The Centrus

One by one I took out my baggage and placed them in the living room. My father told me to lessen my baggage. He told me that the facilitators will provide for everything I need. I refused to follow his order because I know that they didn't know me. How else would the facilitators knew what I needed? "The bus will arrive any moment now. It will take you to the northern side. My guess is travel period will last for an hour the very least. I am not sure if you will be accompanied by someone. Text me the moment you arrived, the moment you settled. Update me in any moment that you can." Mother said and hugged me. Emilla did the same. "I will no longer think twice in case Mom and Dad calls someone. I knew it had to be me since I am the only one left." Emilla said and hugged me. I embrace her too tight she started to break free just to be able to breathe. Father slowly approached me. "I don't want you to feel any pressure right now. I know you didn't want any of these. Just know that you didn't have to win, I just want you to feel like you were just in school. No pressure. I am not telling you to enjoy because I had doubts about that, but I hope you will." Dad hugged me and kissed my forehead. "I will miss you too dad." I said and hugged all of them. I heard the bus rang its horn, signalling me to get out of the house. I took one of my bags and hurriedly went outside. I was expecting that father will run after me with my other bag but he didn't. "Trust me. You will not regret I only made you bring one bag." Father said while holding my bag on his hand. I was about to return for it but the bus won't stop ringing its horn. The driver is too impatient so I went inside without getting my bag. I was shocked when I saw that before I hopped on the bus, I could clearly see what's inside. But the moment I am inside the bus. I don't see anything except for a gray colored walls that is supposed to be the windows and a blue painted wall. I waited for the bus driver's signal before I sat. Maybe there was some sort of sitting arrangement I had to know so I waited before sitting. He must have got the same thought because he told me I could sit anywhere. I am the only person inside the van. Aren't we supposed to be 10? Why am i the only one here? I sat on the 5th row of the bus. I pushed myself towards the window. Only to remember that I won't be sight seeing since I couldn't see outside. It was about 15 minutes into travel when the bus stopped for the first time. I doubt if it will take 15 minutes before reaching a stoplight. I knew it within me that the reason the windows are covered because nobody wanted to see the road that takes all the chosen contenders. Even the bus driver wears a special eyeglasses. Even the windshield is color gray, still the driver drives so well. My guess is because of his eye wear. I pick my phone out of my pocket. I took my bag and put it on top of my lap. I am so deafening of the silence. I am only hearing the sounds the tires make upon moving and the sounds it creates when they rub against the metal beneath of the bus whenever the driver steps in the breaks. I reached for the front pocket of my bag. Felt all the clothe the bag was made off until I knew that i had reached the ends of the pocket with no earphones to be found. I angrily search the other pockets. Stopped in the middle when I realized that my earphones are at my other bag. The one that i left at home. I closed my eyes in frustration and attempted to catch some sleep. For 3 minutes the bus had remained stop. I hope that someone will hop in because a stoplight doesn't last for 3 minutes. It doesn't back at the southern side. The moment my eyelashes will bump into my eyebags, that same moment I heard the bus door created its hissing sound. The sound every bus known to man creates whenever the door is opening. I opened my one eye. A hideous attempt to not sound excited because finally after 18 minutes of being alone in this gray cubic shape, I get to see someone. The bus seats are too high, causing me to elongate my position a little further. Still no luck, I closed both of my eyes. I placed my head on the window. Using it's curtains as pillow. I doubt why they even bother to place curtains when not even a ray of sunlight is going to be able to seep in through. I heard the door close. I heard footsteps, it gets louder as it nears me. The sound of plastic rubbing through the floor. The footsteps sounded to feeble to belong to someone big. My thoughts are even saying it belonged to a child. I heard the footsteps disappeared after it went behind me. My guess is he or she took the 8th row. It is exactly 20 minutes in travel time. Maybe mother is wrong when he told me that the trip will only last for an hour the very least.

I was awaken from my peaceful sleep, All I heard are murmurs. I can't even decipher the words they are saying to each other. But I do know I am glad I'm hearing voices other than my thoughts. I opened my eyes. Almost forgotten the height of these bus seats makes it impossible to see who is sitting where. Based on the voices, I counted the people with me. One. A male voice. Two. A female voice. Three. Another voice. A boy? As in a kid. Child. In our faction, 15 is the age to be able to qualify as one of the contenders. Is someone old enough to have a kid here? And he or she took that kid with him or her? Four. Another female voice. Now I wanted to transfer seat. I listened to the nearest voice. The female one. It looks like she sat on the 2nd row. I am not sure. Are we not allowed to talk to each other? If then so, Why am I hearing there voices? Whom are they talking to? Until when I was awake enough, I realize that they were using their phones to talk to their family's back home. But my guess is they all came from a different faction. I was only away from my family exactly 52 minutes, that didn't stop me though from picking up my phone inside my pocket. I checked my messages. All came from Mom. I was about to stop scrolling until I saw the end of my messages thread. The first message came from Dion. It read.

"Nila, I am hoping that you are fine. I would have dropped by to your house to say few goodbyes. I spent last night trying to makeup for the lost 3 hours I spend with you with my father's research. You see, I am not as good as you are with tabulating datas. This is my excuse for waking up late today. Nevertheless, I am still obliged to send you my goodbyes. I am looking forward to when I'll say hello again. But I wanted to make it personal. I miss you, will continue to miss you. I am wishing you luck and all sorts of hope. I will try to stop myself from jumping across the border. Have fun."

His message burnt my chest. I never thought of Dion as anyone other than my friend. No romantically involve feelings. But now that i am about to see strangers, makes me wish I kinda did have something with him prior from last night. I tucked my phone inside my pocket. My eyes got stain from sudden brightness. The gray colored windows are now silver. The windows had opened. I stood up. Only to see other people had stood up as well, But I only see 3. I don't see the child anywhere else. They busy their eyes looking at the surroundings, I spent my time looking at them. I had already seen the buildings last night. But this is the first time I will see the other contenders. The driver shouted that all of us sit at once. Now i get why since the driver accelerated the bus. None of us got pushed towards the front because all of us are sitting. The bus stopped. The hissing sound of the door was heard again. The door opened up for a woman in his mid 20s, Red hair, neatly tied up in a ponytail, bangs clipped on the right side of her face. She spoke. "Hello, 5 out of the 10 contenders. I am Camila Thompson, one of the facilitators of this season's the chosen. I am here to assist all of you on settling inside the centrus." The red hair girl said there are 5 contenders, but I remembered i heard a young boy's voice. Does that mean he is one of the contenders? Or he only got the voice of a kid who probably doesn't undergo puberty yet. The red girl went side wards and stood beside the bus driver. Gestured that all of us starts walking. The girl I heard earlier that sat upfront started walking, since I was next in row. I followed her. "Someone thought this was a retreat." A female voice said, coming from the back. Only then I noticed that the first female didn't have anything with her, not even a pouch. I ignored the comment and hurriedly went outside. The door led me to an entirely different place. Out of all the silver coloring outside has shown, this is an entire different place. It has a pale brown painted walls, every halls has 2 to 3 pillars. The place consist of 4 floors, one wide tunnel like entry hall that I assume leads to more similar infrastructure. I am so mesmerized by the difference of the outside from the inside I didn't notice all of them had unloaded from the bus already. I looked at them one by one. Hoping to feel anything. Eagerness, competitive side. Anything. But it was only when I laid eyes on this kid infront of me that made me shiver. I wanted to cry as I see the young kid staring back at me. The red girl said we are a total of 5 contenders. Meaning this young kid who can keep up with my stares is a contender too. I feel my heart burning up to sight. The red girl was the last one to go down from the bus. She watched the bus drift away from us, and looked at us. "This way contenders, meet your other half." She said and walk toward the tunnel like hole in the middle of the infrastructure. We all silently followed. I didn't want to speak. Nobody else did, therefore I didn't feel the need to speak. However I turned my gaze again to the kid. He is a contender. My heart is burning. I was 15 and I am not ready. What more his age? I stared at the other 5 contenders as we meet in the middle of the quadrangle. We were divided in equal numbers. The other team consists of 3 boys and 2 girls. I was waiting for someone to greet each other. When nobody spoke, We line up and went toward the stage where chairs are prepared. One by one each of us sat on the position with our liking. "Today's batch are awfully quiet." I heard the red hair said to a new face that had appeared. "They will have to warm up with each other soon, not now. But they will have to, Eventually." says the thin guy beside red hair girl. The color of his hair reminded me of Dion. That's the same depth Dion had on his hair. I focused my gaze on the stage. A mid 30s woman appeared. Wearing a wavy white shirt underneath the gray blazer. Straightly tucked on her gray wide pants. She tapped the mike causing it to create that annoying tug tug sound. "Good Afternoon, Children." She said and scanned our faces through her gaze. She stop at the center before continuing, "And a fine young man from faction 10." I looked behind me and saw an almost grown man. I remembered the recent news I watched. He is the only person I think who's above 18. I returned my gaze towards the speaker. "I am Cynthia Washington, Your headmaster. I am the headmaster of Centrus for almost 15 years now, and i am glad to be welcoming the newest wave of contenders." She walked around the stage, flaunting the sound of the heels she was wearing, scanned our faces again. "You might have questions in your mind. Why are we named contenders, some of us didn't want to win." She said lifting her fingers in the air. Imitating a contender like me who never wanted to get sent out. "Trust me, one week of stay and you will change your belief. One week is all it will take for you to realize, I wanted my name on top of the scoreboard." She went back to the center of the stage, on her side flashes a blank form. The scoreboard. "This is our scoreboard." She says as she encircled the whole thing with her laser pen. "This is what you children will have to fight over with if you wanted power, a seat in our government, to become one of the chosen." She put down her pen and a new picture flashes on screen. A book. I look around and notice that the same book is given to us, by the red hair and the guy he came with. I scanned the book. It wrotes "Student Manual." The headmaster continued speaking. "I won't have to discuss the manual with you, I used to. But ever since, the children relied to my own understanding, ignoring their own. So tonight, your first task is to submit your own understanding of the manual, give examples of certain scenario that would be related to the manual..." She paced through the stage and stop infront of me. "Faction 7 always gets the best grades for this first task. But i was hoping this time the top better for this task comes from a different faction." She said and stop infront of the boy sitting across me. "Do not bother hiding your true self in this place. I am your headmaster. I know all of you, better than yourselves." She finished her speech and walked out of the stage. I looked at the book she had given us. A black leather covered book. And my guess is this is approximately 100 pages more or less. I slide my fingers towards the white gloss paper. I still hope I am scooping snow right now instead of being here. I thought the ceremony almost ended. But another man in his mid 70s entered the stage. "Good Afternoon, 23rd chosen contenders. I am Ricardo Montgomery, here stands infront of you, I am the first trainer, I am now promoted as law implementer, alongside with the other trainer retirees." He was wearing a white tuxedo, pale blue undershirt, and a brown loafers. He pace to the other side of the stage. "Raise your hand if I called the faction from which you belong." Ricardo says, Looking at everyone. "Faction one." I look around as he stated those words. Wanting to know which faction all of them belong to. The girl with short, blond hair raised her hand. Based on her outfit, I am concluding that she came from a nice family. You don't wear designer clothes for an event like this. Ricardo waved his hand to her. She replied by doing the same. "Faction two?" Ricardo called out. A boy raised his hand. My guess is his age is the same as Dion. He continue to call out each of the faction. But it wasn't until faction 5 that I began to see changes. Not only by how the contenders dress, but also through their facial expressions. The first few factions are well dressed, but the moment the faction 5 had been called, It started to change. Out in the snow, the faction 5 representative is only dressed in farmer clothes. It is too cold to only be wearing that. My faction is now being called. I gracefully raise my hand. Ricardo smiled at me. "Hello my fellow townmate. Your name is?" He says, holding his hand towards me. "Ernilla San Diego." I say without standing up. I saw his emotion changed. "Okay. Faction 8." He continued. I saw the 7 year old kid try to raise his hand. But seeing that can't overcome the tall teenagers infront he stood up. I wanted to know why a 7 year old kid is even allowed to become one of the contenders. He's 7, what does he know? Ricardo doesn't even change his expression. As if he was used to seeing 7 year old kids as contenders regular. He then called the last two faction. Same as Faction 5, 6, and 8, the last two faction looks like they came from a poor town. I erased the thought of judging them through their clothes. It is not morally right. The ceremony ended and all of us are assisted towards our room. I was following my guide when someone bumped into my shoulder, the weight of the backpack i am currently wearing added more pain to the force that had attack my shoulder. "Watch it." The man from faction 5 says, and hurriedly ran past me. I ignored his comment. I am used to dealing bullies at school. He won't shake me. I arrived at the door and my guide left me. If we get to own one room each, I am curious on who would look after number 8. He is just a young boy. I settled all of my stuff and lied on top of the bed. Everything is copied, even my bed. I know this matress. My closet, My computer set. Even the stars i had glued to the ceiling back when i was 7 is here. The only difference is Emilla isn't here to bug me, Father's commands is nowhere to be found, and I didn't have mom to joke around to when i clearly knew she called Emilla and not me. I turned to my side. This is my first supper here in the centrus, and I only just arrived. I am already wanting to go home.