Duds

3 Newbie

After that my life was hard. Hard like, you did the most terrible thing in your life then died and are now in hell because of it. Not just in hell, but in a special place where they send the megalomaniacs hell. It was horrible.

I was picked on, beat up, and looked down upon, almost everything in the book. Even by the teachers. I was a target because I was the smallest Dud in the whole school. If you can call it that. I was shorter than average, skinny, and delicate. Most of the other Dud girls were big enough to crush the other magical kids between their fingers. They were taller than average, beefier than me, and much, much stronger. I had no friends, girl or boy. I was told that I had to learn the ropes.

We had to get up at 5:00 a.m. in the morning to start the day. Most of the time I didn't want to get out of bed, but if I was late I would get a ruler to my knuckles and sent to the corner.

I was shown how to swim, shoot a bow, manners, and how to fight with nothing but brute strength. I was also taught how shoot a gun, take it apart and put it back together, weapons practice, and discipline. I learned arithmetic, reading, writing, English, grammar, science, computer science, history, how to ride a horse, and engineering. We were also taught to plan and strategize, and I was a genius at making up good strategies. I was swamped with homework, even though I was exempted from magic classes. I was very smart and usually finished my homework before the other Newbies, but I still wasn't fast enough for the teachers.

I had nowhere to study and do my homework because my roommate took up the whole room and kicked me out in the afternoons because she wanted the room to herself and her friends. I soon was spending my afternoons on the balcony of our room doing my homework.

I knew that sitting on the balcony was fine in the spring and summer, but when it got cold and snowed I knew I had to have somewhere inside to do my homework. In preparation for that predicament, I started to roam the grounds inside the compound to see if there was any other place that I could hang out in without being bothered.

It happened one day that I found a perfect place when I was closer to the teacher's quarters. I for some reason had missed a sign that said library. It was obviously there for the kids, so I followed it. It lead me to this big, I mean huge room with loads of books on shelves to the ceiling. The ceiling was probably ten to fifteen feet high. All the shelves were filled with books. It was paradise. Where was this the first day I was here?

I had found out that I loved reading and this was a booklover's dream. I suddenly had the urge to sit down and read all of those books. I decided to use the library to sit in the quiet, because I learned real fast not to raise your voice above a whisper, and do my homework in the cold months of the year. I soon found myself at the library every afternoon I could go there. I was going through books so fast I couldn't count.

The years passed and I got into a routine. I woke up at about 4:30 every morning to get ready first and get out of my room before my roommate, Desiree Godwin, woke up. Then I went to my math, English, science, and history classes. I had that school curriculum Monday through Friday every week. After that it depended on what day of the week was. On Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday I would have engineering then computer science. On Tuesday and Friday I had Strategizing class then Weapons class. I had Manner class, Street Fighting class, Swim class, Riding class, and Shooting class (a bow and gun) on Saturdays and we were let off early because the Duds didn't get Magic class. On Saturday I didn't have the school curriculum as classes because the Boycotts wanted us to focus on our other classes for Saturday. We had Sundays off to do whatever we wanted.

I slowly grew stronger in all the areas I was taught in. I especially excelled in strategizing and the school curriculum. It soon became obvious that I was the best strategizer in the whole Orphanage. When we had simulations of war I would be the first pick because most of the time the team that I was on would win. The only other times my team never won was when a stalemate was reached, so both teams lost.