Free Unmasked by Hope Bolinger Page B

it was worth it.”
    The screen flickered to life as the title: Rise , appeared in glowing letters.
    Some girls squealed in delight when the title pulsated a few times and then disappeared.
    “What’s this story about?”
    “It’s not what it’s about,” Aleesha said. “It’s who it’s about.”
    She motioned to the screen as a twenty year old man began sprinting through a jungle in a faraway land.
    “Pop quiz!” Lacey said. “Whoever gets this question right doesn’t have to clean cafeteria tables for a week: Who is the Main Character of this movie?”
    “Brice Gerald,” Bri answered without skipping a beat.
    Noelle gawked at her, “How did you guess that?”
    Bri shrugged bouncing up and down, causing the coach to emit tunes of agitation, “I told you that I really know a lot about lectors and stories.”
    Lacey nodded approvingly, “Nice work, but can you tell me why Brice is so important?”
    “Because he was the first Extra to ever win Redemption and star as a Main Character,” Bri answered in one breath.
    “Correct,” Lacey smiled.
    Noelle shifted her gaze back to the screen with a new awe and reverence for the character. Although, she did begin to pick up on some flaws that could have qualified him to be an Extra at Placement such as his short stature and crooked smile.
    But another thing that caught her eye was that he was wearing a mask.
    And Noelle had the strangest feeling that the mask shouldn’t have been there on him or anyone else at campus.
                 

Chapter Seven – Unfair
    Noelle woke up to the rustling of sheets the next morning, as the sun began peeking through the window by her bedside with a sliver of gold against the cracked windowpane.
    Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a white mouse on the floor.
    Wait – no, not a mouse, but a paper folded several times.
    She sprawled across the mattress like a cat to reach the note without having leave the warm cocoon of her blankets, as the bed let out a groan. Aleesha made a similar noise of annoyance, while Bri gazed up at the ceiling, eyes wide with serenity as if she were daydreaming about a better world somewhere beyond.
    Dearest Noelle,
    Same time and same place this morning?
    Once again, no signature, but Noelle never needed one.
    “Noelle,” called Bri’s overjoyed voice from nearby, far too elated for that early in the morning.
    Noelle’s bones tried their best to escape her skin as she jumped in surprise to find her roommate already shaping clothes from the magical fabric in their closet.
    “Are you ready for Redemption tryouts?”
    Noelle’s heart began to race at an alarming rate.
    “What?!” she cried desperately as Aleesha shot an arrow at her through her glares. “That was today? Why didn’t anyone tell me about this?”
    “Well,” Bri began slowly staring up at the ceiling for guidance, but once again the spiders has no answers to offer, “they sort of ran out of paper because the Test Placement Apparatus used so much of it when printing our test results. As a result, they only gave the Extras so many sheets on tryout information, and I was supposed to pass along the word to you that it was today –”
    Her eyes widened as if this information finally hit her.
    “Oh my goodness,” she clapped her hands to her mouth. “I’m so sorry, Noelle. This is all my fault. If you fail in tryouts, I will never forgive myself.”
    Her almond-shaped eyes began to drown in a river of salt water as Noelle’s heart began to rip to shreds. Bri seemed hardly the person to grow upset over anything.
    “It’s fine; it’s fine,” Noelle said quickly. “I’ll just have to cancel my meeting with someone, that’s all.”
    Bri craned her head to a 45 degree angle to the right like a puppy dog.
    “What do you mean? You still have time before tryouts to meet with them. Lacey says that they usually wait an extra ten minutes before starting tryouts.”
    Noelle shrugged indifferently, “He probably