I woke up to the sound of silence. As I tried to get up off the metal bed, it gave a resounding creak as its feeble frame was tested. I ran my hands through my head and brought my bedhead under control as I tried to figure out where the hell I was.

Then the memories of last night came flooding back. Dauntless, trying to run away, the second fight, and what had happened in the sewer A wave of panic swept over me and threatened to bowl me over. The pillow looked inviting, and more sleep would make the panic go away.

I slapped myself before I could get swept away and got up. My ribs felt better than they did last night, at least, but I was still hunched over to stop the worst of the pain.

"That's quite an interesting morning routine. I've heard of slapping yourself to wake yourself up, but that's the first time I've seen it."

I quickly turned my head to see who had spoken. It was the girl from yesterday who the Rotter boss had sent along with us. I had forgotten about her.

In the light of morning, her features were more visible. The light shone on her milk coffee skin, and she had wavy black hair that extended as far as her back with dark brown eyes. Her lips were set in a permanent scowl.

Her scowl deepened as she saw my gaze on her. I cleared my throat and looked away.

"What time is it?"

"Around 10:00 in the morning."

I groaned.

Mr. Gunderson had told me not to ditch, and I had done exactly that. Shame unfurled its sickly-sweet petals in my stomach before being stamped down by the thought that I had intended to go but had been prevented by events outside my control.

One of the people involved in those "events outside my control" looked at my shirtless form and smirked.

"I thought gangsters were supposed to be ripped. I can count all your ribs."

I instinctively turned away from her and searched for my clothes before finding them on a metal chair. I walked past her and put it on, all while feeling her eyes on me.

The girl leapt off her perch on the chair next to my clothes and stretched.

"I tried to wake the other one up, but he refused to budge."

"He was running through the night while carrying me. He probably needed the rest."

"So you're going to be the one to take me to see your supplier, right?"

I tried to sidestep her, but she moved to stop me before I took the first step.

I tried to push her, but she stood rooted in place. "Move aside."

"I don't have time for this."

"You're taking me to see him."

She suddenly stood shell-shocked, like she had just figured something out.

"Are you still in school?"

I mirrored her expression of surprise. "How did you know that?"

"Call it an educated guess."

"I don't think you had much of an education in the sewers, but fair enough. Now move aside."

The girl moved without complaint, going towards the stairs that probably led to the doctor's living quarters.

I kind of felt bad for throwing Red under the bus, but he could handle it. Now that the girl was away from her more hard-hitting friends, her knife wouldn't protect her from his flames. And I had problems of my own to deal with.

I checked a piece of paper and a bottle of pills that the girl had left behind on her seat. Sure enough, they were for me. I took the pills and chewed them thoroughly before swallowing them. After a while, the pain eased, and I was able to stand up without grinding my teeth. I headed to the doorway and burst into a sprint.

■

I managed to get to school before fourth period. However, there was no use in my being there. If I went to class, the teachers would have questions about why I had skipped most of the morning. If I was going to ditch, I was going to do it right.

I ran along the gratefully empty corridors until I reached the "back" of the school building. There, right next to the old storage room, was the door to the roof. It was locked, but a couple of kicks and some fiddling allowed the door to swing open. I pressed the lock back in place and headed up to the roof.

I headed to my usual spot next to the air conditioning vents above the computer lab. I leaned against the wall that separated the ventilation units from the rest of the roof. It was far enough that no one would see me, and the hot air from the vents bounced off the wall, making it pleasantly warm.

I made myself comfortable. I didn't have a watch, but I could still hear the chatter of people as they streamed into the parking lot as lunch started.

The sound of shoes on loose gravel made me open my eyes and look up. A screen of curly red hair greeted me. Attached to the hair was my sort of friend, Amy Sawyer.

She smiled and plopped down next to me, pulled a wrapped sandwich out of her bag, and handed it to me. I unwrapped it and took a large bite before making loud chewing noises.

"So, you going to tell me why you ditched?"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

I abruptly stopped chewing and instinctively moved a hand over to my ribs. There were so many reasons why, but all of them would probably make her call the police or stay an inch away from me.

"I just felt like it."

She pouted. "You told me that you would tell me the next time you ditched!"

I took another bite of the sandwich and swallowed. "Tell me, using what, telepathy? I don't exactly have a phone, you know."

"You could have met me on the roof. I was waiting for you yesterday."

I sighed. I knew she meant well, but we weren't exactly traditional friends. Even the way we met was unreal.

It was easy to forget you had someone when you felt alone, even if that someone was a quasi-friend. One of the reasons that I forgot as often as I did was probably because the one thing we had in common wasn't pleasant either.

"I kind of forgot you were up here."

She pouted even more at that, but I had something to placate her.

So I told her about the wards and the event. about how I was going to be speaking at it and how Mr. Gunderson had promised he would try his best to stop people from trying to replace me.

At the end of it all, she was smiling. Others might have been jealous, but she just flashed me a wide grin and playfully punched me on the arm.

"I'll let you off the hook this time. But man, you really picked a bad day to ditch. It's been a very busy day."

"Did you finally punch Addison or something?"

She scoffed. "As if. Today's transfer day."

Ah. I'd forgotten that it was today. Every school term, there was one day on which all the transfer and scholarship students would get inducted into the student body. All the transfers from the Labourn Academy in the north were rich, spoiled brats who had transferred here either because of disciplinary issues or just because they wanted a more corrupt school they could pay their way through.

The scholarship students were more like me-people who were homeschooled who got offered scholarships at random for the "betterment of society." They meshed well with the other students, and since most people in the school were from the South, they would find a friend group soon enough.

"We got a couple of students who are mostly in the same classes as us."

"Anyone new?"

"Two Labourn bitches. Elizabeth something, and another girl. One was cold, and the other tried to be cutesy. made me want to hurl. They'll fit right in with Addison."

She continued her small rant, and I allowed my mind to wander. It was like this every year. People who came here from the north always acted like they had something to prove, like they were gracing us with their presence. Owen, Addison, Ryan—the list went on and on.

Amy finished her rant.

"What a bitch, right?"

I sagely nodded.

"We got two more kids. A girl who wore a lot of pink, and an Asian kid who wore a bunch of red."

I shook my head and sighed again. "The last thing the school needs is more crewboys."

"What boys?"

It was in moments like this that I was reminded that Amy was from middle-class neighbourhoods in the North and was very sheltered.

"Crewboys. It's slang for kids who want to join gangs. All they do right now is probably run errands, so we call them crewboys to make fun of them."

"So if I call one of them a crewboy, they'll get mad?"

"Please don't do that."

The conversation tapered off, and Amy finally turned her attention to her sandwich. I looked at the clouds and tried to figure out a way to tell the time.

Amy noticed me staring at the clouds and began to fiddle with her watch. After some one-handed fiddling, she finally got it off.

"I can't stand you squinting at the sun. Here."

She handed me her watch.

I tried to give it back, but she waved me off.

"Isn't your mom going to flip if she finds out you gave your watch away?"

"I'll hide my wrists under my sleeves. It'll be fine."

She brushed crumbs off her stomach and sprung up.

"Well then, I'm off to go back to class. Make sure to get to that meeting!"

I waved her off as she made her way to the stairs. And no matter how much I fought, I couldn't keep the small smile off my face whenever I saw the watch.

■

I slunk down the stairs after school ended, heading to one of the larger classrooms. People were already streaming into the classroom. I slipped in and awkwardly leaned against the wall while they brought in extra chairs from the other classrooms.

A girl peeled off from one of the larger groups and headed toward me.

I continued to cling to the wall as she approached, hating myself for not having a phone I could focus on.

She resolutely made her way toward me and began to speak.

"You're Nathan, right? Nathan Avery?"

"Yeah."

If my one-word answer disturbed the girl, she didn't show it.

"This meeting isn't for the general student body. It's for the clubs and the student council, but you must have missed the announcement because you weren't in class."

Ah, the veiled insults. They didn't bother me much, but I still couldn't appear weak if I was going to stay here.

"I'm participating in the event."

The girl seemed annoyed now. Good.

"This meeting isn't open to the volunteers, either."

I smirked. "I'm actually the keynote speaker for the event."

The girl's mouth moved up and down without any sound. I moved past her to the now-assembled chairs and took a seat in the last row. The girl's friends began to move toward me, but by then, the student council president had gotten hold of a microphone, and someone had set up one of those portable speakers.

"Settle down everyone; we don't have much time!"

The girl's friends shot me some stink eyes before settling down a couple of rows in front of me. A freckled blonde and her smaller redhead friend took a seat next to me.

The president, whose name was Ren or something, began.

"Good evening, everyone, and thanks for staying here after school hours so we could have this meeting. We have a lot of things to discuss, and I would like to start with one of the bigger announcements."

"There have been several rumours and stories circulating around the school for the past day or so, and I'm glad to say that not all of them were unfounded. The Wards are attending the annual Lawrence Walters Remembrance Gala as the honorees."

A cheer went up at that, followed by more cheers and clapping. I joined in after a while to be polite and stopped after my ribs complained. Up on the stage, someone handed the president a piece of paper.

"Since the Wards are a well-known junior hero team, we have decided to sell tickets to the event instead of the usual free admission. The rate is different for students and outsiders, however, and one student only gets one ticket with their name on it. You can pay more money for an add-on at the outsider rate."

"Now, we'll be reading the names of the people who are in charge of different tasks at the event. All of these decisions are final and have been discussed with the respective club presidents. If your name is called, please join me in the front of the room."

"Sara Barnes of the Event Planning Committee will be responsible for refreshments..."

I zoned out after a while of hearing her recite more names. A steady stream of clapping and cheers followed her words as people saw their friends stand next to the president.

"Nathan Avery will be the keynote speaker."

The clapping and cheers quickly died down. People turned to look at me, and I wanted to disappear into my hoodie, but I couldn't. I walked up to the president on shaky knees, but I hid it well.

Confused chatter broke out in the room. The president tried to quiet it, but it was useless.

"I would like to remind everyone that Mr. Gunderson is responsible for picking his replacement this year. However, since this is a high-profile event, the principal might have a say in this."

I found my way to the corner of the room, and the crowd in the front of the room parted for me.

The meeting ended without much fanfare after that, but people still shot me a lot of dirty looks.

After the meeting ended, I was the last person to leave the room, late after waiting for the sharks circling me to get bored by pretending to be asleep.

I rounded the corner and saw the president of the student council and the president of the journalism club talking. Curious, I leaned in to hear better.

"...The Wards are going to be in classroom 4b for an interview. Want to come along with me to see them?"

I smiled. Maybe it was good that I came out of the meeting room late. It was time to meet Dauntless again.