I woke up due to some muffled conflict, which I opened my eyes to see was Ollie and Roselle.
"I don't want you to be influencing her badly. We finally got her to join us, why would you want to risk her changing her mind?" Roselle hissed.
"If she did change her mind, she wouldn't possibly be able to back out now. Besides, shouldn't you have more faith in her?"
Roselle let out a defensive growl, but she soon realized my eyes were open.
"Oh! When did you wake up?" Roselle gasped, sounding slightly startled.
"Just now." My voice came out scratchy and groggy, doing the trick to ease her of her nerves of being heard.
"Well, get ready for your first day of training and classes. Wear something comfortable but not completely unpresentable." She said, and walked out of my room with the clicks of her high heels.
I turned to Ollie, who looked grumpy to be woken, and her outfit from last night wrinkled.
"What do people usually wear to this training?"
She shrugged. "Mainly workout clothes. But you need to look badass today or else you're going to get your ass kicked." She started shoveling through my closet to choose my outfit.
"What do you mean, they're going to kick my ass?"
"This is like the military here. They get a lot of people to work here, and a lot of them are seriously pissed off at you that you'll automatically be the five-star general in a while even though you just suddenly popped into this life."
"But I didn't have much choice in the matter."
"Yeah, but do you really think they're going to listen? Some people here have been committed here since grade school."
I gaped at that. I had no idea how this place was run, but the fact that people were joining when they don't even know what they want yet, or even have the capability to speak for themselves, was alarming.
I didn't have anymore time to ask questions as Melissa walked in to do my hair and makeup for the day. I changed into the clothes Ollie tossed me as Melissa struggled to keep me stable enough to do a braided pony which was pretty but would also hold during my long day.
"Shit, you're actually a twig." Ollie commented as she took in my appearance. "I could totally snap you in two."
I grimaced, regretting my lapse in judgement when I stopped eating due to anxiety of this entire situation. Noticing my discomfort, Ollie wrapped an arm around me.
"Don't worry, with the crazy training they have here, and by the way I've seen you eat, you're going to be whipped into shape in no time. You just look like a runner right now, that's all."
She passed me black sneakers to wear, and I glanced at myself in the mirror and my nerves etched away slightly. Though I did look thin, I looked the most badass as I could possibly be. I was wearing grey, subtly shiny leggings and a black tank that made my arms look toned. Melissa had done a quick flick of a wing eyeliner on my eyes—the best waterproof ones, she promised—and I looked, and felt, ready to conquer the world. Or in my case, the Shadow Legion. Or, this training, I guess; let's start small.
"Melissa, Ollie, you two are the best. I would be lost without you." I told them, and they grinned at me.
Ollie and I were finishing up breakfast in the dining room when Roselle approached us. Without a word, she nodded curtly and I knew it was time for me to head to my training. Suddenly anxiety and adrenaline pumped through my blood, making me stand alert from my toes to the pounding energy in my brain.
"Hey, I'll come get you at lunch. Don't worry too much." Ollie said, punching my arm lightly in a friendly way. I put on my best mask of confidence and turned to Roselle.
"Please lead the way." I said, standing as straight as I could. Roselle led the way to the training rooms she had shown me the day before, and I instantly noticed the muffled voices of a crowd of people far away.
"Yesterday we cancelled all trainings so we could properly show you around, and everyone is well rested and excited of you being here."
"Yay." I said, though I wasn't feeling much in a 'yay' mood. I was insanely worried about the intensity of my trainings, especially with me being jet-lagged and exhausted. Now with these recruits rested and ready to show me they could kick my ass, dread showed up as cold sweat in my palms.
When the doors to the training rooms opened and Roselle and I walked in, the talking of the crowd hushed instantly. Everyone stared at the leader and the soon-to-be, and I tried desperately to not look scared shitless. The sound of our footsteps resonated across the huge gymnasium. People, varying in age all the way from kids who couldn't be any older than 7 all the way to people who looked to be in their 30's, were clumped in groups. There were all sorts of workout equipment, stunt practicing equipment, and ropes dangling from the ceiling which conjured up several explanations for its use in my mind.
Roselle suddenly turned a corner and I desperately pretended I knew where I was going as I followed her. Honestly, I felt like a lost and terrified chicken, being scrutinized by this many people. Roselle stopped in front of one particular group of five teenagers and a bald,burly man that seemed to be their leader.
Then Roselle turned so everyone there could hear her. "Everybody," she boomed, making me physically take a step back from her and internally cringe, "my niece, Cassandra, will be joining you all from today. I presume you all know who she is, but in case you don't, she is the heir to this Legion, to our cause. Respect her as you would respect me, as you help provide her an excellent learning environment."
Polite applause filled the gymnasium, and though it was a lot of attention, I appreciated Roselle's subtle reminder to my fellow trainees to be nice to me.
"This is Lieutenant Davidson, and he will be your team leader and coach for the duration of your training." She introduced me to the burly man, and I nodded curtly, unsure whether I was supposed to bow and salute or do something extravagant.
"All yours." Roselle told the Lieutenant, and he stiffly saluted her as she quickly hugged me good bye and started walking away.
"Team," Davidson said, "introduce yourselves."
I looked at my team, who all looked like normal teenagers but at the same time had something extremely different about them.
A lanky, brown-skinned boy with wisps of dyed-blond hair perked up first. He had a floppy smile that made him seem like a chill surfer dude. He seemed friendly, albeit a little aloof. "My name's Trevor. I'm 18 and I like surfing, fucking, and smoking." I snorted slightly as I suppressed my laugh. Davidson looked extremely irritable as he glared at Trevor.
"That's another ten miles for you at the end of the day." Davidson barked, as my eyes widened. But Trevor just laughed it off as he winked and pointed at him. Davidson rolled his eyes, but I swore I saw a little bit of amusement in his expression.
Then a tall, gorgeous girl went next. She subtly pushed out her chest, which was adorned by a lacy sports bra, and her golden hair fell perfectly from her sleek pony tail. "I'm Julianna, and I'm 17 years old." Her voice was low and smooth, and even as a straight female I found myself gaping at her beauty. "I've been here since I was 10 and I can help you out with anything if you're confused or struggling." Though her words were kind, I got the sense that she was bragging to me of her experience.
"Thank you, that's very sweet." I told her in my trademark kiss-ass voice.
"My name is Sandy. I'm 16." A pale, short boy introduced himself. When he didn't continue, I realized that was all he was going to say.
"Sandy is the brain of our group." Trevor said, mussing up his mop of curly red hair.
"I'm good with computers." Sandy said nonchalantly. "I graduated MIT last year, so yeah, feel free to ask me questions as well."
My jaw almost dropped as those words left his mouth. "Did you say you were 16? And graduated MIT last year?"
Sandy nodded, looking slightly annoyed that I took so long to catch up. "Oh." I said, and we moved on to the next person.
A girl with extremely long, dark hair and the most beautifully tanned skin spoke up. "My name is Leilani. I'm 15. I was born and raised in Hawaii and my family has been working with yours for centuries. Nice to meet you." Her tone of voice had a quiet, serene character to it, and I could tell she was someone who rarely spoke. Yet there was something about her stance and her presence that made me deeply respect and even fear her.
We all turned to the last boy who had kept quiet the entire time. He was ridiculously built, and had dark hair and tan skin, with alarming blue eyes. He sort of made me think of a teenage, hispanic Captain America. He looked at me broodingly, as if I had personally offended him. I met his gaze warily, waiting for him to introduce himself.
He finally sighed and stood up, tall and intimidating. "I'm Nikolás. Everyone calls me Niko. 18. And finding it really hard to believe you're going to be the leader of this Legion."
"Niko," Julianna scolded, though it had a flirty tone to it, "you're being rude."
"Sorry if I just don't agree that this zero-experience, spoiled bitch can be our next leader."
Davidson finally seemed to have enough of Niko's shit-talking. "Alright, Rios. Stop being a jackass, and that's 10 miles for you as well."
Niko rolled his eyes. I realized Niko was the kind of person Ollie had been talking about, who hated me. He was frustrated I got to be the leader when I had so little experience and knowledge. Honestly, it made sense as well. Just because I was related by blood it didn't mean I had the qualifications to be a leader. It was all for tradition, and in my opinion—as well as his, probably—made the Shadow Legion seem less valid. But I was here as an undercover, pretending to believe in the cause, and my pride wouldn't let him get away with the rude things he said to me.
Then suddenly everyone started running, and I looked around, confused.
"Alright, everyone, you know the drill. Three miles warm up." Davidson said, and turned to me. "It's six laps, Scarlett," he clarified to me.
I didn't know what to be more surprised of, the fact he called me by my last name of Scarlett, or the fact that I had to run three miles as a warm up. I wasn't particularly unfit, but I was just terrified of what the actual training would include if the warm up was pretty intense.
Just then Niko brushed by my side, muttering, "you better watch out, Scarlett."
I gave him my most intimidating glare, despite being a third of his size and a lot shorter. "Nah, that's alright, you just sound like a jealous, whiny bitch to me."
Niko's right eye twitched as he took a sharp inhale, and he started jogging (really fast) to do his warm up.
The anger and adrenaline managed to keep me running, but Niko seemed to be making a huge effort to sprint so that he would pass me several times, and I did my best to ignore him. I realized there were the incredibly fast, fit people, and then the rather slow people (who I assumed were incredibly smart, like Sandy), and very little people who ran at average, or at least understandable speed, like me.
After the run, there was a huge billboard which listed the top 10 scores. I was shocked to find the number one person was Leilani. She was an entire ten minutes faster than me, and a whole 30 seconds faster than the second person (which was Niko, annoyingly).
"Damn." I said under my breath as I walked, panting pretty heavily, back to where most of my group, except for Sandy, had gathered.
"Good run?" Niko asked, definitely trying to make fun of me.
I tried my best to not give him anything to laugh about as I shrugged. "Sure."
"Didn't seem like it."
"Then why the hell did you ask if I had a good run?" I asked, doing my best to make him feel like an idiot by giving him my best "what the fuck" face. He seemed stumped by my question, because he wasn't going to say I was trying to make you look bad out loud. I turned around, hiding my smirk at my small victory.
When Sandy arrived a couple of minutes later, Davidson told us to start stretching as he told us what to do.
"Today," he said, "we will be focusing on skills and team work. We will be going against other teams in a battle of capture the flag." I was completely confused by their choice in training. Why would they choose something that would be played at summer camp?
Correction: It was definitely not something you play at summer camp.
Everyone was asked to pick one weapon for the game, out of guns, bow and arrows, knives, and a crossbow. They were all designed to not kill anyone, but according to Julianna, "still hurts like a bitch." On top of that, we were all required to wear headpieces—with Sandy at the computer telling us what to do—and we were competing outside in the jungle, including underwater, where masks and a small air tank for each team was given.
If I didn't have so much at stake and so many people to prove, this would have been such an amazing game.
"The battle will be between two teams at a time, and we will eliminate the losers until only one team remains. Each team must hide this pole on accessible grounds," a woman who was the referee held up two long black poles with a stake on one side and either a block of gold or emerald on the other (I rolled my eyes at my family's extravagant show of wealth), "and the time limit is fifteen minutes until we call a tie."
"The first teams competing will be Team A-6 and J-18. You have ten minutes until the games begin."
Niko clapped his hands together excitedly and said, "that's us."
I winced, hoping I would get to watch a few rounds before getting out there myself. We got down to the field where the weapons and the poles were laid out. When I looked at the other team, I looked in astonishment.
"That team has like 20 people!"
Trevor laughed. "18, to be exact. Don't worry. If you remember, they're team J, and it goes to N."
"We're A, so the strongest." Sandy added proudly.
Julianna smirked. "They must be dismayed they have to go against us on the first round."
I should have guessed I would be placed in the most elite of groups, being who I was.
My teammates started picking out their weapons like it was an extension to their hands, handling it like they've been using it since they were kids. Which most probably they have. Julianna picked up a crossbow, Trevor a bow and arrow, Leilani a plastic knife (which still looked like it could slice me open), Niko a sleek metal rifle, and Sandy didn't even go for a weapon as he fired up his computer and passed around his little gadgets. I anxiously stared at the weapons, not knowing what to go for. I could feel Niko's amused smirk on me as I struggled to choose a weapon. I was definitely not going for a crossbow or a bow and arrow, but I had never shot a real gun before and knives seemed ineffective for me.
"Have you ever shot a gun before?" Trevor asked, and I embarrassedly shook my head.
"Just a BB gun and a paint gun."
He laughed, "yeah a bit different. But that's alright. We've got everything covered for now, you can start improving from now. Just grab this gun," he handed me a simple handgun, "you probably won't have to shoot anyway."
I gave him a grateful smile and I fought back the urge to give this sweet surfer a hug. "Thank you."
Niko snorted. "You belong in Team N."
To my surprise, Leilani spoke up. "Stop being an asshat. She's going to be giving you orders in a little while and there's a thing called revenge."
Niko seemed surprised, more of the fact that she spoke rather than her words. He seemed to lose the flare of his anger and arrogance, but he still muttered, "if she lasts until then," which we all heard loud and clear.
From the speakers came the referee's voice as she said, "The game begins in one minute. All competitors go out to the field."
I took in a deep breath as I followed my team, with Niko at the front holding up the golden pole.
****
Wow seriously such a long time without an update. It feels really good to be writing again. I already have a clear idea of what I want for the next chapter, so I'll be getting on that v soon.
I also started realizing that my writing has definitely improved since I started writing this story (makes sense, that was probably like two years ago) and the beginning of this story kind of sucks ass lol. Thanks for reading anyway, I hope this story is at least fun and exciting to read for you now.
Please vote/comment for this writer who literally appreciates anyone who even glances at this story. I promise I'll keep working hard to become a better story teller.
Thank you so much xxx