"HARLOW. YOU ABSOLUTE DUMBASS. SHE'S A K-" Jackson was going absolutely feral at this point, but the girl interrupted him with a shush, librarian style.
"NOT. THE TIME," she still held a smile on her face, but she was also visibly angry- the definition of passive aggressive, "ever care to think she might not know yet? Speaking of, do you know your name matches your division?" In response, I simply nodded, because I didn't know if I had it in me to actually say- or think- anything back. I pointed behind me to the bed, and started getting up, so that hopefully Harlow would get the hint.
Luckily, she did. "Oh- yeah, I forgot, you're probably exhausted, you should probably go to sleep. I'll talk to you in the morning- it'll be easier for you, since we can actually speak. Alright?" She sounded as if she actually cared, which I doubted. Nonetheless, I gave her a thumbs up and went to get in bed. I heard a "Goodnight" as I put the covers over my shoulders, but I was too drained- physically and mentally- to return it.
That night, I slept in bursts, waking up occasionally due to pain from the surgery, and once just because someone was moving around too much in their sleep. When the alarms finally went off at 8, I surprisingly didn't feel dead inside. I had a few spare moments before rollcall, so I considered showering, but then I remembered my back was still bandaged, so I settled for washing my face and hair in the sink.
Announcements started going off, but I didn't really pay attention to any of them, until I heard Tim come on the intercom, and he mentioned me.
"Here's your reminder, the new Kin will be joining you today, please give them their personal space. They will not be joining any physical training or division work, but they will be there during meals and meetings. Back to the announcements," and then the other guy continued basic announcements. I finished getting ready, and pressed the role-call button when the 6-7 hallway was called.
Once I did so, I noticed that there wasn't any breakfast like yesterday, to which I realized- I'd be eating breakfast with all the other Kins today. I could make a few friends, maybe. I could find the other KK's, whatever that meant. Exciting thoughts gave me goosebumps all down my arms, and I sat on my bed, waiting for whatever would come next.
The sections of the facility were released one by one, by hallway. I heard chattering from the direction of that hexagonal room that split the hallways. Eventually, the sound of locks clicking filled the hall and people started walking out of their rooms. I waited until I saw the girl across from me approach her door, then went out at the same time as her. She didn't see me right away, but I doubted she would hear me if I called her name, so I figured I'd wait until we got wherever we were going to talk to her.
We walked together, seemingly through endless twists and turns of similar-looking hallways, all with tread-plate metal walls and ceilings, along with simple concrete floors. Simple white letters formed the only sense of difference in the halls, the only way anyone could ever know what way to go here. Yet I followed the crowd aimlessly, still watching the top of Harlow's head bobbing up and down through the facility. Slowly, the river of kids- or I guess I could say Kins, started to stop in front of a double door, the only wooden thing I've seen in the whole building besides the conference table that Tim and I ate dinner at last night.
We stood there for a few moments, and all the noise seemed to become so much more concentrated- some people talking, some people probably casting, some excited, some exhausted, you name it. It just got so much louder when everyone was all in the same place. Attempting to ignore it, I looked around for Jackson or Harlow. I saw the two of them in the very front of the crowd, with her head moving and his concerningly still. I was just about to try and work my way through the crowd when the doors were opened and we started going inside.
When I got through the doors, I immediately observed my surroundings- a large room, with white walls, tile floors and ceilings, and a multitude of circular plastic tables littering the floor. Kids sat around most of them, because our hallway was last out of the 4 halls that the Kins sleep in to arrive. The crowd of kids in our hall merged into a single file as we got closer to the metal counters where some worker adults were giving trays of food to each kid. As I got closer, I remembered that the food isn't as bad as it looks and I'll surely be fine.
Once I grabbed my tray and said thanks to the lady handing it to me, I looked around for Harlow- until I was startled by a tap on my shoulder. I turned around quickly, hoping to see her lovely eyes, but instead it was some random group of kids. The one who tapped me looked excited, but also intimidating, because they were pretty tall and had some decent muscles. Smiling, he chirped, "Are you the new Kin that the Observers were talking about on the announcements?" The second I nodded, the group surrounded me and drowned me in questions. "You're an Amberkin, right?" "What's your name?" "How old are you?" Queries quickly grew in quantity, and I couldn't say a word. It was too much, too overwhelming, how many people are there now? I can't answer all this.. my head hurts... am I falling..?
"Guys, leave her alone, for god's sake! How inconsiderate could you be?"
Someone grabbed me from the side as I fell, one arm holding my neck and the other around my waist. I snapped back to reality as the questions quieted down, and realized that Harlow was carrying me over to her table. I was in shock, but I let it happen, a smile somehow making its way onto my face. Once we got to the table, she set me down next to her, and I sat up quickly.
"Uh- thank you," I managed to say as I scrambled to turn and face her. She giggled and fixed my hair, which was a bit messed up from that whole situation, leaving my freckled face unusually warm.
"Of course! Those guys are idiots anyways," she said, holding her hand on one side of her mouth, as if they'd read her lips somehow. I highly doubted they cared enough to follow us, because they were just walking back to their tables, but they did seem disappointed in some way.
Looking back at the people sitting around the table, I realized I didn't really know anyone. I was too embarrassed to ask Harlow in front of everyone, so I decided on trying to cast again. My head hurt significantly less since I was out of the crowd, so I figured it would be fine. Just get into her headspace and think something, that's all I had to do.
Focusing hard, I looked at Harlow, just above her eyes, and concentrated on her and her alone until I started hearing her voice in my head. Glimpses of the table filled my mind, and thoughts skipped around like kids on a playground. Knowing I had made it, I asked loudly in headvoice, "who are these people?" Once I did it, I immediately left her headspace, because I knew it's rude to invade people's privacy like that.
She seemed to notice, because she gave me a confused glance, then realized I had asked her and stopped the table's conversations to introduce me to everyone.
"Guys, we have a new friend," she started as the group looked up at us, "she's an AK." Speeding up as she kept talking, she continued, "Everyone, meet Amber. Amber, meet everyone."
The table suddenly went into complete shock, except for J, who was just laughing at one boy's surprised face. Harlow hit his pointing finger. Well they definitely love each other, I thought, but are they just friends or something more? I couldn't tell if they were sibling-type friends or if they were dating, so I just kept quiet.
"Yes, she's a KK. But that doesn't matter right now. Go ahead, I'll let you guys introduce yourselves."
The boy next to Jackson went first. "Well my name's Ray, I'm an AK too," he said, which made me smile. After that, they went one by one, and honestly, I didn't really pay much attention to their names or division things. I kind of just smiled and waved at each of them, and continued eating my breakfast in between introductions. Once everyone was done, I made sure to come up with some "it's nice to meet all of you" nonsense, just in case Har tried to make me socialize any more.
What seemed like an eternity of basic conversations and icebreaker questions turned out to take up the rest of breakfast, and soon I was in the crowd of people again walking through the halls. One of the Observers stopped us all to give a warning to the kids who were bothering me, and then split us up into our divisions and sent us to certain rooms that were dedicated to "division work". The people in my division still stared at me, but at least they didn't pester me with questions. Once we finally stopped walking, another double door, this time made of metal, sat in front of us. Above it, the bold, white letters, 'AK', labeled the room. Someone at the front opened the door, and the twenty-or-so of us walked in.
...