Taking Off

Chapter 8

The group of thirteen – twelve students and one Figg – stepped into the gazebo at a beautiful garden and each took a seat. Tia and Elijah sat beside one another, begrudgingly. Aladdin and the girl captain from his school, Vanessa, sat beside them. Figg stood in the middle of the gazebo.

"As I said, this will be an introductory day. What we'll be doing first is going around the circle and we'll have each school introduce themselves and where they come from. We'll start at this side and go clockwise," Figg said and gestured for the first pair to speak up.

Elijah and Tia's turn came quickly, and neither was really looking forward to it. Having to represent their school in a good light wasn't going to be easy for them.

"Hi. I'm Tia Anderson," Tia began, then nudged Elijah in the rib.

"Ouch!" he said, but quickly recovered. "Oh, and I'm Elijah Jones," he added, with his ever-infuriating smile.

"We're the school captains of Westminster," Tia said, turning from him. "And it's great to be here," she added, beaming.

"Thank you very much and welcome," Figg said and began the applause that followed each pair's introduction. Once all the groups had introduced themselves very quickly and the final applause had died down, she spoke up again.

"Okay that was great. Now, we're going to play a little game. I'm going to give you a number – either one or two. The 'ones' will sit on this side of the room and the 'twos' will sit on this side," she began, signalling the two sides. She then went on to give them each a number. Tia was a 'one' whilst Elijah was a 'two.' Lucky for Tia, she'd already met another who was also a 'one' – Aladdin. Elijah sat beside Vanessa, a fellow 'two', but he wasn't as thrilled. The girl seemed mean. "That was so I could get you away from your partner because you all already know the person you came with," Figg explained. Both Tia and Elijah laughed to themselves. Neither knew the other better than they knew anybody else in that gazebo and they didn't plan on getting to know each other, either. "What I want you to do is turn to the person sitting beside you and tell them three interesting or strange things about you. The other person will do the same. Then, we'll all come together, and each person will tell the whole group the three things about their partner. Understand?" she asked. Everyone nodded. "Excellent. Now, go!"

Tia turned to Aladdin. Elijah turned to Vanessa.

"Three interesting – or strange – things about me. Hmmm," Tia mumbled.

"I'm sure it's not that hard," Aladdin said, smiling.

"Uh, okay. I'll just say the first three things that come to mind. Number one: I have an almost-unhealthy obsession with Disney," she began, receiving quite a laugh from Aladdin. "Number two: I'd love to become a Broadway star. My dream role would be Elpheba in Wicked." He smiled big at that. "And finally, number three: I'm afraid of guns," she finished. "Not that exciting, I know."

"Much more exciting than mine. But what do you mean you're afraid of guns? The sound or the look?" he asked.

"Oh, I just get really nervous when there's a gun around. I hate them," she explained.

"Totally understandable," he agreed.

"Okay, now your turn," she reminded.

"Oh right. Okay, number one: I want to work at the Pixar or Disney studios someday. Number two: my guilty pleasure TV show is TOWIE," he admitted, making her laugh very loudly. "And number three: I'm afraid of snails," he concluded.

"Snails? Really?" she asked. "Why?"

"I don't know. They just disgust me to the point of terror," he clarified. "Plus, there was this one time I was running late for school, so I rushed out of my house and stepped on a giant snail. That traumatised me, I think," he added.