"Ensure that those notes are copied down, now, I'll be handing out new schedules," My professor began, sparking my interest. "It's around this time in the tournament that we introduce a new class into the schedules of our medical students. We understand that with our demanding classes, having an opportunity to train is difficult. We will be introducing a training class, once a week, to ensure that you staying good shape."
No way.
I hated training. I had dropped it in school the moment that I was able, and I was only one of three who did. It was rare to find a wolf who couldn't stand training, but here I was. It was the only subject in school that I never could pass. I had no problem in taking a run, in fact I quite enjoyed that.
It was just everything else.
"Now about the results of your last tests, some of you will not be staying in this class, but moving into another. These new classrooms will also be attached to your schedule. These changes will be effective immediately." The professor announced, starting to hand out the new schedules, slamming them down against the wooden surface.
The moment that he handed over mine, I picked it up so quickly that I was surprised I didn't end up with a papercut.
My training class was tomorrow, cutting through lunch. That wasn't the problem.
I had a new class. These people that I had started getting used to, the teacher that I had adjusted too, the classroom where I had claimed my seat in the back.
This was going to be my last lesson.
They never attached teachers onto these things, so I couldn't even guess which class I had been moved into, nor could I guess even if I did.
I bit my finger, letting the pain as I pressed down harder distract me from the whirlwind of thoughts in my head.
The bell signalled the end of the lesson, and I stood up, walking out with the piece of paper slightly crumped in my hand.
I headed straight to lunch, still having about twenty minutes before that ended. I also knew that the others would be there, they were lucky in the fact that they rarely had a lesson overlap with a mealtime.
Once I walked in, I headed to the buffet, grabbing a bowl and piling in a bunch of lettuce, chicken, tomato, cucumber, capsicum and cheese. I also filled up a mug with coffee, pouring in a lump of sugar before stirring it and heading over to the table where the others were sitting.
"You don't look so good Thee, whats going on?" Magnolia said straight away, her eyes locked on me as I lowered my stuff onto the table.
"My class got changed, I'm in a completely new class." I informed them, my bag slumping against the ground. I shoved a fork into my bowl.
Ivy's shoulders slumped, "You know, chances are you're getting moved into a higher class,"
I pulled my hair out of my ponytail, "Probably not Ivy, but thanks anyway."
Valeria focused on me, "That's not it though, is it?"
I scoffed, "No, it's not, and let me tell you, I'm pissed. Every week, we're having a training lesson. I dropped that back in high school, why on earth would they think it's a good idea to have a training session!"
Colton snorted, "You dropped training in high school?"
I glared at him, "Yes actually, being physical isn't one of my strong suits, at all."
Ivy raised an eyebrow, "Could have fooled me,"
I stabbed my fork into my salad, picking up a few things and shoved it into my mouth, "You won't be saying that when you come and visit me in the hospital because I'm in a coma."
"You won't end up in a coma, I doubt you will even be hospitalised." Julian insisted, his eyes full of disbelief.
I leaned back, "Check my medical records, smartass, then we'll see whos wrong." I shoved the fork back into the bowl.
"When's the lesson?" Gabe inquired politely, seemingly ignoring my previous statement.
I picked up my mug, "Tomorrow from about eleven till two."
"You know, we can come with you? We're allowed to be in the training room whenever we like," Valeria offered.
I shook my head with a sigh, "I'll be embarrassing myself in front of my new class, I don't want to be embarrassed in front you guys two,"
"Protecting your dignity, huh?" Orion added, an interested expression on his face.
Here was the thing, since... the incident in the hallway, I had been avoiding Orion like the plague. I came into meals late and left early, lingering in the corridors to ensure that I never ran into him, rushing in between classes to avoid seeing him. He had tried to talk to me, but I had managed to defer every possible opportunity for conversation.
If we had made any progress, I had certainly erased it.
I took another swig of my coffee, "Basically, yeah."
"Well, we'll come to visit you at the hospital if you do end up fainting or severely injured," Ivy promised reassuringly,
"I would hope so," I replied.
The topic changed after that, but I couldn't focus, my foot anxiously tapping against the floor.
-----------------------------------------
I was staring in the mirror. I had tied my hair back into a tight ponytail, a loose-fitting tank top and a pair of black leggings.
I was about to head down to my training lesson, my cheeks already flushed from nerves.
I bid the others, who were casually lounging in front of the tv goodbye as I exited the door and began walking towards the gym. There were two other people in the elevator with me, neither of whom I recognised.
It was easy to get out of the dorm building and towards the training area. It was open from the outside, so I didn't bother coming in through the front door, instead, going straight around and entering through that way.
The class was set to start in five minutes, so people should already be arriving. I could see one large group of people all huddled together, and due to the fact that the rest of the gum was practically empty, I had to assume that they were my class.
I went over and stood with them, lingering towards the back of the crowd. Over the next five minutes, more people turned up, filling up the area where we were standing.
A man walked over in tight-fitting singlet and bike pants, his bald head shiny under the bright, industrial lights.
"You guys are the decided, right?" He asked, looking for confirmation. A few of us nodded our heads, "I'm Terry, and I'm the head of fitness here. Usually, I would be taking these sorts of lessons, but I asked one of my other students to run these lessons for you."
Terry held up his hand and a man started walking over. His black hair was pushed back with sweat as his eyes darted between Terry and I. He was wearing a pair of long workout pants and was completely shirtless, his tanned skin is pulled tightly over his muscles. Chances are I would only just be able to wrap both my hands around his bicep, the six-pack adorning his chest glinting with sweat.
I gulped,
I knew exactly who that man was,
And I was going to kill him.
Well, I would if I could stop drooling.
"This is Orion Westbrooke, one of my intended, I thought that he would be suitable in taking charge of your lesson today, make sure to enjoy yourselves, I'll be checking in throughout the lesson," He clapped Orion on the back who just answered with a smile before turning to face us.
"So, we're just going to start with some basic warm-up and exercises before we jump into some sparring. We won't be shifting this lesson, so keep that in mind. I want everyone to do two laps around the arena to begin,"
Everyone looked at each other before beginning a slow jog that turned to an easy run. I let out a breath, placing myself towards the end of the crowd before beginning to run. I could do this, laps were easy.
I felt a presence next to me,
"What on earth are you doing?" I growled,
Orion gave me a grin, "I'm leading the lesson, I would be a pretty bad teacher if I didn't at least do the warm-up jog."
"No, what are you doing here," I asked again, refusing to look at him.
As if it was the most obvious thing in the world, Orion said, "Terry asked me to take over these lessons, I said yes. He asked me before you told us and he didn't inform me that the class I would be taking was yours, though, I was holding out hope."
"Well, go run with one of the girls who are drooling over your lack of clothes," I answered back,
Orion let out a laugh, "I already am,"
I almost slapped him. "I am not!"
"You keep telling yourself that."
I didn't answer, instead tried to run faster so I didn't have to stand next to him anymore. I had just one more lap to go,
"Don't be embarrassed darling, it's animal attraction, nothing wrong with it," He insisted, catching up to me with ease.
"No, there isn't a problem with it," I snapped, "Except for the part where you think that I'm attracted to you, since I'm not, it is kind of wrong,"
Orion shrugged, "I don't mind you being with me for my body, because I can guarantee you that's not the reason you'll be staying,"
My head turned to his, "And what reason is that?" I sneered.
Orion leaned forward slightly, "My wonderful personality."
I snorted, "Personality my ass,"
Once I had finished the second lap, I went as far to the back as I could, while Orion stayed out the front.
"Alright, I want us to get into one line and be at least one arm's length away from each other." He instructed, the rest of the group scrambling to follow his orders.
We lined up with our arms out, not dropping them until our tip of our fingers touched, ensuring that we were spaced out far enough.
"Alright, I'm going to lead you guys through some exercises, all you need to do is follow me."
It felt like an eternity; star jumps, planks, squats, donkey kicks and a bunch of exercises I didn't even know the name to. And while I know we were only doing it for about twenty minutes, it felt as if it were hours. My breathing was heavy and any loose hairs that had undone themselves from my ponytail were now plastered to my face. Chances are I looked redder than a tomato.
Finally, Orion stopped, dismissing us for a drink break. Once we had done that, we went back into the same positions we had been in before, and I could only pray that we weren't going any more exercises.
"Now, raise your hand if you would say you know enough basic techniques to defend yourself in human form should you be attacked?" Orion asked, his hands clapped together.
The majority of the group raised their hands, mine, however, stayed firmly planted by my side.
Orion looked over the group, the end of his lip twitching upwards when his eyes passed over me.
"I need someone to go through some defensive tactics with me before we split into pairs, any volunteers?"
About sixteen hands went up immediately, fifteen being girls with flushed, red faces. Another was a tall boy with tree-trunk arms who looked as if he should be in a warrior course.
Orion's eyes raked over the group, "Althea, thank you for volunteering, come up here."
Kill me, please.
I bit the inside of my cheek, not wanting to hesitate too much. I started walking forward, taking a place beside him.
"Now, it's important to assess your partner as quickly as possible. You need to figure out where it would be best to attack them. " Orion circled me, "Could going for their legs work best? If you aim for the neck, make them winded? If you can figure these things out, it may be easier to secure a win. Now, say I was fighting against Althea, I would aim for her knees, I came to that conclusion by looking at her stance, she's put her weight on her lower legs meaning that attacking there could throw her off her game and weaken her, giving me a high chance at a win, everyone get that?"
A couple of people nodded. I looked down and softened my knees, not even realising.
"Now, what would you think Althea should do to me?" Orion announced, "What would she do to weaken me?"
A girl put her hand up, "Your ribs? You've been having your hands and arms crossed over your chest almost the whole time,"
Orion pointed at her, "Exactly, that's exactly what you should do."
"Now, I want everyone to get into pairs, assess each other and then fight against each other. We do have an odd number, so, since Althea is already up here, she can be with me. If you need any help, come and ask."
Everyone split up into pairs, whilst I stood firmly in the spot.
The quiet gym started to outbreak in conversation, the attention being drawn from Orion and I to everyone's individual partners.
Orion gave me a look over, "You seemed to be fairing quite well during the exercises. Though you certainly weren't exaggerating about your lack of ability."
I rolled my eyes, still breathing heavily, "Yeah, ugh, I haven't done any proper exercise other than taking runs since... I don't even know."
Orion just grinned, "You ready to start?"
I launched my forearm at his ribs, causing him to stagger back before stabbing my elbow into his side. His eyes widened for a moment before bouncing back immediately, swinging his leg outwards and crashing into my legs, and knocking me straight into the floor.
An idea hit me,
I certainly didn't want to let him win.
I twisted my body in the air, letting my body hit the ground face down. I could feel blood trickle down my face from my nose, a sharp sting on my lip. I moved my hand up and touched my lip before wiping the blood off my face and subtle holding my hand up in a way that showed off the blood without looking as if I was showing him.
"Oh, goddess," I heard him say, "What did I do?"
The moment that I felt him leaning over me I kicked up my legs, twisting my body and pushing him to the ground, sitting on his chest to keep him grounded.
I grabbed his hands, shoved together his wrists and held them up against the floor above his head.
"I win," I spat out,
Orion let out a bark, "You did,"
I let go, rolling myself on to the floor and grabbing my shirt, pressing it up to my nose to stop the bleeding that still hadn't ceased.
Orion pulled himself up, still staying seated on the floor, "You're not actually hurt, are you? I didn't hurt you?"
I licked my finger and placed it against my lip, "Nah, I figured that it would probably distract you enough to give me a winning edge. Find your opponents weakness, am I right?"
He gave me almost a proud look, "Exactly, you aced it."
I looked up at the clock that was hanging on the wall, "Guess what?"
Orion pulled himself up properly, pulling his hair back, "What?"
I pointed to the clock, "Lesson's over. Meaning that my weekly torture is over,"
"It's not torture," Orion scoffed, "We had a great time today!"
I snorted, pointing to my face, the red blood staining my clothes ina never-ending drip. "Torture, Orion. So bad in fact, that I may just have to skip next week."
Orion stood up, extending his hand towards me. I took it, letting him pull me up off the floor. "Well, at least you had a good time."
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Good morning everyone! How was that chapter?
First off, thanks for the support on my little idea rant last chapter about the book series. I have decided that it's definitley something I want to do so yea. Also, fun to see so many people excited about my mafia and high school rom com that I have planned! Anyway, just wanted to say thanks xx
I've put in place some pretty heavy writing goals for this year, so let's see how I go! (Especially now all my assessments coming in lolololol)
Remember to vote and comment!
See you in the next chapter,
Eryn