An innocent girl in a mafia camp

Chapter 7

Hello, everyone, I am back with another chapter.

Enjoy!

******************************************

"Is your father trying to kill us on our first day here?" Matt grunted as he passed a panting Nicholas.

"I can promise you will live through this camp but the way is unknown to me," Nicholas replied then picked up his pace to catch up with Hunter who wasn't too far ahead of him.

"I see you are getting tired in your old age cousin?" Hunter quipped between large gasps of air.

"You know very well that I have this run under my belt, don't you cousin?" with those words Nicholas took off leaving behind him a smiling Hunter.

"Wow! those boys never get tired," marveled Lillian from the end of the line along with Anna.

"I noticed. We were running for at least three hours straight and they didn't even stop once," Anna let out while trying to control her ragged breath.

"Training with Damian has his perks," remarked Lillian. "Thank goodness Jackson is the one setting the pace because if it was jasper, I am sure we would have collapsed from tiredness."

"You mean I would have collapsed not you. I am aware that I am slowing you down. I am used to running in gym class or cheerleading practices but no one of them is as intense as this exercise," Anna spoke dejectedly.

"You need to understand something, first of all, you are not slowing me because even if you weren't here, I would have stayed at the end of the line and ran with this pace. I know my cousin well and his intentions of this exercise aren't knowing who is the fastest but he needs to know who has the strongest endurance. You can't base your performance level on Nicholas and Hunter's, those two are advanced in training and can do better than what they are showing. Secondly, you are new to this so give yourself a chance, and you will be one of the best in here."

Anna looked at her gratefully and smiled in appreciation. Those words of encouragement were her essence to continue the seemingly endless run.

After the sixth lap around the large compound, jasper blew his whistle declaring the end of the run. He waited for the panting teenagers in front of him to catch their breaths before speaking.

"Well-done everyone. Your performance in this easy practice was as expected."

Jasper ignored the gaps at his use of the word easy and resumed his talking.

"Dinner will be ready in an hour. Take your showers and rest until then. As for right now, you are dismissed."

*************************

Once in the confinement of their bedroom, Lillian rushed to the bathroom to take her shower while Anna sat on the carpeted floor with her back leaning against the arm of the couch that was situated in a corner of the room. For the first time Anna took in her surroundings, two queen-sized beds covered with lavender linens and decorated with different shapes of fluffy pillows took the majority of space. Two cheery wood desks along with two padded chairs that look very comfortable were on the other side of the room.

When Anna was informed about this camp, she didn't imagine this luxury. The first image that came to her mind was tents with rolled beds and a lot of insects that she will be forced to fight all night. She chuckled to herself and shook her head. By this time, she needs to understand that these people don't do things halfway, they go the full way and sometimes beyond.

After their hot baths, Anna and Lillian towel dried their hair and wore some comfortable sweatpants and baggy t-shirts, then they went for dinner. High voices and loud laughs were heard outside the walls of the cafeteria. Lillian smiled widely and pushed the double doors open. The two girls took their trays and started filling them with the wide assortments of the cooked food. When they reached the chef who was an elderly man in his sixties, Lillian's face broke into a delighted smile and she rushed to the man's open arms. He took her in a warm hug and kissed her cheek affectionately. Then he pushed her away gently with his hands remaining on her shoulders.