Chapter 248
“You ready, Cassidy?” Aurora asked, looking down at me as I stood in front of The Hill, this incredibly steep, mountainous obstacle we practice on. I knew I was having trouble focusing, mostly because I could feel my sister’s eyes on me all the way across the gymnasium. She was in one of the rooms across the hallway running on a treadmill, something she does every morning, but that morning she seemed particularly fascinated with my progress for some reason. I wished there were curtains over those windows.
“I’m ready,” I assured Aurora. I tipped my head up to look her in the eyes, but that’s hard because she’s well-over six feet tall. She smiled down at me and blew her whistle, and I took off up The Hill, trying my best to beat my time from before.
I figured out a long time ago that it’s faster to jump up and down the hill, but that doesn’t do much for my endurance, and that’s what I was working on. So I ran up and then turned at the top and sprinted back. When I reached the bottom, Aurora stopped her watch and nodded. “Good job. Eight seconds.”
That did seem like a good time, especially since the last girl who went, Tara something-or-other, had taken about ten seconds longer than that. She was pretty new, though, and I don’t think that running was her forte before she Transformed. She has brown hair like me, but her eyes are a deep chocolate brown, and I think we might be friends if I was sure she was going to stay here. I don’t think she will, though. My sister only wants the best Hunters on her Kansas City team, and I can’t imagine Tara will ever be more than mediocre unless something catastrophic—or miraculous, perhaps is a better word—happens.
She clapped for me, though. “Nice work, Cass!”
“Thanks,” I said, catching the eyes of a tall blonde girl, Addy, who isn’t my biggest fan. You might think the other recruits would be nice to me since my sister or her fiancé is their boss, depending upon whether they are a Hunter or a Guardian, but that doesn’t seem to be working out for me. When I first started my training, one of the girls I was working with said that no one liked me because they knew I’d be taking a spot on the KC team, and that’s where everyone wanted to be. That was a few months ago, and all of those people have moved on now. The only other Hunter my sister kept was a girl named Ashley who doesn’t have to train with us anymore because she’s passed all her trials. We also kept a Guardian named Mickey. And Brandon, who still sometimes works out with us when he can. There was no way my sister was going to send Elliott’s son anywhere else, even before Elliott came back from the dead, so he had to be a part of our team. And he’s really good at what he does. He’s one of the only Guardians who can keep up with my sister.
I guess I was afraid to get too attached to Tara because I didn’t want to have her leave, but as she smiled at me, I thought for a moment, we really could be friends. And that might be part of what I’m missing here. Back home in Shenandoah, I really only had four good friends. I was a member of the cheerleading squad, and in a way, those girls were my friends, too, because we bonded over cheer. But really, Lucy Burk, Emma Sullivan, Milo Parker, and Wes Stanfield were my besties. I miss Lucy and Emma like crazy. I talk to them almost every night, but until they are here, too, I don’t think I’ll be completely comfortable.
And they will be able to come here as soon as they are seventeen and/or ready. Lucy wants to finish high school, which means she has about a year and a half. Emma wants to go to college and then come here and work in the tech department, despite the fact that the head of technology, Christian, is a weirdo. Emma’s brain works completely different from anyone else I know, though, and I am sure she will be a huge asset.
I worry about Lucy. She’s athletic enough, but she’s a little immature. I hope she figures life out a little bit more before she packs up and moves here. There’s no guarantee she’ll get to stay on our team, either, but I’m hopeful I can pull a few strings when the time comes.
We moved on to the next obstacle, a course Aurora laid out specifically for us to work on our agility, which consisted of jumping through tires, crawling under wires, that sort of thing, and my eyes wandered back to the room where my sister was working out. I noticed Aaron had come over to stop her, which isn’t a good sign. My sister’s running time is sacred. She only takes an hour a day to work on herself, and she turns her Intelligence Assistance Communicator, or IAC, off while she’s running. That’s a little computer chip we have in our eye that lets us talk to each other without even opening our mouths. The fact that Aaron came all the way over here from his office to speak to her made me wonder what in the world could possibly be going on.
“Cassidy?”
When I’m not paying attention and Aurora says my first name, it’s usually a gentle nudge, unlike our other trainer, Shane Talberson, who had the boys outside somewhere punishing them. He is a big brute who could easily palm my head, and I have never much cared for him. Turns out Cadence doesn’t either, but he’s been here a while, and I don’t think we can get him moved. It is a thought I entertain from time to time, though, particularly right after he’s screamed, “Findley!” at me like I’m a maggot and he’s a drill sergeant.
