Dawns High and the Destruction of the Bees

Chapter 8

George Hum:

Wednesday, November 25th—

This week's schedule is a little different. Because of the four day break from Thanksgiving, an academic learning day was replaced with a training day. Today happens to be the replacement day.

"Today we are going to visit the swimming pool," Ben says. "To do a little...swimming." I didn't know Dawns have swimming pools indoors. This school honestly never fails to surprise me.

"Are we going to swim?" Frank Gutber asks.

"Yes, but not in water," Ben says rather enthusiastically. "But in mud." In mud? This school feels more like military training. I think it's pretty cool.

"Ew, gross, who would want to swim in mud?" Betty complains loudly. "My clothes will get ruined."

"Suit yourself," Ben says, apparently having overheard Betty's complaint. "Zero for today then."

"Wanna race?" Roy asks. I enjoy competitions. They make things fun. It doesn't matter if I lose, I just think time passes faster when you do something your mind is set to.

"Sure," I say. When we get to the swimming pool, it looks very...messy. The teachers probably emptied the pool and had people carry buckets of mud and dump it in the pool. There are many buckets still covered in wet mud and there are bits of dried mud around the perimeter of the pool. There are a total of two swimming pools actually. Both of them are filled with mud.

"I chose this floor's pools because they have two in one room," Ben says. "To make things easier for you newbies. You guys can spread out and not have so many people in your way." He seems to want some applause for his kindness, but when nobody says anything, Ben says, "Now go! What are you waiting for? Swim back and forth 10 times each. One time means a round trip, not just to the other side of the pool."

"What?" Hamper asks. "Aren't we going to change into suitable clothing?"

"When your life is in danger, do you think they will give you time to change?" Ben asks like he can't believe a student asked such questions. "Go, go, go!" Me and Roy go to the swimming pool at the end of the room. When I got in, I realized that the pool is much deeper than I thought. The mud comes all the way up to my neck and I'm not a short guy. It's also hard to move around, as expected, the mud is very dense. It feels sticky too, it's blocking myself from moving my arms and legs.

"They could've put more water in this," Roy says. "To make it less difficult for us newbies." Roy really hates it when Ben uses the term 'newbies' because he thinks that Ben is underestimating him too much and that Ben is not capable enough himself to call us that. I personally think that it's just because Roy has finally found someone with an attitude similar to himself and he finally realizes how annoying a self centered guy is. I told him about it once, but he just says that it's impossible and that he is much better than Ben, the experienced one. The irony!

"What's the point of adding water? If we're going to train, might as well do it all in," I say. I like challenging activities because I think we learn more from them. Plus, if we actually encounter danger, it's not going to be an easy task, it's going to be really hard, so the school should just give us harder tasks so we can get a sense of what we can do when we are in that situation later. I believe that it'll make us more comfortable when we are on a mission if we are already used to the hard stuff.

Right now, we're three quarters pass the area from where we started. Me and Roy are pretty much moving at the same paste except I'm a little ahead. It's probably because I'm taller so I don't have to worry about keeping myself aloof like everyone else. The rest of the people, in our pool at least, are only half way past the starting line, some not even at half way yet.