Belligerent (Vicara) (10 page)

What kind of test?
Kenichi didn't seem quite as thrilled.

One that has you up in the air.

Yeah, okay. Guess I could do that.
That time Kenichi did sound a bit more interested. Within only a short amount of time, Kenichi was running past, towards the courtyard. Daylan was only a few steps behind him but traveling much more slowly.

“Be careful,” Clarisse called out after them. She then turned to Ryan. “If you wanted to join them, you could. There's nothing left to do here except take care of this tea tray, and I'm the only one qualified to do that,” she said with a laugh.

“Not sure I’ve said ‘thanks’ yet,” Ryan said. “You've been really great since I've gotten here.”

She winked. “And you still haven’t said it.”

He chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. “Seriously. Thanks for showing me around.”

Clarisse's smile softened. “You're welcome,” she said as she lifted the tray and turned towards the kitchen. “I've got some work I need to be doing myself. Have a good night, and don't forget what I said about it being just fine if you wanted to explore.”

Chapter 7

On the first day of classes Ryan dragged himself out of bed, showered and dressed in the school uniform. Still in somewhat of a daze, he stared at himself in the mirror for a few moments. It was a huge difference from his normal look of t-shirts and jeans. Black slacks, a black button up shirt, a grey double-breasted blazer with Proserpine's emblem on the right arm, and a green tie. He felt like he was suffocating. How could all of
this
be his life now?

When he joined the others for breakfast, he saw that they all wore matching uniforms, except that their ties were the color of their own specialties. Most of the girls wore black skirts in place of slacks, with knee high, grey socks. Clarisse had chosen black tights and Mackenzie opted for slacks instead of a skirt.

“Must you break the dress code on the first day?” Mackenzie asked Clarisse while giving a pointed nod to the girl’s glittery, purple shoes.

“I managed to convince them that the shoes weren't breaking the dress code,” Clarisse said.

Mackenzie raised an eyebrow, shrugged and said, “Of course you did. And you, Kenichi?”

Kenichi's blue tie was loose, and he sported black, fingerless gloves. The rest of his uniform was already in a disheveled state, and his combat boots seemed out of place with the formal clothing.

“Isn't it too early for one of your lectures?” he asked while clutching a mug of tea.

“That uniform looks nice on you,” Clarisse told Ryan, effectively preventing Mackenzie and Kenichi from getting into an argument.

“Thanks,” Ryan said, not knowing what else to say.

“Are you ready for classes?” Aria asked.

Ryan shrugged and took a seat at the table. “Do I have a choice either way?”

No one commented, and breakfast continued quietly. Ryan had learned the day before that no one was really a morning person and they were all content to sit and eat while only occasionally asking for someone to pass something or clarifying an issue about their schedules. Ryan glanced at the rest of the group's ties and tried to remember the sorting system. He figured it would be helpful in the future. Mackenzie's was silver, Daylan's was white, Aria's was red, Logan's was orange and Eva's was yellow. He doubted he would have any trouble remembering Clarisse's purple shoes or the new blue streak in Kenichi's hair.

After breakfast, they all walked to class together. Fifth years and up had general classes for the first three hours Monday through Thursday, while the younger students were all in their specialty classes. It was Ryan's first time seeing other students, and he was unsettled to see the ten year old students huddled into groups of eight trying to figure out who went to what building. Most of the older students passed by them without even a second glance. Apparently helping others wasn't encouraged at Proserpine.

“Who looks after them?” he asked.

“They take care of themselves,” Mackenzie said, “as we all did.”

“As we all did,” Clarisse remarked in a quiet, mocking tone. She shot Mackenzie a look that Ryan didn't understand. “Oh, they can't figure out the maze!”

Mackenzie shook her head. “We aren’t helping the first years again. They need to learn for themselves.”

“But they'll be late for class.”

“And if we help them, we'll be late for class,” Mackenzie said flatly. “The informants should have been smart enough to find out the path beforehand, and the strategists should be able to figure it out on their own.”

Clarisse wrinkled her nose at her leader’s decision, but she didn't protest further.

Before heading separate ways to their classes, the group entered the packed, main building. General classes seemed to be randomly sorted with students from every specialty. Math, literature, history and fine arts were the only classes that every student was required to take once they were fifth years, and only forty-five minutes every day was dedicated to each subject.

His first class was literature, which covered works from the Victorian period to the Modern. Eva and Kenichi shared the class with him. Both took seats on either side of him and stared blankly ahead as they waited for class to begin. Everyone else in the classroom decided to stare at him.

“Why are they looking at me?” he whispered.

“You’re new,” Eva said pulling up their textbook on her tablet.

A boy seated near them, who had been blatantly eavesdropping on their conversation, smirked. “She’s right. We can't be blamed though. It’s just such a very rare thing to see a fifth year replacement. Actually it’s extremely rare to see any replacements coming in to the academy after the first year.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Ryan noticed Kenichi’s grip on his tablet tighten ever so slightly. The other student, whom Ryan noticed wore an orange tie, continued speaking either oblivious to Kenichi’s growing anger or uncaring of it.

“After all, it’s only the most reckless or incompetent teams that need a replacement, and who after their first year here would be dumb enough to do something that would result in the death or permanent maiming of one of their members.” The boy’s eyes glinted with a perverse pleasure. “Other than Shifter’s mutts, anyway.”

Eva lunged across Ryan to grab hold of Kenichi’s arm just as the retrieval specialist was about to leap from his chair.

“Mackenzie will have your head join her bust collection if you get into a fight on the first day of class,” she warned in that soft tone of hers.

Kenichi released a soft hiss under his breath as if he were biting back a number of threats. After a few tense moments, he slid back into his seat and Eva released her hold on his arm.

In an even lower tone, where only Ryan and Kenichi could hear her, she whispered, “Will you sit there nicely or do I need to ask Ryan to switch seats with me?”

“I’ll play nice,” Kenichi muttered.

“Looks like your team has finally tamed you,” the obnoxious student said to Kenichi. “Or is it that your team is so incompetent that only your combat specialist is allowed to fight any battles any longer?”

“Henry, if you insist on taunting Kenichi, I will be tempted to demonstrate to our newest teammate here how to properly cut out someone’s tongue out,” Eva said.

For some reason that made Kenichi smile. No further comments were made as that was when the professor decided to enter the classroom and everyone directed their attention to her as she welcomed them to her class and began to go over her expectations for that year’s lessons. Ryan knew he would hate his literature class when the professor told them to have the entirety of
The Moonstone
read by Wednesday and a paper noting their thoughts of the novel written by Thursday. However, he was glad that the workload seemed to distract his classmates from trying to cause each other harm. At the end of class, they left the room without any further incidents.

Aria and Daylan were waiting to walk with him to their second class which was history. The class seemed like it would be dull since the teacher was monotone and placed a huge emphasis on knowing the dates of every little event, but it also seemed as if it would be the class which required the least amount of work.

No one was waiting to walk with him to his third class, but when he entered the classroom, he found Mackenzie already settled into a corner desk with an empty seat next to her. Despite only having Mackenzie for company, Ryan decided that he would probably like his algebra class. He had never been horrible at math, and the teacher, while she flew through the lessons, explained everything very clearly.

He was a little surprised when after their math class ended, Mackenzie did walk with him to their fourth course where Aria also joined them. For the fine arts requirement, he had been placed in the orchestra course which made Ryan wonder how Shifter had known that he had taught himself how to play the guitar back when he had lived with his sister.

After their general classes, fifth through eighth years headed to their specialty classes for an hour. Despite the fact that he had convinced himself that he wouldn’t place complete trust in his team, nor rely on them, when Ryan entered the building designated for the transportation and technology specialists, he found himself a little nervous. Logan, who had grabbed him after orchestra and showed him the way to his next classes, gave him an encouraging nod before heading upstairs to where the tech specialists studied. Ryan found himself in a hallway with thirty-nine other transportation specialists and none of his teammates. He noticed everyone was staring at him, and like in all his classes so far, nobody made an attempt to hide it.

He was relieved when a teacher finally walked in. “Fifth and sixth years, head to the classroom. Seventh and eighth years put on your coveralls and grab a station in the garage. Professor Summer will be here shortly.”

Half of the students headed in one direction, while the other half went the opposite way. Ryan tried to figure out which of the students looked closer to his age and was saved when a girl approached him.

“This way,” she said. “You're Ryan, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I'm Eloise. I'm a fifth year too. I bet we're going out on the track today. Nothin’ better.”

“The track?”

She nodded. “We get to race out there!” Eloise was a bundle of energy with pixie cut hair and dimples. Ryan was immediately reminded of Alex. “Is there a problem?”

“What?”

“You're staring at me,” she said.

“Sorry. You remind me of someone.”

Grinning, she said, “I hope it's someone you like.”

“Yeah.”

“That's good.”

“Quickly, students,” the teacher said and herded them forward.

“That's Professor Wright,” Eloise whispered as they took their seats in the classroom.

Professor Wright was a woman in her mid-forties who walked with an unusually quick pace and spoke just as rapidly as she walked.

“Fifth years, this is your first year where your main focus is on your specialty instead of your general classes. You're going to learn what it really means to be a transportation specialist. There are going to be a lot more hours spent in the garage and a lot more hours spent on the driving courses and racing tracks. Sixth years, I'm sure you've all been made aware that this is your most important year at this academy. This may very well be the main factor in whether your team will qualify for Vicara.” The nine other fifth years cheered and Ryan laughed along with them. “Yes, yes, very exciting,” the professor continued. “The schedule for this week is that the seventh and eighth years are getting the garage which means you guys will have very little book work. Though I do encourage you to look at your syllabus and start on next week's reading.”

“Professor Wright, you haven't handed out copies of the syllabus yet,” one of the students said.

“Oh!” she twirled around to stare at the desk in front of the classroom. “There they are.” She gathered two stacks of papers in her arms. “Take a copy with your year written on it. Pass the rest. Waste of trees if you ask me, when you can all download them on your tablets,” she said and handed the piles to the closest student. “Sixth years, you guys will get to have some fun today.” That time the ten sixth years cheered. “You guys are going to go racing today.”

“What will we be racing?” one of the guys asked.

Professor Wright pretended to think it over. “Hover-bikes?”

“Yes!” The group hollered.

“Fifth years, you guys will not be racing today, but you will instead be doing a driving course.”

“What do we get?” Ryan glanced over at Eloise who had asked the question. She was leaning forward in her seat with all her attention on the professor.

“Hover-cars, and you will be doing the course forwards and in reverse.”

Everyone seemed pleased with her answer. Ryan jumped when he felt something poke him in the shoulder, and he whirled around in his seat.

“Syllabus,” the guy behind him muttered shoving the few remaining packets into his hand. Ryan glanced at the packets in his hand then took one of the ones with a large “5” on the top before passing the rest to Eloise.