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Ainsley Main Building > Convservatory

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message 1: by rose (new)

rose (rose33) | 1000 comments A room in the middle of the main Academy, kind of like an indoor courtyard. All the walls are glass, and the ceiling is also glass to allow sunlight. The floor is grass, it's kind of like a small indoor garden.


message 2: by Mal (new)

Mal (malxox) | 445 comments
Bonnie knew that she was hopeless, but her spirits now were lower than the day she tried to talk to the cutest boy in town-- it hadn't gone well. This was so much worse. Groggy with lack of sleep, Bonnie let loose a stressed sigh, shutting her eyes. The little flowers weren't even helping; she thought they might, some part of her had always thought that maybe her element was earth because of her love of the outdoors, but she was beginning to doubt it. Nothing was making her feel better. The afternoon walk, the low breeze, and definitely not the flowers. She kicked off her shoes, brushing her fingers through the fresh smelling grass, it's blades working to make little nicks in her skin. She flopped onto her back and stared, squinty-eyed, at the ceiling ... until her eyes watered.

She wondered what Monday would bring. What did 'punishment' even mean? Surely it wasn't good. How could she possibly survive a month of it? She wrapped her hands into little fists of determination -- and a little bit of fear -- telling herself that all would be well. She would get better. It would get easier. Lies, but comforting lies. Bonnie was sure she'd sleeping in her clothes for the next few months, purely out of paranoia.



message 3: by rose (new)

rose (rose33) | 1000 comments
Bonnie wasn't the only one that was completely exhausted from the night before, Cass could see it on everyone's faces. The varying expressions of disappointment, or in some cases complete happiness -- she wasn't sure why those people were so happy, the ones at the top, they had only made themselves targets. Or at least that's just how Casie saw it, since she had one of the bleakest views about this place ever. She still couldn't believe how last night how gone, first of all, she was dead ass asleep when those sirens had gone off, and she was lucky to have made it outside with Nora dragging her in the first place.

But jesus, they had barely made it within the time limit, not that it had mattered... come to find out today, they were just under the threshold and had to do punishments anyways. What did that even mean? At least they only had to do them for like a week, wasn't it? Ugh. At 8am, really? Cassie dropped her bag onto the floor of the conservatory, deciding this was just a good of place as any to sit down and read over the book she had gotten from the library about Guardians. She glanced over at the girl next to her, recognizing her from her picture in the gallery, "Bonnie, right? Bonnie Cook? I'm Cassie, aka 26th place. Do you have any idea of what punishments are? I was reading books to see if they mentioned them, but I haven't had any luck yet."



message 4: by Mal (new)

Mal (malxox) | 445 comments
Used to being semi-transparent, Bonnie sat up quick, blinking confusedly at the stranger. Oh. Oh! She must have gone to the gallery; that was smart, maybe if Bonnie knew people she would have an ally that dragged her butt out of bed on time so that this didn't happen in the future. "26th is better than disqualified," Bonnie's laugh was without humor. She was glad to have something more to talk about than her absolute failure. "No!" she gasped, "I have no idea! Shouldn't that be something they tell you before scaring the hell out of you? I would have done so much more to avoid it if I knew there were going to be punishments." she sat her elbows on her knees, cheeks squished against her palms. The academy was always said to be brutal, so maybe she should have seen it coming -- her own fault, ugh -- but knowing that Monday morning could bring any array of painful things was ... unnerving. What if it involved weapons? Or psychological stuff? She would go insane long before she knew, that much was certain. Bonnie didn't forsee herself getting much sleep the next ever.



message 5: by rose (new)

rose (rose33) | 1000 comments
"I mean whatever the punishments are, I can't imagine they would be any worse than that damned competition." she remarked, not necessarily thinking about the fact that Bonnie might not know what the race had been like if she was disqualified. She didn't look injured or anything, so it was Cassie's guess that she hadn't made it outside in time. Cass had actually seen a guy tying someone else's door closed, so maybe Bonnie had been the victim of some kind of sabotage, or a little too slow? The possibilities were endless. Literally that race had been anyone's game, so she wasn't sure what this competition had been for, if not just to pit people against each other in the first week.

As for the punishments, "I'm betting they keep them a secret so we think they are more worse than the actually will be... or at least that's what I'm hoping for."



message 6: by Mal (new)

Mal (malxox) | 445 comments
Bonnie was on the cusp of speech, but her circumstances propelled her into silence; Cassie was probably right. She hadn't even made it out of her bedroom-- what a loser. Bonnie sucked in her bottom lip. Things probably wouldn't be okay, she noted to herself, but suddenly they seemed a lot better than she thought they were. What had she been expecting anyway? Throw your weight around a little bit, find the guy of your dreams, win and call it good? Life, apparently, wasn't anything like the fairytales. "Hopefully." she responded, kneading her neck awkwardly. She let loose a breath, and glanced over. "Do you... can I... what was it like? I mean, it must have been awful, but... it's okay if I ask that, right?" She wanted to be ready for whatever the next competition would be, even though it was highly unlikely they would be doing the same thing twice. No way in hell, but it was experience that she missed out on. Experience meant everything, especially to her.



message 7: by rose (new)

rose (rose33) | 1000 comments
It hadn't occurred to Cassie that Bonnie wouldn't have any idea what she was talking about, because yeah, if she didn't make it out of the dorms, no one had probably told her what the competition even was -- every man for himself and whatnot. If Cassie had been of that mentality, she probably wouldn't be talking to Bonnie in the first place, so she might as well, it's not like she was trying to win or anything, she was just trying to keep Nora alive. "Yeah, you just as easily could have been out there." she paused, unsure how really to describe it. "Well, they basically made us run all around campus to find these rings, and for the ones that were in the wave pool you had to like jump in... and I don't know, but I feel like some people might not be good swimmers, and they really could have died in there, and it's not like anyone would have stopped to give them CPR. Anyways, we only had two hours, and they took our shoes so my feet are actually kind of low key still bleeding."

Cassie glanced up at her, realizing she might have overshared. "But yeah, the results are in the gallery if you wanted to scope out the competition."



message 8: by Mal (new)

Mal (malxox) | 445 comments
Bonnie was having trouble picturing it. Diving and swimming and running and chasing after ... rings? What for? Just to weed out the losers? Or to put targets on the winners? She gnawed on her bottom lip, visualizing little bulls-eye's fall over the necks of the top five -- no, the top ten! -- and found that even herself had one. As one of the prospectively weakest links, people would either not take her seriously, or take her out. She'd heard through the grape vein that some kid called Hartley had won. What's-his-name Kent was up there, too, she thought. Bonnie glanced over at Cassie, "They took your shoes?" She could have inquired about the specifics, but she didn't think that Cassie would be too game sharing it all with her competition. If Bonnie even was competition. Pull yourself together man! You'll get better. You'll kick butt ... yeah. "Did you at least get to wear your socks?" That was a dumb question. But she grew up in a pretty tame household; what other concerns would she have when she hadn't seen the violence first hand?



message 9: by rose (new)

rose (rose33) | 1000 comments
"Uhm, yeah, we got to keep the socks. But getting out there in under three minutes, some people weren't wearing much to start out with. I don't know, it was just really messed up." she replied, still feeling uneasy about the whole thing. Cassie could think about it all day up and down, but it was an entirely different think to have to explain it out to someone else. The way she was feeling right now only reaffirmed her belief that this Academy was a terrible place, and furthermore, the Gauntlet itself was a joke to society. Did no one else see it that way? They needed to help her convince Nora this place was insane, or at the very least, confirm her disposition so she didn't feel so damn crazy.

Shit. Nora! "I have to go, I'm meeting a friend, she said she had something important to talk to me about and knowing her, she'll be pissed if i'm not six minutes early. See you around?" she asked, but was already packing her things to jet off.



message 10: by Mal (new)

Mal (malxox) | 445 comments
(view spoiler)

"Oh, sorry," Bonnie criss-crossed her legs, back slouching in shame. "Didn't mean to keep you. I'll definitely see you around," she concluded. She was glad she'd talked to Cassie, even just a little. Bonnie was pretty sure that the next place she'd be going after mustering enough motivation to haul her ass up and move around -- would be the gallery. Which she could have done earlier, but was dumb with depression, and it wasn't going to get her anywhere. "Cross your fingers and hope that punishments won't kill you," she waved Cassie off.



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