Page 65 of The Knights of Gaia

“Good girl.” Mrs. Edwards handed me a bag of tiny chocolate-chip cookies.

“Cookies?” I inhaled their sweet aroma, hoping they tasted as good as they smelled. My boring breakfast of bananas with plain yogurt hadn’t been nearly enough to fill my stomach. “What’s this for?”

“I’ve hosted many Apprentices over the years, Savannah. The Program puts you through a lot, and you need to keep your energy up.”

“Thanks!” I shot her a hasty smile. Then I hurried down the driveway, off to my next Quest, whatever it might be.

I’d find out when I got to the Castle.

“Cutting it pretty close there, Sav!” Dante greeted me when I found him on the Hex.

I threw my arms around my brother and gave him a big hug.

“Hey, what’s that for?” he asked me, chuckling.

“I’m just glad you’re here.”

I’d had a pretty freaky dream about Dante last night. He’d appeared in the form of a talking mushroom. No, I really didn’t want to talk about it. I didn’t even want tothinkabout it.

“Of course you’re glad I’m here. You gain at least ten cool points by just being near me,” Dante joked.

Laughing, I hugged him again.

“What are you doing!” someone shouted.

I turned around to find a girl marching toward us. Tall, strong, and beautiful, she looked like a warrior princess. I wasn’t sure what I’d done to offend her, but it must have been pretty bad. She was glaring at me like I was the source of all evil in the universe.

“Why are you huggingher?” the girl demanded.

Oh, I saw what was going on.

“New girlfriend, Dante?” I asked my brother with a casual smirk. “You sure work fast.”

“That’s Sara,” he told me. “She’s one of my teammates,notmy girlfriend.”

Ok, so maybe I didn’t know what was going on.

Dante turned to Sara. “And Savannah’s my sister, so I can hug her if I want to, thank you very much.”

Sara’s stance didn’t relax. “She’s the enemy.”

“What are you talking about?” he laughed.

“Weren’t you listening at all to what Ms. Pirana told us our first day here? We will be scored both individually and as part of a team.” Sara pointed at the enormous Scoreboard planted in the middle of the lawn like a very large, very ugly garden decoration.

I had one hundred and eighty six points. After the General’s freak-out yesterday, I thought it would be way worse. Still, I had to find some way to earn a boatload of Merit points fast, or I’d be toast. There were only three more days to go until the General culled the underachievers from the Program.

Dante rolled his eyes at Sara. “Ok, so what’s your point?”

Sara growled with obvious frustration. “She is thecompetition.” She thrust a finger toward me. “You cannot fraternize with the enemy.”

This was so ridiculous that I couldn’t help but laugh.

And so did Dante. “We’re all on the same side, Sara. We all want to protect Gaia.”

Sara shook her head. “You don’t get it, Dante. They are assessing us. Our accomplishments are being compared to everyone else’s accomplishments. How well we do here will determine our entire future careers as Knights. The assignments we receive. The medals we’re awarded. How many kids from each town the Government will choose next year. This is a competition.”

“Well, I guess you’re my competition too then, huh?” he shot back.

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