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Tessa got out of the pool after Cecily. Cecily's cheeks were still bright pink. From the workout or Gabriel, she wasn't really sure. "So Gabriel, hmm?" said Tessa looking at Cecily with both of her brown eyebrows raised.

Cecily's cheeks went cherry. "Umm, no." she said with a nervous look. Tessa stood akimbo and gave her another look. "Okay, maybe." Tessa started laughing; she couldn't take being serious right now.

"So what do you specialize in?" Tessa asked Cecily as they walked out the pool door.

"Maths, and assuming by all the books on your desk, you're majoring in English," said Cecily.

"Gee, how would you have guessed that?" Tessa retorted rhetorically, stepping on the first step.

"The only person I know who has that many books is my brother," replied Cecily, obviously not catching Tessa's tone.

Tessa gave her an incredulous stare, "Will likes reading? I would've never guessed!"

"Yup, it's true. My brother's a book nerd. He likes a lot of old books and poetry and can quote just about all of them."

"How old are you? You look a little younger than 14," said Tessa. She really couldn't help saying it. It was out of her mouth before she had had a chance to think about it.

Cecily's cheeks went pink again as she said, "That's because I am. I'm only 13. I skipped the third grade." They reached Tessa's door and came to a stop. Tessa opened her door and stopped Cecily.

"Do you know what's going on tonight?" asked Tessa.

"It's some kind of party the swim team has at the beginning of every year. Will has never really told me much about it. It's supposed to be a secret to the Freshmen and everyone who's not on the swim team," replied Cecily. "Speaking of the party, I should probably go and get ready. It's probably time to go to dinner anyways. I'll see you later?"

"Sure. See you tonight," replied Tessa, closing the door.

Tessa hadn't ended up going to dinner. She had ended up in her bed by 7:00 reading The Kite Runner. It was just short of 10 p.m. when she heard a knock on the door.

Tessa clambered off of her bed leaving the book there and opened the door. On the floor in front of her was Will. "Good evening, Tess," he said leaning against the doorframe. His face had a smirk on it and he was wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"What is this?" said Tessa with one eyebrow cocked in the air. It came out more annoyed sounding than she had intended.

"Why, Tess, funny you should ask," he was interrupted by a snort from Tessa.

"What's not to ask about? It's almost 10:00!" she said.

"Well, as I was saying, I am your escort to Arabelle's room. Get changed and let's go," said Will.

"What am I supposed to wear? Shouldn't this be fine?" interrogated Tessa.

"Sure, but I thought that was your sleep clothes," said Will.

Tessa couldn't help but snort. "Okay, I'll get changed wait out here."

"Oh, I thought I could come in, but whatever," said Will with a shrug as Tessa closed the door.

Will waited outside until Tessa came out a few minutes later. Now she was wearing a blue sweater with some gray jeans and her hair was in a ponytail. She wasn't wearing any shoes, though, only a pair of white socks. "Ready to go now?" asked Will.

"I think so," said Tessa shrugging. Tessa began to walk away from him and towards the stairs.

"Tess," said Will as she turned around, "wait a second. You have to put a blindfold on." He pulled a red blindfold out of his back pocket just then. "Do you want to put it on or do you want me to?"

"I can do it," said Tessa as she snatched the blindfold from his hands. She tried to tie it but she couldn't do it. After struggling for a bit, Will grabbed the blindfold with a sigh. He touched her hands while grabbing it. She shivered under his hands."There. All set," said Will while pulling his hands away. He one arm around her waist. He liked this. It gave him a chance to talk to her and touch her (in a non-creepy non-rapey way).

"Stairs," he whispered in her ear as his foot fell on the first one. They slowly made their way up a couple of stairwells. The floor was silent, as Will expected it to be. He led Tessa a little farther down the hallway and stopped in front of Arabelle's room. He opened the door slowly and led Tessa inside.

He only had to bend down about three inches to bring his mouth near her ear, which was unusual to Will. "Turn around," he said as he closed the door. Tessa was facing the door as he started to undo the blindfold. "Have fun, Tess," he whispered. He slipped into the back of the crowd gathered in the room.

Tessa turned around as soon as Will had stopped whispering only to see no one there. It was dark in the room and she could hardly see a thing. Just then, there was a flicker from opposite sides of the room. They looked like a candle flame from here. The candles lit up two at a time until Tessa could see it was a fully completed circle.

A figure appeared in the very center of the circle. "Initiates," boomed a voice. It was obviously male, but Tessa couldn't immediately recognize it from memory. "Welcome to the Initiation party. All ten of you should take a seat behind one of the candles."

Tessa did as she was told. The candles were casting shadows on the faces of nine other people. Just then, someone turned on one of those multi-colored disco balls. It sat in the middle of the circle and shone light on a big crowd gathered in the back of the room.

"Initiates, meet your sponsors," said the voice who she now could see was Gideon. A few people stepped out of the crowd. Cecily turned around to see that her sponsor was Jem. Tessa saw that she smiled at him and then started to make a little bit of small talk. Then she could feel someone's presence behind her. She turned around and, of course, out of all the people she could've gotten, she got Will.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey y'all! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please R&R! I don't think I will update tomorrow because I'm going to a Rob Zombie/Korn concert tomorrow night (YUUUUSSS!), but I will try and shoot for Thursday or Friday depending on how it goes. I'm 70% done with my goal, guys! LET'S KEEP GOING! Thanks for Reading! :D

THANKS ~Calliope