The Fighters Girl

3.

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"WHAT?" Hazel screeched. Hawk's eyes widened and they both sat perfectly still for several seconds, listening for signs of life. When they heard nothing, Hazel took a deep breath and continued in a calmer voice.

"How on earth do you make that much money? You just graduated," she whisper-yelled. Hawk bobbed his head back and forth with his eyes raised up to the ceiling in a deliberating gesture.

"Eh, yes and no," he finally said.

Hazel crossed her arms and leaned back on the headboard of her bed with an eyebrow cocked. Hawk, who was leaning against a pile of pillows opposite her sighed.

"All right, yes, I just graduated from high school, but-" he cut off with a harsh sigh and ran a hand through his hair, "God, this is hard to explain. All right, the guys that come to the academy have had regular schooling for elementary through middle school, then they take the high school classes at the academy, along with the training. Altogether, it takes about four years, same as high school, except summer is shorter. Since-"

"Wait," Hazel cut in, "if they only teach high school classes, then how did you learn? I mean, seven years old, that means you were in second grade, yeah?"

Hawk nodded the affirmative.

"Online schooling, mostly. If I needed help with something, or wanted to learn something that wasn't online, I would ask one of the teachers. I mean, just because they teach high school classes doesn't mean that's all they know."

Hazel conceded with a head nod and waved her hand for him to continue.

"So," he went on, "since I started so early, I finished the training by the time I had just turned twelve. Since I couldn't teach or anything, they started teaching me more advanced stuff. Stuff that the kids who graduate from the academy have to hire a coach or go to special classes to find out. By the time I was fourteen, I was way, way ahead of all the incoming freshman my age, for obvious reasons. I was also bigger than them. I had always been big, but when I hit puberty, I got big. I was six feet tall by the time I hit thirteen, and I just kept growing. So, Cane, the one who found me, asked me to teach the basic classes to incoming freshman. At first he offered me three hundred forty-five per session. With six sessions a week, it came to about eighty-three hundred a month, give or take, so around ninety-nine three a year. After a couple months of this, we figured out I had a kind of knack for it. Even though the kids I was teaching were about my age, they respected me and they listened to me and I was a damned good teacher. I don't mean to sound cocky but-"

"No," Hazel interrupted, "own it, babe. If you're good, you're good."

His lips quirked up and a dimple popped out on the left side.

"Thanks. Anyway, he upped it to three fifty a session, which may not seem like a huge raise, but it was another fourteen forty a year, bringing the total up to one hundred point eight K a year."

"Why so much?" Hazel breathed, rubbing her forefinger over her bottom lip in a nervous gesture.

"The academy is very...prestigious. The amount to go there for one year is akin to a college tuition. I was still making about fifty K less than the other trainers, but, hell, I wasn't complaining."

"No shit," she said softly.

He gave her a panty-dropping smile in an obvious try to change the subject.

"I like your jammies, by the way." Glancing at her sports bra and sweat pants

She narrowed her eyes at him and he sighed, dropping the smile.