The sound of the birds chirping was the only thing Valerie could hear with clarity. She bounced on her heels as Arthur walked back and forth. She was almost sure that if he kept it going for a little longer, he would end up digging a hole.
"You know, you can just admit you didn't prepare a lesson for today." Valerie shrugged, trying to see how fast she could turn Excalibur from a bracelet into a sword.
Arthur stopped in his steps, looking in Valerie's direction. He opened his eyes wide as he lifted a hand. "No, no, no, I got it, I know what I'll teach you today."
Valerie scoffed, leaving Excalibur as a sword in her hand, rising an eyebrow to the former king. "You've only figured that out?"
"In those fencing classes you take, do they teach you how to disarm your opponent?" Arthur questioned.
"No..." Valerie hesitated, tilting her head. Trying to do so would be near impossible with a saber. Not to mention against the rules. Unless Arthur wanted to count the time Michael had irritated her enough for her to pull his saber from his arm.
"You'll teach me how that thing when you hit me with the wood sword? You know the..." Valerie said as she did the motion as if she was twisting her sword around an imaginary one. Her voice laced with excitement.
Arthur nodded with a smile, crossing his arms and standing straight. He looked prouder and more dignified, as if seconds ago he hadn't struggled to figure out what he was going to teach her.
"Exactly that, but bear in mind that that is one of the simplest approaches towards disarming your opponent, I'll teach you at least three different ways to disarm someone, if you learn those they could even be enough for you to create your own." he assured. Valerie nodded, eyes shining bright at the possibility. "Now for the first one, we'll need the wooden swords."
Valerie tensed her mouth. The incident with the play-swords still fresh in her mind. She turned Excalibur back into a bracelet and put any misplaced hair behind her ear. She picked the wooden swords and handed one to Arthur, who waited until she gave him the indication that she was ready to begin.
Valerie took a deep breath getting into position. Arthur stepped towards her with the same speed as usual, his sword aimed at her chest. Valerie put her own sword underneath blocking the attack. She had done it a couple of times already. Every time hasty and on impulse rather than a well-thought strategy.
Arthur stopped. A line formed between his eyebrows. He wasn't pressing as strong as the knights that attacked her usually did. Even then, she had to put some effort for her feet to remain on the same place and not slip on the grass.
"What you must do if you find yourself in a position similar to this one is to use the base as a hook, like this." He pressed the base of his sword under the blade of hers, making sure she had seen the action. "And then grab the blade with your hand, alright? after that you pull." Arthur did so, ripping the sword out of her hand in one go.
Valerie let go of the sword and watched as Arthur had both blades in his hands. Somehow, the idea of grabbing a sword with her bare hands wasn't something she was particularly akin with. The first time she had done she almost got choked to death by a knight in her school and the second one she nearly fell to down a crack in the ground created by an angry goddess which depth she was unaware of.
The scars it caused were still in the inside of her hand. One went across her palm and the others decorated the first articulation that connected her fingers. They were hard to see at first sight. It took Valerie a while to notice them herself.
"Just like that?" She knit her eyebrows together at the ease with which he explained it.
"Just like that" he nodded. Valerie shrugged, preparing to do it herself.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
The noise his classmates were making to talk between each other felt like more like a constant buzzing than human voices. Jonathan fiddled with his phone in his hands. He had sent Valerie a few messages, and now he was waiting for any sort of answer.
"Still a bad feeling?" Emily's voice resonated. He turned to her, nodding briefly. Andrew was by her side, his phone in hand. "Hey, I'm sure everything will turn out alright." she smiled, putting a hand on his shoulder. He frowned slightly and pulled away from the sudden contact.
"Are you sure you're not just constipated?" Andrew questioned, the smile he had on his face from looking at his phone didn't fade. Jonathan rolled his eyes, mumbling a series of insults under his breath. Andrew laughed in response. "Calm down, listen, I know, terrible thing to say, but sitting idle here is not going to make the feeling go away, you can either distract yourself or get to the root of the problem, whatever that is, Mystery Man."
"We could help you if you want." Emily smiled, sitting in the desk in front of his.
"We sounds like you included me," Andrew spoke with pretend offense, "but I'm up for it, I want to know what has Sour Face so twisted up."
"Can anyone pass me their Physics homework?" A voice resonated above the rest. Jonathan put a hand in his schoolbag almost absentmindedly and lifted it in the air for the boy to see. His eyes lit up and he took the notebook from Jonathan's hands making promises about kissing the floor he stepped on.
"Just like that?" Andrew mumbled, watching the interaction. The boy was holding the notebook like if it was the Holy Grail and mumbling something about how there still existed nice people in the world.
"He's usually not a pain in the ass." Jonathan retorted, and Andrew stared at him as if he had hurt his feelings. "And it's just homework, what can the teacher do about it?"
"Worst case scenario, they could suspend you, for a day or so." Andrew added. Jonathan rose an eyebrow, his lips twitching at the exaggerated nature of the punishment.
"Not the first time it would happen." he shrugged. Andrew stared at him, an eyebrow risen and a smile on his face. Jonathan saw him exchange a glance with Emily.
"Would you look at that? We have a rebel between us." He mocked; Emily smiled. Jonathan almost thought he heard her tell Andrew to leave him alone, but he wasn't sure, nor was he going to try to get any confirmation on it.
"You know what? You might be right." Jonathan said, turning to Andrew and standing up from his chair. He pressed his phone tight between his hands, he told Andrew and Emily he would return in a moment, without giving them any time to answer back to him.
He stood on the school's hallway, and dialed Valerie's number, waiting until her voice greeted him on the other side.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
Valerie adjusted her fencing clothes and shook her shoulders, a feeling of relaxation rushing through her body. She missed it. She missed the white uniform and the familiarity of the place where she trained and the people in it. She decided to wear her favorite red and blue socks. Some of the people in there had known her since she was eight, so they also seemed quite surprised at the new length in her hair. Valerie was still figuring out a way to fix it so it wouldn't get in her eyes.
The coach put a hand in her shoulder. She froze for a second, until she realized who it was. For a second, she felt the icy sensation of metal. "You missed a week Pendleton, and you cut your hair, is everything alright?" The coach greeted her, his voice as loud as ever. Valerie shrugged.
"I had a few... inconveniences." Valerie said with a vague moment of the hand. The coach gave her a pat in the back and sent her to go off against Beth.
"For those who don't know, we'll have a small tournament this Saturday, if you want to assist, you must let me know; it's going to begin at nine and I expect all of you to be there at eight thirty, no exceptions." He gave a boy the side eye and he mumbled something about only being late one time.
Valerie smiled at Beth with friendliness and the girl returned the greeting. She had a freckled face and her hair, the same color as caramel, was pulled back in a ponytail. Valerie could remember going against her a couple of times before. They both got in guard and adjusted their masks. Beth stepped forward, but Valerie was quick to avoid getting marked before she scored her first point against her.
"You're faster." Beth noted, her voice muffled due to the mask, Valerie smiled. Arthur would probably boast if he had heard her, claiming how happy he was his training had some use.
"Thank you." Valerie nodded.
They stepped towards each other again. This time, Valerie misstepped for a second. Her saber hit Beth above her shoulder, giving her the opportunity to aim at her chest.
"You've gotten better." Valerie complimented as they both got in position to continue.
.-.-.-.-.-.
Valerie dropped herself in the bench, putting her bag over her legs to drink from her bottle of water. She took her phone out of its pocket and began to fumble with it, staring in curiosity at the flood of messages at the top from her classroom's groupchat. Behind it there were a series of messages from Audrey, Iman, Gabriel and Philip demanding to talk to her with urgency. Valerie tried to remember to make a group for all of them.
"Hey, you go to Milton Secondary?" Beth's voice resonated, a slight frown in her eyebrows as she stared at her phone screen. Valerie nodded, lifting her eyes from her phone.
"Yeah, why?"
Beth's lips tensed as if she was deep in thought before she put her phone in front of her face. She dragged her finger across the screen until the video was starting over again. Valerie stared at the screen, waiting for it to load. Once it did, she saw someone had recorded from above. Although the image was far from perfect two voices narrated what was going down a couple of floors below. In the middle of a schoolyard was a group of teenagers in their school uniform were trying to fend off some knights.
Valerie felt her blood run cold and she pulled the phone closer to her face, trying to figure out how on earth it had happened. She counted herself grateful that the recording was poor enough to make everyone's faces unrecognizable. The video ended when the first knight withered to the ground.
"It's probably fake." Valerie smiled, with a vague movement of her hand. She put the same dignified face her cousin did when she told her the mermaids on videos were not real. "Where did you get it?"
"A friend sent it to me." Beth mumbled; eyebrows knit together. Valerie tried to think how many people had seen it and figured her friends' urgent messages might have had something to do with it. "But it doesn't seem fake, do you know the girl?"
Beth put the phone closer to her. Valerie was grasping Excalibur tight, and the shield was on her hand.
"I don't think so." Valerie answered, handing the phone back to her.