imperfect (23 page)

“
The Oath?” Jaiden
asked.

“
You didn’t think I was
going to let you leave with all this top-secret information without
making sure you wouldn’t share it, did you?”

“
You never said anything
about taking an oath of secrecy.” Kristi crossed her
arms.

“
I’m not going to be able
to let you guys leave unless you take it,” Tiffany said. “All you
have to do is promise you will never tell anyone who isn’t part of
the Revealers anything we talked about in my office today. Also, by
taking the Oath, you are agreeing you are a member of the Revealers
and must abide to our rules.”

“
I don’t want to be part
of some type of spy group,” Jaiden said. “Look at what happened to
Shelly and Kyle.”

Kristi had to admit Jaiden had a point; she
didn’t plan on dying anytime soon.

“
The Revealers isn’t just
a spy group,” Tiffany said. “It’s much more than that. The
Revealers is also an organization dedicated to uncovering the truth
to many corruptions of the world. We are a dedicated group in
bringing more justice to the world.”

Jaiden rolled his eyes. “That’s what they
all say.”

Tiffany gave him a frosty glare. “You are so
naïve, young man.”

Chelsa sighed. “Fine, just tell me what to
say or whatever I have to do.”

“
Jaiden and Kristi, are
you going to be reasonable like Chelsa and agree to become a member
of the Revealers?”

“
Fine,” Kristi complied.
“But I don’t like how you sprung this on us
unexpectedly.”

“
Jaiden?”

Kristi could almost see Jaiden’s brain
struggle to decide whether or not he should be part of an
organization that his parents were part of and died as a result of.
The silence dragged out. Defiance burned bright in Jaiden’s eyes.
The silence continued on.

“
Okay, but only because
you two are taking the Oath too,” he muttered, shooting Chelsa a
glance.

Chelsa’s cheeks reddened and Kristi got a
funny feeling about her brother and Chelsa, which she decided to
ignore for now.

“
Wonderful.” Tiffany
beamed at them. “Now I just need you to hold up your right hand and
repeat after me:

I solemnly swear to be a loyal member of the
Revealers.

From now on, I will do my best to reveal
truths, solve suspicious mysteries that endanger the welfare of
others and make sure the truth is heard throughout the world.

I swear to follow the rules set down by the
founder of the Revealers.

I swear I will never betray information of
the Revealers to outsiders.

I swear I will never purposely imperil any
members of the Revealers.

I do solemnly swear this.”

They repeated after Tiffany and Tiffany
smiled once more when they finished.

“
See, that wasn’t so
difficult, was it?” she said. “Congratulations, you are now
official members of the Revealers. I just need you to sign these
papers and you can leave.” She handed everyone a packet of
papers.

Kristi flipped to the end of the packet and
scrawled her name on the line, not bothering to even skim through
the text. She handed her packet back to Tiffany.

“
Thank you,” said Tiffany.
“A copy of the Revealers’ rules has been sent to your
electro-slate. I have also transferred five hundred points to your
account, Chelsa. It should be enough to suffice your needs for a
while.”

Tiffany called the elevator up for them and
waved goodbye.

chapter
twenty-four

[ Kristi ]

Ludus High School was a
wealthy private school. The school
building squatted in the middle of a ten-acre plot of land in
the center of Charleston. There was a well-maintained front lawn, a
pristine track and the parking lot was jammed with expensive solar
and hydro-cars.

“
School should be out in a
minute or so,” Chelsa said.

The words had hardly left her mouth when the
massive front doors of the high school were flung open and students
streamed out. Jaiden, Chelsa, Ghost and Kristi were semi-hidden
behind a statue of Charles Landers, the founder of Ludus High
School.

They figured they could easily pick out
Troop from the mass of genetically perfect students, follow him and
confront him once he was alone.

Like with most high schools, the school
junkies were the first to escape the building. Next came the gaming
whizzes that were eager to get to the gaming center as fast as
possible. After the gamers usually came the popular crowd. Finally,
the outcasts of the school exited the building last.

They didn’t spot Troop among the junkies or
gamers.

“
He’s probably an
outcast,” Chelsa said. “Especially among all these rich, perfect
kids. No offense to you, Jaiden,” she added.

Jaiden flashed her a quick grin to show that
he understood Chelsa’s point of view.

They returned their attention to watching
students file by. The wind carried their trills of laughter far and
wide.

“
Here come the popular
kids,” Kristi said.

As customary, the ringleader of the crowd
was surrounded by his posse. In this case, the popular guy was
joking with his friends while all his followers hung on behind him.
The guy in the middle was tall and had dark hair carelessly swept
to the side. His friend, a muscular guy with the build of a
personal bodyguard, whispered something to the dark haired boy and
pointed to a girl hurrying out of the high school.

Kristi knew a bully when she saw one, and
she was certain the girl was going to be the target of some
bullying. She was right.

The dark haired boy left the protection of
his circle of lackeys and sauntered over to the girl. The girl
glanced over her shoulder, saw that she was being hounded and
walked even faster. However, the boy had longer strides and easily
caught up to the girl.

He grabbed her shoulder and said something
into her ear. Whatever it was, the girl didn’t like what she heard
and snapped back, “Take your hands off me, you asshole.”

“
What did you call me?”
the boy asked, raising an eyebrow.

The rest of his friends caught up with him.
The girl cast her gaze around his friends; all of them were
broad-shouldered, tall and probably more than happy to beat her to
pulp if their leader told them to do so.

“
I called you an asshole,
because that’s what you are.”

“
This isn’t going to be
pretty,” Kristi said.

“
The girl has spunk
though,” Chelsa replied.

The girl wrenched her shoulder out of the
guy’s grip, but his arms snaked out and grabbed her by her
waist.

“
Let go of me!” she
said.

The boy’s friends snickered, watching the
spectacle. The boy holding the girl seemed to be enjoying the
attention.

“
That’s it. I’ve had
enough,” Kristi said and stormed towards the scene.

“
Kristi, come back. We’re
supposed to be looking for Troop,” Jaiden called after
her.

Kristi answered over her shoulder, “Why
don’t you go inside the school to look for him? He might be in some
kind of school club. Don’t worry about me.”

She didn’t see what Jaiden and Chelsa
decided to do because she marched on towards the crowd without a
second look back.

“
Let go of the girl,”
Kristi said in the most commanding voice she could muster. “And
while you’re at it, why don’t you go get a life instead of
harassing people?”

She pushed her way to the
center of the gang.
This is probably one
of the dumbest things I have ever done in my life.

A few guys whistled and someone called out,
“Looks like you have a challenger.”

Mr. Popular was momentarily distracted and
the girl took this advantage to free herself from his grip.

“
Who are you?” he asked
Kristi.

“
Somebody who’s telling
you to stop acting like a jackass,” Kristi shot back.

She felt whispers and fingers pointing her
way.

“
That girl’s obviously not
from around here—”

“—
everyone at the school
knows not to mess around with Troop.”

“
She better hope she’s not
attending Ludus or else she’ll pay for this.”

“
You’re Troop?” Kristi
managed to ask before she was rendered speechless from
shock.
This doesn’t make sense! How can he
get along with all these Perfects?

“
That’s me. And as far as
I’m concerned, you’re in some serious trouble with me,” Troop said.
“I’m not going to let you make a fool out of me,” he whispered into
Kristi’s ear, leaning too close for comfort. Kristi took a step
backwards.

Wham!

Something big and furry landed onto Troop’s
chest, knocking him down onto the brick sidewalk. He swore, and
pushed himself up. Ghost sprung away from Troop.

“
Let’s beat it,” one of
Troop’s friends said. “The principal’s headed this way.”

Troop stood up. Kristi noticed him wince and
felt a sense of satisfaction.

“
Are you going to run away
now?” she taunted him. “Is Troop going to follow all his little,
Perfect friends and hide from the principal? You’re just a Perfect
wanna—”

His slap caught her by surprise.

“
They don’t know I’m not a
Perfect,” he hissed. “And I would like to keep it that way.” He
looked over his shoulders to his remaining friends and said, “You
guys can leave. I’ll deal with this myself.”

“
You sure?” asked the
brown haired guy that had pointed out the girl Troop was harrying
earlier.

“
Go on,” Troop said.
“Unless you want a chat with Principal Burnd.”

His friends left, not wanting to get in
trouble with the headmaster. Chelsa and Jaiden walked over to Troop
and Principal Burnd. The principal looked like he was in his early
thirties.

“
Is there a problem?” he
said. “These two informed me that there was some trouble brewing up
in the front of the school.” He scanned Troop, who had a few
scratches on his arms and face, from head to toe.

“
We just had an argument,
sir. Everything’s fine now,” Troop replied slickly. “There was a
slight misunderstanding. My fault completely.”

“
I hope you have
apologized to this young lady?” Principal Burnd asked, nodding his
head towards Kristi.

“
I apologize for my rash
and rude behavior,” Troop said, looking straight at
Kristi.

He sounded so sincere he almost fooled her.
Almost. Troop was a damn good actor.

“
Very well. Please do not
let this happen again, Troop,” Principal Burnd said. He turned on
his heels and went back into the school, satisfied the conflict had
been resolved.

“
You’re Troop?” Chelsa
asked as soon as Principal Burnd was out of earshot.

Troop nodded. “And who are you?”

“
Chelsa. That’s Jaiden and
that’s Kristi.”

“
Are you the three people
my mother was referring to when she sent me an
instafication?”

Jaiden nodded. Kristi shot Troop a scowl.
She was not looking forward to be traveling with this jerk.

“
Let’s talk more at the
Rex Hotel,” Chelsa said.

Troop shrugged. “Whatever. Lead the
way.”

“
So you already know
about
the Naturals and all that fun stuff,
right?” Chelsa said.

They sat in the living room of the suite.
There was a bowl of pretzels in the center of the coffee table, but
only Troop had touched the food.

So far, Kristi had refused to speak to Troop
and was more than happy to hand over the get-to-know-you chitchat
to Chelsa and Jaiden. Troop’s behavior today had disgusted her.

All her life, she had been
treated like scum and ignored. In the past, she
might
have stood up for herself if
somebody made a rude comment or gesture towards her, but she
usually pretended nothing happened.

“
My mother told me the
basic idea of the Naturals,” Troop said. “I don’t know the
nitty-gritty details, but yeah, I have the general
concept.”

Chelsa quickly reviewed what they had
learned from Tiffany today. Once Troop was all caught up, Chelsa
said, “I didn’t even recognize you as Troop because you blended so
well with all Perfects. I’m curious; why aren’t you considered an
outcast at Ludus High School? From what I know, Accidents aren’t
treated very well in public.”

“
That’s because his
friends thought he was a Perfect. He didn’t tell them that he
wasn’t one,” Kristi said, jerking her head in Troop’s direction.
“He’s just a Perfect wannabe.”

“
I do have a name, you
know,” Troop said. “It wouldn’t hurt you to use it. And like I
said, I’m sorry about what happened today. The only reason I was
acting like that was because today’s VicDay. I usually don’t act
like that.”

“
What’s VicDay?” Chelsa
asked.

“
Nothing important,” Troop
hurriedly answered.

Kristi gave him her best
death-stare. He met her eyes and didn’t flinch. She sighed and
dropped her gaze to Ghost. Kristi patted her lap and Ghost
gracefully leapt besides her on the couch. Troop seemed a bit
uncomfortable with a live
leopard so close
to him.