CHANCE

Chapter 7: Information and a drop of blood

ADIRA

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I used all the rage I was filled with for that one punch I was aiming for under her chin with complete concentration. I used every bit of energy for that one brisk movement. Just when I thought my knuckles were going to meet her jaw she cought my wrist. Her angery face had softened into a side smile.

"I'm not going to fight a scrubb," my opponent laughed releasing my arm.

"Why not, You already threw the first punch! Am I not big enough competition!?" I said embarrassed and still angry.

Deep down I was kinda glad she didn't want to fight me. I knew if we did have a full on fight I would be totally crushed, I mean this girls from Germany.

"I like your confidence, I'm Casey Steiner." She said with her hand out for me to shake.

"Adira Laurylsen." I replied shaking her hand firmly.

"Like Hunter Laurylsen?!" Casey asked suprised.

I nodded yes.

"So I guess your not an American then," she said to herself. "Well, I'm expect alot from a Laurylsen," she said trying to scare me.

"You won't see anything but the best." I said trying not to show how worried I was.

When she walked away I noticed there were people gathered all around us who were ready to see a fight, I just walked the opposite way awkwardly.

While I walked alone I thought about what had just happened, and how I could meet her standards. I mean, I'm not the best, actually quite far from it to be honest. But my 19 year old brother is superior in everything he does. He's one of those above a 4.0 grade average and a captain in every sports team. Also he's good looking, sociable and honorable. So I'm doomed, just an average kid not very smart, and I can't even  spell very well. I mean it's not like I'm a failure I can draw, paint, swim and can kinda run. But that wasn't gunna help much in this situation..... so I have a lot of work ahead of me.

I decided to stop having a pitty party and venture off to where I wanted to go to in the first place, that board Josh discribed to me. There were a lot of people in this room some where playing games, sitting in silence,others flirting but a large majority crying and some were comforting. Seeing this brought a lot of emotions I really didn't want to be feeling at that moment. But then I saw two boys kicking around a soccer ball I couldn't help but think of the times when my dad and I would just talk while kicking around a soccer ball. My eyes stung and my vision became blurry with tears. I failed to keep my mind focused, everthing around me seemed to be a memory to remind me of things I try to forget. I tear barely left my face when a dark haired boy came up to me.

"Hey.....are you ok?" he had a rough voice but it was gentle.

I quickly wiped the tear off my cheek with my hand and my face went red, I was extremly embarrassed. I hate to cry, I don't want to be look weak (especially in front of a guy) or feel like I've gone soft. I'm tough I've been through a lot but I'm fine...I'll be ok.

"Y-yea, I'm fine." I said looking at the ground.

"Ok, If I were you I would get that cut on your face looked at it looks pretty deep." He said in a perfect voice.

I had forgotten all about the cut, I touched it, the blood wasn't even all dry yet and it ran to the middle of my jaw. It did sting pretty bad but I didn't really care, I was almost proud of it. I'm a weird kid ok... I finally looked up to the disappointment that the cute boy was walking away. I was tempted to yell 'wait' or sprint after him but I was too embarrassed to do anything I just watched the tall dark hair boy in the grey hoodie walk away.

After a short walk and all these distractions and encounters I finally got to the board. It was a large world map, all the places we have been to were in yellow, places where we haven't been yet in orange with a grey striped pattern on it. The board flipped rapidly through names of the teens they picked up, the country, city, age, and race was also shown. The youngest age I saw was 12 the oldest 21 most of the kids were 17 though, the number of people was 898 the last time I looked at it. I was suprised to see that I was in South America and have already been to to most of Europe and Asia. Russia was in grey with a skull on it, the word Hostile was written across it's picture. I don't blame them, Russia is the center of the war the whole world was apart of so I could imagine the death rate there and the odds of getting out.

"Well, I got the information I was looking for, now what," I wondered aloud.

I sat looking at the names of people for what seemed forever. I had nothing to do I was tired of all the stuff I brought in my back pack the most eventful thing that happened was that Hunter called me to tell me that he was putting my swim bag in his room( in the ship, he gets his own room beacuse he is in the air force) I hid my cut head in a hood while he explained the theft rates are high on the ship, many of the poorest people signed up for the plan I did, for the same reasons.

Randomly I remebered that when the dark haired boy walked away he went in a long hallway that was guarded so why did he get to go in...? He of course was too far gone when I noticed this. So I decided to go exploring, I had to figure out how to get passed the guards first. I rested my head on my arms and looked at my silver boots. Unexpectedly a drop of the blood from my head landed on my shoe. I had an plan, not a brillient one but it was an idea.