Twenty Fifty-Six

+18+

I hate Daniel. 

So much.

What did I ever do to him?

Um Amber? That inner voice in my head asks me. You did choose Tristan over him. Well yeah, but he can go after Zoe or something. The two of us just aren't the same as me and Tristan.

UGH!!

I hate him!

Everything was finally getting good, and then Daniel had to go and screw it all up.

Aria and I head back to where Tristan and Quinn are sitting, having a conversation written on a piece of paper.

Aria and I sit down, Aria back to beside Quinn. Me, I sit kind of outside of the group. Both Tristan and Quinn are glaring at me, so I know I shouldn't push my luck.

"Tristan, I-"

He cuts me off. "Aria, please tell her that I don't want to talk to her."

"But," Aria protests in my defense. "She can explain. It wasn't her! It was Dan-"

"I don't care! I refuse to talk to her!"

I know that seeing that hurt him, but know Tristan's hurting me. And I hate it. Stupid Daniel.

Aria sighs in defeat. "Amber? Uhhh. He doesn't want to talk to you." She trails off at the end.

+++

I must have fallen asleep, because I'm jolted awake when the bell rings. The bell! Maybe we're no longer trapped in here!

Everyone springs up and runs to the doors to our dorms. Some older guy that I don't know tries the door.

"Nope," he says, the excitement drained from is face. Others go try the door handle, and it is indeed locked.

Lee claps her hands. "Guys!" she yells, trying to get our attention. We all look over to her and quiet down. "We should look around. Just because the doors didn't open, that bell could mean something else."

Everyone choruses different versions of "Good idea Lee."

We all start looking around the common room. After about five minutes, someone shouts out.

"Guys! I found something."

We all crowd around.

"It's food!" one of the guys screams. "Hallelujah!"

After some commotion, Lee and a few others get everyone's attention.

"Okay," one of the guys with Lee says. "It's true, we have food." A cheer goes up. "There's enough for everyone, but its not a lot."

"So, I know you're all hungry," Lee says, "But Dominic, Brianne, Corey and I think that we need some organization here. Who knows how long this will be going on for. So, we want to have two people, preferably a guy and a girl, representing each age group. We'll let each age vote for the leader people. The four of us are going 'run' for our age groups, but if we aren't selected, we'll back down."

The other girl, Brianne, I'm assuming, speaks up. "We'll start with the youngest. Any 15-year-old interested in doing whatever this is, come up here."

Zoe springs up and rushes to the front as her posse chants "Zoe! Zoe! Zoe!"

Dave and Daniel both go up, as well as Nerdboy, or Zach, whichever you prefer. Duckface heads up to the front.

"Aria," I hiss. "You should go up."

"Heck no! You three would be my only votes! No one knows me!"