Prep School Experiment by Emily Evans Read Free Book Online

landed on what Elena had told him about the bins of powder she’d found. He stepped closer to Kaitlin and then looked at The Scientist. He repeated the exact words from the label Elena had shown him. “ For experimental use only . What does that mean?”
    “Are you testing on us?” Thane asked.
    “Shut up,” Coordinator Steele said.
    The Scientist flushed. “Why would you even ask such a question?” His voice pitched high.
    “They’re not telling the truth.” Kaitlin sounded shocked. “I’ve been poisoning us.”
    Coordinator Steele pulled out her gun. “Shut up. Get in the jeep.”
    Rhys froze. His gaze went to Kaitlin.
    She stood pale and still.
    His gaze tracked the coordinator and searched for a weakness.
    The Scientist waved his arms in the air. “Whoa, what are you doing?”
    “They’re useless. You said it yourself, their data is corrupt, and now they’re causing trouble.”
    “But—”
    “Sometimes you have to destroy bad specimens.”
    “Wait, wait, wait, back up a step. It’s true they can’t be used in the data pool. But this… this...” The Scientist sputtered.
    Coordinator Steele lowered the gun so it was aimed at Kaitlin and tilted her head toward the jeep. “We just need some time. No one will come looking until tomorrow.  “By then, we’ll have a solution. Head to the airfield.”
    They piled in and rode with the gun pointed at them all the way to the hangar where Rhys had first arrived. The coordinator locked them in the office and left them. Rhys took stock. Water. Toilets. Heat. It could be worse. Some of the trailers at the trailer park had it worse.
    Kaitlin rubbed her hands together, stared at the door, and stomped her feet. “I’m sorry I couldn’t stop talking. But, they were lying right to our faces.”
    “That must be your heightened skill,” Elena said. “You’re really intuitive.”
    “Intuitive?” Kaitlin twisted her lips. “I’ve been called naïve and gullible, but never intuitive.”
    “This Alaskan isolation probably changed you, or maybe rooming with me did it.”
    “Or the experimental drug,” Rhys said. “Elena and Thane have changed a lot .”
    Elena raised her eyebrows. “Really, Rhys? Now?”
    “That’s not a dig. I don’t mean dating. That’s really whack. But, your other skills. Thane was always strong, but never fast. Not like he is now.”
    Thane tightened his arms over his chest.
    “And Elena climbs like an Olympian. Maybe you don’t see the change because it’s been gradual. “But, I haven’t seen y’all for months and I see the differences clearly.”
    Rhys looked down at his fingers and spilled the change he’d noticed over the last week, the one he barely wanted to admit to himself. “You know I’m good with math and science. Right?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Well, I’m better here. First, I thought the crap they were throwing me was just easier than at good old Trallwyn High. It’s not. Some of the equations are complex, and they spin around my mind all the time, making me half crazy. Unless I’m around Kaitlin. Then my mind stills—the same way Thane calms you down.”
    Elena sank to the floor. “ For experimental use only . I didn’t really believe him. Nothing like that exists.”
    New drug articles always featured online, usually in the financial section, as companies vied to raise their stock. But, they were there. “It doesn’t now, but companies and doctors are constantly trying to find ways to enhance people. Their brains. Their bodies.”
    “I thought stopping the vitamins would be enough,” Elena said, sounding sorry that she hadn’t been suspicious enough. “We ate so much of it in the cupcakes.”
    Kaitlin flushed, looking guilty.
    Rhys leaned against the wall and sank down, his hands loose atop his spread knees. His stomach felt hollow. “I could use a cupcake.”
    Kaitlin gave him a startled smile.
    “Maybe the effects will wear off when the drugs are out of our systems,” Thane said.
    Kaitlin sat