Infinite (Unedited)

∞CHAPTER TWENTY∞

"Aye, you're all still here!" I say with a grin upon returning to my seat.

"Wow, didn't expect you to make it, Aria. What with all that anger and hate you posses," Jen teases.

"Look who's talking," I smirk.

"Rawr."

"185," smiles the speaker. "You know what that means? Only two of you are gone!
That's way better numbers than we expected! Good for you!"

The audience claps for a while, and then let's him speak again.

"Now, though, something different is going to happen. Instead of loosing more people, sixteen more will be joining, two of each age! Now before you start shouting out questions, I'll tell you why. We wanted to see if the results would be different if the, um, contestants, were kept separate from the group. So, these sixteen excited teenagers are finally being let out of isolation!"

What if one of the Twelves is Hanna? Or the Fifteen is Laura? Or maybe a Fourteen will be Anna? I dance impatiently in my seat.

"Makes me think of The Hunger Games," Melody peeps up.

"Why..?" I ask slowly.

"Two of each age, or "district" maybe it'll be one guy, one girl each!"

"Yeah, you never know," I start to laugh. "But let's hope that's the only similarity."

Melody was right. It was one boy and one girl of each age. I watched quietly as the people walked on stage, nervously introduced themselves, and then went down to the floor again to find a seat in the crowd. Nineteens, Eighteens, Seventeens, Sixteens, Fifteens. A few I recognized from school, but most were strangers. Then the Fourteens came, the boy first, and then Anna. Anna was here. I stared at her for a while. She looked different, older.

"Isn't that Anna?" Shaun asked from beside me.

"Yeah, yeah it is," I turn to look at him and see Nate a few seats down still looking annoyed. My attention turns to Nate for a few seconds before I look back at the stage. Why is he so mad? Did I do something wrong? I hope not.

"Anna!" I stand up and yell her name.

Her eyes light up when she hears my voice. She turns to the boy and grabs his arm, then dashes over to us.

"Aria!" She says happily. "And Jen and Carrie! Hi! Gosh, I've missed you!"

"We missed you too," Carrie smiles.

"Hi, I'm Anna," she says to Nate, Jason and Melody

"Nate."

"I'm Jason."

"Melody!"

"Shaun?" She turns to him.

"Hi Anna."

"Hi...?"

An awkward silence follows, and I can tell Anna is confused as to why Shaun would be sitting with us.

"Uh, who's this?" I nod to the tall, black haired guy standing quietly behind her.

"That's Erik. He's really shy," Anna answers for him.

"Hey," Erik gives a small smile and moves a piece of hair out of his ice blue eyes.

I smile back. "What do you think of this place?" I ask. "The guards call it Glaxe."

"It's... Big. Also loud," he answers quietly.

"It certainly is!" I laugh.

"Can we sit?" Anna asks, pointing at the two empty seats beside me.