Chapter 16

           For the first time, Kara looked around and saw that everyone was staring at her. Her face reddened and she lowered her eyes to the floor. Kara didn’t want to sit at a table with other people but Ben led her so she followed. He sat down at a table with who she knew to be Frank and Daniel. Kara hesitated before she sat down because she felt awkward being the only teen in a place packed with adults. She looked down at her food and found that she was starving.

            “Did you sleep well?” Frank asked awkwardly.

            “Ya, fine,” Kara tried to avoid eye contact with him.

            “Listen, we are sorry that we didn’t talk to you on the plane or on the way here. It was rude of us to do.” Daniel nodded an agreement to Frank’s statement. She noticed that they didn’t apologize for the handcuffs or anything else. Kara looked up through a piece of hair that was in her face.

            “You didn’t tell me anything… Only your names.”

            “We couldn’t and we still can’t. Not yet anyways.” Daniel said with a mouth full of food. Kara shook her head in disagreement and continued eating.

            “Did I say something wrong?” Daniel looked at his friends but Ben just shook his head and resumed eating. For once in her life, Kara liked the silence and wanted it to stay that way, forever. As the time got closer to eight o’clock people started to leave and Ben motioned for her to follow him.

            “Where are we going?” Kara asked.

            “To the Conference room. Now listen, Kara, do not speak unless spoken to. Do you understand?” Ben waited for an answer but he only received a nod of her head. Daniel and Frank were already far ahead of them. Kara walked through the crowd of people hoping that she wouldn’t loose Ben. She did but Ben looked behind him and saw that she wasn’t there so he went back through the crowd. Kara stood still and looked up to see mostly men towering high above her. Some of the people looked down on her and continued to look at her until she was swallowed by another group of people. When Ben found her he gripped her shoulder tightly for the rest of the way to the Conference room. When Kara and Ben entered the Conference room they found that everybody was already seated except for the director. Ben showed her that she would sit at the middle end of the table and as she sat down she looked to see where Ben went. He was seated on the side next to Frank and Daniel. That would mean that she was sitting to people she didn’t even know. Each and every person was staring at her and she didn’t know what to do. Kara wanted to run that’s what she wanted to do but as she replayed the events of the night before in her mind she reconsidered. The table was a rectangle that could probably hold about fifty people which would mean that forty eight were currently staring at her because the director wasn’t in yet. To avoid the eyes she bowed her head, allowed some hair to fall in front of her face, and crossed her arms.

            After five or ten minutes of avoiding eyes, the director came in. His appearance was different than when Kara first saw him. Today he looked strong, happy, and he smiled over everybody. The people around Kara were puzzled, why was the director so happy?

Author's Note

What do ya think?