Page 25 of Legacy Elite

Jessica

The good seats in the assembly hall are the ones in the middle of a row, halfway back, where you can still hear and the heating actually reaches.

I know that now. Last year I sat at the end of the front row like an idiot.

"Left," Sophia says, steering me by the elbow. "Left, left — Declan, sit, you're blocking an entire nation."

We take up half a row. Torres on one side of me, Freya on the other, Declan folded into a seat clearly designed for someone with different legs, Renzo already slumped with his arms crossed and his eyes half shut in the exact posture of a man who is not paying attention and will be able to recite the entire assembly verbatim.

Somebody two rows up is looking at me.

I look back until she stops.

"Your public awaits," Sophia murmurs.

"Shut up."

Falken comes out onto the platform and the hall settles, and he doesn't even have to ask for it.

"Second year," he says.

That's the whole opening.

"Last year we taught you what it is to belong to wolf society. History. Law. Custom. Control." A pause. "This year we ask where you fit inside it."

Then he lists the five rotations, and I find myself sitting forward.

Protection and Security. Search and Rescue. Investigation and Intelligence. Leadership and Governance. Diplomacy and Community.

Real work, with faculty and with people who do it outside these walls. How we do in them shapes what comes after.

"You are not being sorted," Falken says. "You are not being ranked. Nobody in this hall is choosing a life today. You will try the work. You will discover what you're good at, which is frequently not what you expected, and what you cannot stand, which is equally useful."

Okay.

Okay, that actually sounds good.

Last year was survival. Get the Marks. Don't fail. Don't be the latent program experiment that proved everyone right.

Nobody ever asked me what I wanted. I still have no idea. I'd quite like to find out.

The schedules are in envelopes at the doors, and the corridor outside turns into a market.

"Search and rescue," Declan says, shining.

"You didn't even think about it," Renzo says.

"Why would I think about it? They've turned my actual job into a class."

"Investigation," Freya says, when I look at her. "And rescue. I'd like to try the first one before I decide."

Sophia opens hers and her whole face falls about a foot.

"Diplomacy and Community," she reads, in the voice of a woman reading her own death notice. "Community emphasis."

"That's good!"

"That's the other half, Jessica. Community emphasis is where they let you organize a bake sale."