Me at 5's Arc

Chapter 2 of 4

The car ride is long and I press my forehead against the cool window. Nobody told me where we were going this morning. They just said to get dressed and we got in the car. My brother and sister stayed home. Just me. Inside the building it's cold and loud. People are everywhere. Rows and rows of faces stacked up high around a circle of white ice. A red carpet stretches across the middle of it like a ribbon. Someone takes my hand and pulls me toward the bright lights. My face gets hot. I want to look at the floor but the ice is too shiny and it reflects everything. A man in a blue and white uniform bends down. He has a number on his chest. He says something I don't hear because the noise is too big. Then his hands are under my arms and I'm lifting up into the air. He carries me out onto the red carpet and all those faces turn toward us. Thousands of hands wave from every direction. The hot feeling spreads from my face down through my whole body. I make myself small in his arms and stare at the number fourteen on his chest. Not at the people. Not at the hands. Just the number. When he puts me down I'm back behind the boards where it's darker. My legs feel strange like they might not hold me. Someone pats my shoulder and says I did great. But I didn't do anything. I just got carried and looked at and now everyone has seen me. On the car ride home I don't talk. I press my forehead against the window again and wonder if being chosen is the opposite of being normal. If it is then I never want to be chosen again.