Playing with Fire

e p i s o d e | s i x

Anna paces around the small classroom, glancing down at her packet of notes before looking up at the ceiling and mouthing facts to herself. I can't help but roll my eyes. She's acting like we have a huge exam, when in fact, it's just the first day of this "mentorship" program. In approximately seven minutes, Eyre's going to walk in with a line of unsuspecting students, who are going to realize something new about me. I think I should be the terrified one.

I notice Anna slump down at one of the desks, glance over at me, and then look back at her papers worriedly. She's been avoiding me since our last encounter, which has been nice, but at the same time, I have to admit that it was a little boring not being able to have a snarky conversation with someone. Everyone in this school is just so damn typical.

Through my peripheral vision, I see Anna finally give up and open her mouth towards me, and I immediately lift up a hand towards her without turning my head. "No talking to me."

She shuts her jaws and drops her head onto the desk, letting out what sounds like a dog's whimper. I swear, she's the only one who's capable of some of these quirks. It's so weird, and yet entertaining at the same time.

"You're the one who wanted to do this," I point out, nonchalantly placing my feet on top of the desk.

"But I'm nervous!" she groans back, her voice muffled through her arm.

I just snort to myself and continue scrolling through my phone, deleting the masses of group texts that have been sent to me. I'm always included in all of these "social events" texts. None of them are ever particularly interesting to me, unless I actually feel like getting hammered that day.

I unintentionally glance up at Anna again, whose head is still buried in her arms. Right, I almost forgot. She has this thing against alcohol. After all, her parents were killed by a drunk driver. I know nearly every detail of that story – even better than the rest of the kids here. I'm a good researcher.

"I'm a failure," I hear Anna grumble. "I'll never get into EU."

I bite my tongue, in order to prevent myself from returning a comeback. I'll let her have her moment.

The doorknob to the classroom shakes as it twists open, and I remove my feet from the top of the desk. Sure enough, Principal Eyre enters, and there's a trail of annoyed faces following her – from Valentine Silver to Henri Chevalier. To be honest, I'm not at all surprised by the selection.

Anna's head immediately pops up and she smiles at Valentine, who returns a disgusted, I'm-going-to-shoot-myself glare. For once, I share her sentiments.

Henri walks over to me and slaps my hand in our usual handshake. "Hey," he says. "Did you come here early or something? Eyre had to track the rest of us down."

I just smirk at him. "You'll see."

The rest of the kids file inside, and Eyre walks to the front of the classroom, her beady eyes inspecting us from behind her glasses. "Well, then," she says, almost impatiently. "It looks like everyone is here. You all know what the purpose of this replacement for your gym period serves. Your previous test scores – along with your grades – have proven you to be at the lowest ten percent of your class. And your scores are so low, in fact, that there is a significant decline in the average between your class and the previous year's."