by Jae Choguk
they brought in a hotplate, a pot from one of the cooking classes and chopsticks.
“You know I hate it when you call me that right?” I said grabbing a chicken flavored one and ripping it open. I broke off a piece of the uncooked ramen and popped it in my mouth.
“Yes, and you know I hate it when you eat ramen uncooked!” He said snatching the packet from my hands. I pouted and tried to grab it from him. He was taller and stronger so I couldn’t get it back unless I used force. I tackled him, making sure to keep the ramen intact and put my knee on his chest keeping him in place as I ate more uncooked ramen in front of him. He was about to push me off when I unsheathed my claws on command; something I’ve been perfecting since my assessment last week. I already found out from Mr. Zander that I was qualified to do C class missions.
The mission classes went from “D class”, “C class”, “B class”, “A class”, and “S class”, which means superior. It was very rare that kids go on S class missions; it was mostly the teachers that did them. Most people have done a D class mission by now, which is with two supervisors and usually another couple of kids. C class is you, a few other kids, and one supervisor, B class is just you and a supervisor and “A class” missions are just you and another top student. S class missions are done completely by you and you alone. You do have to do a write-up of your mission, (if you survive) and turn it in to the school though.
“Yeah, I know you think you’re top shit ‘cause you can flash out your claws whenever you want, but don’t get too full of yourself just yet.” He said snatching the ramen and knocking me off him anyways. I wasn’t really going to use my claws on him, and he knew it, giving him the advantage once again.
“Well maybe if you actually wanted to transform, you could use your claws!” I retorted as he put the ramen into the now boiling water.
“I’m pretty sure my animal will be as pathetic as my parents.” He replies bluntly and I had to agree that squirrel was cute, but not very vicious.
“Not unless you have rabies.” I offered and he rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, well you don’t see any squirrels or other small animals doing an A or S class missions.”
“Maybe that’s because none of you little animals have tried.”
We all thought that over as we ate our ramen straight from the stolen pot with our chopsticks.
“Ready?” Mr. Zander asked as I hiked my backpack higher up.
“As I’ll ever be.” I replied not showing how nervous I actually was. The supervisor was obviously the one and only Mr. Z, who always seemed to be there when I needed him. The other kids in the group besides me were Mai, Lilly, and Sophia. The number of kids in the group had to be an even number, so you could pair up, but the total amount of people differed depending on the assignment. This one is a body-guarding mission; we will be guarding a group of athletes from some other country. We have connections all over the world, with higher-ups and in general. And they know that if they want the job done to the best ability, they should choose the best. In other words, choose someone who can take a bullet and hopefully survive (if it comes to that). We all had to wear simple white shirt, black pants, and black jacket, standard body guarding clothes.
“Good then remember who you are in charge of.” He said meaning that our partner was, besides the obvious group of athletes. Apparently they were in the Olympics, and considering that I’m an avid Olympics watcher, and didn’t recognize their names meant they must be really new.
“Or since they’re from another country, they may not have shown them to the Americans.” Lilly muttered under her breath when I said my thought out loud. I rolled my eyes at her, and opened the door to the sleek black van we would be following them in.
“Why are we guarding them again?” I whisper to Mr. Zander as we wait for the athletes to show up.
“Weren’t you listening at the meeting?” He asked incredulously but answered his own question when he saw my guilty look. He sighed heavily and continued, “Never mind, but these athletes are said to be the next superstars or something, and they’ve been attacked before, by people who were “not human”. With that said, you can assume that when top athletes are being outran by kids your age that we may have to intervene.”
“So our real purpose is to catch the kids who ‘attacked’ them?” I finished for him.
“Exactly, the hunters tend to abduct kids with our abilities and raise them to use against us, usually when they are children, but some have been known to voluntarily go with them.”
“So could there be a double agent in our school right now?” I ask feeling a little anxious.
“Of course not.” He says a little too reassuringly and bluntly that I knew he was lying. It set me on edge, but I couldn’t think about it long before the athletes came out of their hotel and a crowd suddenly appeared around them, cheering like fan girls. Understandably by how good-looking they were.
“If that isn’t suspicious enough…” I mutter to myself as Mr. Z jumps into action. I always thought he was a silly teacher who acted too young for his age, but at this moment he almost seemed cool. He spread his arms out in front of them and spoke quickly, yet purposefully into his earpiece. I knew he must have been taking note of anything suspicious, or character descriptions. When he was close enough, the rest of the group did as he did. They have all done a body-guarding mission, but obviously this was my first time.
“L, watch the man in the hat to your left.” Mai whispered fiercely through my earpiece. She was my partner for this mission, and also on the opposite side of the athletes, making it harder to keep tabs on her. I snapped my attention to the man with the black hat pushing too hard for me to feel comfortable.
“Sign please!” The man said in a voice that didn’t seem to match his body. I tried to position myself in front of him but then he pushed. The force he used seemed too powerful for me to take him lightly. The athlete turned his head towards the man and reached for the pen and paper.
I saw the flash, and flew into action, but not as fast as I needed to be. I threw myself in front of him as he slashed the knife, catching my arm. I hadn’t learned any maneuvers with weapons, and was mad that I couldn’t disarm him the right way. So I did what we were meant to do, which was using our body as a human shield.
“L!” Mai yelled, and I was surprised by how strong and powerful her voice sounded. It showed me just how much people can change when they are outside of the Academy. The cute little girl became a fierce warrior and the childish teacher, a badass. I wondered if I was any different, or if I just stayed the way I was before I even got here. I’d like to think I did, but not enough to make a difference.
“I’m fine,” I said through my teeth, even though we healed fast doesn’t mean that it didn’t hurt in the process.
“I’ll take care of him L; just get them into the van.” Mr. Z said shoving me back as he chased after the attacker. I knew we could be fast, but not as fast as he seemed to be going.
“What’s wrong with you?” Sophia yelled in my ear when I didn’t move, still grabbing my arm, not sure that the bleeding had stopped yet. “They come first!” That same saying that was taught for times like these was finally starting to make sense as I saw blood run down my arm.
“I’m coming.” I say in a dead voice, remembering that we really aren’t supposed to show emotions during assignments. As the athletes were frightened and yelling about what was happening Lilly, Mai, Sophia and I shuffled them into the awaiting van, which Mr. Z was now in the driver’s seat. I should’ve known catching a guy like that would be easy for him.
“Drive.” Sophia commanded as I slammed the door shut behind me. We answered all the questions they asked, besides the obvious “we’re not human like you” bit.
“You’re safe now, and that’s all that matters.” Lilly said in a soft, yet assertive voice.
I replayed the events in my head all that night when I was in my bad with my arms behind my head. We got back to the Academy after getting the athletes
safely to their next stop and relayed what happened to Headmaster. He didn’t seem surprised, but his brow furrowed when he heard about me getting injured. I knew he would be upset knowing that I almost ruined the whole mission by one of the athletes almost getting hurt. Or worse, exposing what we could do, since I haven’t learned to really control my changes.
“They should have thought they were safe at all times, and that it was just standard procedure, but you blew that up by not being alert enough.” Mr. Zander scolded when the rest of the team were dismissed. They all sent me worried looks as they left the room, but I pretended not to notice. “And if that wasn’t bad enough, you didn’t even disarm the guy! I had to!”
“Yeah, well I don’t see why we had to protect some hot-shots anyways.” I muttered, knowing it didn’t matter what the assignment was. We do what we’re told to, and what we get paid for, which is for us to use our bodies and abilities for other people’s personal uses.
“Don’t start Lydia. I thought you understood the fact that you failed this assignment. Do you expect us to let you go on another mission when you couldn’t even disarm one guy?”
“I didn’t learn how to do that yet, in case you haven’t noticed, I have been here for less than 6 months!” I protested.
“The point was that you had to be ready for