Page 34 of Knight Moves

She turned around from the screen. “The physical fitness test was the easy part for me today. I was on the gymnastics team at my high school. We trained a lot, so I’m in pretty good shape. The hard part for me was all that weird psychological testing.”

“It was brutal,” I agreed.

“Oh, that was my favorite part,” Frankie said, sitting up. “It was fun.”

“Fun?” I looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “Are you nuts? That wasnotfun, Frankie.”

“Of course, it was. We just had to answer a bunch of questions about ourselves.”

“Did you have a group session?” I asked.

“Yes, it was Mike and me. It was cool. I like Mike. He’s a really interesting guy.”

Frankie liked everyone, so that didn’t mean anything special. She was my closest friend, but her definition of fun and mine didn’t always match. I met Hala’s skeptical gaze over Frankie’s head.

“I have a chemistry class with Bo and Jax,” Hala said. “And English lit with you, Wally, and Kira. But I’m by myself in an acting class.”

“Acting?” That seemed an odd choice of curriculum to me, but everything seemed strange lately.

“That was my reaction, too,” Hala said.

“I have a class by myself, too,” Frankie offered. “Graphic design.”

“I’m in a class by myself for cryptology,” I said. “I wonder what all that means.”

“Maybe they’re playing to what they perceive are our strengths,” Hala answered. “Although I’ve never had an acting class before in my life.”

None of us had answers, so we started our homework. Kira never showed up, and I wondered what she was doing. When it was time for dinner, we walked over to the cafeteria together. Kira was there, deep in conversation with Jax at a table in the back. Their heads were bent together, his dark and her blonde. It was a striking sight, like the two of them could pose for the cover of a magazine. They spoke earnestly, gesturing with their hands but keeping their voices lowered. I forced myself to look away.

Wally was sitting with Mike and Bo. Hala joined them with her food tray. There was no more room for Frankie and me at their table, so we sat at an empty table after we got our food. After a few minutes, Wally came over to sit with us so he could talk to us about our day.

“The physical fitness test was the absolute worst,” Wally said. “Kira was being tested in another part of the gym and she did, like, twenty chin-ups. I couldn’t even do one.”

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I couldn’t do one, either.”

“Me neither,” Frankie added. “But the trainer was nice anyway. Do you know he has two-year-old twins? He showed me their photos on his phone. They’re so adorable, but he and his wife don’t sleep much. The poor man has bags the size of Alaska under his eyes. I felt sorry for him until he made me run that mile.”

“All I can say is that we’re in real trouble, guys.” Wally shook his head. “We’ll never be operatives if we can’t jump from one building to another like James Bond.”

“Let’s be clear, I’m not jumping from a building. Ever.” I picked up an orange slice and ate it. “Let’s not blow this out of proportion. It could be they were just getting a baseline, like they did with the active-shooter scenario.”

“Which was another disaster,” Wally said. “I hope they don’t send me packing.”

“No one is going home yet, Wally,” Frankie said. “It’s only been one day. How did the rest of your day go?”

“Oh, you mean the part where I answer bizarre questions and spill my guts in front of two pretty girls?”

“You’re always spilling your guts to us, and we still like you,” Frankie pointed out.

That made me laugh. Leave it to Frankie to keep it real. “Frankie’s got a point. We need to calm down and let this play out. Mr. Donovan told us to do our best. It’s the only thing we can control.”

After dinner, we headed back to our room. I wanted to do some online surfing and go to bed early. Frankie wanted to read, and Hala told us she was going to go to gym and work off some steam. Kira, as usual, was missing.

“What’s with Kira anyway?” I asked. “She lives with us, but we never see her. It’s like she’s avoiding us on purpose.”

“She always seems to be missing at the same time as Jax. Did you notice that?”

I’d noticed, but I didn’t want her to know I noticed. “Hmmm…” I said noncommittally.

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