Chapter Fifty-Three
ANGEL SINCLAIR
Frankie gasped in shock and clapped her hands over her mouth. I leaped from my chair, pulling her to her feet and hugging her excitedly. “OMG! You made it, Frankie. You did it!”
“I did?” She looked completely stunned.
Seconds later, she was mobbed by Wally and everyone in the group. There was so much excitement that the gym filled with noise, even though there were only eight of us. As strange as it seemed, everyone was genuinely happy for Frankie. How couldn’t we be? Everyone liked Frankie. She’d be the perfect spy someday. No one would ever suspect her.
After a few minutes, we returned to our seats. Frankie still looked dazed that she’d been selected, while Wally clutched my hand as we waited to hear the final announcement.
“Now, for the next person going through, we’d like to say it was exceptionally close. In fact, the scores were so close, they were almost indistinguishable. It’s never happened before in the history of UTOP. It was difficult for the evaluators to determine the next candidate to go through, so…” He paused, looking among us.
For an agonizing moment, all eight of us held our collective breath.
“So…we decided to pass all of you,” he finished.
Frankie screamed so loudly I was momentarily deaf before she pounced on me, nearly collapsing my chair. I was unable to speak. Wally slipped to the gym floor on his knees, chanting, “Oh, thank God. Oh, thank God.”
A moment later it was sheer pandemonium in the gym with everyone shouting, high-fiving, and hugging each other. The instructors and evaluators came over to congratulate us, beaming and laughing. I felt wetness on my face and I wasn’t sure if it was from my tears or someone else’s. I kept getting hugged so hard I couldn’t breathe, and yet I didn’t mind in the slightest. It was a blur of sheer happiness and excitement. I knew, one day, I’d look back on my life and count this as one of my finest moments.
As soon as we finished celebrating in the gym, we headed back to the cafeteria together for a special spread of desserts. Laughing, we continued to congratulate each other, each of us humbled and grateful for our success. We were eight people who were as diverse and different as we were alike. Now we were bonded and entering into a new phase of our lives together.
It didn’t matter that I had no idea how I’d perform at UTOP or what my future held. I didn’t know if I’d ever see my dad again, learn what had happened to him, or discover why he’d left us. I didn’t know if my mom would even let me come back when she found out about the attempting kidnapping.
But at least I knew I had the potential to be a good spy, and I’d do everything I could to capitalize on that. I also knew who’d have my back while I was doing it.
In a way, the White Knights had just expanded, and one thing I’d learned was that sometimes, good friends were all you needed to succeed.
Thank you for taking the time to read Knight Moves. If you enjoyed this story, the greatest way to say thank you to an author and encourage them to write more in the series is to tell your friends and consider writing a review at any one of the major retailers. It’s greatly appreciated!
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