I woke up that morning an hour before breakfast.

I missed waking up to Fleetwood Mac songs, Stevie Nick's smooth, mysterious voice starting the day. It was no longer raining, but my window, opened just a bit, brought in the cool waft of rainy air. My favorite smell. For the next hour, I continued reading Harry Potter.

I had just reached my favorite part, when Hermione and Harry started their time travel journey, when the breakfast bell rang. Part of me wanted to stay in bed, reading. The other part of me remembered the lips I kissed last night, and how the boy who had those lips was probably down in the cafeteria, waiting for me.

This was the first time I had picked a boy over anything, let alone J.K. Rowling, and I wasn't sure how to feel about it. The girls in my school at home all had their first kisses in first grade, their first boyfriends in second. I had tons of crushes on boys, of course, and every once in a while, the occasional girl, but I'd never had a kiss with someone until last night.

I wondered if Dane could tell that I was unexperienced, inadequate. If he could taste it on my lips, which were most definitely not as soft and cushiony as his. Maybe the way I tugged on his bottom lip with mine wasn't normal. Maybe he wouldn't want to kiss me again.

I cursed myself for getting so heated and headed down the stairs, anxious for the day.

Scarlett and Dane were waiting at our breakfast table when I came down. I sat down, without even getting a tray.

"Good morning," I beamed at them.

"Aren't you going to get a tray?" Scarlett asked. I shook my head. I was hungry, but didn't want to spend a second away from the table. Dane held out an apple.

"Here," he said. "You can have this." I blushed, awestruck that an apple could make me feel so lovestruck. My brain told me that I hated being giddy, but my heart blocked that thought out; It was too busy being giddy to care.

Scarlett rolled her eyes. "I take it you two have made up." We both turned to her.

"We didn't make out," Dane said.

"It was just a kiss," I told her matter-of-factly. I couldn't let another rumor get in the way of being happy again.

She laughed. "I said made up, not out." She took a bite of her own apple. "Jeez, you two need to get your heads out of the clouds." I ate my fruit, hearing what she said, but not quite listening. Who was she to spoil our fun?

She continued. "Anyway, I'm glad it's not awkward anymore. Having both of you at the same table was starting to feel like I was in Antartica."

After a light meal of an apple and nothing else, the breakfast bell rang, signaling our departure from each other. Madison had lost whatever battle she was waging.

"Come on, Rhi, let's go to class." Scarlett and I left the cafeteria and headed to the gym on the second floor. Today was our first day of wrestling. The academy preferred that more hardcore classes, like wrestling and boxing, happened during the second week for new students; this way, the students were already used to the academy and in the right mindset.

I wasn't sure I was ready to wrestle. On one hand, I needed to be in my best condition if I was going to escape the academy. If I was bruised and/or had a sprained joint, that would only delay my escape for weeks or maybe even a month. On the other hand, wrestling and completing similarly difficult tasks could make me readier for my escape. If I had to jump off of something, or climb, or swim anywhere, being more fit and prepared was the best option.

I hoped to myself that when I escaped, I didn't need to use physical force, like wrestling or aiming. However, I knew that if the time came where it was between killing someone and saving my sisters, I would kill that person in a second. My sisters came first.

The gym was a large, modern space that was made of brick. This was one of the few materials I'd seen at the school besides stone and wood. It was the type of place that most schools would pay millions for, and considering how lavish the academy was, they probably had.

Truly, our same aiming teacher, stood in the center of the room when we walked in. She explained to us that she was the wrestling coach, as well as the aiming teacher. I didn't question her ability to teach both; her biceps let us know that she was not a woman who liked to be questioned.

As usual, she had us stretch in a designated corner that had been emptied out for, well, stretching. I thought it was stupid, to have a blank, un-designed corner and claim that it was built for the sole purpose of stretching, but naturally, I didn't argue.

As we got into child's pose, I talked with Scarlett, who was just as fed up with exercising as I was.

"Uuuggh," she groaned, prompting a few stares from other students, far more involved in this activity than we were.

"Keep it down, it sounds like you're getting busy," I laughed at her.

She raised an eyebrow with sass. "Watch it, Miss 'I'm in love'." I shook my head. Was it that obvious I liked Dane? Yes, I supposed it was.

Right at that moment, I noticed Beck walk into the gym. He was wearing the required wrestling uniform, a sweat suit, but on him, it made him look bigger and stronger, not scrawny, like the baggy sweat suits often did. Truly looked up, her face painted in disappointment and anger that I had seen before.

"Where were you?" She demanded, in an exasperated tone. Beck walked toward us as though he didn't hear her. It was rude and arrogant. I liked it.

"Excuse me, did you hear me?" She repeated, her patience visibly deteriorating. Beck sighed tiredly, as though a fly wouldn't stop bothering him.

"I was eating. Oh gosh, am I late? Oops." The sarcasm in his voice cut through the still air of the gym like a straight edge. I found it interesting that he never said sorry or apologized once. I was attracted to it, for some reason. I wondered if Dane, being a good boy, had ever, or would ever, say something so sarcastic to another person just for his own pleasure.

Stop, Rhiannon, I thought. Don't compare them. 

 I couldn't compare Dane, the boy with sweet eyes, with a nice soul, to Beck, the cruel bully who had killed my mother and never once apologized for it. I realized that he must have a lack of ability to apologize to other people, as though kindness skipped a generation in his family.

"You should say sorry," I said to him, shocking both him and myself. The class had continued stretching and didn't hear me, but I still felt embarrassed. He squinted his eyes and leaned on a pillar. It looked like he didn't plan on stretching today.

"I don't do that," he spat to me, not a hint of regret in his eyes. I glared at him.

We moved on to the wrestling mat in the middle of the room. As each student stood around the red and blue plush, I thanked to god that we didn't have to wear those tight leotards that student wrestlers wore in movie. In addition to me not wanting to see anyone's ~nether regions~, it would have been just as horrible to wear them.

"We'll have Allen and Cal first," Truly called out, and the two boys shuffled onto the mat, neither one of the students really wanting to wrestle. Truly blew her whistle, and they were at it.

At first it was awkward, dancing around each other in circles on a mat, not quite knowing what to do with their hands, but as soon as people started cheering, the boys went wild. I'd never seen anything like it. I supposed that's what would happen when two teenagers with no experience in fighting were told to have at it.

Cal, a boy with curly brown hair, ended up in a pile on the mat, bruised on his arms and bleeding from his nose.

I leaned toward Scarlett, both of us concerned for our health and safety. "Is this optional?" I asked, desperation in my voice.

"I'd rather be bullied," was the only thing she said in response. I was with her. Anything but this.

Truly scanned the room, looking for her next victims to force into wrestling each other. I pushed myself into the back of the room through the crowd, praying that she didn't pick me. And she didn't. She picked Madison.

Even though Madison had confessed and apologized to me already, I still wasn't the biggest fan of hers. After all she had done to me, I wouldn't mind seeing her get beat up during class. I pushed myself further back into the crowd, not wanting to be the one that would have to fight her; I knew she was cunning with her intelligence. She was probably just as vicious when it came to physical showdowns.

I stepped back into someone.

"Sorry," I said sheepishly, while turning around. I regretted apologizing when I saw who it was. Beck. He smirked.

"Never mind," I spat, without thinking. That could either have been very clever, or extremely childish. Probably childish.

I walked forward again, wanting to get as far away as possible from the disgusting human that was Beck. Unfortunately, by stepping forward, I was literally stepping forward.

"Rhiannon," Truly said with a pleasant smile. "Thank you for volunteering."

I half-smiled, cursing myself. "I go by Rhi." I walked into the mat, right across from Madison.

This was not going to be pretty. 

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