The Top Student

Introducing the main charackters of the story - Max, the oddity of all odds, Zack, Edward and Alex - three new students of the school.

It was a quiet winter morning with a beautiful sunrise staining the hollow edges of the clouds. In a plainly furnished room was an ordinary looking girl sitting on an untidy bed. She had a laptop on her lap and headphones on her head; her eyes were strained staring at the computer screen occasionally typing something on the keyboard. Her nimble fingers worked with extreme accuracy and delicateness as if she barely touched the keys with her finger pads. Her activity was interrupted by the loud voice coming out from the speakers which were placed all over the building.

“Student No. 666 is required outside the school gates immediately.”

The girl stopped typing grumbling something inaudible under her nose, tearing the headphones off her head she stood up. The girl looked fairly young, but it was hard to tell her exact age. Her roundish face with reddened cheeks had a bright smile on it, but there was some sort of danger radiating from her even though she looked completely normal, ordinary. She kicked off her pajama pants and rummaged through a creaky wardrobe looking for a pair of washed off, tattered jeans; she dressed up and walked outside the room, through halls and out to the cold with a wide smile never leaving her face. Right outside the door of the dorm building which was located just a bit to the right from the main school facilities she met the headmaster of the school. The man was a stoic, serious and on the outside a very cold person. He did not have any exceptional traits to his appearance, but something about him, just like the girl, exuded an intimidating kind of aura.

“So, what’s up, Professor?” cheerfully asked the girl.

“I have some work for you, Six.”

“Oh, so exciting!” the girl clapped her hands together.

Meanwhile, a bit away from the school gates, at the other side of the road, three tall men were standing and having a rushed conversation about various things, such as this school.

“So, what do you think the best one in here looks like?” asked a guy that had some visible muscle and black as night hair. He was looking around as if trying to determine which way danger is going to come from.

“Probably some nerdy looking idiot who can’t let go of his gun even in the crapper,” said the other one who looked a bit intimidating even for me who was not to be scared so easily… This man, differently from his companion, was calm and collected, donning a carefree attitude.

The third man, or more likely a boy, stood silently beside his colleagues and just observed his surroundings carefully. His appearance had a bit of unexpectedness in it. The other two were still discussing possible situations which might arise in the school and admission and other things when finally they saw two figures approaching right behind the corner of the main building and through large metal gates. One of them was a broad shouldered, vise-faced man and carried himself with dignity and authority. The other one was quite a sight " she was skipping and flailing her arms around vigorously, like a child… trying to hit up a conversation with the man beside her, not caring at all that cold air was biting into her delicate skin.

“Is it just my eyes making fun of me or is that a girl?” asked Edward, with a frown.

“Then it’s a group hallucination,” answered Zack.

The two completely incomparable personas got closer and as Professor was about to introduce all to each other, the girl took a step straight to the silent boy and while staring at him exclaimed:

“Cool! Can I call you Red? Oh, you don’t have to answer, I’ll still call you that!” she smiled even wider that before.

The silent boy with scarlet hair became even more confused and uncomfortable with the sudden situation. His cheeks burned more brightly than his hair and he had no idea how to react to this incomprehensible person and their antics so he just remained silent.

“Six, you are being rude. Introduce yourself,” reprimanded the Professor.

“Haha, I got carried away… My bad! I’m Max. You can call me Six, triple six, shinigami, or whatever the-” she looked at the Professor and stopped from swearing, “… whatever you like.”

“I’m Zack,” said the black haired man. “This angry guy here is Edward. And he’s Alex” Zack motioned to other two in turn with his arm.

“So you guys are the new students here, right? Professor, you can go do the stuff you usually do and I’ll take care of them,” Max smiled as she pushed the older man away from the group.

“Very well, then. Welcome to our school. I hope you find it to your liking.” The headmaster of the school turned around and walked to the main building leaving them in her hands.

Max was supposedly the best student of this specialized school, as the Professor had informed the new students beforehand. As the headmaster was a busy man he let Max do the showing around and the introductions to the school grounds and policies.

“So, babies, follow me,” Max gave the instruction and started skipping back towards the main school building.

Edward’s eyebrows furrowed in a deep scowl as he opened his mouth to express his disbelief in the ridiculous behavior of the girl who was clearly younger than all three of them, but Zack stopped him from causing a scene with one fluid motion of his hand. Edward grumbled, still scowling, but didn’t express his annoyance further, just followed the other two.

Max seemed to be in a hurry as she showed the dorm building briefly from outside and said that there’s nothing interesting to see and it gets boring after you live there for more than a week. So she walked them to the dining hall " a building attached to the dorm building from the back side, but relatively close to other building littering the campus teritory.

“Here we get our grub. Oh, hey, Packu,” Max greeted the man behind the counter. “He doesn’t talk so you can just ignore him. Okay, let’s move on.”

To that statement the man called Packu, whose name in truth was actually Parker, just sighed shaking his head and went about his routine at the counter with distributing the food into prearranged trays and separate plates. Max showed them the counters, the discard boxes and the wash places and moved on with her tour.

Max walked the men outside again and led them across the front yard of the dorms and walked a bit more to reach a huge building with small windows and thick walls. The girl pointed the main school building out noting they learn theory there and they do the actual thing inside the one they were standing in front of now.

“Now boys, be warned. This place is my castle. Mess any, even the tiniest, piece and I’ll end you,” she said without ever ceasing to smile as all the time up till now, but her eyes were not smiling.

Edward looked like he was about to snap, but Zack asked getting ahead of him.

“What does that mean?”

“It means you die if you break anything.”

“Fair enough,” he replied after a moment of silence.

Before entering inside, Max grabbed Alex’s slender hand and dragged him in with ease. She was pumped up to show him all around. She didn’t really care about the other two; she had the one most interesting in her grasp. I could say she was fascinated by the extraordinary looks that he possessed. She was fascinated with the color red so she was bound to love his hair " the full texture, volume and the scarlet shade of those lightly curled locks. But his eyes made even bigger impression on her when she saw them from up close. They were azure, like clear skies in summer, but so deep and mesmerizing, she instantly thought she’ll drown if she gazed too long into them. Those eyes had something more hidden inside and she was hell bent to find out what secrets they were concealing.

In the building they were just showed in the three men could hear loud short repeating noises echoing and even though they vaguely knew where they were getting themselves in, it still was somewhat unnerving. Alex, especially, felt uneasy, he did not like this noise, more so he despised it. Meanwhile Zack and Edward seemed genuinely interested in the source of the noise and tried to open some of the doors just to be stopped by Max.

“New guys at the top floor so just hold your pants, OK?” The pointed look Max was giving them made any kind of arguments die down in their mouths.

Finally they reached the top floor and Max opened the only door on this floor leading to a dark room with no noise. The girl turned on the lights and three men could see the room clearly " the space was large and in a way menacing. The wall nearest the door was lined with cabinets and caged shelves, few meters away from the wall there were counters aligned in a level row, targets in the distance hung on the wires by the ceiling.

“Right. This is it. This is where the real deal begins. We shoot here,” she smiled widely. “I hope you all have decided what kind of guns you’ll each use. If so, then grab one and fire away.”

“That’s it?” asked Edward utterly shocked. “That’s all the tour we get? Are you mocking us?”

“Edward, calm down. Maybe she’s joking.”

“I’m not. There’s nothing else for you to see.”

“What about the rules?” Alex asked quietly, Edward and Zack didn’t even hear him.

“Who cares ‘bout the rules? Screw the rules.”

“I would like to hear them, if there are any,” Alex demanded firmly, this time louder. “And I know for a fact, there are.”

Max looked at him with a hint of surprise in her eyes and without losing the smile came closer. After staring him in the eyes for a solid minute, she finally said:

“I like you even more.”

“Hey-”

“The rules,” started Max interrupting Edward, “are very simple. Attend the regular theory classes - those happen three times a week - and the ones on the chosen subject - these are every day, and then come here to practice - also daily. Never use your or any other gun outside this building, unless given permission from the officials of the school and higher-ups.”

“Wait, what? What permission?”

“Zack, right?” Max checked if she was correct with the name, “Well, the permission to go outside and shoot, of course.”

“What the hell are you going on here about? What permission?” Edward raised his voice.

“First of all stop screaming. Second of all, we are to be prepared for professional missions for military purposes. Or what, you came here without even having the shittiest idea of what you’d be learning here?”

The three of them had a short eye conversation among themselves and just remained silent. Alex feeling tension draining his energy, Edward starting to lose his temper " his muscles were tense and hands trembling from the pressure. Zack stared at Max with intensity rivaling hers, but didn’t dare say a word.

“Okay, I’ll explain if you, princesses, do not know all the unimportant details. So, most of the students here are above eighteen, but some are below, I think. Anyways, until we graduate we can’t use guns outside this building. And until we’re adults we can’t enter any kind of competitions. Unless the school receives an order from a client to borrow some shooters for some stuff. It’s not that important. What else?”

“When are students able to graduate?” asked Zack.

“When they’re good enough,” Max answered and drew her guns out of the holders on her torso.

One of the guns was a semi-automatic pistol, a glock 17 holding 33 rounds, and the other was a revolver, Ruger Blackhawlk of 6 rounds, with a barrel longer than usual. They both seemed different than actual models, but the difference was so minuscule none of them could point it out. But it was obvious they were not ordinary " to say the least they could have been custom made specially for her.

“Hey, what’s up with you?” Edward shifted slightly from his position at the back of the group to the front, hands slightly ajar as to shield the other two. He seemed to do this out of habit.

“What? I was trying to show you what to do. Oh, right,” Max took off a key off of her neck and unlocked the cabinet on the wall behind her. The cabinet was full of hand guns, shotguns even sniper rifles and knives, and set of earmuffs. “Pick any one you like. That’s what we call subjects here.”

“Just like that? What if someone tries to use it not according to the rules?” Zack asked.

Max stared at him as if he just asked her how to tie his shoes.

“There are cameras all around here,” she motioned around with her revolver. “We have security stricter than at prison. And even if you shoot anyone, it's a straight ticket to jail,” she grinned widely and prepared to shoot.

The girl threw the earmuffs to the three men and aimed with both guns at the time. Two simultaneous shots were released and two bullets hit precisely in the center of both targets in the very back of the room. Again. Again. And once more. The three were not able to react to the speed of the shots coming off, none of them managed to put on the earmuffs so their heads were ringing in painful protest.

“Ah, damn it, I wasted bullets just to show off…”

After getting back to his senses and being able to hear clearly, Edward found the switch to make the targets come closer and all three of them were shocked after seeing the result on the target sheets. There was only one clean hole in each of the target sheet as if every other bullet following the first one went straight through the same hole.

Alex and Zack looked at Max intending to ask something, but they were taken aback by her. She had opened three different caliber boxes of bullets and mumbling under her nose that none of them fit the guns.

“Damn it. I don’t get it. Why won’t they fit?”

“Um, these are for the revolver,” Alex handed the right caliber box to her. “And these are for the other one,” showed another box.

“Oh man, thanks, Red.”

Alex flinched. He was not very happy being called not by his name. Edward saw this and couldn’t control himself.

“Is it just me or is she an idiot? She can shoot, but can’t find the right caliber? And she can’t remember a proper name. And what’s with this-”

“I heard you. I’m not stupid. I just don’t really care as long as I can shoot. And as for the name, I do remember it,” said Max, the smile never leaving her lips.

Right at that moment when Edward was about to retort the speakers announced that three new students are required at the headmaster’s office. As much as Edward wanted to get a good fight out of this, Zack held him back and the girl simply ignored him going about her busines of loading new bullets into her guns. Max locked the cabinet after putting everything back in order and put her guns back in their holders. After that she walked the men to the main building and showed the way to the headmaster’s office. When she was sure that she could leave, she returned to her room and continued her previous activity on the computer.

“Well, I hope Six was not too vague about everything,” said Professor.

“She was, actually,” Edward replied. “We only saw the training facilities from up close. She didn’t even tell us the rules.”

“Rules? Well, the only rules you need to know is that you are not allowed to use your guns outside the training rooms until graduation. And students are not allowed to get into fights involving those same guns on school grounds. You need to choose the type of gun which you would like to wield and we will register you for the theory classes. That is most of it. More detailed rules will be placed in your rooms.”

“Yeah, about the rooms,” Zack started, “how do we find them? She just showed us the building.”

“Your room has your ID number on the door. The section of your rooms is 66, behind the door there are four separate rooms with different numbers starting with 66.”

“When can we start?” Alex always asked the right questions.

“Well, today the classes are over so you can start tomorrow. The details should already be in your rooms.”

Author's Note

Your opinion is very much anticipated. Thank you even for a couple of words