The Perfects Read online

  “I’m going down for the last group,” Lucy said and got back into the vehicle.

  Was she going to leave us with this guy? I moved closer to Karen. At that point I didn’t care if I scared her again, this guy terrified me.

  Like Lucy, Christopher looked nothing like the nerdy professors that I thought of when I imagined this place. They seemed more like correctional officers than people who were going to teach us our careers.

  Christopher went over to the chubby guy. “You must be Marcus?”

  “Yes, sir,” Marcus said.

  Christopher tilted his head down and peered over his sunglasses at Marcus.

  A thin sheen of sweat reflected off Marcus’s forehead.

  I was so happy he wasn’t my contact for the next year. Lucy was prickly but she wasn’t gigantic and terrifying.

  Christopher didn’t bother to introduce himself to us, and that didn’t bother me in the least. But I started to feel rude when I didn’t say anything to the blonde girl. Even though she hadn’t made an effort either.

  I took a breath and went over to her. She was looking at her map and didn’t even acknowledge me when I was standing a foot in front of her.

  “Hi,” I said.

  She bristled and glanced up at me through her thick eyelashes. “Hi,” she expressed in a dismissive tone.

  “I’m Abigail,” I said.

  She sucked in a breath through her teeth. “Abigail?”

  “Y-yes?” I wasn’t sure why I was nervous, but her scathing expression made it hard not to be.

  “Do you live on a farm?” she asked with an annunciation on the word farm as if she said pig sty. There was a lot of stigmas when it came to farming, but she wouldn’t have a well-balanced meal if it weren’t for us farmers.

  But how did she know that? “Yes.”

  She rolled her eyes and let out a dissatisfied grunt.

  I wasn’t sure how to react. Did meet before? “What’s your name?”

  “Ashley.”

  I tried to place her but I couldn’t. I knew I’d remember a girl that beautiful.

  I wanted to say more, but she went back to studying the map.

  My hope of making friends was dwindling. I’d already struck out on two of the girls. I hoped this wasn’t a pattern.

  Lucy couldn’t come back quickly enough. I hoped she had nicer recruits in her vehicle this time. At least I knew Ian would be in there. I’d know one friendly face.

  When the car doors opened, only two girls came out with Lucy. Where was Ian? Was she making one more trip? He was cutting it close on time.

  Only one of the two girls appeared approachable, but I’d been mistaken before. One of them wore a mean scowl that would keep anyone away. The other went straight for Ashley and introduced herself.

  Well, I knew I wasn’t going to get close with that one right away. At least not while Ashley had some problem with me for some reason.

  Christopher took out a tablet almost the size of his large hand. “Abigail McKenzie?”

  I raised my hand, and he swiped over the screen. As he went down the list, I learned the names of the last two recruits. Amy was the one closer to Ashley and Melanie was the gruff-looking one.

  “Ian Weber?” Christopher said and looked at the group. Both Christopher and Lucy’s expressions tightened.

  “Ian Weber?” he said a little louder, but it was obvious there was only one guy in the group, Marcus.

  I looked around, expecting Ian to show up any second. But how would he if he wasn’t with Lucy? The large fence around the property was too big for anyone to climb safely. My stomach dropped. Was Ian not coming? Did he run away again? I wasn’t sure of the consequences for being late to Edgewood, but I knew they probably weren’t good.

  The bell at the top of the Town Hall building chimed in the distance. It was nine o’clock. We had strict instructions to arrive before that. What would be the consequences if Ian didn’t show up in time?

  Christopher stopped taking attendance as his attention was pulled to something behind us.

  I turned to see someone walking toward us on the road. I held my hand over my eyes to shield them. I would have known that silhouette anywhere. My insides fluttered with relief. It was Ian. I wasn’t sure how he made it through the front gate, but I couldn’t be happier. He held a large overcoat that barely brushed the ground as he walked. I’d never seen him wear that coat before. And it wasn’t cool enough. Maybe he expected inclement weather? But I was sure the institute would provide outerwear if we needed it.

  Ian’s face lit up when he saw me.

  The last strike of the bell echoed in the distance as Ian took his place next to me. He was the only boy I knew that was taller than me, which was one reason I liked him so much.

  “Hey Abbey,” he said, turning his chocolate brown eyes on me.

  “Cutting it close?” I said with a smile.

  He raked his free hand through his brown hair; it was longer than I remembered. “I like to make an entrance.”

  “Now that we’re all here,” Christopher pointed a glare at Ian, “it’s time for orientation. Follow me.”

  He and Lucy turned toward the building and walked, not even checking to see if we were following.

  The other recruits followed closely behind the professors. I wanted to but I waited for Ian to walk with me. I wasn’t going to risk losing him again.

  Something made a clicking sound under his jacket.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  He moved the jacket aside and revealed his bow and quiver with several arrows inside.

  I rolled my eyes. “You don’t go anywhere without that do you?”

  “You can never be too prepared.”

  “For what? This is a training facility. I’m not sure your future job will need those.”

  His eyes darkened. “It’s not for my supposed career, Abbey.”

  I shivered at his words, unsure why they haunted me. “Then what are they for?”

  “The less you know, the better,” he said taking off after the group, leaving me standing there wondering what the heck he was talking about.

  CHAPTER THREE

  My feet were momentarily rooted to the ground. What was Ian talking about? And what was he planning on using his bow and arrows on here? The reflection of the sun off the front doors blinded me, and I hurried to catch up.

  I was the last one of the group to enter the facility. I had to get my mind back into the game and remember that I’d come here for training, not to worry about any of the other recruits, especially Ian. He had a tendency to distract me from any task.

  Lucy stood next to the front door, waiting for me. I picked up my pace and passed through the double doors.

  The lobby inside the building was breathtaking. The floors and walls were pristine and glistening white. There was a television the size of Lucy’s vehicle on the wall above us. It showed the Edgewood Institute logo moving around the screen in a fluid motion. There were tables and chairs on the far end of the room, but they didn’t look very comfortable, not like the furniture we had in our house. The modern decor made me realize I wasn’t at home anymore. And I wasn’t about to be for a while.

  “This way,” Christopher said and headed down a hallway to the left of us. The map we’d been given hadn’t had this part in it. Maybe we were to be secluded from the visitors who came to the institute.

  The hallway was bright and sterile as the rest of the place. Even though I saw no maintenance staff, there must have been a lot of them to keep the place so clean and presentable. I wished one of them would visit my house and spruce it up a bit. I wouldn’t mind living in a clean space for once. Sometimes it appeared I was the only one cleaning the house while my parents were busy with the farm. And Catherine was just a slob.

  Lucy and Christopher stopped in front of a door marked Orientation.

  “Right now we’re going to do the physical examinations and get those out of the way before lunch,” Lucy said. “After that, you
will be given your first assigned tasks while you are residents of Edgewood Institute. These tasks will be rotated on a monthly basis, so there is no negotiating out of it. Understand?”

  I nodded, and some of the others did the same.

  “Your response should be ‘yes, ma’am,” Christopher said sharply.

  “Yes, ma’am,” we chorused.

  “Good,” Lucy said. “Girls, come with me.”

  We followed her through the doors and into a narrow hallway. A door on each side was marked for men or women. We filtered through the women side. Inside, was a brightly lit locker room. There were sinks along one side of the room and an opening to where I figured the toilets were. Several rows of lockers lined the other end of the room.

  Lucy turned to face us and crossed her arms. “Pick a locker. In each one is a bathrobe. Strip down all the way, leaving your underwear on and use the robe to cover up. Remove all jewelry and hair accessories. Meet me down there,” she pointed down the way where there was another door, “in two minutes.”

  She left, and I looked around. There wasn’t any privacy for changing. I wasn’t a prude, but I didn’t feel comfortable being naked around girls I’d just met. I never felt comfortable being naked around my family. I picked a locker closest to the door we entered. I grabbed the white robe and wrapped it around me as I removed my clothes. It was a little awkward but gave me enough privacy to change. I tied the bathrobe tightly around me. The fabric was incredibly soft as if I were being wrapped up in a cloud. I gathered my things and neatly folded them, placing them in the locker.

  I was the first in line next to Lucy. She stood like a statue against the wall, staring at nothing. I wanted to engage her and get to know the woman who was going to be my mentor for the year, but she seemed very prickly today. Maybe after I proved myself, I’d be able to converse with her socially.

  The rest of the girls came over, and we awaited further instructions.

  Lucy had us line up against the wall while she inspected us. “Recruit McKenzie, remove the bracelet.”

  I placed my hand on the charm. I didn’t even realize I hadn’t taken it off. It was an extension of me. “Sorry, Lucy.” I sprinted back to my locker and dropped the bracelet in the front so I wouldn’t forget it.

  We went through another door and inside was another white, sterile room. The gleaming surfaces held a variety of equipment I’d seen at doctor’s appointments and others I’d never seen before.

  A woman in a lab coat turned around to face us. She was older, but her skin was flawless with only a few wrinkles near her eyes.

  “Good morning,” she said with a bright smile. It was nice to see someone who wasn’t all scowly in this place. “I’m Doctor Sharon Gates. But you can call me Sharon. I’m the primary doctor for the female recruits so if you have any issues throughout the year; I’m always on call for you. We will be running quarterly examinations as well. First, we’re going to extract a few blood samples from you as a baseline for your file. And after that we’re going to run several physical examinations, a stress test and EKG to start. These are all standard procedure so do not worry about them. We want to make sure you are fit for some of the tasks. For those who aren’t, you will be put on a strict diet and regimen to get there. If you have any questions, let me know.”

  A door opened in the back of the room and several other women wearing scrubs entered the room. They looked quite young, maybe a year or two older than me. I wondered if this was their chosen career from Edgewood and they were training. I hoped they were good at drawing blood. It wasn’t something I enjoyed having done to me.

  The nurses called off each of the other girl's names, and they went to various stations throughout the room to be weighed and to have blood drawn.

  I stood there, thinking there was a mistake. Until Dr. Gates walked up to me.

  “Abigail?” she asked.

  I straightened up, ready to fight back if they said I wasn’t supposed to be here. Even though I was home-schooled and grew up on a farm, I deserved to be here.

  “I will be performing your examination today.”

  “Oh.” I glanced at the other girls in the room with their assigned nurses.

  “Your class has a lot of females,” she explained. “And we have a limited staff at the moment.”

  “I see,” I said, feeling a weight lifted off my shoulders. I thought I’d done something wrong. I had to relax now. I was meant to be here. And I would prove it every step of the way.

  Dr. Gates was a very nice woman, and she asked me questions about my life that weren’t too probing. Almost as if she were trying to get to know me. I supposed she was like that with all her patients, wanting them to be comfortable with her. But it was nice to talk to someone other than my family. I didn’t have many opportunities to do that since we were usually busy on the farm. Catherine and Mom were the ones to take our crops to the farmer's markets since Catherine wanted to run the farm someday. So interaction with other people was more her strength. I wanted to change that.

  When it was time for Dr. Gates to draw my blood, I didn’t watch. It wasn’t until she pressed lightly against my arm that I opened my eyes.

  “All set,” she said and threw her gloves into the waste basket.

  On the table next to her were five vials of my blood. “I didn’t even feel that.”

  Dr. Gates smirked. “That’s why they pay me the big bucks.” I liked her smile.

  She brought me into another room. This room was smaller and darker. On one side was a treadmill and on the other side was a small cot and a cart filled with wires and equipment.

  Dr. Gates crossed the room. “I’m going to hook you up to some machines now. Don’t be intimidated by the machines. They are perfectly harmless.”

  After the rest of my tests, I was sent into a waiting room. Dr. Gates told me to wait until the remainder of the girls were done.

  This room was unlike the rest. Gentle atmospheric music played through hidden speakers. The lights were dim, and there was water and fresh lemon slices available. The room was warm and smoothed away the tension in my shoulders.

  I was the first one there. I wondered how the tests were going for the other girls.

  A few minutes later, the door opened. I locked eyes with Ashley. No one came in behind her so we’d be alone for the time being.

  She glanced at me and then went for the water. As she poured herself a glass, thick tension filled the air.

  I decided to try again. I was going to be with her for a while, and I didn’t want us to be awkward with each other.

  “How were your tests?” I asked.

  She whirled around. “I know Ian, and you have some history,” she said, ignoring my question. Ashley over-pronounced her S’s as if she was a snake. “But you need to back off. I’ve been working on him all year, and like hell, you’re going to mess this up.”

  Working on him? What did that even mean? “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Ian says he’s unavailable because of some silly farm girl he has a crush on, but I know he’s just playing hard to get.”

  Ian had a crush on me? That wasn’t possible. I had a crush on him. And he hadn’t even hung out with me in ages. Was he using me as an excuse? I felt like something punched through my gut, I had the same feeling when I’d fallen from a horse when I was ten. The feeling made me nauseous and upset.

  “Ashley,” I said, “I’m telling the truth. There’s nothing going on with Ian and me.” There wasn’t, but I wasn’t about to give her my blessing. He could have said he was involved with anyone, why had he chosen me? Was it because I didn’t go to school with him? Making up a fake girlfriend with the girl segregated from the rest would be the perfect excuse. But wouldn’t he expect someone to say something? He knew Ashley was here. Or maybe he didn’t care.

  “I don’t know why Ian would lie about someone like you,” she spat, “so I had to assume it was true. I don’t know what to believe but just know, w
e’re not going to be friends. I’m here to do one thing, and that’s to get Ian.”

  That wasn’t the point of Edgewood, but I didn’t want to argue with her anymore.

  Thankfully, Amy and Melanie came in at that moment, and the tension in the air subsided. Ashley took a seat across the room from me and sipped her water.

  I liked Ian, and our history made that hard to shake, but I wasn't here for him, I was here for me. I felt sorry for Ashley and her reasoning for coming to Edgewood. Maybe that would be a disadvantage for her, and she’d be called out on it by Lucy. At least then maybe her attitude would be taken down a notch.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Karen was the last to enter the room. She squinted at us, and I realized she wasn’t wearing her glasses. I went over to help her to a chair.

  “Thanks,” she squeaked.

  Maybe she’d forget that I was overeager in talking to her earlier if she was able to see and recognize me without her glasses.

  Lucy entered from a door on the far end of the room. “Follow me.”

  We did as she asked, I held onto Karen’s arm as we walked into another locker room. This one was smaller with only about a dozen lockers across the wall.

  “In each of the lockers are your uniforms. You will wear them all day, every day. There will be six other sets in your residence rooms. They will be laundered on a daily basis.”

  “What about our stuff in the lockers?” I asked, not wanting to lose the bracelet and charm.

  “All your personal items will be delivered to your rooms by the end of the day today.”

  I nodded and let out a breath of relief. If I knew we wouldn’t be going back to the other locker room, I would have sneaked the bracelet into the pocket of my robe.

  “What about my glasses?” Karen said. “I won’t be able to wait until the end of the day.”

  Lucy looked put out. “I’ll retrieve those for you. In the meantime, get dressed. You will be given your assignments shortly.”

  I helped Karen over to a locker, and she thanked me again. I didn’t think she needed help changing, so I opened the locker next to her and grabbed the neatly folded pile of clothes.