The Other Side

Chapter 10

It took another two weeks before she was cleared to practice again. Mrs. Mune was adamant that she couldn't train any sooner than that. She should know, she'd checked more than once. Ronan had continued to act cold towards her. Every day, he'd all but snarled at her to go away. Even Jacob had shot him a look once or twice. Maggie had nagged his ear off and had also spent hours reassuring Jordan that he was just a jerk of a person.

Jordan tried to tell herself that she didn't care what Ronan said. But that only worked so well. There was only so many times that she could chant that before the words became meaningless.

Maggie had managed to avoid Tristian for a week or so before he'd finally caught her coming out of her dorm room. He'd been there since dawn, waiting for her to come out. When she had, she'd been so surprised that she'd screamed. Tristian had decided the best way to shut her up was to kiss her. The second Jordan had gotten to History, Maggie had pounced on her.

She'd been bouncing in her seat, waiting for her to come in. Once she had, the whole story had come gushing out. Maggie hadn't stopped smiling for even a second, it made Jordan wonder if her cheeks hurt.

Even now, she was in an unusually good mood. But then again, so was Jordan. She hadn't done more than a fast walk since her run through the forest. Looking back, she admitted that it was stupid of her but at the time, she had felt like she was going insane.

Ronan was standing across from her, practically glaring. She felt small under his stare. Just as Jacob was about to begin, the head trainer called them over. Everyone. It took a few minutes for the groups to converge but eventually they managed it.

"Today's a special day. We have a couple guards here who have volunteered to do a demo for us," said the Coach.

He made a gesture to two very familiar faces. Jordan's mouth dropped open in surprise. There stood her father and the second in command of security. Jordan had met the latter momentarily when he'd stopped by to introduce himself to Weston and her. If she recalled, his name was Peyton.

When her father noticed her staring, he smirked. Jordan had a sinking feeling that he was here to cause trouble.

At the Coach's gesture, Peyton was the one who stepped forward to take over speaking.

"Afternoon. As you know, your midterms are coming up. You've been practicing combat for a few years now, and have already started on your third year sessions. This is when recruiting for the SNP starts to seriously look at your files. How many of you guys are interested? Raise your hands," Peyton asked.

A few hands shot up, maybe a dozen of the group. It seemed to be a painfully small amount to Jordan but Peyton seemed pleased by the amount.

"This is the time to start taking training seriously. Get down the basics, master them. It will help you later. For now though, watch us do some demos with the fourth years. I'll tell you this, they didn't know that we were coming," Peyton chuckled looking over the poor seniors. The only ones that seemed eager were Jacob and Ronan. Apparently they were the only insane ones of the bunch.

The coach stepped forward again and yelled for them to head to the stands.

Bleachers were in a rough ring on the other side of the field. Quickly the third years took to the stands. None of them wanted to risk the rather of the guards. Even not knowing them, they were still feared. Rumors about the power of a guard were all most people knew. The students of the school knew that they existed. But rarely were they ever seen.

Jordan and Maggie ended up sitting in the second row of one of the bleachers. The fourth year students were converged over by the coach. Some of them looked panicked while most had adopted a determined expression. These were the best fighters of their year.