The flight passed quickly. At about a half-hour until they landed, Jordana announced that they should change clothes. Their uniforms would be rather conspicuous, and like them all together. The guys went first, slipping into the master room with clothes Jordana helped to choose. Normal stuff. All four wore khaki or black baggy pants, and big, button-up shirts over white sleeveless T’s.
They all looked extremely nice, and…normal.
The three girls went next. Jordana strolled into the main room, where they’d left their suitcases. Blair and Rawlings followed. She went through both’s suitcases. They were all set up like Jordana’s, and finding suitable outfits wasn’t hard.
She found for Blair a pair of jeans with leather lacing up the sides and a red sleeveless T-shirt. She looked as though she’d just stepped out of a magazine, even in clothes as plain as the ones she wore. She was one of those girls where everything they wore looked just as if it had been tailored for them. Blair seemed to like what she was given, and stepped aside to let Jordana handle Rawlings.
For her Jordana chose a pair of studded blue jeans and a white shirt with a gray city skyline on the front.
In her suitcase, Jordana found her clothes in an instant. The ones that had been taken from her on the day she’d been captured were folded neatly and lying on the top. She immediately threw on the loose black jeans and gold tank top that she’d worn to her very last day of school. She absently stuck a hand in her pocket, and was shocked as she pulled out her glass rose ring, one she’d gotten from her parents for her sweet sixteen. It had cost them a fortune, because the rose was so intricate and detailed. Her mouth fell opened as she pulled it out, and the other girls took interest.
“What’s that?” Blair asked curiously.
“My ring,” Jordana replied in an awed voice. “My parents got it for my last birthday.” She slipped it onto her ring finger. Still fit.
She looked up at the others. They seemed to see how much it meant to her, and held small smiles on their faces, as though happy she’d gotten it back. She took a moment to hold back the flood of both memories and tears that wanted to come with her discovery, and composed herself. She went back to her cool, business-like manner, and pulled the girls over to the mirror by the bed. She surveyed the three of them. They looked perfectly normal. Better than normal, actually. As perfect as humans could get, on the outside. They didn’t need any make-up, so Jordana didn’t even bother.
She threw her arms around the two girls and said, “Well, we’re perfect. Let’s go.” She tossed her old clothes back into the suitcase and strolled out of the room. As soon as the three of them strapped out of the room, the boys’ jams dropped. Even Rion and Blade’s. Naturally, this lack of control was only shown for a second, but it was enough.
“Why, thank you,” Jordana said smugly to Blade as she sat down in between him and Alex.
“That wasn’t for you,” he snapped shortly, but she could see he was lying.
“Whatever,” she replied in a cheery voice. Rawlings had re-taken her place on the seat beside the bench, and Blair next to Rion, who was blatantly staring. He wasn’t the only one. Alex had yet to shut his mouth as he gazed at Rawlings. Jordana smiled to herself. Jacobs was looking off into space out the plane window, and Blade was forcing himself to glare in the opposite direction from Jordana. They stayed like that, quiet, until they all felt the plane beginning to descend. Jordana leaned forward and looked out Blade’s window. They were circling the ocean, turning slowly in the direction of the large, green island.
“Do you mind?” Blade snapped, and Jordana realized she had been leaning all her bodyweight on him to see out the window.
“Sorry,” she replied sheepishly, and sat back down in her seat.
Descent took fifteen minutes, and they touched down at sunset. It was beautiful, from what Jordana could see through the sliver of Blade’s window. She couldn’t wait to see the whole island. And the ocean! She couldn’t wait to swim in it.
As soon as the airplane came to a complete stop, the pilots came out and opened the door. Jordana retrieved her suitcase, and exited first, the others right behind her.
She hopped from the plane onto the dirt runway, not even waiting for the technicians on the ground to roll up a staircase. This didn’t seem to phase them, and as soon as she was properly standing, one pointed in the direction of a gray bunker-type thing a mile or so away. Jordana and her team jogged over and entered the concrete building through a steel, buzzer-opened door.
The technicians inside didn’t do much. Basically pointed them through the compound to the exit, where a young Private handed them all Kapakai Hotel pamphlets.
“Put out your hand, palm up,” he ordered Jordana after she took the pamphlet. She obliged, slightly confused. He ran a thing that looked like a computer scanner over her hand, and a large, fiery red bird appeared on her palm. Next to it was her cereal number. She recognized the bird: it was Phoenix’s symbol, and she’d seen it on many of the walls in the compound. But she never knew it was anywhere on her. She felt branded, and pissed off, but she kept her mouth shut. As soon as the guy had finished scanning, he pointed her to another man, who was waiting outside the glass doors marked EXIT. Jordana waited for him to scan her whole team before going out to see the man.
