The Changelings (War of the Fae: Book 1) (11 page)

He hesitated, as if he wasn't sure where to go from here.

"Yes ... ?"
 
It began to get a little uncomfortable, him sitting there saying nothing now, and both of them just staring at me.
 
Am I supposed to say something? ... What?

"Your answer was a bit ... unconventional," he finally said.

I shrugged my shoulders.
 
"That's me ... unconventional, I mean."

"Was there any particular reason you chose that ... person?"

"No.
 
I guess it was the one thing I felt like I could identify with the most."

Both Céline and Mr. Dardennes had the same look on their faces.
 
Confusion?
 
Contemplation?
 
I'm not sure what it was exactly.

Céline apparently wasn't done anymore.
 
"In what way?"

"In what way do I identify with her you mean?"

"Yes."

"I don't know ... she's just the most awesomely powerful I guess."
 
I shrugged my shoulders.
 
"It wasn't the easiest question to answer, you know.
 
I'm not a big comic fan and most superheroes are very limited to just one thing.
 
And they wear stupid outfits.
 
I guess I like her because she doesn't have those limits."

"Interesting."
 
Céline looked at Mr. Dardennes and they exchanged a silent look.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if they were telepathic.
 
Something about the way they looked and the way they acted seemed foreign.
 
They were probably French.
 
They both had the same accent.

Mr. Dardennes stood, followed by Céline.
 
"Thank you, Jayne, for your frank answers and cooperation.
 
Could you please go back to the room and tell Spike that it's his turn?"

I stood to go out.
 
"When will we find out if we're accepted?"

Mr. Dardennes walked with me to the door.
 
"We will post a list at the front desk of the hotel tonight by eight o'clock.
 
The candidates will be expected to be at the hotel tomorrow by eight a.m. to take a shuttle to the airport."
 
He stopped in the doorway as I stepped out into the hall.
 
"And Jayne, please keep the content of this interview confidential.
 
We don't want your answers or advance notice of our questions to taint the other candidates' responses."

"Okay, see you later, I guess ... thanks."

I went back to the meeting room and told Spike it was his turn.
 
He flashed me a smile as he walked by, making me feel all warm inside.
 
It was ridiculous how he could affect me like that.
 
I shook it off.
 
I can't be all lovesick when I need to focus on getting through this physical test, or whatever it was.
 
I was never the best rope climber in gym class ... or the best monkey bar climber ... or the best runner.
 
The list goes on and on.
 

Tony tried to get me to tell him what happened, but I didn't want to mess up either of our chances of being accepted, so I told him to just be patient.
 
Spike came back a few minutes later and then one of the older people went in.
 
Eventually everyone was done and Mr. Dardennes joined us back in the meeting room.
 
It was almost four o'clock.

"Thank you all for coming.
 
We will post a list of the accepted candidates at the front desk of the hotel.
 
It will be available by eight o'clock tonight.
 
If your name appears on the list, you will need to be at the front of the hotel at eight in the morning, tomorrow.
 
A shuttle will be waiting to take you to the Miami Executive Airport.
 
If your name is not on the list, there will be an envelope at the front desk for you with fifty dollars inside, as a thank you for your time today.
 
It was nice meeting all of you, and for those of you who are accepted, I will see you tomorrow."

He left the room as we digested his speech.
 

"Well, that was interesting," said Becky.

"Are we allowed to talk 'bout the interviews now?" asked Finn.
 

"Not now, let's get outta here first," said Jared.
 
He seemed uncomfortable.
 
He looked over at Tony and me.
 
"You guys are welcome to join us."

I looked at Tony and he shrugged, nodding his head.
 
We didn't have anything else to do – might as well go and talk to them about what happened in their interviews.
 
I was curious to see what superhero they chose.
 
I'm pretty sure I had answered that one wrong.

We all left the meeting room and went towards the front of the hotel, Jared leading the way.
 
He came to a complete stop as he rounded the corner that was just before the glass exterior doors.
 
Samantha was following so close on his heels that she ended up bumping into him.
 
Chase was right behind them, but jumped to the side, missing the pile-up behind Jared.
 
Tony and I hadn't reached the corner yet, but we couldn't miss the surprise in the voices of those who were there.
 

"What the hell?" said Jared, obviously surprised about something.

"Is that ... ?" said Samantha, unable to get the rest of her sentence out.

"Wow, I never would have guessed that in a million years!" said Becky, obviously delighted about something.

Chase just shook his head, saying nothing.
 

"What?
 
What's up?" said Spike, walking up from the back of our group with Finn.
 
"What's the big deal?"

"Come see for yourself," said Jared, with a deliberately neutral tone.

We all walked around the group at the corner so we could see the front doors too.
 
None of us were expecting to see what was there.
 

Snow.
 
Snow all over the sidewalks and the bushes ... even in the palm trees.

I felt the blood rushing to my face.
 
My heart was pounding so hard I could feel the pulsing in my neck.
 
How was this even possible?
 
How could it be snowing in Spring in Miami, Florida?
 
How could it be snowing in Miami
at all
, for that matter?

"Anyone mark '(c), snowing' on their test?" asked Jared, looking around.

Everyone but me was shaking their heads.
 
I looked down at the floor, freaking out about the interview, remembering how they were pushing me to answer that weather question with the truth instead of copping out and choosing '(d), I don't know'.
 

Tony looked at me, nudging me with his elbow.
 
He was probably using that freaky mind meld thing on me again.
 
I nudged him back, not anxious to have all their eyes on me right now.

I looked up and saw Jared staring at me.
 
He didn't say anything though, just turned and went to the front desk to see what was going on.
 
He came back in a minute, filling us in.
 
"Apparently some weird-ass storm just went through here, dropping a butt-load of hale and snow all over the city.
 
As you can see, it's mostly gone now.
 
Temperature is going back up.
 
The snow will be gone in less than an hour probably.
 
It caused a huge accident on I-95."
 
Jared turned, walking towards the doors.
 
"Come on, let's go."

We all followed him out in twos, walking several blocks back to the warehouse district.
 
The snow was melting as we walked, making it look as if a big rainstorm had just hit.
 
Jared took a more circuitous route than I would have taken, but I'm sure he had his reasons.
 
Maybe he was worried about the drug dealer pimp guys seeing us and following.
 
I don't know why they'd be interested in us, though; we certainly didn't look like we had any money on us.
 
Beating us up would be a waste of energy.
 
But maybe money wasn't their inspiration.

Once back at the warehouse, we discussed our various interviews and test answers.
 
When they asked me which superhero I picked, I lied and said Wonderwoman.
 
Everyone else had picked a comic book hero, so I felt kinda stupid about the one I chose.
 
That must be why Mr. Dardennes and Céline asked me about it.
 
No one else was asked about the superhero question, but all of them were asked about the weather.
 
No one but me picked snow.
 
I also didn't cop to that at first either, but Jared singled me out, right in front of everyone.
 

"Jayne, you didn't pick answer 'd', did you?"

I shrugged.
 
What did it matter which one I chose?

"Which one did you pick?"

I sighed.
 
He wasn't going to let it drop.
 
"I picked 'snowing', okay, I don't see what the big deal is."

Everyone stopped chatting to stare at me.
 
Even Tony.
 

"You picked
snowing?"
asked Samantha, angrily.
 
"How could you possibly have known it was snowing?
 
Did you sneak out and see before the interview?"
 
She looked around at everyone.
 
"Did you guys see her go out?"

That bitch was really pissing me off.
 
Why would my choice on the test make her mad?
 
What was her problem anyway?
 
I stood up, not knowing exactly what I was going to do, but I wasn't going to take her shit sitting down.

"Ease up, Sam," said Jared.
 
To me he said, "Seriously though, I'm curious.
 
I know you didn't leave the room.
 
Why did you pick snow?"

Everyone was waiting quietly for my answer.
 
No one else seemed mad about it, so I felt a little better.
 
I decided to just tell them the truth.
 
It really wasn't a big deal.
 
"I don't know.
 
I guess I kind of smelled it or something."

"
Pfft.
 
She
smelled
it.
 
Right
."
 
Samantha stalked off, yanking the door open and storming outside.

Spike nodded his head, a look of respect on his face.
 
"She's in tune with the environment.
 
Cool."

Becky laughed.
 
"You're funny, Spike."

"No, I'm serious; don't you guys get it?"
 
He looked around the room, checking each of our faces.
 
All he got was blank looks in return.
 
Chase looked a little pensive, but the rest of us?
 
Lost.

"All the questions they asked, all the things they said in the interviews ... seems to me they were trying to figure out, like, whether we had any special psychic powers or whatever.
 
I'm thinkin' this thing is more like a psychology test.
 
Like X-Men, but minus the finger knives and freeze rays."

"I agree," said Chase, the man of very few words.

"So what's your power then, Spike?" asked Finn, laughing at him.

"I dunno ... probably something really good though."
 
He smiled back.
 
As far as I was concerned, his superpower was that heart-stopping smile.

I looked at Tony.
 
"What do you think, Tones?"

He shrugged his shoulders.
 
"I don't know, I guess he could be right.
 
Maybe they're one of those companies that tries to see if telepathy and stuff like that is real."

 
"Yeah, but why would they need to do a physical fitness test?" asked Finn.

He was right; that didn't really fit the hypothesis.

"Duh, to see if you can, you know, do psychic things out in the environment."
 
Spike was obviously proud of himself, flashing his Spike smile at everyone.
 
I felt a little bit of my heart melt.
 
Man, I had it bad for that smile.
 
I wondered if his personality was worth getting to know, or if I should just content myself with admiring his smile and fantasizing about what he was really like.
 
So often the reality didn't live up to my fantasies.
 
It was too depressing to even think about right now.

"Maybe they're going to use the stress of physical activity to heighten our senses," suggested Jared.
 

Everyone thought about that for a second.
 
It sounded a little spooky, actually.
 
I was more excited about the prospect of climbing a rope ladder and crawling under barbed wire or something like that.
 
"Maybe it'll just be a team building activity, an obstacle course thing."
 
A girl can dream.

"You know, Jayne, you bring up a good point.
 
What if this is an obstacle course or group exercise of sorts?
 
Usually the successful groups learn quickly to work together as a team."
 
Jared looked over at Becky.
 
"Becky, will you go get Sam and bring her in here?
 
We need to talk strategy."