by C. J. Cooke
“I’d argue with you but I think we both realise that there is little point. I was thinking we should bring the competition forward to this Friday. No use putting off the inevitable and I’d like to get my group on your training regime as soon as possible.” Caleb reasoned. It was a good idea. Hopefully if we got everyone on the same schedule then by the end of the year they would be at the same level only having a few weeks difference in their training. It was going to take some major attitude changes though and I didn’t think that some of them had it in them.
“That’s a good idea. When you thinking?” I asked.
“If we move it to Friday’s training session, we can announce it in class tomorrow and my group get one more training session to prepare. You guys will have, what, about sixty three training sessions between now and Friday?” I threw back my head and laughed.
“Awww bitterness doesn’t suit you Caleb.” I laughed shoving his shoulder as he laughed along with me. It was strange, technically Caleb was my teacher but he didn’t feel like it. He felt more like a comrade, maybe even with the potential of being a friend. “Seriously though, Friday sounds good. I’ll wait until class tomorrow to tell my group so that everyone finds out together.”
We stood for a while longer watching my group train. I couldn’t help but feel proud of them. They really had come on such a long way since that morning when they ambushed me on the front steps to crash my morning run. As we watched, Britt executed a perfect hip roll and threw Aeryn to the ground. There weren’t any hard feelings though. Britt helped Aeryn up and they both talked through the move and then Aeryn tried it out on Britt to learn as well.
“They’ve gelled together so well.” Caleb said observing.
“They have a common goal. Makes the group dynamic easier.” I explained.
“The competition?” Caleb questioned, frowning as he already seemed to know that wasn’t the right answer.
“No, the same goal nearly every woman has had that stood up for herself since the beginning of time. They want to be taken seriously. They don’t want to be seen as less than, just because they are women.”
Caleb nodded his head in agreement. “Doesn’t account for the guys motivation though.” He said nodding towards my three who were currently railing on the punching bags working through a new set of punches that I had shown them.
“Well that’s just common sense, they picked the winning side.” I laughed. This time it was Caleb that playfully shoved me as he guffawed out a laugh of his own.
“I was thinking that once the whole class is back to training together that maybe we should think about splitting them into squads. Problem is that it would probably mean splitting up your group and I’m reluctant to when they all work so well together.” Caleb said watching intently.
He had a good point. If I had it my way my group would stay together and train as an elite group. “Hmmm, it is a good idea but I think you would be better to keep the class together for a while and see if any natural groups or leaders form.”
“Natural groups would train and fight better together.” He gave me that quizzical look again. “You’re good at this you know.”
“Don’t look so surprised, I’m a natural badass remember.” He was right though this stuff weirdly just made sense to me. Fighting had always come to me more easily and training others seemed to also be within my natural wheelhouse.
“Maybe,” he said. “If you have some free time this week we should get together and work on a training schedule.” Caleb then furrowed his brows and shook his head. “Urgh, that weirdly sounded like I was asking you out.” The laughter that burst out of my mouth that time was loud and uncontrollable. He just looked so upset by the thought. Maybe I should have been insulted but it was just too funny to take offense to.
“There’s no need to sound quite so horrified about that.” I wheezed trying to get my laughter under control. “Tomorrow afternoon would work for me.” I offered. Caleb had not quite seen the situation as quite as funny as I had and his expression was flickering between horror and embarrassment.
Once we finished our evening training session everyone went back to their own rooms for showers before dinner. The rest of the group would be eating in the cafeteria but we planned on staying in tonight. Liam had something cooking in the oven and we were planning on just watching a movie and then going to bed. I was sat crossed legged on the bed finishing off some homework when Sykes came out of the bathroom wearing some grey joggers and drying his hair with a towel. There were still a few drops of water running down his chest and I couldn’t help but lick my lips as I watched them make their way down his skin. I heard him chuckle and when I finally met his eyes I knew that he had been watching me check him out. I wasn’t embarrassed though. He was my mate and I was allowed. Plus Liam and Kyle were both still in the bathroom. I still felt a bit weird when we were all together but it was starting to just become normal for me. Sykes threw his wet towel through the closet door and I knew without looking that it would have landed in the laundry hamper. This was one man who definitely would not tolerate a wet towel on the floor. “What you up to?” He asked peering down at the books in front of me.
“Just finishing off my demonology homework.” I said nudging the textbook with my pencil with a huff of disgust.
“Has this particular textbook done something to offend you?” He said nudging it further away with one finger out of solidarity.
“Normally I would be fine with this sort of stuff. I’m not a huge academic but I’m not stupid. But this stuff,” I said nudging the textbook again with my pencil. “It’s all new to me. I don’t know anything about this.”
Sykes took the pencil off me, pushed all the books and papers to the bottom of the bed and then pulled me against him. I snuggled under his arm and sighed in contentment. “I think we’ve been a bit selfish.” He finally said.
“What are you talking about?” I said peering up at him. From this angle all I could really see was right up his nose.
“You’ve only been here for three weeks and we’ve pulled you into this life without really stopping to see how you’re handling it.” He pulled me closer to him. “This has got to be hard for you. With classes, training and us, you’ve had no time to really sit down and process all of this.”
Liam and Kyle both came out of the bathroom and joined us on the bed. Kyle cuddled up against the other side of me and Liam slid onto the bottom of the bed, pulling my legs over him and propping his chin up on one hand. The other hand running up and down my thigh. It feels nothing but comforting and I sigh in happiness. They fill me with so much contentment when we are all together like this that I feel like I could take on the world. “I can’t help but feel a little sad. You’re right, my entire world was ripped away from me and now that I’ve settled in here a bit and I don’t feel as angry anymore I realise that what’s left underneath is just a feeling of loss.” I feel a little silly admitting it but the past three weeks have made me realise that I can still be a badass woman and actually have feelings as well.
“Kitten, it’s okay to mourn the life that you lost. It doesn’t lessen anything that we have together or what your life here has become.” Liam squeezed my knee reassuringly. “I wish I knew what to say, I wish I could promise you that one day you would get to go back to see Alfie and all your friends again. But I can promise you that we will always be here for you, even if it’s just to help you with your homework.” He grinned up at me and I couldn’t help but smile down at him.
“Although, maybe limit your history questions to Kyle and me” Liam said, “Sykes is terrible at history.” He laughed as Sykes playfully shoved him off the bed just in time for a timer in the kitchen to go off. Apparently, dinner was ready.
Liam jogged over to the kitchen and turned off the timer before opening up the oven and pulled out two trays of food. It smelt amazing. We all walked over and between us set the table and poured out drinks while Liam dished out the food. There were chops, potatoes and something
that looked a bit like asparagus all roasted together with some kind of herby butter. It was simple but it tasted amazing.
“What were you and Caleb talking about in training?” Kyle asked.
“We’re moving up the competition to Friday.” I answered shovelling potatoes into my mouth. “Apparently we are so far ahead of the other group that we’ve got to the point that there is no point delaying the inevitable.” We all laughed because it was so true. “No one else is supposed to know though so when it gets announced tomorrow morning in class look surprised.”
“You know, when I was in the library yesterday I overheard some second years talking about it. Apparently, the whole school is betting against us.” Liam said pouring himself another class of water from the pitcher before topping up mine as well.
“Maybe we should invite the whole school to watch.” I said putting down my cutlery and thinking about it. If we were going to make changes it needed to be school wide not just one year. Besides, I couldn’t have the other students talking smack about my group.
Chapter Twenty Five
After dinner I managed to slip out of the room to go on my super secret mission. I had plans and the team were going to be amazed when they saw them. Or at least I hoped that they would. Luckily I had hung onto my map from my welcome packet and with it I was able to find my way through the maze of corridors to the cozy little sitting room where I had last seen Madame Nines. I knocked gently on the door. It was a bit late and I didn’t want to disturb her if she didn’t want me to. I shouldn’t have worried though because she immediately opened the door with a big smile on her face and pulled me into her arms. I hadn’t realised how stressful the last few weeks had been until she did and I instantly felt the stress melt out of my shoulders as I hugged her back. After a few moments she released me and held me at arms length giving me a look over before nodding and inviting me inside. When I entered I saw the coffee table set up with tea and biscuits just like last time. “I’ve been waiting for you, my dear.” She said sitting down of the edge of the arm chair where she had sat before. She quickly fussed over pouring us both a cup of tea and passed me the plate of biscuits. I couldn’t help but smile when I saw that the plate was full of Viennese whirls which I had loved last time.
“Now,” she said sitting back into her chair and balancing her cup of tea on her knee. “Tell me everything.” And I did. I shouldn’t have been surprised. She seemed to have this effect on me. It was almost cleansing. I told her everything that had happened from my walking out of her door last time to coming back in it now. Minus a few of the more embarrassing parts but she gave me a knowing smile nonetheless. “Events are moving quickly. I had hoped that you would get a period of time to adjust and settle in but I suppose fate has its own timeline for all of us.”
“Do you know what’s going to happen?” I asked her wearily. I wasn’t sure I even wanted to know at this point. Was it to much to ask for just an easy life?
“No, not for sure. I have seen possibilities but nothing clear enough to have an idea of the course of the future. Just glimpses of what could be. Foresight is not really my talent I’m afraid. But what I can see is that you are going to be very important in what has to come.” She said looking at me almost sadly. If that wasn’t enough to set me on edge, I didn’t know what was. “Anyway, back to the reason why you came tonight. What can I help you with dear?”
“Don’t you already know?” I joked.
She smiled at me with the genuine smile that always graced her lips. “Sometimes it’s nice to just hear the words. Having an insight into things does get rather boring after a while. Takes all the magic out of the unpredictability of life. It’s life’s surprises, after all, that makes everything worth living.” For a moment I felt sorrow for her. What must it be like to be able to glimpse the possibilities of what were to come? To always be aware of the worst case scenario with such clarity. “Oh don’t look at me like that dear. Like I said foresight is really not my speciality and there are still a few things that can take me by surprise.”
“Sorry.” I said realising that I was probably looking at her in the way that I hated people looking at me. I quickly brushed past and went back to my original reason for being there. “As I said earlier, I have a team that I am training for the competition and I really wanted to be able to surprise them with something. I was hoping to sort out a set of fighting leathers for them all. Something that they can easily move around in.”
“I think I know exactly what you mean. I can of course procure these for you dear. Black, I’m assuming.” She asked sitting forwards and placing her now empty teacup on the table.
“Yeah, I think so. Do you think that you would be able to get them before Friday?” I asked which only caused her to burst into the most ladylike laughter I had ever seen. She really was my favourite person.
“Oh, I do love what a breath of fresh air you are, dear.” She pushed a box out from down the side of her chair into my eyeline and opened the lid before pulling out a set of fighting leathers and passing them across to me. They were absolutely perfect. The leather was soft and supple and jet black. It was almost matt and it looked to have reinforced patches over some areas of the shoulders and arms. There was a pair of trousers, a fitted sleeveless vest and a jacket. “There’s also boots in there for each of them. I added a set for you as well dear.”
“Thank you. They’re perfect.” I folded the set she passed me carefully and passed them back to her to put back in the box.
“There’s another box down her as well.” She said sliding it out to join the other. “I hope that they serve you all well. I only wish that there was more that I could do to assist in what is to come.” She seemed distracted for a moment before she smiled at me again. “Now, I’m guessing that these are going to be a surprise so shall I have Caleb come and pick them up to store in his office at the gymnasium for you?”
“That’s actually a really good idea. Do you think that he would mind?” I didn’t want to put Caleb out. He was actually proving to be really supportive with everything going on and I think that if he hadn’t have allowed me to have the outlet of my training group, I may have gone mad by now. He had given me a purpose and a group of potential friends. I couldn’t help but wonder if he had known that all along.
“Of course he won’t. Now, back to the serious issue at hand.” She said giving me a stern look that lasted all of two seconds before she slipping into her usual smile. “You haven’t been back to the headmaster to see how his enquiries into your magic are going?”
“Wow, you just went straight there without any kind of warm up.” I laughed.
“What do you think this was?” She smiled pointed at one of the boxes with her foot.
I slumped back into my seat with a huff. “Is it weird that I just, kind of, don’t really want to know?” I asked.
“Of course not.” She leaned forward and patted my hand. “You’ve been through so much change in such a short period of time that it is only understandable that you want to just take a moment to breath. But sooner, rather that later, you will need to have that talk with him. If you don’t know what you are capable of, I worry that you won’t have the necessary knowledge to protect yourself from whatever does come next.”
She turned away from me, as if to give me time to digest what she had just told me, while she busied herself making more tea for us. When she turned back and passed me the plate of biscuits back to me. We slipped into an easy conversation about school work and she discussed some of the areas which I was having trouble with. She knew so much. I wasn’t going to be rude enough to ask her how old she was but some of what she spoke about it, it was almost as if she had been there when it had happened.
Chapter Twenty Six
When I finished my morning run, I was pleasantly surprised to have Britt running along side me. I had pulled back a little so that she could keep pace but it was worth it to see how pleased she was with herself at the end of it.
“I know yo
u held back” she huffed and she bent over to brace her hands on her knees. My three came in a few minutes after us. I had a feeling that even if they were quicker than me, they wouldn’t run ahead. They would always take up the same position and guard my back. In fact, I had a feeling I wasn’t the only one who had held back a bit today.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” I said feigning surprise as I dropped down onto the grass to wait for the others to catch up with us. Everyone was running the full fifteen miles now but there were a few that were still struggling with the last lap.
“Okaaaay, if you’re going to keep to that story you might need to at least pretend to be slightly winded, or maybe splash some water on your face so you can pretend that it’s sweat.” Britt said collapsing next to me.