My eyes popped open and I was disoriented for a few seconds then I remembered what today was. It was training day!
I checked the time on my clock: 5:23am.
I jumped out of bed excitedly then I ran to the bathroom not bothering to slip on my slippers. I was sleepy but who cared about sleep when I was going for my first supernatural training.
Considering how low my spirits had been last night, I was surprised that I was feeling so upbeat today. I had cried myself to sleep last night and I had had to get up and change my pillow because the one I had been lying on was so wet because of the tears.
Well, today I was a whole different person. And I was going to school! With Gabriel.
The thought of Gabriel's disapproving face made me shower faster but it didn't water down my excitement.
After my shower I put on a pair of blue shorts and a white vest plus a pair of ankle boots. To avoid yesterday's fiasco, I secured my hair with two scrunchies and I put it in a messy bun with a few tendrils loosely framing my face.
I made it downstairs by 5:53am but I was unsure where to go. The house was so quiet at that time in the morning. I hovered by the dining room door for a few seconds debating whether to get something to eat or not. While I was deciding one of the maids I had met yesterday came up to me from the dining room hiding a bowl of yogurt and a spoon on a tray.
"Your yogurt, Miss Santana." She said.
It was such a pleasant surprise. "How did you...?" I started taking the bowl and the spoon from the tray.
"Your brother informed us of your preferences." She told me.
"Ah, of course he did. Thank you so much." I almost squealed in delight as a put a spoonful in my mouth.
"Master Gabriel would like you to meet him in the Fresh Hell room at precisely 6am." She gave me a small bow then left me to my yogurt.
I downed it as quickly as I could and I rushed to the kitchen in which the maids insisted on cleaning my bowl for me. I let them. I had woken up in time, no way I was going to be late because of a bowl.
I ran all the way down to Fresh Hell. Before I entered the room I glanced at my wrist watch. Damnit! I was 2 minutes late.
Taking a deep breath, I opened the door and entered the room. I didn't see Gabriel right away but when I looked deeper in the room I saw two small dumble weights hurtling towards me in mid air. I ducked. But they didn't hurtle past me, they hovered close to each of my hands. Frowning, I reached out and held them.
Looking up in confusion, I saw Gabriel emerging from deep inside the room. He was wearing a snug pair of dark denim pants and a stretchy muscle top and I could see his gorgeous abs through that damned shirt.
"Hie." I breathed.
"You're late." He stated.
"Sorry, I took your advice and had something to eat." I smiled broadly.
"Hmm." He turned away from me. "Come. Let's get started."
"You were making these fly?" I asked shaking the weights in my hands as I followed him.
"Those are yours from now on. They have your name on them." He told me as he stopped by a table then he turned back to me.
I looked at the weights more carefully and a saw a small inscription, 'Lioness' it said.
"Lioness?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah. I christian you Lioness." He announced doing a little wave of his hand.
"I already have a name."
"Relax your mind." He had just ignored me!
"If I relax my mind will you call me by my actual name?" I asked setting the weighs down.
"Pick those up." He ordered.
I glared at him first before I obeyed.
"I am your mind trainer. I will train you to use your mind in every way that you can. You will obey my every order while we are in here. Is that clear?" The atmosphere had shifted and it was so much more serious that it was when I came. I wondered if he could also control that.
"Yes." I replied.
"We Guardians are people of power. We can literally do anything. From controlling moods to entering people's minds to pushing desks against history teachers." I chuckled at that but he remained dead serious. "Because of our extreme power, we have to learn to practise control and we also have rules that prevent us from exploiting other supernaturals or humans even."
"It takes years of practise to achieve high potential and exploit all our powers and there's is on!y one known Guardian who ever had very strong powers. He was a Guardian by the time he was three. When he died he was on such an extreme level of supremacy that it was impossible to be in the same room with him without him exploding you into a million pieces just by looking at you."
"Yeah." I scoffed letting a laugh in a small puff of air.
Gabriel glared at me. "Your energy is very strong and maybe if you work hard you will do well. I think it's worth mentioning that there hasn't been a female Guardian in 506 years. If a girl child was born a Guardian, they were killed at birth."
"What? Why?" I clutched my throat in surprise.
"It was complicated. But when your grandmother came into power, she cancelled many of these oppressive rules so that's why you survived."
"But why did they kill female Guardians?" I wanted to know.
"That's a story for another day."
"But..."
"Clear your mind." He ordered.
I opened my mouth to argue but closed it again when I saw the look on his face.
"Empty your mind and get rid of any feelings or anything that could distract you. You can close your eyes if that helps."
I took a deep breathe and I tried my best to do as I was told and I also closed my eyes.
"Turn your palms up-" his voice was very regular, calm.
I turned them up. I was still holding the weights.
"I want you to picture your weights. Spin them around in your mind. Play with them."
He was silent for a minute as I pictured the blue weights and spun them around in my mind. Ohhh they were so pretty. They would have been so much prettier is they were red.
"Now open your palms and speak directly to the weights and say 'up'. Loudly."
I opened my palms. "Up." I said
As soon as I said that I felt both weights slip out of my hands to the floor.
I shut my eyes tighter in anticipation of my feet being smashed by the weights.
Nothing.
I opened my eyes and found the weights hovering in mid air a few inches above the ground.
I glanced at Gabriel. He was just studying me with a straight face."Thank you." He had prevented them from hitting me.
"Start over." He orders and he made the weights jump back into my outstretched hands.
We went over the same routine and I kept dropping the weights and Gabriel had to keep catching them for me. I was so frustrated by the time we did it the 19th time.
"Oh!" I threw the weights to the ground in frustration only they didn't make it to the ground, they hurtled back to my palms.
"Again!" Gabriel ordered.
I scrowled but I did as he said and I dropped them yet again on!y this time, he didn't catch them. They smashed each of my feet and I screamed and jumped up and down interchanging my feet.
"Whatchu do that for?" I yelled at Gabriel angrily but he remained so annoyingly calm it made me want to smack him.
"You need motivation. I will not be catching those for you anymore. Do it yourself." He replied coldly. He then clammed his hands together. "Again."
I growled at him and i was breathing heavily from all the jumping but I held the weights and I attempted to clear my mind but I was too angry.
"Up!" I ordered them and I was as surprised as hell when I didn't feel them slipping out of my hand. I opened my eyes and saw them hurtling towards Gabriel but he stopped them before they hit him in the face.
My anger and pain forgotten I shrieked in delight at my progress and I jumped up and down. "I did it! I did it!"
I giggled excitedly.
"You almost hit me." Gabe stated slowly drifting the weights back to me.
"You hit me first." I argued. "I am a Guardian after all, I was beginning to fear that you had made a mistake in choosing me."
I caught the weights in my hands.
"It was the anger that ordered those weights to hit me. Not you. I want you to do it again but this time with no anger. You need to develop a relationship with an object so you can communicate with it. And do not think of anything else during this time. Only dedicate your mind to them. Exclusively."
I nodded. I closed my eyes then I started the process all over again. Up, I said to the weights with my mind and they rose up from my palms and floated on the area above my hands.
I looked at Gabriel and he smiled at me. He actually smiled at me.
As I moved my hands, I noticed that they were moving with them. I smiled.
"I want you to picture them spinning."
I did and they at first twitched lightly and the more I focused on the image in my mind the more the twitching evolved to spinning. They may have hit me on my hands or in my stomach a few times but at this point I was in a world of my own.
Gabriel made me do several exercises with the weights until I had amazing control of them. I dropped then occasionally but by the end of the session I could do whatever I wanted with them. I could even make them circle my head.
"The trick to doing anything is the mind. Our mind is our workshop and we can also exploit other people's minds. We don't read minds but we can exploit, make people see what we want them to see."
"Oh we can't read minds?" I was happy to hear that!
"Yeah. Not yet anyway." He confirmed.
"That's a bit of a relief, I guess." I said.
"Take off your shoes." He ordered.
"What?" I was confused.
"Your shoes. Your feet will bruise badly." He explained as he stretched his hand toward a little fridge in the corner of the room. An ice pack flew out of the freezer to his hand. "Sit." He said a chair coming up behind me then I felt a gentle nudge pushing me into the chair.
Supernatural life was so cool.
I took my shoes off and placed them next to the chair.
"Now, I want you to imagine lifting your chair up to my height so I don't have to bend down." He said. I found his voice remarkably calm when he gave me orders like that.
I closed my eyes and did as he said. The chair jumped up by it came back to the ground again. I didn't break concentration so after five more tries, it rose all shaky but it became steady as it stopped at the exact height Gabriel had dictated.
"Good." He whispered looking pleased. "Now try to hold it."
"Okay." I whispered back trying to maintain my concentration.
He took my left foot in his hand and he placed the ice pack on it gently. I winced but him touching me was an experience on a whole different level. He was gently massaging my foot with his hand and the pack. I felt heat radiate from my feet up my body and stopped right in my mid section. The little tingles I felt yesterday we're nothing compared to the flips my stomach was doing.
I bit my lip.
He shifted feet and started massaging the right foot. My feelings heightened and i suddenly was glad he couldn't read my mind. How could one person be so hot? My heart was beating so fast such that I was almost gasping for air.
"They say Guardians have healing hands too." He told me softly then he looked up into my eyes. His heated gaze locked with mine for what seemed like years and I forgot to breathe. His eyes became even darker than they usually are and his expression was as unfathomable as ever. I could drown in those eyes.
Suddenly I was falling and I screamed but before I crushed to the floor I stopped abruptly. Gabriel had caught me. He then let me settle safely to the ground.
"Focus." He snapped.
I nodded severe colour filling my cheeks. i looked anywhere but at him as i attempted to lift myself. I managed to raise myself again and this time I tried not to fall for his gentle massaging. Clearly for him it was just part of doing his job. I tried to ignore the tears of confusion that stung my eyes.
After the ice massaging of my feet, Gabe had me hover in midair as he made me do several practise stuff. I mind controlled the ice back in the freezer. I mind controlled my shoes to my level of elevation so I could put them on by hand.
I was probably sitting there for more than two hours doing all the stuff Gabriel ordered me to do. I think it was safe to say I had mastered the art of telekinesis.
He finally allowed me to land on the ground.
"I'm done with you for today." He said with a small smile.
"Really?" I smiled full on. I was tired but this was so much fun.
"Yes. You surprised me today. I thought we were going to take all day doing this and maybe tomorrow too. But you did great." He surprised me by complimenting me.
I grinned happily. "Thanks. How long did it take you?" I asked.
"In three hours, you have physical training with Pablo." He said completely ignoring my question.
He was so frustrating. Jerkface.
"Yeah, okay. " I muttered then I turned to leave.
"Take your weights with you." He sent them hurtling towards my face but I raised my hand to deflect them and sure enough, they stopped in mid air. "Good. I'll meet you same time tomorrow."
I nodded then continued to the door mind controlling the weights to follow me.
Oh i was so hungry. The yogurt had disappeared from my stomach within the first 30 minutes of training.
I decided to head to my room first.
"Hey, Santana." Someone called.
It was Finn.
"Hey, little monkey." I greeted him.
He scrowled at me. "What's this?" He asked pointing at the weights.
Proudly, I waved them in front of his face. "My weights. See what I can do with them?" I started juggling them in mid air.
"Wow! I'm so impressed." He grinned proudly.
"Why, thank you." I gave a small bow then I giggled. "How was your training? "
"Tough. All I do is sit and think. Santana, the guy has me predicting tomorrow's weather!"
I giggled. "Aww. Who's training you?" I asked him.
"Some old guy, Fid." He sighed. "Later I'm going for..." He punched a few fists in the air.
"Hey, me too. I hurt my feet though. No no that's Gabriel let me hurt my feet. He could have prevented it." I was still bitter about that.
We started walking up the stairs. "Oh, your training seems so much fun than mine. All I can tell You is that we are going to have a rather warm day tomorrow and it will get a little windy in the evening." He run his hand over his hair.
"I'm sure the fun will pick up soon." I comforted him.
"Yeah, we'll see." He mumbled. "Is Gabriel being nice to you?"
"Well, its kinda like being taught some really fascinating stuff by a robot. I swear that guy has no emotions." Well, not really, he just hid them super well and I secretly wished to be the one to get him less guarded. I was secretly hoping that all this training would make him trust me a little bit - just a tinsy bit. Was that too much to ask?
Finn, oblivious to my thoughts laughed at my robot comment. "A sulky robot." He added to the joke.
I chuckled lightly.
"Gabriobot." Finn let out a fresh burst of laughter.
I couldn't help myself, his laughter was really catchy so I laughed too.
"I'm glad my sulking amuses you." A voice behind us said.
Shit.
Floor, please swallow me up. I beg you.
"Gabrio - Gabriel! Ha! We were just talking about you." Finn stammered.
Gabriel looked at my frozen flushed face and smirked. "Excuse me. " he said coldly and he pushed himself past us.
We stood in embarrassed silence until the echo of his footsteps on the wooden stairs had died away.
"No words. There are no words." I whispered dramatically.
"At least he's not my mentor." Finn said taking a step up the stairs.
"Oh my god, he's gonna kill me in my sleep!" I covered my eyes with my hand then I blindly ran up the stairs my weights bobbing along behind me.
I ran all the way down the corridor to my room then I slammed the door when I reached there.
Why? Why did he always catch me in compromising situations? I jumped on my bed burying my head under my over fluffy pillow.
So much for wanting him to trust and like me. Gabriobot? Really? Had he heard my comment about him being void of emotions?
Ohhh!!
* * *
Three hours later I was in back in Fresh Hell having taken a short nap and eaten some mid afternoon lunch.
I was wearing a pair of long stretchy pants and a training vest along with a pair of sneakers.
Given the time, I was surprised to find a bunch of people there working out and Finn was there too but I already knew that.
All the eyes had me rather self-conscious, I wasn't really the best in gym class. I always tried to look for ways to get out of it. Now all these people were going to watch me make a fool of myself.
Gosh-darnit!
"So what sports do you play?" The girl I was talking to, Sammy asked.
"What? Umm sports? Does virtual car racing count as sports?" I raised an eyebrow embarrassed by my lack of sporting experience.
"You mean like actual car racing?!" She asked her eyes going wide.
"I'm pretty sure I said virtual." I said to her frowning a little.
"Oh, you do virtual ones too? Oh that's so cool!" She gushed.
I squinted my eyes. Was she being serious or she really was just this dumb? She looked so sincere I had to assume she was being serious. I bit my lip to keep from saying something sarcastic.
"So what sports do you do?"
"Oh, girl's volleyball, girl's soccer and girl's swimming." She accompanied each one with a little jump.
"Oh, but you could totally play for boys." I couldn't help remark but she was completely oblivious to my sarcasm.
"Oh no, they are very strict about that. The humans." She told me matter-of-factly.
"Ohhh." I acted surprised.
"We should totally chat again. Now I have to go practice." She said and I nodded with smile before she skipped off.
There apparently was another door that led outside, I noticed.
When is was opened most of the people emptied out through that door and there were just a few of us left inside. I sat down on the chair I had been using with Gabriel earlier that day as I waited for my trainer whom I didn't even know.
"No one comes to the gym to sit." An unfamiliar voice said to me.
So I looked up.
He was tall and all muscle-ly not like steroid muscle but he looked like an athlete. He was also African American I got up from my chair and noticed that in my petite form, I barely reached his chest.
"You are really tall." I blurted out.
He grinned. "And you are are about to get your butt whooped. They call me Payne, I'm your trainer. I'm a Wiseman."
"Hie. I'm Santana." I shook his hand. "Guardian." I added feeling rather self-conscious.
"I know who you are, babie. Well, come on then. Let's get started." He moved towards the treadmill.
"So umm, do they call you Payne because you cause pain?" I asked nervously.
He just tuned and gave me a winning smile. "Do you train or have you been to the gym before?" He asked and I shook my head. "Ah, so you are a gym virgin. Don't worry, I'll be gentle."
I was more shocked than embarrassed. This place had all sorts of characters. I let out a laugh in a small puff of air. "Right. And what's a Wiseman?"
"The most awesome man there is, babie!" He said a little too loudly with his arms spread out wide. He sounded a little like Eddie Murphy. I couldn't help kinda liking him 'cos I thought Eddie Murphy was hilarious.
I laughed.
"And you know the best thing about being a Wiseman? I get to stay a bachelor all my life. We just don't marry. No wife drama so I'm a free agent." He grinned broadly at me and winked.
"Good for you. Nobody needs wife drama, right?" I gave a fake laugh.
"You know it, girl. Come on let's get started otherwise Gabriel will come down here and chew my neck."
He bent down and retrieved a small blue mat which he handed to me. "Here. That's yours you bring it everyday for training, you hear?"
"Sure." I took the mat then I looked up to him expectantly.
"Well, spread it over there." He said as if it was obvious what i had to do. But I said nothing and did as he bade. "Okay now we are going to start you off with basic stretches and you have to do them everyday now. I don't wanna come in here and find you sittin', you hear."
"Yeah okay." I nodded.
We did stretches then after a bunch he made me run on the treadmill and I even did several other work out routines as per his instructions.
Though through my entire work out I couldn't help but notice that Finn was doing something entirely different from me. He was doing some kind of wrestling on one of the large blue mats. It looked like fun! I wanted to do it too. But I was scared to ask.
Maybe he was going to say girls aren't allowed to do it.
I pouted.
Well, I was going to ask anyway at the end of my session. As it is I was so exhausted already and I was breathless yet Payne showed no sign of stopping.
After what seemed like hours of pain on my fragile body, he finally stopped.
"That's okay for today. You gonna need an early night, girl." He told me with a smirk.
"I'll survive." I breathed in a small puff of air.
Payne grinned then started turning away from me. I saw my chance. "Payne," he turned back to me "what is that they are playing there?" I pointed at the guys tussling on the mat.
"That's wrestling, baby." He informed me then raised an eyebrow. "Why? You interested?"
"Yeah, looks like fun." I grinned.
"Yeah it's as painful as hell especially for a fresh cutie like you." He reached over and tickled my chin.
"But I want to do it. Please. Just once." I asked.
"No way. Can't have you die in my care now, can i? It will hardly do much for my reputation."
"Oh come on! Please. You will wrestle with me and I know you will be gentle." I pouted prettily at him. Though I was covered in sweat I hoped if I awkwardly batted my wet eyelashes at him he would change his mind.
He paused and looked at me all amused. "Go to sleep and we will see how you will be feeling tomorrow."
I grinned victoriously. "See you tomorrow then."
I turned and exited the room.
I slowly and tiredly made my way up the stairs and I eventually reached my room having tactfully hidden myself from people who were out and about in the house. I couldn't let anyone see me in my sweaty state.
A shower, yes, a nice warm shower. I decided before I even sat down on the bed. The shower took less time than I thought it would because I realized my legs were quite wobbly. I was so tired I could barely stand and I couldn't stop yawning.
Dragging myself out of the shower I slipped on a flimsy nightdress smirking at the fact that it was just 6:30 in the evening. Whatever, I had just had my first gym and I wasn't sure if I was glad that I wasn't a gym virgin anymore. I snuggled closer to my pillow. Though if it was this tiresome loosing my virginity through sex I'd rather not do it...it was safer that way.
And with that thought i immediately fell asleep.