alive

three

The next morning, I woke up as early as usual, around 6:00 am. Ace was already awake, sitting on the old sofa. I realized I hadn't really gotten a moment alone with Ace, other than when he explained everything, but that wasn't pleasant. "Good morning," He says, setting his book on the dining table in front of the couch. "I can start the fire in the fireplace if you'd like," he offers. "No, it's okay. I know how," I walk over to a box a couple feet in front of the room my brother is sleeping in and pull out two pieces of firewood and a couple newspaper sheets. I opened the fireplace door and scrunched up one sheet of newspaper and set it in the middle, I put the two pieces of firewood over it and then put another sheet of newspaper on top and lit it until I saw that the wood was burning.

I take a seat next to my brother and stare at the wooden walls. "Uh, when will we wake them up?" I break the awkward silence with a question. "Now is fine," he says, getting off the couch and helping me up. I walk into the room that Kate and Felix share and decide to start with Kate. I shake her, "Kate," I whisper. She jumps when she wakes up. She quickly looks at the time on her watch and sighs, flapping back down on the bed. "Can you wake your sister up?" I ask, Kate nods. I leave the room and find Arden, half asleep, sloping over the counter with his face in his hands. He looks up with one eye closed and smiles. I greet him with a hug and he sighs. "I'm so tired," he groans. "I know, I am too," I pat his back. Everyone leaves their room and we're all in the dining room.

"Everyone should get changed into something you would wear for a workout, we're going to be running first," Ace suggests, and everyone nods, going back into their rooms. Arden and I change quickly and come back out. I put on black leggings and a muscle shirt that showed off some of the tattoos on my arms. Arden wore shorts with compression pants underneath and a t-shirt. Everyone seemed to be dressed about the same. "Okay, you two with me," Ace points at Arden and Gus, "and you two with Kai," he orders Felix and Kate and we all leave the house.

The guys went right, toward all the old cabins, my dad and I used to go on that path. Felix, Kate, and I went left, toward the horses and other cabins that people are living in. "So, why are we doing this?" Felix asks, out of breath. "Well you need to be good at running in case someone chases you or something like that," I explain poorly. Felix groans and we continue running. We ran for about 40 minutes before heading back to the cabin.

We took about ten minutes to rest and eat breakfast, but after that, we went outside and it was starting to get warmer. The guys took the spot in the backyard where it had more grass and Kate, Felix and I took the front and side of the cabin, it was all dirt, but I preferred it. It was next to where Ace parks his truck. I tell Felix and Kate to stretch while I talk to Ace. "So what am I supposed to teach them?" I ask and he sighs, looking down at the ground while he thought. "Start with boxing and how to punch and kick correctly," he orders, I nod and walk back to the two I'm teaching.

Kate

Kai takes off her muscle shirt so she's left in her leggings and sports bra. I could see a couple tattoos on her chest, waist and arms.

We were an hour into practicing when Kai came over to me and watched as I got into the position she told us to.

"Okay, good," she says, but her face was saying something else. "Uhm, okay. Keep your elbows tucked in," she says while moving my arms around, "and your hands in front of your chin," she continues. "And relax, babe, you're so tense right now. What's wrong?" She asks, genuine worry in her eyes. Oh, maybe because your hands are all over me and I've had a crush on you since 5th grade. "N-nothing, I'm just not used to this," I mumble, she sighs. She walks behind me and starts massaging my shoulders and back, it did help. I'm not sure why, I don't really enjoy when people touch me. I turn my head and see a smile on her face. "Okay, now put your arms back."