Free The Limit by Kristen Landon

gym,” to a boy—Isaac, I learned—and a girl—Kia. They were both at least a year older than me. Isaac’s pale skin turned red under his freckles and his cropped blond hair. He blasted us with a few rounds of his laser gun before stomping out of the gym. Kia—totally opposite-looking from Isaac with her smooth, dark skin and lots of hair spiraling down around her shoulders—retained her composure and lectured usfor a few minutes about community property and the necessity of taking turns.
    We still didn’t let her have the gym.
    I chugged my last gulps of water and let the plastic bottle slip out of my hand and thunk on the thick carpeting. According to Coop, our invisible maids would take care of it.
    The two of us quickly approached the room Coop had warned me against. “What’s so scary about it?”
    “
They
have taken it over.” He wiggled his finger at the deserted girls’ cubicles as we walked past. “Turned it into a dance studio. Mirrors all over everything. And one of those ballet rails—you know? If they ever try to lure you in with the promise of a dance video tournament, run the other direction. It’s not a game. They want to record you dancing with them. Like partners.” His shudder made the ends of his hair tremble.
    “Hey, whoa.” I held out my hand, preventing Coop from entering the hallway to the boys’ bedrooms. “Check it out.” The sliding glass door to Reginald’s cubicle stood open an inch.
    “He’s not in there anymore.” Coop kept walking. “We’d better hurry. We’ve only got ten more minutes of light. I don’t know about you, bro, but I
hate
changing clothes by flashlight.”
    “Hang on. I just want to look.” Wow. Reginaldhad quite the setup. Three monstrous monitors made a mini cubicle around the keyboards on the desk.
    “I’m not messing with you. It’s day one for you, so I know you haven’t even thought about buying a light source yet. You don’t know about the guards coming up and confiscating your lantern if you leave it on for more than a minute. You’ve never had to feel your way through your room before. Personally, I like to
see
what’s on my toothbrush before I stick it in my mouth.”
    For some reason Reginald’s cubicle seemed extra dark already. I looked up. The glass ceiling was covered with blinds as well. Was the guy allergic to light or something?
    “I’m coming.” I ran to catch up with Coop. He was right. This was only my first day on the top floor. I’d have plenty of chances to get the scoop on this mysterious Reginald guy.
    I found Coop standing frozen outside the first door in the hall, his finger to his lips. “Dude, listen.”
    “Whose . . . is that Reginald’s room?” It clicked. Reginald—first cubicle, first room. Me—fifth cubicle, fifth room. It only took me what—three hours to figure out? They were going to drop-kick me off the top floor if I didn’t start catching on to things a lot faster around here.
    “He’s in there.” Hitching his thumb, Cooptapped Reginald’s door. A soft, constant, metallic clanging noise made it through that heavy top-floor bedroom door.
    “What’s he doing?” I asked.
    “Beats me.” Coop’s wide, goofy smile wiggled around his face. “I dare you.”
    My eyebrows arched high. “To . . .”
    “Find out whatever you need to know, man. Get answers to all your questions.” He made circles in the air in front of my face with his index finger. Slowly he lowered the finger.
    “Coop, what are you . . . No!”
    He pressed the finger firmly against the neon-green rectangle of light on the wall right next to the doorknob. Before I could suck in my next breath, he zipped back through the door to the cubicle area and out of sight.
    “Coop!” I whispered my scream, knowing it wouldn’t do any better if I bellowed it. One loud metallic clunk came from inside the room and then silence. I twisted to look way down the hall, to my bedroom. Nope, I’d never make it. Follow Coop? Maybe I could