Guardians of Plaxas

Chapter the Seventh: Opal

"Hey. Hey."

I yawn and stretch, my arms hitting something solid. I jump awake to see Bella leaning over my bed, her expression mischievous. "Hey, do you wanna go explore?" she asks.

I look at her nervously. "Like, how?"

She shrugs. "We just look around the school, and around the city. We discover things!"

I groan, mashing my pillow over my head. "Why don't you just ask Kaitlynn?"

Bella laughs quietly, pulling the pillow off my head. "You know Kaitlynn! She'd freak if I asked her. She's a goody goody,"

I sit up straight. "Who's to say that I'm not?" I ask.

She shrugs. "Well, you're just not as goody goody as Kaitlynn is. Come on! It'll be fun! And if someone discovers us, we can just tell them that we got lost on the way to the bathroom,"

I sigh. "Okay, I'll come. Where are we going to explore?"

"Well, we could explore down the technology wing of the school. The teachers made it sound like we shouldn't be down there,"

I hop out of bed reluctantly, wondering how I made friends with someone like Bella. But I follow her as we make our way out of our dorm room.

The school is really dark in the night, and pretty creepy, too. The lights that shine down into the hallways create strange shadows, and the wooden boards creak strangely. Once, the shadow of a person is projected onto the wall and Bella and I jump, until we realize that it's just a grandfather clock.

When we reach the technology wing, there's lots of movement. I see robots unloading packages as they go by on tracks built onto the floor as we creep past a window. In another room, Bella spots two grown men playing video games, but their energy points at the end of each level are turned into real energy for the school to use.

In the third room that we pass by, a woman and a man are watching huge screens where parts of the trials are shown. But the light is strange on the screen, and each person seems to have an aura around them, some stronger than others.

As we begin to move on from watching through the window of this room, I spot the trial from our town flash onto the screen. They're showing the physical section.

I tug on Bella's arm. "Wait," I whisper.

We watch as people walk onto the field. Bella's in the first group, with Ruby. The two take off around the track as more and more groups begin to join them outside. I'm surprised to see that Bella and Ruby are almost neck to neck--I always thought of Ruby as way faster than an average thirteen year old girl.

My group of testers comes out onto the field, and Bella gasps softly.

"She looks exactly like you!" she exclaims, slightly loudly. It's a good thing that the glass seems to be sound-proof.

"Yeah," I say. "She's my identical twin," I almost slip up and say that that is me, but I catch myself at the last moment.

I watch myself round the track. My aura seems slightly weak, while others are strong. I see that Bella, who's now finished, has a larger aura that seems to throb with energy. Ruby's aura, on the other hand, is about the same as mine.

When I'm done with laps, I head over to Ruby. As I approach her, I see that my aura is getting bigger and bigger, jumping with light. Ruby's begins to do the same.

The people inside the room mutter about this, but we can't hear them because of sound proof glass.

And then, a hand clamps down on my shoulder, and a voice speaks.

"Well well well. What do we have here?"