Esther woke up with a start, the sunshine blaring down on her face harshly. She was filled with confusion and a slight terror of not knowing where she was. Her senses came back and she realized she had fallen asleep in her living room after she spent most of the night watching bad movies. It was a bad habit of hers, staying up at ungodly hours despite having school the next day.

“Crap! I’m late!” She cried out suddenly stumbling over her own feet in a rush, hurrying to her room to get dressed. She got ready, not bothering to even do much more with her hair other than run a hand through it. Esther was really slugging it that morning. She threw the door open to her brother’s room, who was just getting up. She threw his car keys at him as well his shoes then ran outside to wait in the car. Of course she could just run the couple blocks to the school, but it would also be easier to just get a ride.

After an unbearable few minutes of waiting, her brother entered the car on the driver’s side, looking over at his sister and rolling his eyes. “Seriously? You could have just ditched today and slept in; I doubt I would’ve noticed.”

Esther ignored him for the most part, rummaging through her bag to make sure she had the homework she was supposed to do that night. She shrugged to herself, figuring she could do it during the announcements before the teacher would collect it. “Aren’t you supposed to encourage me to stay in school?”

“And don’t do drugs,” Her brother said in a false stern voice, hitting the brakes rather too hard as they rolled up in front of the school. “And boys are gross.”

They both let out light laughs, but the air remained rather tense for a reason Esther couldn’t put her finger on. She had a hallow feeling in the pit of her stomach and felt she should take her brother’s offer and stay home. Then again, they were already here, and it would be kind of rude to have made him drive her to school for no reason. “Thanks, bro, later!” She said, getting out of the car and slamming the door, cutting off whatever he was saying. She waved over her shoulder, in a light jog so it seemed like she actually didn’t want to be late.

Esther, tired already, set her pace to a slow gait. She headed towards her English class, knowing well she’d be sent to the office for being tardy, but it cut more class time and did just that. Her English teacher wasn’t too happy with her being late the third time that week, but was distracted by the announcements done by two girls, Sabrina and another who Esther didn’t bother to learn the name of. She made her way to the office, hearing the girls go through the pledge and announcements, the office quiet aside from the two. 

When they were finished, she overheard Mr. Daniels talking to that Sabrina chick, saying something about getting a list of people. Esther realized she was also on the list as Sabrina had waved at her, and Esther awkwardly followed behind as Sabrina retrieved the others. 

She wondered what she was on the list for. It certainly wasn’t the honor’s roll given she hadn’t had a single A since eighth grade. The others didn’t seem to know either, that is until they shuffled into the auditorium and several people in lab coats greeted them. This confused Esther, and most likely the others, even as the scientists continued to explain what they were chosen for. What kind of project is this “The Changed”? Some kind of community plan to make the town green? Why in the world were they all picked. Maybe some sort of punishment? She glanced at the others, figuring some of they weren’t troublesome students. 

“Wait, what, goodbye?” Esther repeated, tuning in and out of what the scientist was saying. “Can’t I just go home instead?” She figured she could get her brother to help her opt out of this project or whatever it was, unless he was the one who signed her up for it. She was about to make her way to the office along with the others, but rather too large men in black grabbed her before she could get too far. Esther did her best to squirm, managing to kick one of the guys in the shin, but she found herself thrown into a van before she could do much more. 

She slumped against the side of the van, looking over the others’ again and their shared expressions of fear and confusion. The ride didn’t take very long, and the van suddenly stopped, causing much of them to stumble around in the back of the vehicle. The doors were opened, and they were each escorted out of the van and into a cafeteria-like room. They were then handed food and ad drink.

 Esther looked down at the meal with mild interest, remembering she didn’t eat that morning and did so. She had found her way to the table, sitting away from the others as she was used to during lunch at school. Already half way through the meal she realized she should have been a bit more suspicious about the food, but figured it was too late now and shrugged.