The Search for Artemis - By P. D. Griffith Page 0,29

so why not spend it there. Katie Leigh and Riley waited for some response, but as Landon continued to sit pensively, they went back into their heated discussion.

Landon continued his scan of the cafeteria, and with every passing second he became more and more awestruck. There were so many students. They were gathered together in close groups peppered throughout the tables; a line nearly went out the door with people waiting to get their lunch; and more were still filing in. How could they keep all of this secret? he wondered. He continued to look around and caught sight of Celia and Parker, perfectly spaced between two larger groups of students, sitting together at the next table over. They both ate in relative silence with Celia occasionally trying to spark up some conversation.

“So what’s with Parker?” Landon blurted out to his tablemates without turning to ensure he had their attention.

“No one really knows, honestly,” Katie Leigh replied.

Riley continued, “Yeah, she’s a bit of a loner. She doesn’t really talk to anyone and keeps to herself, but no one messes with her. Well, typically no one messes with her. Today was kind of a fluke. She might not hang out with Brock and them, but she’s right up there at their level. I bet having to take the new girl around is killing her.”

For the next hour, while they devoured their massive plates of food, Landon tried to stay focused on all the information Riley gave him on each of the students sitting throughout the lunchroom, but Landon had difficulty keeping up. Riley seemed to know everything about everyone at the Gymnasium. He went person to person, calling out poignant moments from everyone’s past that had landed them in their current social situation. According to him, his current status was only a temporary placement as a “second-string citizen.”

“Now, whatever you do, you don’t want to become an outcast, like Peregrine over there.”

Riley was nearing the end of his internal student directory.

“Who?” Landon asked, trying to focus back on Riley.

“Peregrine Mortimer. That girl sitting over there.”

Riley motioned to a girl about sixteen sitting alone at a distant table. She didn’t look like what he had expected of an outcast, but she did have that typical introspective quality about her. She had a child-of-Oberon look due to her petite frame coupled with short, haphazardly cropped platinum blonde hair and luminescent pale skin. But despite her spritely qualities, she seemed to dress normal enough, and her most striking feature was her violet eyes. Landon thought she was quite beautiful, and he wondered what could be so bad that made her a social leper.

“Yeah, she has it the worst. I’m surprised the Gymnasium actually keeps her around. She can barely lift a book, and in her condition.”

“Her condition?”

“She’s blind,” Katie Leigh interjected.

Landon found himself staring at her, imagining the circumstances that would bring her to a place like the Gymnasium, only to make her an outcast. Suddenly, she raised her head and faced Landon head-on. It was like she was staring right back at him, but her eyes were blank.

“All right, Landon, I think we better get moving. If Dr. Wells wants me to show you around this place, it is going to take a while. It’s huge.”

Riley’s words jolted Landon out of his trance. He rotated around and, grabbed his tray, and stood up. Landon shouted “Goodbye” to Katie Leigh before hurriedly catching up with Riley.

For the rest of the afternoon, Riley led Landon around the Gymnasium. At each of the four corners of the facility there was a massive tower with colossal hallways identical to the ones branching off the Atrium, connecting one to the other. The towers each housed a separate function of the Gymnasium: the Administrative Tower in the southeast; the Library in the southwest; the northeast tower—where they’d had lunch—was the Student Tower; and the northwest tower was off limits to the general student population—Riley just referred to it as the Restricted Tower. And he didn’t seem to have any idea what went on there. To access the individual floors of each tower, one had to take the main stairs off the giant hallways or use the hidden stairwells that exited into the Atrium.

Riley took Landon through each floor of each tower in perfect tour guide fashion. On the base floor of the Administrative Tower resided the medical wing, which Landon already knew far too well, with the scientists’ labs above it, then the faculty offices. and the tutoring rooms