Institutionalized

Chapter Eleven

After a few closing remarks, the Headmaster led the audience in applause to Audriel as she left the Atrium down the aisle from which she came. The terrified look on her face had yet to pass, but she had at least relaxed into a quicker, more natural pace. Carah clapped avidly as her friend past her, standing to her feet with the rest of her peers, then waited excitedly to be released into the cafeteria for the dinner and dance. Emelie, in the row ahead of her, laughed at her friend's eagerness.

"You guys had better move faster," she said to the other girls filing out of the pews, a teasing glint in her eyes. "Carah is going to have a heart attack if she has to wait any longer."

"Hey!" Carah defended jokingly when Emelie's comment was met with a chorus of laughter. "I happen to know you're all just as excited about the celebration as I am, so don't act all superior."

Emelie rolled her eyes and laughed. "Maybe, but we aren't busting out of our seats to get there, unlike some people."

Carah just huffed and hit her friend in the shoulder when they were finally in the side aisle and on their way to the cafeteria. Emelie just wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and Carah waited for a quip about her height. She was not short, probably right at the average height among those in her age group, but Emelie touted her three inch difference like she was a giant come down to rule the world.

Instead of an insult, however, Emelie just whispered, "Something isn't right."

Carah, startled, replied in a hushed voice, "What do you mean?"

Emelie's voice, despite the smile plastered on her face, was tense as she spoke. "I mean, something is wrong. Audriel didn't look very happy to you, did she?"

"No," She admitted slowly, "but that was probably just nerves. Everyone is nervous during their Twenty-first Ceremony." Carah did not know if she was saying it to convince her friend, or herself.

Emelie chuckled, but unlike her normal laughs, this one was low and dark. "But not everyone is tense and shaking either, are they?"

Swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat, Carah nodded shakily, shuffling her feet down the hall leading to the cafeteria. "What are we going to do?"

With a shake of her head, Emelie smiled brightly, looking about the hallway full of students. "Nothing," she said finally. "We're going to do nothing."

****

The tables had been pushed to the sides of the cafeteria with their chairs tucked under them on the side facing the wall, leaving the middle of the room empty for dancing. The smell of fresh rolls and roasted chicken, food only served for Twenty-first Ceremonies, wafted through the room and into the ceiling. Lights were strung along the top beams of the cafeteria, and Carah forgot quickly the weird conversation she had just had with Emelie. Instead, she reveled in the magnificent splendor of the transformed room. She heard her brother's voice in her head remind her that the only real decorations in the room were the lights and the table arrangement, but she blocked him out. Carter was not one for parties, so his criticisms were a mute point to her.

People had already filed in before Carah did, so she caught up with some of her friends who had gotten lost in the crowd ahead of her. With a hug to Lylac and Restra, who seemed joined at the hip lately, she went off to look for her siblings. Her search was cut short, however, when the doors opened at the other end of the cafeteria to reveal Audriel standing alone, still dressed in her angelic white gown. She did not look anxious anymore. Instead, she had this dazed look in her eye, as if she was not really present at all. Her disoriented expression only lasted until the room broke out into a roar of applause and cheers, which earned it a small smile from her. Carah, joining in the clapping, laughed when she could see Audriel's cheeks tinge pink in a blush.