The Edison lights were still glowing. They cast a warm sheen against the darkened monitors as students began filing out of the room.

"I'm heading to the gym." Phoenix swiped a hand through her platinum hair. "Need to clear my head after those tests. Every time I blink, all I see is a bunch of dots, lines and question marks."

Scrunching her eyes shut for a second, she shook her head. "See you at Watson, Marin." Peering over my shoulder, she grinned at Archer. "Catch you later, Miller."

"Sounds good, Phoe." He reached for a high-five before she walked away, and his grey eyes flicked back to me. "Phoe's awesome. So, are you heading back to res?"

Shifting from one foot to another, I fiddled with my wristband. "Yeah, probably."
It wasn't like I had anything else to do. I still felt a little lost when Opal and Gracie weren't around.

"I'm heading that way, too. Let's go together. I live at Crick." Standing up from his chair, he towered over me.

Lifting my chin, I nodded up at him. "Okay." Together, we walked toward the door. Dr. Kelly was in the corner, staring intently at his laptop. He didn't look up as we passed.

As we stepped into the brightly lit hallway, I blinked. Cognitive Room B was a dark womb of a room, so the lights outside felt momentarily harsh.

"So, you pretty much kicked everyone's ass in there today. Are you hoping for a Cognition placement or something?" Archer looked down at me, tilting his head to the side as he waited for my response.

"Oh god, no." I wrinkled my nose. "That's my dad's dream, not mine. He's a geneticist, so he'd love another science geek in the family. I'm honestly not sure where I want to be placed. I didn't even know about Mendel before I turned sixteen, so this is all new to me."

"Huh. I've always known I'd end up here." We reached the polished wooden steps leading to the foyer, the carved eye in Mendel's Crest capturing us in its stony glare. "Not that it's a bad place," he shrugged. "For once I'd just like some sort of ... surprise, you know?"

"Surprises are overrated." I snorted, and my hand flew up to cover my mouth.

Archer just laughed. "Well ... that was surprising."

Cheeks on fire, I wanted to melt into the floorboards.

"So, what about you?" I scrambled to change the subject. "Are you hoping they'll stream you into the Cognition program? I only beat you by a few seconds and we were the last two to finish the test."

"Doesn't really matter what I want," he muttered, his eyebrows suddenly knitting together. Shaking his head slightly, his lips turned down at their corners. "Sorry. Touchy subject." His eyes were dark and stormy, like brewing clouds, not bright like polished silver anymore.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he sighed. "What's the point of being upset? I'm just hurtling towards the inevitable, like everyone else around here."

"Hurtling towards the inevitable? Sounds almost poetic." I searched for meaning in his expression, but didn't know him well enough to read anything there.

"Yeah, well, don't tell my dad. Yours wants you to be a scientist? Mine wants me to be a machine. So, there's no room for poetry, science or anything slightly off course." Hand grasping the iron rail, his knuckles were white. "You saw Dad at Orientation, all decked out in his uniform and crew cut. The only thing he's ever wanted is for me to be his perfect little soldier." Archer spoke through his teeth. "If I don't stream Kinaesthesia, he'll go nuts."   

My mind flipped back to Orientation. There hadn't been anything warm about Archer's father; he was all sharp lines, from his stiff posture to the glinting medals hung over his uniform's left pocket.

"That's a lot of pressure." Archer's body may have been jacked, but his wide eyes were more vulnerable than fierce.  "I'm sorry you have to deal with that."

Sighing, he paused for a second on the bottom step. "You have nothing to be sorry about. God, I'd better lighten up. I guess Meta has me more worked up than I thought."     

The rest of our class had drained from the building. Aside from Dr. Kelly, tapping away at his computer upstairs, we were alone.

"You don't sound pathetic. Actually, you kind of sound how I feel inside -- confused, a little scared; maybe a bit angry?" The observation slipped past my lips before I realized I'd spoken out loud.

"A bit?" His dimple was back. "Sometimes I'm a whole lot angry."

"Yeah." The air whooshed from my lungs all at once, like I'd been holding it in without realizing it. "I've been there. Still kinda there, actually. It's starting to help ... meeting people like you ... people like me, I guess."

"People like us." He looked at me for an extra beat. Clearing my throat, I moved past him to push open the lab door, changing the subject as we stepped outside.

"So, we get to do all of this again tomorrow, huh?"

"Maybe? I mean, who knows what they've got planned for us. They're pretty determined to stream everyone properly, though, so I'm sure Dr. Kelly will pull out all the stops to confirm who from our group is most likely to stream Cognition. On Wednesday we'll head to our second aptitude for testing."

"So, you'll move on to Kinaesthesia?" At face value, Archer's dad had gotten his wish. His son was taller and fitter than any guy I'd seen at Mendel so far, and that was saying a lot considering the student body had been genetically programmed for greatness. 

"I'd better — I haven't been training since I was ten for nothing."

"Since you were ten?" A string of hazy flashbacks from my grade school years featured friends' birthday parties, happy Christmas' with Mom and Dad, and a string of unlucky goldfish before we got our cat, Helix. The only thing I trained for was being a kid, plain and simple.

"Yup, since I was ten." Smirking, his dimple danced on his cheek. "For the last six years I've been living the dream!" 

"Wow. All that work and Gracie still beats you at cross country. That's gotta suck." Sticking out my tongue, a snicker bubbled up from the back of my throat.

Archer laughed out loud. "Touché. That girl's a freaking gazelle!"

"She's something, all right. Actually, she and Opal have been amazing — without them, I'd feel completely lost around here."

"Ah. You're friends with Cho, huh?"

"Let me guess ... you used to train with her, too?"

"Ha! Cho? Yeah right. She's awesome but she's got two left feet. Nah, we shared some classes, had some common friends."

"Had?"

Eyebrows slightly raised, he looked almost surprised at my question, but then he smiled and his reaction flickered away.

"Yeah, had — you know, as in last year. Anyway, here we are!" Looking up I realized we'd arrived at Watson's back door,

"I guess that's my cue. Not sure about you, but I'm hoping to fit in a nap before dinner." All of a sudden I was exhausted. "See you later, Archer."

"Definitely." Winking, he gave me a curt salute and turned down the path that led to Crick.

The original writing of this chapter wasn't sitting well with me, so I rewrote it and think this is a better trajectory for the characters. Predictions? Favorites? Please vote and comment if you're enjoying the story. And thanks for reading!!!