New Haven

3.

 I arrived at Kooning Hall. It was a large hall where important events were held. I'm not sure what this assembly is about. It is kept a secret, no one is to tell anyone about what happens. Rumors have it that it's nothing really important, it's just a graduation, but they want it to be all secretive to motivate people to pass their classes to see what the excitement is about. I skimmed the crowd to find my friends, but I couldn't really find them so I took a seat.

"Wow! Lia! You look- Oh my gosh!" a familiar voice said behind me.

"Woah! Cher you're looking good!" I said.

Cher wore this short sky blue tulle dress. It had puffy tulle sleeves and whenever she moved the tulle on her dress would softly sway towards her. Her hair was pulled into a loose ponytail with stray curls perfectly framing her face. I looked behind her and saw Leo with his magenta suit. He saw us looking at him and he did a quick spin. We laughed and took our seats. The hall began to quiet down as President Morset took the stage. She was a short woman, her hair was cut at a strange angular style and was straight and gray. I didn't pay too much attention to what they had to say, I was lost in my own thoughts. It's a bad habit of mine. I try to make myself stop daydreaming, but I can't. Sometimes I wish my daydreams were my reality, I imagine myself with my family, not the one I have right now, but one that also has my parents. We would live on one of those farm homes that are in the textbooks, away from crowded areas. I wouldn't have a problem of not remembering, I can remember my childhood, I can remember my parents, everything. And that's when I start to get depressed, the problem is I can't remember. Before my thoughts began to wander, I tried to focus on Ms. Dawn, my teacher for defense class. She was saying how she was proud of all of us and that each teacher will give rewards to the top student in their class. One by one the teacher called their top students and handed them a pin. Of course Sierra Blackwell won an award, as rude as she is she is quite intelligent, but also arrogant. Ms. Dawn was the last to hand out her award. I didn't really pay attention to who got it, until Cher shook me. I looked at her confused.

"Go! They called you!" she said excitedly, clapping her hands.

I was confused as I got onto the stage, but I gratefully accepted the pin and stood in front of hundreds of my peers.

"Congrats, I'm so proud of you!" Ms. Dawn exclaimed, then she bent closer into my ear and almost whispered, "Use your skills wisely!"

It was a strange thing to say, but I didn't think too much of it. Ms. Dawn was known to say bizarre things. A bunch of kids in my class say that she was taken by the people outside of New Haven and they did something to her where she starts to say bizarre things. Anyways, we stood to take our pictures and walked back to our seats. After that we were allowed to socialize. I took my pin and pinned it onto my dress. It was this round silver pin with two daggers making an "X".

"Look at you with your fancy pin!" teased Leo "And you said you weren't gonna get the award!"

"I still don't know how I got it. There are way better options," I looked around and pointed at a short thin girl across the hall, "Like Sky, she's like a hundred times better than I am! Or you, Leo, you're the fastest one in the class!" I laughed.

"You did improve a lot, remember how you couldn't even throw a knife at the dummies? Now look at you, you're basically a professional" Cher smiled.

"Whatever" I said playfully, rolling my eyes.

"Wow Adair, I can't believe you actually got an award! I'm surprised you're good at anything, you know, except losing your parents" a cold sarcastic voice said from behind me, it was Sierra Blackwell.

"Oh shut it Blackwell! At least I got my award based on pure talent, unlike buying my way into it" I replied, Sierra's friends looked at her.

"Nice comeback, did you practice in the mirror beforehand?" she said talking to me as if I was a child.

I rolled my eyes, and bumped past her. Honestly, I don't really know what her problem is. Actually, maybe I do. She has the circle tattoo, for some reason that makes people very special. All the people that have that tattoo are related to someone who is really important to the government. Her parents work very closely with the president. No surprise that I can't actually remember what I said or done to her that makes her hate me, but I don't really want to know.

"She could be alot..." said Cher, placing her hand on my shoulder.

"It's- whatever. Did you guys see the assignment? What year did you get?" I asked, eager to change the subject.

"Oh I got 2012, It's some Canadian girl named Bridget....something" replied Cher.

"Cool, I got 1898, some rando named John Wilson in Great Britain" Leo chuckled, "How about you?"

"James Rogers in 1975, some town in a state called Illinois" I answered, remembering his face, something familiar about him.

We chatted and ate some food until we were dismissed. We headed out the hall, everyone's conversation exemplified from the long empty halls. The crowd dispersed as they began to separate. I wished Cher and Leo goodnight and headed back to my house. It was dark and thankfully Cassie and Apollo were sleeping, I did not feel like taking a picture. I looked at myself in the mirror one last time, there was probably no other event that I was going to be able to wear this to. I dressed into my pajamas and laid in bed. I didn't feel tired. I stared at the ceiling. Eventually I grabbed my tablet and looked over my assignment, I looked over James Rogers's file. Even though I didn't want to be a traveler, I wanted to impress the president. Live up to my brother's expectations. I clicked on the "eliminate" option. I wanted the government to know that I could be serious about work and that I am better than my brother. I want everyone in New Haven to know that I am not a failure.