Rebel

Chapter Fourty Two

We made it one and a half weeks before Eliza and my training session was discovered.

I had just finished stuffing my face with food and getting ready to go to my "therapy session." I stood up and was about to walk away when Alexsandra cleared her throat.

"You, um, going to therapy?" She asked.

"Yup." I said.

"Okay then. Have fun, I guess."

I snorted, "Yup. Therapy. Fun."

"Do you not enjoy it?"

"Well..." I said, scratching the tip of my nose, "I don't like the actual process of doing it, but I do like knowing that I'm helping people." Did that sound realistic? I don't even know. It sounded pretty legit to me, but I don't know about the others.

Everyone just kind of stared at me. I don't know if that's because they don't believe me, or because they are surprised I actually like helping people. Which I don't. I'm actually training my butt off so I can murder someone, but you know, they can go on believing.

"Alright, good talk." I said, turning on my heel and walking over to dump my tray out, before walking out of the cafeteria.

How long is this lie gonna hold up? I wondered, speed walking over to the training room. I'm really starting to wish that I had come up with an excuse before they had asked me. A good one. Me acting as a therapist for strangers is not a good excuse.

I shake my head at myself as I walk into the training room. Eliza wasn't anywhere to be seen. That's strange. She's usually here before me so she can yell at me for being late, even though we haven't scheduled any times to show up. I walk over to my cupboard and start taping my hands. We worked on sword fighting and archery yesterday, and spear and knife throwing the day before that, so we'll be working on hand to hand combat today. Without really planning it, we've started this whole routine where we work on a certain skill on certain days. It was strange, but it worked. Sometimes I'm better at what we're working on, and other days Eliza's better. Either way, we'd train until we're so sore we can't move, and then we do it again the next day.

I bit off the end of the tape and threw the roll back into the wall. Eliza never used it because she never took off her gloves, so I didn't need to leave it out. I stood up and looked around, but Eliza still wasn't here. I tapped my foot on the floor, and put my hands on my hips. Well if she's not gonna show up, I'm just gonna train without her.

I walked over to the punching bag and began throwing punches at it. I've significantly improved since I first started training if I do say so myself. I was getting so sucked into it that I had no sense of time or place or... audience. I was probably punching that bag for almost a half an hour before I stopped to take a break.

"Wow. This is quite the therapy session."

I spun around toward the source of the voice to see Dario standing in the entryway, his arms crossed.

"Dario!" I shouted, casually putting my taped hands behind my back, "What... what are you doing here?"

"I came to see what you were actually doing," He said, raising an eyebrow.

"What?" I said. "You didn't believe that I was hosting therapy sessions? How dare you?"

"Well was I wrong to think so?"

I blinked, "What do you mean?"

"This is not hosting a therapy session, Sage," He said. "What are you actually doing? Why are you punching the living daylight out of that bag?"

"What does it mean to you?" I challenged, crossing my arms.

Dario sighed, "I'm your friend, Sage. I care about you, and I want to be sure that you're not going insane and pushing yourself too hard or something like that."

"You don't trust me to take care of myself?" I said. "I'm perfectly capable of doing so, thank you very much."

"Oh really?" Dario said. "Then why didn't you tell us all the truth?"

"Because I knew you guys wouldn't approve," I said.

"Well then why are you doing it?" Dario asked, throwing his arms in the air.

"Because I'm my own person, Dario," I said, sticking my tongue out.

Dario huffed. "Fine," He said, walking up to the punching bag I was just beating up. "Where's your tape?"

"What? Why do you care?" I asked, squinting suspiciously at him.

Dario shrugged, "You can train, but there's absolutely no way that I'm letting you do it by yourself."

I stared at him, "I'm still so confused," I said.

"I'm gonna train with you," Dario said, crossing his arms. "Now where is your tape?"

I sighed, "It--"

"I hate to break this up, but y'all are gonna have to stop what you're doin'."

I spun towards the entrance to see Eliza standing there, her hands planted on her hips. Dario did the same.

"What're you doing here?" He asked, squinting at her.

"I could ask you the same question," Eliza said. "But I'm not goin' to, because I really don't care. And also, you both are needed in the laboratories."

"Why?" I asked.

Eliza shrugged, "I guess you're just gonna have to find out yourselves." She spun around, waving a gloved hand, "I'd leave soon if I were you. Dr. Turner doesn't take well to tardiness." With that, she marched out of the room and out of sight.

I huffed, glaring at her back as she left. So that's why she didn't show? She's sending messages and doing whatever she was doing with the head scientist.

"She's a little brat," Dario grumbled under his breath.

I glanced sideways at him before snorting, "Wise words," I laughed.

"Well," Dario laughed. "It is true, is it not?"

I shook my head, "No, it is totally true."

He chuckled, "Well we better go see what the people down at the laboratories want."

I groaned, unwrapping the tape around my hands, "Ugh, fine." I wadded up the tape and threw it into a trash can in the corner. "Let's go."