Captured Hearts, Chapter 3

Chapter 3

ERAGON

I stood outside of the forbidden hall waiting for Arya and the girl, Abby to return. I got bored and decided to go sit in one of the weird table chairs. I surreptitiously studied my surroundings or at least what I could see of them. Everything looked so fragile and alien. Boxes with strange buttons and lights sat on a low shelf. My mentors had said that these were computers. What use they served, I didn’t know. One of the supposed sane girls bumped into me and introduced herself.

“Hi?”

“Hello.”

“Who are you?”

“I am Eragon. Who are you?”

“Jackie, Cool name, I’ve never heard a name like that. So where do you live?”

“Um, here for now.”

“Well yeah, everyone lives here for the week what about the weekend.”

My mind raced to answer her question somewhat truthfully. What had that one woman said? “Oh, we are not too sure we will stay with two different families and switch back and forth between them.”

“So it’s like foreign exchange, that’s cool. My friend Li Qin is from China, she is here for a year or more.”

“I met her, very interesting character.”
Our conversation ceased as Arya, Abby, and another girl came down the hall. This girl had the most exquisitely colored hair. Even compared to the other two her hair was her most dominant feature.


“Eragon, this is Aubree,” Abby announced.


“Nice to meet you,” I said

“You to,” she murmured smiling.

“Now that that’s over with, I am going to go do my homework before dinner.” Exclaimed Jacki.
I heaved a sigh as Jackie disappeared into the forbidden hall.

“Are you okay?” asked Abby in a concerned voice.

“Yes, just glad to not be bombarded with questions I cannot answer very well.”

“Well, that’s Jackie for you,” Abby commented. Silence rained for a couple of minutes. Then from within the long haul a shriek was heard.
“TIME FOR DINNER!!!!!”

I think I jumped about five feet in the air and stumbled into Aubree.
“Sorry about that.” I apologized.
I noticed that she had grabbed my arm to steady both of us. She let go with her cheeks burning. I turned to see Arya staring at us, a smirk on her face.

“Who in all goodness was that?” she asked in a bewildered tone.

“Oh, that was just Kelsey. She is the loudest around here. You do not want to see her when she is hyper.” Autumn commented.

“Warning noted we will not cross paths with her when she is hyper. I responded quickly.


“Dinner is ready, first come first serve.” Autumn called.

We all lined up and were given plates with some kind of meat sauce over a biscuit, and some sort of salad.

“Just the salad please.” asked Arya, her usual politeness ever present.
“Come sit with us!” called Aubree and Abby from a nearby table.

We walked over and sat at a round table made of some hard material, definitely not wood. Our table was most likely the quietest. Only Abby, Aubree, Jackie and a new girl who had brown hair talked. The new girl spoke in low tones.

At another table, the noise was close to unbearable. A girl with fiery red hair was talking animatedly with another who looked to be not really hearing her. How she could manage this I did not know. Some other girls just sat and ate their food mechanically, as if they were in their own worlds.
Arya leaned over to my ear. “Why did Brom send us here of all places, it makes no sense. There are better things we could be doing.”

I looked around quickly to make sure no one was listening and spoke in a whisper, “My guess is as good as yours, but there must be a good reason. Brom would not send us to such a perilous world for a laugh."