REBEL

PROLOGUE

The letter almost glowed in the Saturday light. It was so neatly written, so gently packaged, it was almost deceiving. Alana turned in over in her hands.

"ELIZABETH WALKER, GET DOWN HERE NOW!"

A crash came from upstairs and a teenage girl came running down into the kitchen. "Yeah?"
Mrs. Walker stared her straight in the eyes. "Can you explain this?"

"What is it?"

"A letter," She motioned to the letter in her hand. "for you."

"How- how come?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe you should read it."

Elizabeth laughed. "No one sends letters anymore, mom."

"Well apparently someone named 'Damien Robert' does."

Elizabeth reached for the letter, not bothering to read the front. "'Dear Elizabeth Walker, Congratulations! Based on your academic successes-' Uh... 'Based on-' Yeah... 'You have ...the... 20...'" Elizabeth showed her mom the letter.

"I, I didn't know you had... for..."

"I don't get it. Did you register me for something?"

Alana looked up. "Your teachers, I think, have recommended you to this... this school. For exceptional students. And it seems like you got in."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "I'm not an 'exceptional student.'"

"Aw, of course you are! Why else would you be going?"

"Um, mom... mom, you're joking right? Why would you ever let me go off to this summer camp, you literally just screamed at me a minute ago!"

"I thought maybe it was a letter telling me you were getting sent to rehab or something." Alana looked shamefully down at her feet. "And you never come out of your room! Besides, everything's digital now, so a letter was an interesting change of pace."

Elizabeth nodded carefully. "How do we know this isn't some scam? With all the things in the news..."

"How about I ask around? With your teachers. Find out about this 'ARI' thing?"

"Whatever mom. Just, um, tell me what this is about when you find out please."

Elizabeth was skeptic of this 'Damien Robert' guy. You couldn't find him on google, not really. All that showed up were random social media accounts. This was probably some elaborate prank that her mom was in on. Either that, or she'd been brainwashed. This whole thing was stupid. They probably sent the letter to the wrong Elizabeth Walker. An Elizabeth Walker, who was actually an exceptional student. Not this Elizabeth Walker. Now, somebody had a lamp to fix.