Hey everyone! So first of, I want to thank you all for the reviews! I feed off of them, and all your suggestions and tips are really helpful. It'll probably take a couple of days to post the next chapter, because I want to write about the party from multiple view points. Enjoy!

The next couple of weeks went by in the blink of an eye. Tessa was slowly starting to get the hang of living in a boarding school, and what exactly being at the Institute entailed. She hadn't much time for anything besides school work, and no one at school ever slept before midnight. But the previous weekend, the entire group had managed to scrape enough time on Sunday to go to Westminster Abbey and the London Eye. Tessa had enjoyed the break from being on the school grounds. There were a few weekdays when Tessa had found time to go to a football match of Tori's or Gideon's, but beyond that, she was often holed up in her room or the library.

The first time Tessa saw the library, her mouth dropped open in shock. It was huge. It was a separate building on campus, and was two stories high. The outside looked like a building straight from Greek architecture, while the inside was decorated in gold and dark wood. The ground floor was purely academic. The books ran throughout the perimeter of the floor, organized by their respective subjects. The center was filled with tables and chairs and computers. The first floor was hollowed in the center, giving people a view of the ground floor from the top. This floor had more recreational literature. There were newspapers and magazines, along with short stories and novels. Tessa had spent her the better part of her free period on that first Friday roaming through the shelves. In the mood to read a more classical piece, she picked up Wuthering Heights and settled herself into a hidden corner with plenty of beanbag chairs and window benches overlooking the academic quad. She had also been surprised when Will walked into the corner, who had been clearly been looking to be left alone, but found Tessa instead.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here? Don't you have class now?" she asked.

He smirked. "So many questions. You know, it would do you no harm to answer other people's questions once in awhile. Go on, I asked you first."

She sighed. "I have free period and I don't have any homework. I thought I'd look around. Your turn."

"I'm supposed to be in Russian, but we're learning about Peter the Great, so I decided to skip."

He noticed the unopened book in her hands. "Wuthering Heights? That silly book where people give up love for wealth? You have a fickle taste in literature."

He sat on the same window bench as her, setting himself on the opposite end. Tessa had her legs bent in front of her, almost as a defensive barrier. "And what are you reading? Show me, you can't criticize my taste in literature without letting me critique yours."

He showed her the cover. "Lolita? If my taste is fickle, then yours is downright morbid!" She scowled at him and opened her book, hiding behind it. He scowled back and took up the same position as Tessa, opening his book. And they spent the rest of the period in silence, reading away as the rain began to steadily come down on London.

The Institute was not only notoriously difficult, it was also really competitive. Everyone was always working to get the best grades and maintain the cleanest records, trying to edge each other out on every assignment. Tessa had even played witness to a girl break down in tears in her European Lit class because she got a 90 on her test. Tessa hadn't been able to understand why everyone was like this, and decided to ask Tori about it one night.

She smiled when Tessa asked. "I'm glad someone has noticed the competition is ridiculous here. The marks necessarily don't matter now, but they do matter when you hit Year 13, and the Institute Award is handed out."

"Institute Award? What's that?"

"It's an award that started being handed out by Headmaster Foster during the 1950s. Every student is automatically entered when they reach the Fifth Form, but each student has to go through a series of tests to get the person who passes them all, and with the highest number of points gets the award."

"What kind of tests?"

"We don't know. They change them every year, and they're not all written tests, mind you. Two years ago, there was a riddle- scavenger hunt as one test. There was a triathlon as another test several years before that. The competition serves to pick out the best student, physically, intellectually, charismatically, etc.""

Tessa shuddered. "Why are people so desperate for this award then?"

"Because of the prize that comes with it. The recipient gets full tuition to any university in the world of their choice, including universities like Harvard or Cambridge. They also get a paid internship at any company or industry of their choosing. Last year's winner chose to go to Stanford and do an internship with Google for the next few years. Opportunities like this don't come at all, which leaves everyone vying for the top spot." Tori returned to her presentation for her Economics class, but Tessa thought over this new information.

Any college in the world. This meant that she could go to Columbia or Yale without putting herself through tons of debt. She could get paid to work in Random House or Prometheus Publishers. She shook her head to clear her mind. Enough. You need to finish this year first. Tori turned back to Tessa. "Tessa, were you planning on coming to the Space Party at Club Pandemonium?" Tessa had heard about the party during one of her classes, but hasn't really thought about going. "Ummm, I'm not really sure." "Oh, Tessa, you have to come! It's on a Friday night, so you wouldn't have to worry about school work or curfew." "But I'm not really the clubbing type." "I can transform you in a heartbeat, Tessa. Please? The rest of us are going." Well that sealed the deal. There was no way that Tessa wanted to be left out of the group. "Alright, I'll go." "Excellent!"

The week flew by, and before they realized it, it was Friday afternoon. Victoria was heading back to the dorm from football practice;practice had run late and she still had to get ready for that night. She ran into Will as she was about to enter the main building. "William, what are you doing here?" He turned when he heard his name, grinning at Victoria. "I just grabbed some Starbucks for me and Jem" he said, holding up the cups. She had reached him by then, and she looped her arm through his elbow. She smiled ruefully at him, ruffling his hair with her hand. He began to talk, filling up the corridor with chatter. When they reached the dorm, Will stopped in front of his door as Tori struggled to open her's. She looked at him as she turned the key. "You know what Will? See what you're doing Sunday. If you're free, maybe you, me and Jem can go out, for old times-" she stopped short as she glanced into her room, staring at it, especially Tessa's half. She started to laugh. "Will, we'll finish that conversation later," she said stepping into the room, leaving a mildly confused Will in the corridor.

Tessa was standing in front of her wardrobe, wondering what she should wear. Victoria walked in, locking the door behind her.

"Tessa, what on earth?"

"Tori, help, I have no idea what I'm doing and I've never been to a club before and-"

"Okay, Tessa, stop." Victoria stuffed her gear under her bed, and threw open her own wardrobe on the other end of the room. After digging through it, she pulled out a white dress. It was sleeveless, and although it was completely covered in the front, the material dipped into a deep V in the back, and the dress flowed from beneath the chest, covered in a slight amount of glitter, causing it to shimmer. "How about this one?"

Tessa walked over to Victoria and fingered the material. "This is perfect, Tori. Let me put this on." Tessa took it and walked into the bathroom, putting on the dress and coming back out. It was about the same length as the school skirts, which Tessa had finally managed to get comfortable in. Tori whistled when she saw Tessa.

"You look hot, blatantly put. Here, put these on." She chucked a pair of bright red ballet flats at Tessa, along with a red bag over. She put them on.

"Come here, and sit in the chair at my vanity."

Tessa did as she was told, and Tori touched up her face and hair, applying makeup and combing her hair into a simple ponytail. Tessa looked at her face when she was done, and she liked what she saw. Tori had flushed out her skin and applied the makeup to bring out her eyes and lips. She went to go stand in front of the mirror, taking it all in.

Tori came up from behind her, grinning in the mirror. "You look great. I'm going to take a shower and get dressed, because I have about 20 minutes to get ready before we have to go." She dashed into the bathroom, and true to her word, she was out in 20 minutes. Tori had dressed in a beige dress that was skin tight. It had a simple round neck and was printed in a dull green tribal print. The dress covered her arms and stopped about mid-thigh. The dress dipped in the back like Tessa's, and she had paired it with beige heels and a similar colored purse. She left her hair loose down her back. After examining herself in the mirror, she gestured for Tessa to come over to the mirror. "Stand here, I want to take a photo of the two us." They stood in front of the mirror, and grinned into, Tori's phone flashing away.

She bagged the phone and grinned at Tessa. "Alright let's go!"

Hope you liked it! Sorry for the shorter chapter, but I didn't want to mix the party with the rest of this stuff.