Destia Jayden February 23rd,20XX

There was an imperceptible moment where something in the room changed. I couldn’t have pinned it if I tried because it left as suddenly as it came. Eva’s small body suddenly slumped over in her chair, and Archer’s eyes widened in panic. His hands floated around his younger sister’s shoulders as he instinctively reached out to pull her into a hug, but his face suddenly hardened and after he made sure she wouldn’t thump onto the floor, quickly returned his arms to his side. He turned to Mr. Harvey, who trudged to the front of the and anxiously waited for him to complete his trip.

The man had gotten up as soon as the last presentation had ended, but his trip to the front of the room seemed to last forever.

At first, I thought it was just Archer being worried about what he would present, and became somewhat bitter.

It wasn’t like I didn’t like the options they had presented for me, in fact, the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea that Ms. Bevan had proposed. However, the difference between their plans for me and the plans they had proposed for the twins and Archer was clear.

Average.

Was what the first lady had called me, and although Joyce had told her to be kinder, she hadn’t opposed the description. That had hurt a lot more than I’d thought it would. Maybe it was because we’d gotten off on the wrong foot, or because I’d seen how patient and soft with the other kids, but it left a foul taste in my mouth.

I didn’t resent being told what I already knew, but I resented being compared to the others and coming out the worst for it. Yeah, I may not have been stunningly good-looking like Archer, or charismatic and entertaining like the twins, but I wasn’t a tag-on. It was hard enough being alone in a group that had natural pairings; I didn’t need to experience that sense of alienation from outsiders as well.

My bitter thoughts intensified and threatened to swallow me into a storm of toxicity, but I was quickly pulled out of it by a sudden observation. Joyce’s face twisted from an expression of detached judgement into one of worry. Her eyes locked on Mr. Harvey’s back, and I realized he hadn’t moved for the last three minutes.

His back, which had stayed hunched for the last two presentations he had made, became straight and his shoulders relaxed. I couldn’t see his expression, but I doubted it was anything I wanted to see.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

I put all the clues together, Eva’s sudden exhaustion, Archer’s worry, and the nervousness on Joyce’s face.

Had Eva…

It looked like Kaja and Tillo put it together at the same time that I had because they avoided looking at Eva and trained their eyes on Joyce and the frozen figure of Mr. Harvey.

Under everyone’s gaze, he suddenly shook into a shiver and strode to the front of the room with confidence. His hands relaxed from the death grip he’d had on his folder and once he turned around to face us, I could see his expression had switched from the nervous and haggard expression of earlier to one that looked assured and inspired.

He let his notes hang by his side and began his presentation.

“As Archer’s team leader, I would have him focus on his passion and talent, which is music, writing and production. He is a freshman in high school, so it’s likely that he’ll be uploading the least often. That is an obstacle that we will have to cross in the future, but with enough help, Archer could become the first in-house musician!”

He spoke in a disjointed fashion, as if he had heard the presentation for the first time a few minutes ago and was trying his best to replicate it. That only solidified my theory of what had happened, and it looked like it did the same for Joyce.

Archer looked nervous, and his eyes were intense enough to make everyone else nervous. The other two adults looked at Mr. Harvey, and then back at Archer and seemed to misunderstand something, but that was likely for the best.

Joyce barely waited for Harvey to finish his presentation before getting up and putting her hands together in a half-hearted round of applause.

“Now that you all have heard the presentations, I’d like the team leaders to leave. All of you should go to the hospital and get physicals, then hand them over to HR tomorrow. I’ll need of you to be in great health if you want to work with these kids for a long time.”

She seamlessly created an excuse to force Mr. Harvey to the hospital and ushered the three adults out of the room without giving them the time to ask questions or get feedback. I could see the confused expressions on their faces and somewhat felt bad for them, but the feeling didn’t last long as I remembered the poor presentations they had made for my account. Even though that one had been quite nice, I got the feeling that I would be doing a lot of things on my own.

“Eva.”

She started on a lecture, but before she could get another word out, Eva completely lost energy and slumped into herself and out of her seat.

Joyce’s face twisted into an odd expression and her lips repeatedly parted and closed as she fumbled for words.

She wanted to scold her for using her powers, that much was clear, but it was hard to summon any anger at an unconscious child.

“Archer… Annora will take you two to the break room. Let Eva rest there and we’ll talk about this later.”

She buzzed another secretary into the room and had her lead us out of the room and into the same car that had brought us here. Tillo and Kaja quickly dived into a conversation but I was stuck remembering the tortured expression on Archer’s face as Annora had carried Eva away.

I just hoped everything would turn out okay.