I didn’t go back to my own cabin. Instead, I went directly to Donavon’s. I raised my hand to knock just as the door opened.

“Hey, you.” Donavon smiled as he leaned down to kiss me softly. “You smell like the ocean.” He buried his face in my mass of dark brown curls and inhaled deeply.

“Henri took me out to the beach after we roamed around Washington.” I smiled.

“You okay?” Donavon had seen my sand collection. It was one of the few things Mac had managed to rescue from the hotel room where he found me. He’d placed the jar on the bedside table in my bedroom before I’d arrived at his home that first day.

“Yeah, I’m good,” I replied honestly. “You look nice,” I commented as I pulled back from his embrace, really looking at him for the first time.

“You think? Would you come home with me if you met me at a bar?” he teased.

“Absolutely. But if you stay here, you don’t even have to spend money for me to go home with you,” I teased.

“Tomorrow, I’m all yours. Tonight, I promised Harris and Arden a little team bonding.”

“I see.” Now it was my turn to be irritated.

“Are you mad?”

“No, of course not,” I lied.

“You’re lying,” he accused.

“I’m not mad. I just don’t like that I have to stay here while you get to go have fun.” I tried to smile.

“You hate going out with groups of people anyway,” he reasoned.

“But I like being with you.” My voice was just short of a whine.

“And I love being with you,” he said softly. “And all day tomorrow that’s what I plan to do, okay?”

“Okay,” I whispered.

“Don’t worry, Tal. I’ll make sure he behaves,” Harris said, sticking his sandy blonde head out through the bathroom door.

“I’m not worried, Harris,” I said, pulling myself together.

“Good, ‘cause we have to go. Come on, Donavon, kiss her goodbye so we can leave.”

“Start walking, Harris. I’ll catch up.”

Harris squeezed my arm as he walked by, and I gave him a nod goodbye.

“I love you.” Donavon said as he bent down to kiss me again.

“I know.”

I headed back to my cabin in a far worse mood than when I’d left that morning. The bottom of my dress was still damp from the ocean, so the first thing I needed to do was change. With Donavon gone, I didn’t really have any friends around, so there wouldn’t be any messages on my Communicator.

Our Communicators were actually portable, but I never took mine anywhere, since no one besides Donavon and Mac ever called. Unlike my dorm room at School, that was equipped with all of the latest technology TOXIC had to offer, the cabins at Elite Headquarters were barebones. The idea was that, as Hunters, we spent a lot of time in less-than-ideal situations, and we needed to be accustomed to boredom.

As I crossed Hunters Village, I noticed a tall, gangly girl with unnaturally bright red hair coming out of the woods. Her eyes were large and a luminous shade of green. Her oversized yellow plastic glasses gave her a bug-eyed appearance. The Agency performs corrective eye surgery on all students, so I knew the glasses were purely decorative.

“Hi!” she greeted me with an enthusiastic wave.

I glanced around, unsure if she was actually speaking to me. I was the only other person in the vicinity. I returned her wave uneasily and waited for her to get closer.

“I’m Penelope. Well, Penny, actually. Everybody calls me Penny,” she said, sounding a little out of breath.

“Talia,” I replied cautiously, not sure what to make of her.

“You’re a pledge, right? A Hunter pledge?”

“Um, yeah.” Obviously, I thought. I live in Hunters Village. Be nice, I chastised myself. She was just trying to be friendly.

“Cool. I’m a Crypto pledge. I know most of the operatives are in the city tonight and a bunch of us pledges were going to get together and hang out.”

“Cool,” I replied, for lack of something better to say.

“You want to come?” she asked, her eyes were like big green saucers as she looked at me expectantly.

I started to shake my head and tell her thanks, but no thanks, when instead I said, “Sure,” before I could stop myself.

“Great! The others are already down by the lake starting a bonfire. I’ll wait if you want to get some warmer clothes?” she suggested, scrutinizing my wet dress.

I gave her a small smile. Still unsure what made me agree to this, I led her to my cabin. Donavon was out with his friends having fun, probably getting drunk, so I should enjoy myself, too.

Penny followed me through the doorway and made herself at home on my bed while I searched for something to wear. I grabbed a gray sweater, jeans, and a pair of beat-up tennis shoes and ducked in the bathroom to change.

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“Ready?” Penny asked brightly when I emerged.

“Sure.” I smiled tentatively.

Penny kept up a constant stream of chatter as we wound through the woods on an unlit dirt path. I led the way down to the lake since my eyesight was inevitably better than Penny’s—on account of all the sensory training I’d done.

The flames and distinct aroma of campfire greeted me before we made it to the lake. I could hear the low hum of voices, but the people were still too far away to make out exactly what they were saying. Once we drew closer, I saw a strange mix of pledges huddled around the blaze.

Only two groups of pledges were housed at Elite Headquarters, the Hunters and Cryptos. The two couldn’t be more different. Every talent was classified as extremely-low, low, mid-range, high, extremely-high, or elite. The only thing Hunters and Cryptos had in common was that they both required a talent ranking of extremely-high or elite. The Hunters mostly had physical abilities, trained in combat and weapons, and were frequently Morphers. Cryptos, or Brains, were all mental and most possessed higher reasoning.

There were fifteen Hunter pledges at Headquarters, including myself. I had no idea how many Brain pledges there were, but about twenty were sitting around the fire. I followed Penny to an empty blanket set up near the fire and took a seat.

“No Donavon tonight, Talia?” quipped a short, stocky Hunter pledge named Laris. He handed me a bottle filled with pink, fruity-smelling alcohol, similar to the one he was drinking.

“Not tonight. He’s in the city,” I replied thinly. I accepted the drink and took a nervous sip. I had never been a fan of Laris, and I knew for a fact that the feeling was mutual. He was antagonistic and combative, which made our personalities incompatible.

“Donavon McDonough?” Penny asked excitedly.

“Um, yup,” I took another sip of my too-sweet drink.

“Are you friends with him?” Penny’s eyes grew even larger. I wouldn’t have thought it possible.

“More than friends,” Laris interjected suggestively. I shot him a nasty glare.

“Oh. My. God. Are you dating the Director’s son?” Penny was so delighted she was bouncing, splashing her own drink down her shirt, and not noticing.

“Yeah, sorta,” I mumbled.

Most of the pledges sitting around us were now listening to our conversation. I was starting to feel uncomfortable, and I wanted to direct the attention elsewhere. I didn’t actually know many of the people around the fire, so I picked the one person I did know—Laris. I concentrated my thoughts in his direction and willed him to stand up and start dancing. Given more time, I might have thought of something more original, but I panicked. Thankfully, my plan worked, and everybody turned their attention to Laris. He looked a little confused but continued gyrating to music that was only playing in his head, eating up the attention. I nervously sipped my drink.

“So, how do you like it here? Isn’t it so much better than being at School?” Penny asked, returning her attention to me.

“Yeah, it’s loads better than being at School.” I smiled at her. I took another sip of my drink. “The food here is so much better,” I elaborated, trying to keep up my end of the conversation.

“Totally! And the apartments are more techie,” she exclaimed.

“You’re so lucky. We’re stuck in those old-fashioned cabins,” I lamented. I took another sip, already starting to feel a little buzzed.

“Oh, right! You totally have to come see my room. You’ll love it! I have all these cool gadgets and stuff. Some I haven’t even figured out yet, but I’m sure I will. Maybe you could help? I mean, you’ll be using some of it once you, like, start going on hunts and stuff.”

I wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol, or if Penny was always like this. I took another sip of my drink, enjoying the buzz.

“Thanks, that would be really cool.” That was definitely the alcohol in me talking. I’d never gone out of my way before to make friends. In fact, Donavon was the only real friend that I had. So, my sitting here with Penny and agreeing to hang out again was next to a miracle. The even bigger miracle—I was actually enjoying myself. Something about Penny put me at ease. She was genuinely nice, and her friendly, outgoing personality seemed to rub off on me in a way nobody else’s ever had. I found myself laughing, and even gossiping, with the other pledges.

“I heard your Team Cap got you permission to go into the city today,” said Jon, another Hunter pledge, as I was on my second—maybe third?— drink.

Oh, great, I thought. I was actually enjoying hanging out with these people and now they were going to think the worst of me.

“Um, yeah, but you know, it was just for the day. Mac said I couldn’t stay the night,” I mumbled. I realized my mistake immediately. I always referred to the Director as Mac, but I was one of the few people—and definitely the only pledge—that did.

“What’s D.C. like?” Jon asked.

“It was cool. I didn’t get to see any of the bars or anything. We just went shopping.” I tried to downplay it.

“You’re so lucky. I’m from Johnson City, Tennessee and I’ve never been anywhere bigger than that. I asked my Cap if I could go with them, and he said no way,” Jon drawled in a thick Southern accent.

“Henri’s pretty cool about stuff,” I muttered, wanting to change the topic.

“I know. My older brother knew him in school, and I had hoped I would get assigned to his team when I got here. Guess you’re the lucky one.”

I smiled and nodded.

“No, she’s lucky ‘cause she shares a cabin with Erikson,” a blonde girl, whose name I couldn’t remember, slurred. I laughed a little too loudly.

“Does he sleep naked?” another girl inquired.

“Nope,” I giggled. “But he does sleep without a shirt,” I added, happy that the topic had changed to something else besides my relationship with Mac.

“Oh. My. God!” Penny shrieked. “I’m totally jealous.”

Discussions of Erik dominated the conversation for several more minutes until the boys in the group couldn’t handle it any longer. Thankfully, they steered the discussion towards somebody I didn’t know.

The rest of the evening went by in a blur. I spent most of the time talking to Penny, but I also chatted with Laris and a couple of the other Hunter pledges that I knew from School. I don’t remember exactly how many of the fruity pink drinks I had. Since I had never had alcohol before in my life, I knew it was too many, but I didn’t care. I was really having a good time.

Before I knew it, somebody announced that we needed to get back before curfew. Penny, my new best friend, and I giggled as we made our way back up the dirt path, holding on to each other to keep from falling down. Once we reached the clearing with my cabin, I began tiptoeing, which was not easy since my balance was already off-kilter. Penny and I said our goodbyes, and I watched her skip off with a group of Crypto pledges. I reached the door to my cabin and used my mind to shove it open, since I wasn’t feeling coordinated enough to turn the knob. I pushed it a little too hard and the door flung open with a bang. I nearly collapsed in a fit of giggles.

I tried to be quiet as I walked in, but every step I took caused the floorboards to creak. Remembering the door, I used my mind to close it behind me. It banged shut again, much more forcefully than I’d intended. I cringed. Then I tripped over nothing, probably my own feet, and fell over giggling, crawling the rest of the way to my bed. I heaved myself up into my bed, falling back onto my pillows with a sigh of relief. The excursion across the room had left me exhausted. I closed my eyes and had almost succumbed to the alcohol-induced slumber, when I felt somebody playing with my shoes.

“Henri? I’m sorry. Did I miss curfew?” I mumbled.

“No, you didn’t.” The voice didn’t belong to Henri.

The person was trying to take my shoes off, but his touch tickled. I started giggling again.

“Relax, Tal. Let me take your shoes off.”

A hand firmly gripped my ankle, and I finally felt my shoes slide off my feet. I heard footsteps and then water running in the bathroom. A quilt was pulled up around my shoulders. I felt a hand pushing down on the bed as my savior knelt beside me. I pried my eyes open and saw beautiful turquoise eyes staring back at me.

“There’s water right here on your nightstand,” Erik said. “Just yell if you need anything.”

“Your eyes are the same color as the Tyrrhenian Sea,” I mumbled.

Erik laughed softly.

“Maybe one day I’ll see if that’s true,” he whispered.

I smiled. “Mmmm. It’s pretty there.”

“Close your eyes and go to sleep, Tal.”

“That sounds like a good idea.”

“Night, Tal.”

“Night, Erik.”