Gift Academy (Book One in the Gifted Series)

Chapter Fifteen

Wesley

"Do we have everything we need?" Jake asks me. I nod my head and we start for the parking lot.

"Wait," Jake tells me, grabbing my arm. I look back at him and he's looking towards the woods. I look in the direction he's looking in and see what has him confused.

"Who is that?" I ask him. He's a tall guy with dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. I've never seen him here before.

"I don't know," Jake answers, shaking his head. We both cautiously walk up to the mysterious guy.

"Hey!" I call out to him. He looks up and glares at Jake and I.

"Who are you?" I question him. And just like that, he thrusts his palm out towards us and Jake and I go flying backwards from a gust of strong wind.

I growl and stand on my feet, only to be automatically picked from the ground, the wind swirling below my feet. I'm about to get thrown to the side of Gift Academy until I'm dropped from ten feet above the ground. I land on my back and groan in pain. I look up and see Jake battling the stranger. The stranger picks himself up off the ground using the wind. Jake keeps trying to hit him with water but he just keeps dodging, so I jump to my feet and blast him with a force of strong wind. He glares at me, and before I know it, there's a thick vine breaking through the dirt and wrapping itself around me, holding my arms down. I struggle against it, but the more I struggle, the tighter it gets.

I look up at the battle and see the stranger holding one hand towards me and another hand focused on Jake. My eyes widen in fear as I realize why I've never seen him here before.

He's an Extra.

Hailey

Claire and I sneak into Extra Academy, being carefully directed by Nick. Fay told us to find Emily, Mike, and Liam, who she and Gina explained to us when they told us about their dreams. Nick said that they're all in one dorm room, discussing something that he can't hear, since there aren't any speakers on the cameras. He also told us that the dorm number is 163.

We sneak up the stairs to the dorm rooms. We scan each door for Room 163.

"Here," Claire whispers to me, pointing to a dark wooden door that has the numbers '163' on it. My breathing starts to quicken. I quietly place my ear onto the door, hoping to be able to hear them.

"The new strategy is a mess, Emily. We have to do something about it," a guy's voice calls from the other side of the door. God I would kill for X-Ray vision right now.

"Don't you think I know that Mike? Why do you think I've been working every minute of every day trying to come up with a new one?" Emily yells back. There's silence until a different guys voice speaks up, a bit higher than Mikes. I know that that's Liam.

"What if we try to recruit more Gifted? It'll give us a bigger advantage," Liam suggests, and I can tell that he's a bit shyer than the other two.

"No. It's been about two or three months since we recruited the first one and all we've got are schedules and names of the Gifted," Emily growls.

"We also got their Gifts and pictures, so we know what to use against them if we ever fight them," Mike adds in.

"When we fight them, Mike. And sure, we have that, but what else? We're almost out of bombs, we don't have any weapons, and there's tons more of them than there are of us," Emily explains.

"Why can't we just bomb the whole academy?" Liam asks.

"Because we're trying to get that academy, Liam," Emily barks at Liam.

"How about we send more people there? We already got Ethan, and he's great," Mike suggests.

"We can't afford to lose anyone, Mike. We have to get more of them on our side. We've already lost the element of surprise, we can't lose anything else," Emily replies, obviously trying to remain calm.

"Okay, but one more person will do the trick. We'll take them, bring them over here, and force them to join us. Ethan may be strong and powerful, but he can't get many of them," Mike informs Emily. I hear Emily sigh.

"What's Ethan patrolling now?" Emily asks.

"Outside the academy, looking for any of the Gifted who may be by themselves before he goes inside," Mike answers, and that's when it hits me.

Jake and Wesley are going to go outside to get stuff from outside the academy. I bet they're still outside now.

I quickly grab Claire's wrist and pull her into a nearby supply closet. She looks at me like I'm stupid.

"What was that for? We finally figure something out and you pull me in here?" She whisper-shouts to me.

"Jake and Wesley are outside. They may be getting attacked as we speak. I have to warn Nick," I quickly tell Claire, still making sure to keep my voice down. I put my phone to my ear and start to speak.

"Nick? Are you there?" I ask, sounding frantic and in a rush.

"Hailey? Yeah, we're here. What's wrong? Did you find anything out?" Nick questions me.

"A little too much for my taste, but yes, I did. They sent an Extra to our academy, and he's outside, planning on kidnapping any Gifted he comes across. His name is Ethan," I explain to him hurriedly.

"Okay, great. We'll catch him, but we have to be quiet," Nick responds.

"No, don't be quiet, be quick. Jake and Wesley are out there, and who knows what's happening to them right now?" I reply, my breathing quickening and my heart racing a million miles an hour. Claire puts her hand on my shoulder to try to calm me down.

"Oh god," Nick mutters. "Okay, we'll go now. Gina will stay with you guys to tell you where to go, okay?" Nick asks me.

"Okay, but hurry," I tell him. Before I know it, there's footsteps pounding on the other side of the line and a door being slammed shut.

"Okay, Hailey. Where are you guys right now? I don't see you," Gina asks us in a 'trying-to-be-calm' voice.

"In a closet in the hallway. Is it clear?" I ask her.

"Yeah, go ahead," she answers after a moment. I quietly slip out of the closet and look both ways down the hallway, just in case. When I signal that it's clear to Claire, we both quietly tip-toe to dorm 163 again, placing our ears on the door to listen in.

"-sending in Beatrice. She's one of the best fighters we have," I hear Emily say.

"Okay, great. We'll see you tomorrow, Emily," Mike replies. There are footsteps heading towards the door, closer to Claire and I.

"Goodnight, Emily," is the last thing we hear until Claire and I rush back into the supply closet. I breathe heavily as Emily passes the closet and there's the sound of a door opening and closing again. But my breathing isn't quickening by the second and my heart isn't racing like a car on a Nascar race because we were almost caught.

It's the fear of what might be happening to my two best friends at this very moment.