing restlessly across the room. She stopped, gave me a dry stare, and then continued. "Abby, please. You're making me nervous."

Eyes narrowed, she whirled around to face me. "Oh, I'm sorry," Abby snarled, her tone bitingly sarcastic. "I'm just a little bit worried. My bad, it's totally the wrong time to be anxious. What was I thinking?"

I sighed and flopped back onto my bed. "I'm not blaming you," I said patiently, "but I'd appreciate it if you'd stay still."

Trai spoke up. "Abby has a terrible of habit of pacing whenever she wants to think things out. You'll have to excuse her irritating idiosyncrasies."

"No kidding," I muttered. "Calm down, Abby. We'll be fine."

"I'm not worrying about us," she said shrilly. "I'm worrying about Caleb. Nessa hasn't so much as mentioned him these past few days. Haven't you thought about him at all?"

Quite honestly, I hadn't. Abby saw that in my face and looked away, disgusted. "Of course not; all you're thinking about is yourself. Why am I even surprised? Selfish coward," she muttered.

"Abby!" Trai scolded, looking at his sister in shock

Anger boiled up inside me. "You can go ahead an call me names all you want. Just remember that this selfish coward was the one who went all the way to Tukwila with your brother and was nearly caught by Superiors. She was the one who hacked into the government computer, and she was the one who exposed the Superiors' secrets on video for everyone to see. And what did you do, Abigail?"