Dawn's POV
I was startled awake by the sound of clanging metal. I quickly sat up in bed and almost hit my head on the wood bunk above me.
I looked around and in the hazy light streaming in through the two tiny windows. I saw a girl hop down from the bunk above me. She turned towards me and froze when she saw me gazing back.
"Who the hell are you?" she questioned.
I was a little taken aback by the harshness in her voice, but then again, I was almost an intruder in her room.
"I'm Dawn," I replied. "Who are you?"
The girl looked a little more relaxed once I introduced myself. "I'm Lucy," she said as she walked closer to my bed. "You must be the new room mate they told us we were getting."
I nodded as I stood up. "That would be me." I held out my hand and smiled. "Nice to meet you."
She smiled and took my hand and shook it firmly. "Nice to have someone new around here, especially a girl. I got sick of having two buffoons to room with." she said as she gestured to the other bunk bed.
I wondered if there was another girl that roomed here before me, and what happened to her. I was brought out of my thoughts however as the two guys had started to stir and Lucy quickly dragged me over to the closet.
"Change now before the two baboons get up and make it awkward for you." she instructed while quietly opening up the closet.
I nodded as I grabbed out my set of clothes. It was a midnight blue short sleeved shirt, black skinny jeans, and a pair of black combat boots.
Quickly throwing them on, I turned around to find Lucy dressed too.
"What, no leather jacket?" I kidded as I walked over to her.
She laughed. "Nah, you get it once you complete training and make it in."
I laughed. "Well that makes sense."
She nodded as she laced up her boots. "Do you have any jewelry on? Take it off if you do, Max will have a fit if he sees any."
I felt my neck to grab my locket, and I freaked out when it wasn't there. I rushed over to my bed to search for it, and I relaxed when I remembered that I had shoved it under the mattress.
Walking back over to Lucy at the table, I propped my foot up on a chair to re-lace my boots.
"So what is training like?" I asked, trying to be friendly with Lucy. I needed as many friends as possible if I was going to fit in here.
She smiled at me as she set her foot down of the chair and fixed her shirt.
"To be honest, it's hard," she said. "It just depends on the day, the trainer, and how your feeling though."
I finished lacing my boot up, and I set it down on the floor. When I looked up, I was met with a pair of very dark brown eyes staring at me.
"Who is she?" questioned the owner of the brown eyes with worry.
"Relax Parker," Lucy said. "This is Dawn, she's our new room mate and the new trainee."
He looked back at me, not showing any emotions.
"Nice to meet you," I said giving him a little wave.
He gave me a blank look, and the next thing I knew he was hurdling at me and crushed me in a very awkward hug.
"I have a new buddy!" Parker cheered.
My arms were stuck down at my sides, and I looked at Lucy for help before I was squeezed to death.
"Parker, let the poor girl go before you suffocate her." Lacy said while chuckling.
Parker quickly let go and smiled at me as I stared up at him. He was really tall, and had short black hair.
"So do you want to...." Lucy started to ask. She was cut off by a loud thud.
We all looked over to where the source of the sound was, and saw a person laying on the floor. I tried to suppress my laugh, but it came out anyways.
"Did he just...fall off the top bunk?" I asked while trying not to laugh too hard.
We all burst out laughing and I walked over to the guy on the floor to make sure he was okay.
The laughter subsided in the room as I flipped the guy over on to his back with my foot.
I was met with a very cute face and a head of short blonde hair. I stood there staring at him, until his blueish green eyes flew open, and he sat up and scooted away from me.
"Who the hell are you!?" he practically screamed, which made me start laughing again.
His eyes viciously looked around the room, and he only calmed down when he saw Lucy and Parker.
"Who is she?" he asked them while glancing back at me and pointing.
"That's Dawn," Lucy said with a smirk on her face.
"You know, our new room mate," Parker added with a chuckle.
He looked back at me and I gave him a little wave. "Hello to you too."
He just stared at me, then got up and brushed himself off.
"Why was I on the floor?" he asked.
Lucy, Parker and I all glanced between each other and we all broke out laughing again.
"You fell off the top bunk." Parker explained between laughs.
He rolled his eyes. "I'm sorry that I'm so awesome, the ground is just attracted to me."
That made me roll my eyes and chuckle along with Lucy and Parker.
I knew by the way he was acting that he was full of himself and thought he was all that. I smirked to myself. I was going to have a lot of fun messing with this guy.
He walked over to the closet on his side of the room and took out his clothes. He took off his shirt and changed. He was about to change his pants when Lucy yelled.
"Whoa there! Just wait a minute!" She yelled at the guy. She quickly walked over to me and started dragging me towards the door. "Lets go eat breakfast Dawn."
"What?" said the guy. I could see his eyes openly go up and down my body. He smirked at us. "Little Dawn can't handle seeing me change?"
Lucy rolled her eyes. "I can't handle that, and I've been living in this room with you for two weeks."
Lucy opened the door and we were walking out and I heard Parker call. "Bye Dawn! Bye Lucy!"
"Bye Parker!" I called just as the door shut.
Lucy dragged me down the empty hall a ways, and then she stopped. In the sunlight coming in through the ceiling, I could now see what she really looked like.
She had curly brown hair and light brown eyes that complimented her well. She was almost as tall as me, and I already knew she was the same age.
"What was that about?" I asked as Lucy was catching her breath.
"Xavier, doesn't sleep with underwear on, and if we were in that room for any longer, he would've flashed you." Lucy explained.
I gave her a questioning look as to why she knew that.
She sighed and shook her head. "I woke up at the wrong time one morning."
I shuddered and patted her on the back. So Xavier was his name huh? Well he better be prepared to get some trouble from me.
"Lets go eat," she said as we started walking down the hall.
Looking behind me, I could hear the showers being run, and I smiled.
"What about taking a shower today?" I asked and Lucy turned around and stopped.
She laughed. "I forgot that you don't know. Today is the guy's shower day, we switch every other day so the girls will get it tomorrow. We worked it out so no incidents happen, things that are kind of like the one that would've happened this morning with Xavier." she explained.
I nodded in agreement. I liked that setup a lot and it made a lot of sense.
"Now lets go get some food!" Lucy said as she grabbed my arm and dragged me down the hall towards ground zero. "Training starts soon."
* * * *
I took a big bite of my sandwich and I groaned in delight. "This is so good," I mumbled with my mouth full.
Lucy chuckled at me. "Used to eating canned food huh?"
I vigorously shook my head and continued eating my food.
When we walked into the dining hall that morning, I wasn't surprised to see it was another large room with glass ceilings. The long tables were set up in rows across the room, but I was surprised to see the trainees had their own section to sit in.
"Why don't we sit with everyone else?" I had asked Lucy as we picked a place to sit.
"They don't want us to overhear anything important if we don't complete training." she had explained with a shrug, while starting to eat her breakfast.
We were the only to people at the trainee tables, and I wondered where all the others were.
"Why are we the only ones here?" I asked Lucy.
She shrugged. "Some come down to eat breakfast right away, and some don't eat at all. Technically, we are eating breakfast late." she replied before she added, "Hurry up and eat though, we don't want to be late for training."
Parker and Xavier had joined us for breakfast once they came down from the room. Parker just seemed to be a ball of energy, while Xavier seemed annoyed the whole time.
"Where are you from?" Parker questioned me with a smile.
I smiled. "I've lived in Gainsville my whole life."
They all gave me shocked expressions. "What?" I asked confused.
"You've lived here for seventeen years, with three gangs roaming the streets, then taking over everything?" Xavier had asked.
I smirked at the fact it seemed to impress him. "Yeah, I was living in my parents apartment before this. Never had any trouble, went on scavenges for supplies. Not an easy life, but it wasn't that bad either." I explained.
"Wow," Parker breathed out as he shoved some bread in his mouth.
I smiled, I managed to keep everything well under cover, and nothing slipped out of my mouth that wasn't supposed to.
After a long pause I laughed. "I guess that means you guys aren't originally from here." I stated.
They all shook their heads no, and I smiled more. I realized I had such a huge advantage over them, I knew the city and all the streets, and what gang territories start where.
I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, and I turned my was to see what it was.
Slowly realizing it was Jake, he was probably watching me to make sure I didn't spill. He sat down next to Kaiden at a head table, and that surprised me. I didn't think Kaiden would eat down here with us.
I was quickly brought out of my thoughts when I realized they were both staring at me, and I quickly lowered my gaze, and turned back around to my friends as you would say.
"Are you ready to head down to training?" Lucy asked me.
I looked around and everyone had finished while I was busy looking away, and they were staring at me.
"Yeah," I replied quickly wanting to get out of there. I could still feel the gazes of Jake and Kaiden on my back and it was making me uncomfortable.
We quickly threw our stuff into some trash shoots, and walked out the big entrance way back into Ground Zero.
I snuck a quick glance behind me, and sure enough, Jake and Kaiden were still both watching me walk out the door.
My head was quickly snapped forward as Lucy grabbed my arm and pulled me into a run towards some stairs on the left side of Ground Zero.
"Hurry up!" she said in a worried voice. "We're going to be late if we don't make a run for it! Once the doors close they don't open till lunch," she explained as we started running down the first flight of stairs. "And if you don't make it to training on time, you stand outside the door until then, waiting for punishment."
I shivered at the word punishment, as we ran down three more flights of stairs.
When we hit flat ground again, I could see Parker and Xavier looking at us worriedly, from behind a very big man pulling down a metal door.
He paused when he saw Lucy and pushed the door back up. He stalked over to Lucy with an angry expression on his face, and stopped right in front of her.
"And why are you almost late Lucy?" he growled at her.
I stepped out from behind her and the man's gaze shifted over to me.
"Who are you?" he questioned while crossing his arms.
"I'm Dawn," I said as I made a plan to get us out of trouble. "I'm the new trainee sir, and I apologize for us being late, I'm not quite used to things yet, so needless to say I was slow this morning." I quickly added, "It won't happen again."
He nodded at my explanation. "Welcome to training Dawn, I'm Max, one of your trainers." he said with a slight smile. "Now get inside you two, I expect you to be early from now on."
"Yes sir," we both said as we walked through the entrance, over to wide eyed Parker and Xavier who both had their mouths dropped.
I smirked as the metal door slammed down behind us, and my first day of training began.
******************************
Hey everyone! Life is starting for Dawn and who knows where it will go?
Thank you for reading! Hope everyone is still enjoying!
Please consider giving this chapter a vote if you enjoyed it! Also feel free to leave thoughts or feedback in the comments for me!
- Delaney :)