The Institute
Page 43
***
Chad’s already seated in my next class when I get there, and I can’t not sit next to him or he’ll know something’s up. I still feel flushed from our encounter. No, be confident. Walking over, I sit next to him like nothing ever nearly happened. He sits up straighter in his chair as I slump down in mine.
“Hey,” I say.
“Learn anything new?”
“Oh, you know, only five different ways to hurt you in your happy place.” I smile.
“Yeah, we won’t be practicing that on our lunch breaks.” He smiles back.
At least there’ll be more lunch breaks together.
Class goes agonisingly slow. I don’t know if it’s because of the tension between Chad and me now or if Covert Operations is just really boring, as usual. You’d think something called “Covert Operations” would be more thrilling and exciting espionage-type tales. It’s not. It’s basically rules and regulations, just one after the other.
I finally find solace in the last class of the day. Analysis is at least interesting. Today we’re learning to differentiate between people with active and passive abilities. Apparently, it’s quite easy to tell from just observing their actions.
People with active abilities—like Chad’s force field or Nuka’s energy or my borrowing ability—all act in a particular way. We’re generally overachievers with short fuses. That doesn’t quite describe me, but then again, I’m new to my abilities, and I do have a second, passive ability. The short fuse does describe Chad though.
Active Defectives apparently like being the centre of attention, which does not describe either Chad or me. Then again, he was becoming a teacher—you have to at least not hate being the centre of attention to do that. It does describe Nuka. She seemed to like being fussed over.
Active abilities also bring out the cockiness in people. They usually have an ability that will allow them to get away from a sticky situation easily, giving them a sense of security in themselves. A lot of people wouldn’t even suspect that these people were Defective at all because of how boisterous and public they are.
People with passive abilities are more likely to be like Shilah and me. They know they don’t belong, so they just try to fit in wherever they can. They’re introverted and shy. The last thing they’d want is to be the topic of gossip. Although, I’m finding you get used to it after a while. I’m still getting stares from a lot of people—after all, I’m the girl who seduced someone in The Crypt, right after finding out that my agent boyfriend was responsible for my arrest. That’s the gossip according to Shilah anyway. They can think all they want. I really don’t care. At least, I don’t want to care.
I decide to skip seeing Tate after class. After the incident between Chad and I earlier, and my conflicting feelings about it, I don’t want Tate in my head, especially if Chad is around.
Deciding to spend the night in my room alone, I even bring my dinner up from the cafeteria so I don’t have to deal with anyone. I try not to fall asleep though, the sooner I go to sleep, the sooner I have to get up and do it all again. Starting with seeing Drew in History class.