Chapter 1: The Kiss

One last jump and there they are; the most beautiful diamonds I’d ever seen. And right now, I needed only reach out and grab them. I was sure my eyes were twinkling, either from the thrill or from the reflection of the glimmering diamonds in my pitch-black pupils and icy-blue irises. Without even thinking, I extended my left arm and opened my hand, ready to take the jewels from their display, like it has been drilled into my brain for so long. It had been so easy: get in, find the prize and get out. That’s what they’d told me to do, what the voice in my head was telling me to do now. But wasn’t going to be the day I’d start listening to that. And with that resolution, I let the muscles in my arm relax and let the arm fall back alongside my body.

                “You’ve failed, Miss Dumeaux, again.” A strict, cold and obviously irritated rang through a now completely empty and entirely white gym-sized room.

                “No, you’ve failed, failed to brainwash me and failed to block out all my rational thoughts. I won’t, and never will be, like the others.” A tall woman with short, black hair appeared from an opening in one of the four walls, in her eyes; a look that could kill.

                “I will not be spoken to like that!” Her voice echoed through the white training area, her thick Scottish was accent no longer hidden.

                “Detention it is. Good afternoon, Mrs. Godas.” I left the training area using another hidden door, leaving my teacher behind, baffled.

 

Immediately, I had to avert my eyes from the sudden change of space. You see, the training area was very light and the white walls, that were needed for projections, didn’t exactly dim it. This was in total contrast with the space I was in now. I was in a hallway. The walls had a dark, wooden look and the floors weren’t any better. Not even the ceiling had even the slightest lightness in it, except for maybe the chandeliers, which hung every few meters and lighted the way to the rest of the academy. Even though the training areas were a lot more pleasant to be in, the halls matched the feel of the academy better.  Especially since the outside still looked like the castle it had once been. It was owned by a prince of... Egypt! That was it; Egypt. Great story material, this location. So naturally, legends were being made up every second about how the guy supposedly died a horrible death in the very dining hall we ate in. Of course, no one ever specified the ‘horrible’ part of his death. One more reason to think of the legends as total bullshit. There were others who felt the same way, but most students believed that there was some truth to the stories. I laugh at those people. No really, I do. Whenever one of the believers tried to be my friend, I had a very subtle way of telling them I’d rather not be affiliated with them. I’d tell them to f**k off. This may sound harsh and really, it was, but that’s just how the world works. Excuse me for not being a fake. Yeah, you could say I’m a bit of a b***h, though I’m always good to my friends. I wouldn’t call them friends without reason; they’re there for me and I’ll be there for them, always.

Speaking of friends, one came running towards me, Jennifer was her name. This girl was my best friend and I trusted her with everything, well ‘everything’. Jen had a bright personality and always managed to bring out the worst in me. Meaning: we joked around, made fun of the believers (and first years in general) and there was the drug problem. We didn’t actually use drugs, but we acted like we did, ‘high on life’ as we liked to call it.

*Boom* A loud cracking of the hardwood floors followed. Jen, in her enthusiasm, had knocked me over when she ran in for a hug. We now lay on the floor, one of her left toes in my ear. Don’t ask me how we managed to end up like this, I haven’t a clue. I do know that it was so funny, we were both laughing like crazy about it.

“Were the two of you ever planning to get up and unblock our way?” Blake hung over my head. His jokingly strict expression proved very effective.

“I almost forgot, how did your re-re-re-re-re-re-retest go?” Jennifer asked as we approached our usual lunch spot.

I shot her a glare. “Too much re, as you very well know and I failed, again.” Both Jen and Blake gave me a look of disapproval.

“You do know this thing counts for, like, half your final grade, right?” Blake remarked. All I could think was; not this again.

“What’s so wrong with not wanting to steal anything?” It was easy to predict the answer. I just hoped they’d be original this time.

“Nothing, but as a spy, they need to know you’re able to steal.” Nope, no originality at all. I expected better of Jen.

“By the way, it’s not like you’re really stealing anything. It’s just a projection, a fictional scene they’ve designed to train us.” Thank you, Blake, this was entirely new information. Not.

“Like I don’t know that! Come on people, just think for a second. I know why they make us, I just won’t be made into a brainless zombie doing everything she’s told.” That was all I wanted to share. Even they wouldn’t, or couldn’t, understand the true reason. I’d rather be called stupid and rebellious, than have everyone know that part of me.

“Vae, you really need to pick your enemies more carefully.”

“Yes, Jen, as does this academy.”

“Being cryptic once more, are you?”

“Sorry Blake, but everyone’s got secrets, especially here and I am no exception.” No one here ever felt like sharing. Families were filed under ‘never ask about it’, previous schools were classified information and a person’s love life was on a need-to-know base only.

“You b***h, you’re keeping secrets from me? I’ll die from unknowingness now you’ve kept me in the dark!” Jen falls to the ground dramatically.

“Look, she died... can we bury her now?” Blake asks like it’s the most normal thing in the world.

“Sure, but you’re carrying her.” I say with the same tone.

“Forget about it then, someone else will pick her up someday.”

“Oi, am I that much of a burden?!” The diseased asks.

“Pretty much.” Blake and I both reply and we walk away, leaving Jen behind.

“Get back here right now! I’m dead, doesn’t that mean anything to you?!” Jen yells back, but both me and Blake decide to just ignore her.

“Why is Jen lying on the ground?” Suzy asked as Blake and I sat down at our lunch table.

“She died.” I answered matter-of-factly.

“And I didn’t feel like carrying her.” Blake added, mimicking my tone of voice.

“Ah, okay.” And Suzy resumed eating her lunch.

Yeah, my friends and I are crazy, without a doubt. These sort of things were very normal for our group. We are abnormal, so abnormal situations are normal for us. Am I making any sense whatsoever? Well, if I’m not and you’re not catching on, then you might’ve picked the wrong story to get involved in. Anyway... we were having lunch, right, back to that.

“I am a zombie, fear me!” Jen came up behind me and tried to make her voice sound scary.

“If the zombie wants food, it better hurry. Mrs. Nigg is already cleaning up.” I told Jen. Mrs. Nigg was an elderly woman with curly grey hair, always pushed back and tied into a knot, or at least tried to tie up. She always had that one strand of hair that always managed to fall out. Though Mrs. Nigg’s most outstanding feature was her ear-to-ear smile, she never lost it. Some people thought she was mental and therefore smiled all the time. I personally think she’s just one of the few people who just really love their job. Maybe I just chose to think that because I liked Mrs. Nigg, but even if that was true, I hardly believed she could be belonging in a special home. After all, would they have let her work here then? I doubted it.

“Hey, you okay?” Blake asked while he shook my shoulder.

“Huh? Yeah, I’m fine, just lost in thought I guess.” I hadn’t even realised I’d wandered off.

“I heard you failed your test. Again. People might start to think you don’t belong here. I, for one, already knew that.” I didn’t even need to turn around to know who’d said that.

“Megan, it’s nice to see you too.” Megan was a classic meangirl: Backstabbing, egoistic and obsessed with her looks. I hated her guts and that feeling was mutual.

“So you’re not denying you don’t belong here?” She let out a haughty laugh and one of her so-called friends high-fived her.

“Megan, honey, she mops the floor with you in practise.” Only Blake could say something like that. You see, he and Megan had dated for a while in our first year. Megan had cheated on him and Blake  had dumped her, even though she’d pleaded him not to. All of this must have caused Blake’s “honey” to sting.

“Doesn’t matter, if she doesn’t do what she’s asked, no one will ever hire her.” Megan’s comeback was pretty weak, which meant Blake had definitely struck a nerve.

“Oh, I don’t doubt someone would want to hire the best practical. As for you, I’m not sure if you’d even pass physical with those water-bags on your chest.” More people had started listening and were now applauding Blake’s may-I-say genius insult. Everyone thought Megan had had some work done, but no one ever dared to say it.

“I don’t care if one f*g thinks that of me. I mean, what else could you be? I offered you all of this,” Megan stroked her hands along her body, “and you don’t even take advantage of it.” A couple of guys began calling Blake gay, the rest of them were still drooling over Megan’s body-rubbing.

“Well, sorry, I don’t screw plastic.” This argument was getting more and more out of control and I began to fear for an actual riot. I did enjoy Megan getting burned though.

“Ha! But you screw freaky Vae?!” Oh no, she didn’t!

I got up from my seat and started putting on the fighting gloves I’d kept as spares in my jeans’ pocket. “Now, I’m not a meangirl, so you get one chance; take that back.” Freaky Vae was what people called me before puberty had finally begun. I was one of the latest and it really wasn’t made easy for me. I’d looked like I belonged in a circus. It all came together in the end, but I still didn’t like the remembrance that name brought.

“Like you scare me!” That was what Megan’s mouth said. Her eyes told another story entirely.

“As you wish.” And I punched her in the face, hard. Her nose would need some fixing, but that was all. Only Megan herself wasn’t about to simply back down -like she should have-. She was also trained to fight. Maybe not as long or as intensive as my training had been, but she did know how to throw a punch. Lucky for me, her aim wasn’t so great. I dodged the blow with ease and immediately landed one on Megan’s left temple; a knock-out blow. Megan fell to the ground and received aid from a few bystanders. The others were celebrating my easy win.

 

“She deserved it!” Leanne, another one of my friends, assured me when lunch was over and we were heading toward the gym. Leanne was Suzy’s twin sister. The only they didn’t have in common, due to a weird gene-defect, was their eye colour; Leanne had dark-blue eyes and Suzy had brown ones. Everything else: their athletic build, their long glossy-brown hair and even the way they talked was completely the same.

“I know and I did want her to get what was coming to her. I just feel like I should’ve controlled my temper better.” Especially since last year. I broke this guy’s arms, both of them, because he was too grabby. Oops?

“Well, maybe, but she was insulting Blake, implied the two of you had had sex and come on, “freaky Vae”? She was asking for it!” Leanne -and Suzy- had this gift for coming up with explanations for someone’s actions. I wish I had that too, would’ve come in handy.

“Yeah, why did everyone sound so shocked when Megan implied that? It could’ve been true for all they knew.” I’d even seen girls’ mouths fall open. It wouldn’t have been all that weird, would it?

“Vae, don’t ever ask me that again. If you have a crush on Blake, I do not need to know.” Wait, what?

“I do not have a crush on him!” A crush, me? Right. This idea Leanne had, was absolutely preposterous!

“A crush on whom?” Blake asked and he put his arm over my shoulders. Right, almost forgot, he’s also in this class. Damn.

“No one, Leanne was getting ahead of herself.” I said as I shot her a glare.

“Silly me, how could Vae ever have a crush on anyone?” Leanne rolled her eyes to match the sarcasm in her voice.

“She’s just way to busy kicking people’s asses.” Blake joked.

“Oh, you mean “not controlling her temper”?” Sometimes I just wanted to kill Leanne.

“Not again. That’s the whole point of this school, they want us to fight! Besides, no one should waste their talent.” I hated it when he did that, I didn’t need him to try to make me feel better.

“Talent? I’m no better than the next person.” Everyone here could fight, I doubted I was anything special.

“Right. So you’re not the topscorer at the snipertest, the shootingtest and the groupfightingtest?” Blake raised his eyebrows.

“That was months ago and I was lucky.” I just wanted to drop the subject by now.;

“Keep telling yourself that, honey.” Ugh, why was he so damn annoying?

“Pay attention everyone!” Our teacher started. “Today we will practise hand-to-hand combat by sparring.” Girls grabbed each other’s arms to show they wanted to spar together. “Let go of each other, I will pair you up with someone I think is at your level. Here we go: Ginny and Brutus, Leanne and Demi, Vae and Blake...” After that I stopped listening. Was he serious?! Blake was one of the best and he was my friend, I really didn’t want to fight him.

“Don’t worry, I won’t break your nose.” Blake said with a wink after Coach Starr had stopped talking.

“Why are you so happy about this? Do you want to beat me that bad?” Really, great friend he’d be if that was the case.

“Like I’d just beat you like it’s nothing. Vae, you’re probably the most lethal weapon at this school, maybe even of a much bigger area. Everyone knows it, you just don’t see it.” Normally, I would’ve taken this as a joke, but Blake seemed to be dead serious.

“I think I like you better when you’re goofing around all the time.” I said, incapable of thinking of a proper response.

“Then I’ll just go back to that, but first: the fight!” You know that voice people use when they try to sound mysterious? Yeah, his cracks me up. 

“Okay, give your partner a hand. You too, Jake.” Coach Starr told us. “Good, and on my count, start your fight.”

I looked at Blake, who was standing about 10 feet away. He was completely ready to take me down. I, on the other hand, was hoping the coach would call it off at the last second.

“Ready? 1, 2, 3, go!” No such luck apparently.

Blake sprinted my way and I knew he’d tackle me within the next two seconds. The only thing I could think of was how to avoid his attack. As a (pretty desperate) try, I ran his way, jumped and put my hands on his shoulders to catapult myself over him. To my surprise, it worked and Blake was disoriented. This was my opening, maybe the only one I’d get, and I needed to take advantage of it. Blake was too far away to punch, so I spun around with my leg stretched to kick. Hit! Just his hip, so it wouldn’t have hurt so much, but I was still pretty content. Blake didn’t waste a second and closed in on me. First his right and then his left fist were fired at me. I managed to black the first one, though the second hit me in the stomach. I only truly felt then how strong Blake actually was and he most likely wasn’t even using his full strength. I couldn’t breathe and as anyone would have done, Blake tackled me and pinned me down. There were only two things I could do now: give up, or distract him and get him off of me. I wasn’t going to give up easily, so I chose for the second option. How did I distract Blake? Let’s see if you can figure that out for yourself. Imagine this; to pin me down, Blake had to have a very good grip. To achieve that, he’d have to be close, very close. Oh yes, I kissed him.