56. Power In Their Hands

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Letizia watched him as he was writing down fast in his notebook. He was doing the class work that was due in the next hour. She watched him as he was elegantly just doing what he always did. Being the best that he could be. Letizia admired Vincenzo. He had everything he needed in life; a lovely family, money, popularity and girls. But he paid attention to none of it. He just cared for gaining power. She had been trying to figure him out and it had finally clicked. All he aimed for was gaining control and power. He studied for perfect grades. Knowledge was power in his eyes. He worked hard to hold up his reputation as one to achieve every honour that mattered. His rivalry with Tristan O'Neil had a world of its own.

Letizia smiled as she was watching Vincenzo. He kept glancing at Tristan at times checking how far he was in his work and so did Tristan. He glanced back. What level Vincenzo was at mattered to Tristan just like how Tristan's accomplishments mattered to Vincenzo. Neither wished to fall behind. She had no idea how the two had managed to be civil to each other even though they were rivals. In her school in Milan she had witnessed a similar rivalry but that was different. Two main rivals at her old school were blood related. Blood bond was something that didn't let any rivalry cross a line that put anyone's safety at risk. Tristan and Vincenzo were not blood related. So how they managed to keep civil was baffling. Maybe their fathers being as close as brothers was a factor. That made sense. Maybe that was what made them not strangle each other in the classroom which sometimes she could see coming.

Letizia tried to put herself in Vincenzo's position. What could she do if she had the same pressures on her as he did. She was the only child and was scrutinised for her grades and performance in everything she did by her parents. But she was a girl. She wasn't expected to take over her family's business. Whoever she chose as her future husband was expected to do such duties. Her father had made it clear he wanted her to be an economist or a lawyer to manage the legal side of his businesses. The rest was going to be the responsibility of her other half. She didn't think much of the future though. What mattered was the present. What mattered was getting high enough grades to get into a good college to study economics. She didn't have time to worry about the future. She had time to study only. But then again Vincenzo had showed up in her path. She still was wary of him and every part of her told to run when she saw him but he was hard to resist. She fancied him and she couldn't deny it. At the same time, she did fear his cruel side that had put her on the edge ever since their first ever meeting when he had set the dogs on her but he had proven that he could be nicer if she was nicer to him. She feared him but she feared Tristan more.

Tristan that irritated her so much. She was frustrated with how he was so perfect. He had no weaknesses. None at all. He effortlessly did everything Vincenzo did with his own elegant touch. Tristan could be her worst nightmare if Vincenzo wasn't around. She still remembered her awful experience when he had tried to convince Vincenzo to throw her into the ice bath in the common room. The memory of him threatening to hurt her in that corridor before Vienna came to her rescue was also pretty much fresh in her mind. She couldn't believe how close she had come to getting tormented at his hands. She had now heard enough about him from Azurine, Vanessa and other girls to know how lucky she was to have Vincenzo by her side. But she knew that the bad blood between her and Tristan had not disappeared. This was not over. As it was pointed out to her, Tristan never forgot anything. When she had slapped her in that cafeteria he had only hesitated to retaliate because his sister had put herself between Letizia and him. Of course he had stopped for Vincenzo when he had promised to talk sense into her on his behalf since she was his girl. Not that Vincenzo had followed through. She knew that was a lucky escape but was it really?

Tristan was going to get her somehow and Letizia knew she had to be wary. She didn't like Tristan and how much power he possessed over her... But she didn't mind his mother. Letizia admired Sancia O'Neil very much and she had tea with her once at an afternoon tea event. She was the perfect role model. She was a strong woman who got what she wanted at any cost. No compassion was within her and Letizia hoped that she could reach that stage one day. She blamed the motherly instinct in women as a hindering factor to the success of the females in criminal organisations. In her view that was what stopped females from reaching their full potential. Compassion and sympathy were qualities Letizia felt were unnecessary. She hoped she could never feel remorse for anything. When nothing stopped you that was when you reached the top. Nothing could stop her if her conscious didn't bother her. She knew that.

Vincenzo held his paper up minutes later waving it at the English literature lecturer " Done."

The lecturer walked to him and took the paper away " Thank you... I will mark it now." As if she dared not mark his work there and then. The last time she had refused and had just set him extra work, Vincenzo had made sure he gave her hell with his sarcastic comments that he masked using literature metaphors. If a teacher upset Vincenzo, he upset them too and made them regret it in every way they could.

Minutes later Tristan finished and handed his paper in as well. Letizia muttered under her breath " Show offs."

Vanessa smiled as she was sitting next to her " Relax. We can finish this task too."

Letizia sighed " Well, that speech ran over half the first period of this lesson. That cuts out time. I need more time for this."

Vanessa sighed " You have until the end of the lesson. Ignore the boys. They must have covered this topic months ago in their tuitions. They get ridiculous number of hours of tuition. You can't compare yourself to them."

Letizia sighed and got on with her work. After she handed the work in an hour later she looked at her timetable " let's see. When the bell goes we hands lunch. Then .... survival? Where is the lesson after lunch? It doesn't have a room number."

Vanessa looked at her with a sour expression " Oh, that's survival lesson. We are in the special area in the woods. It's the no go area where we train survival on Friday afternoons every Friday after lunch.  It's three hours of our lives we never get back."

Letizia was curious " What is it about? What do we learn in this lesson?"

Vanessa rolled her eyes " We will learn how Vincenzo and Tristan are good at survival and what kind of dictators they are. That's what the lesson is about..."

Letizia raised an eyebrow " What are you saying?" That was when the bell rang and students got up from their desks to leave.

Vanessa shrugged " You will see. The bright side is because it's Friday, we get an early finish and can go have fun together, before going home. Let's go to lunch and not talk about any lessons. It's lunch time after all."

Letizia followed Vanessa outside the class and went to luncg with her. It was nice to catch up with the girls under the sun sharing sandwiches they had made at home with nice milkshakes from the cafeteria. Letizia knew it was the silence before the storm. Vanessa didn't sound very keen about the next lesson when she had asked her.

The bell rang and Letizia didn't know what to expect in her next lesson. She walked to her locker and put back her lunch box inside. She kept trying to figure out what the next lesson could be about. It had a peculiar name," Survival". She had never heard of such lesson. What was it about? In her former school in Milan, everything was done differently. Some students signed up to an after school club where extra credit lessons and lessons not counting towards the exams were taught. She was never interested. She wondered if they ever covered such peculiar topics. In Italy the culture was different. The day was split in half. Students went home to eat lunch with family if they wished it so lunch time was longer. The school then started again in the afternoon and finished late. She wondered what other surprises this school held. There was hierarchy in her old school but it was just one group and not exactly like how it was with Tristan's and Vincenzo's crowd. Even though Vincenzo and Tristan were at peace but they hung out separately mostly and had their own rules.

As Letizia walked outside walking to the no go area woods ahead, she spotted Vanessa and called her " Hey Vanessa. I need to follow you. It doesn't help this next lesson has no room number."

Vanessa turned to her as Letizia caught up with her. She said in an annoying tone " There is no room number. It's outside. It's a long walk. That's why it's a three hour lesson on a Friday afternoon every week." She then carried on walking as Letizia walked alongside her with questioning eyes.

Vanessa pointed in direction of the back of school " You see those woods? That's where we are taught. It's ok but we are mixed with boys and they become very uncivilised there."

As they walked closer to the woods through a path Letizia had never been to, Letizia became thoughtful " What exactly is this lesson about?"

Vanessa sighed " Survival and essential skills. It started this term for everyone but Vincenzo and Tristan have been doing it with students in years above so far so they are way advanced."

As the girls reached a building on edge of the woods, Vanessa spoke " Here we are. Girls changing room. We get changed in the changing room. Then we need to go to the training grounds and train with the boys."

Letizia questioned " What about our teacher? Who teaches us? Don't we get taught?"

Vanessa stated " The teacher is Lurenzo Giovanni. He is Tristan's grandfather's nephew. His day job five days a week is training the Giovanni guards. He does this lecturing for fun. He has an office in the middle of the woods. He does drop by when needed. he now gives the tasks to the star students to handle. For emergencies we go to him and every tree has a help button installed on it so if you are desperate you can call for help. Survival really tests your fitness and problem solving skills. Basically if you press the help button, its a fail. But don't worry. the grades from this course don't show up in the report card.

Letizia didn't know what to expect. She was confident in her fitness. For a girl she was fit so she didn't need to worry hopefully. She got changed and was surprised to see the clothes were military style clothing. Was this an army exercise? It sure looked like it.

After the long walk, the girls reached a muddy ground in the middle of the woods that was a big clearing that had metal fences around it. As they entered, Letizia gasped at the fitness tests scattered around the muddy clearing. It had everything. There were obstacles to jump from. there were fences to climb. There was muddy water to swim in.

Vanessa suggested "Don't worry. You don't have to try everything. You try what Vincenzo tells you to do so he would go easy on you."

Letizia turned to her "What do you mean?" Then she saw the line of boys waiting behind a hill like structure in the middle. It was like military. The boys were standing in a line in military stance and the girls joined them.

Vanessa whispered "The army tests happened at the beginning of the year and Vincenzo alongside Tristan are now sergeants We call them sergeant Rosario and Sergeant O'Neil."

Letizia turned to her "What? No way."

Vanessa whispered "Its only three hours a week. Who cares?"

Then she heard her name "Private Marciano. Why isn't your hair tied up?"

It was Tristan's voice. She turned to him who was approaching her and retorted "Why isn't your ego packed away?"

The line of boys and girls gasped. Tristan narrowed his eyes making Letizia gulp. But before he could retort, Vincenzo reached Tristan "She is my girl. I will deal with her. You carry on giving them a warm up routine. It only will take a few minutes" He then side stepped him and grabbed her hand "Lets go private Marciano. We need to have a word."

Letizia gladly followed. Tristan was looking at her with murder as he instructed the girls and boys to run a round the clearing.

Vincenzo lead her out of hearing distance and opened the door to a cabin "After you."

Letizia walked in and then found herself in darkness. "Can you turn on the lights?"

Vincenzo answered "Sure."

As the lights came on, Letizia almost screamed. What was this place. Around the room, she found herself in a room full on enormous glass boxes with snakes inside.

Letizia was looking at the boxes with horror "What are these for?" She was afraid of the answer.

Vincenzo spoke "Well, if you get three strikes Tristan and I will lock you in one of these human size glass boxes to keep the snakes company for the duration of the lesson that's three hours. All in the dark.... The snakes are non poisonous but you will hate it. Trust me. You just got one strike so far... Don't add to it."

Letizia turned away from the snakes to Vincenzo " What? One strike for what?"

Vincenzo walked closer to her and stated "That's two strikes actually. Questioning Tristan and I has a strike attached too."

Letizia spoke "You two have a ridiculously high ego."

Vincenzo stepped closer to her and stood inches apart from her as he put his hands behind his back "Oh, that's the third strike. Which box should I throw you in? The red snakes or white ones.... The mixed colours are best.... My favourite is the twin snake box there...."

Letizia took a step backwards visibly looking worried "You wouldn't.."

Vincenzo chuckled "Damn right I wouldn't. You are my girl. But it doesn't mean, there are no other ways to punish you. There are more enjoyable ways for me. I would love to try them out. He snaked his arm around her and slapped her bottom once."

Letizia was outraged and pushed her hands on his chest "Boys have filthy minds." She then pushed her knee up to kick him but he caught her knee and blocked her. As he let go of her knee with a swift motion grabbed her hands behind her back but not too forcefully. Strike four. Damn. You wont last long here like this. Tristan and I became sergents for a reason. He then let go of her. she turned around looking at him with contempt.

Vincenzo gave her a mischievous smile "Get it out of your system, whatever you want to do. When we go out there, you are not allowed to. Just put up with the training for three hours. I will set the basic training for you and I don't want you to go for Intermediate and Advanced routes yet. Tristan and I are good trainers actually. We know everyone's limit ... By the time you finish this course, you will be very fit. We expect discipline and respect."

Letizia took a step towards him "You won't get it from me."

Vincenzo sighed "Seriously letizia, you don't want to be running laps around this place. Its muddy and long. For strike one and two you may still get some sanctions you wont enjoy. The third one is definitely snakes. So will you behave yourself or should I just get an excuse that you are ill or something like that to send you to medical room. Tristan means business even if I don't when it comes to you. Its only three hours. Its not too much to ask for you to act like everyone else. have a look outside. Vienna is Tristan's girl but even she doesn't dare talk to him like that out there... I am pretty sure if even Vienna said what you said to Tristan, he would give her laps to run around here"

Letizia questioned "What? She is also here. She is in the year below."

Vincenzo nodded "Well, we have joint training with the kids a year below. Their changing rooms are at the other side. They are running late no thanks to their Technology teacher letting them out late almost every week. Next year, we train with seniors mostly. But this year the kiddies are with us that why the training is simpler."

Letizia sighed "Fine... I will behave... But you are wrong... I don't think Tristan would ever give her laps. In case you haven't noticed, he treats her like a queen."

Vincenzo shrugged " I don't know. She never has broken the rules like you. She would get some consequences for sure from Tristan and I if she pulled stunts like you did. Every one does if they cross me or Tristan. Now lets go. Tell them I punished you." Vincenzo then handed her a hair band "Tie your hair up. Its for your own benefit.. It gets windy when we climb and run fast.... Also you must keep your uniform ironed... Its one of the rules."

Letizia rolled her eyes and took the hair band and fixed her hair. She walked out of the horror filled cabin that she never wanted to revisit. She spotted the students in a line doing warm up. Letizia joined them and saw Vienna was training like everyone else. Letizia spotted Tristan looking at Vienna as he was standing close to her. Tristan's eyes were only on her with a ghost of a smile on his lips. Letizia couldnt believe how a totally innocent girl like her could be matched up with Tristan. Letizia knew she had to watch it or Tristan was going to use his position of authority on her during such lessons. After all he did have a grudge against her.

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