4522 {The Number Series}

6

        The next morning I followed the procedures with everyone else, that is until inspection when our Officer pulled myself and Archer from the breakfast line. We were taken to a room, much like the one from the day before, but instead of a grey cubes it had other things like targets and some kind of puzzles sitting around. Others in the group were already sitting at the table and I couldn't help but notice that a few were missin including the red headed boy who had gone first and the burnett that had gone after him for the maze. They didn't make the cut.

        Archer and I joined the others silently. A few Officers brought over food and set it around for us. It didn't look like what we usually ate. Instead of the food being in sections it sat on one big circle together; it was touching. Not to mention everything tasted richer but looked less attractive to the eye. I noticed a few students were looking at their plates like they had no idea what to do. Their food was touching and they didn't know if that was alright. They didn't know what to eat first. I took a bite of something creamy as I waited for them to do the same. They didn't. Our raven haired Officer came over and asked them to please leave and go to breakfast.

        Everything, I realized, was a test. Even the way we ate reflected something about us that none of us understood yet. Archer watched as two girls, one with dark hair and one with a light brown, walked out with a boy with green eyes.

        Archer ate everything in order but didn't mind that they were all touching while I shoved whatever I wanted in whenever I wanted. The Officer watched me and so did many of the others.

        "How does it taste," Archer asked. "I mean, all mixed together like that."

        "Wonderful," I answered. "It's different."

        "Different." He let the word play on his lips. It was a word I had read out one of my books.He didn't fully understand what it meant, and neither did I, but you could feel the power behind it.

        Different.

        I watched as he too a bite of the creamy stuff and then shoved his fork into the next thing on his plate. He hesitated for only a second before trusting my word and taking a bite. He knodded his head with apprciation.

        "You're right," he smiled.

*

*

        We sat patently for the Officer to tell us what we were doing in the white room, filled with targets and puzzles, after breakfast. None of us spoke. Archer and I kept sharing looks of questioning but that was the most cominication in the room as far as I could tell. It felt like we were sitting there for hours and the Officer still didn't say anything. I was become restless with every passing minute in the silence.

        "What are we doing here?" I blurted. The Officer turned around suddenly with a wide smile and his dark eyes focusing on me.

        "Starting a fire."

        "A fire?" Archer glanced around at the things in the room. There was nothing to start a fire with.

        "Let's begin," the Officer said, moving swiftly from his seat and motioning for us to follow. We stood and followed him to a table with four chairs on each side. In the center sat four colorful cubes made of squares; each square was a different color.

        "What is this thing?" A guy said with dakr skin and dark eyes.

        "A puzzle," the Officer explained.

        "I don't understand," said a girl with green eyes and blonde hair.

        "You have to solve to get all of the colors to match up on all of the sides. It's called a Rubik's cube."