The Naturals, #1
The Naturals
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Contents
Chapter 8
Overview
Cassie settles into the Naturals house and meets her roommate, Sloane, a gifted statistician whose talents are used in crime-scene simulations hidden in the basement. Lia’s deceptive fluidity, Michael’s teasing familiarity, and Sloane’s intense numerical focus show Cassie how unusual and specialized the group is.
The chapter expands the house from a strange residence into a training ground filled with simulated crime scenes, raising the stakes of Cassie’s new role. It ends by naming Dean as the final Natural, a figure whose mention shifts the room’s mood and deepens the mystery surrounding him.
Summary
After Judd shows Cassie to her room, Briggs and Locke leave and promise to return the next day for training. Cassie inspects the half-filled closet and profiles her absent roommate from the clothes: bright patterns, black and white, no gray, and only flats. Cassie unpacks quickly, reflecting on her childhood spent moving from town to town with her mother.
Lia enters without waiting, wearing a softer outfit than before and seeming to have changed personalities along with clothes. Cassie notices the transformation and connects it to Lia’s talent for deception. Lia calls out Cassie’s attempt to lie about still unpacking, then offers a more useful tour than Judd’s and explains that the serial-killer portraits are better understood than ignored.
When Cassie asks where her roommate is, Lia leads Cassie to the basement. The space is huge and divided by high white partitions. As Cassie approaches, glass shatters somewhere out of sight, startling Cassie but not Lia.
Cassie meets Sloane, her roommate, who defines the word “normal” and then disappears behind a partition. Cassie discovers that the basement contains three-walled simulation sets resembling bathrooms, bedrooms, restaurants, outdoor scenes, and other potential crime scenes. Sloane is in a bathroom set studying the scatter pattern of broken glass and Post-it notes.
Sloane greets Cassie by stating facts about red hair and anesthesia, making Cassie realize Sloane is the Natural who specializes in numbers and probabilities. Lia confirms that Sloane is exceptionally gifted with numerical analysis, sometimes dangerously so. Michael arrives, jokes about hiding Sloane’s coffee, and gives Cassie the nickname “Colorado.”
Cassie asks whether the group consists only of Michael, Lia, Sloane, and herself. Michael’s expression darkens while Lia smiles, and Sloane cheerfully reveals that there is one more person in the house: Dean.
Who Appears
- Cassie HobbesNew Natural settling in, observing housemates and learning the basement’s training purpose.
- LiaDeception specialist who gives Cassie a tour and exposes her small lie.
- SloaneCassie’s roommate; a numbers-and-probabilities Natural testing glass scatter patterns.
- MichaelEmotion-reading Natural who jokes with Sloane and nicknames Cassie “Colorado.”
- DeanUnseen Natural whose mention darkens Michael’s mood and heightens mystery.
- JuddHouse caretaker whose sparse tour prompts Lia to show Cassie more.
- Agent BriggsFBI agent who leaves Cassie to settle in before training resumes.
- Agent LockeFBI agent who departs with Briggs after Cassie arrives at the house.