Assassin

Chapter 1: Classing

10 years before

I was staring at the bulletin board, reading the latest addition of the upcoming events. I did this from time to time to see what I had missed and what was going on in the school. These words directly applied to me.

Class Assignment will announced next week. All 8th graders must report to the gym at approximately 10:00 to review the results. No exceptions. Any absences will recieve a permanent demerit on your record. 

My best friend, Taylor, walked up behind me, reading the letter as well. She stood about three inches taller than the rest of our class, had long, strawberry blond hair, and wasn't hard to point out in a crowd. It's probably why I considered her my friend in the first place; her and I were the obvious black dots in a sea of white ones. I can hear her sigh. "Can you believe we're about to find out how the rest of our lives are about to go? I'm so excited."

"I don't see the point in this," I admit to her. "How it is fair to label people's perceived potential and never let them achieve any higher than what they're given?"

Taylor stares at me in disbelief. "How can you not be looking forward to it? You're the one who should be a little intrigued. Maybe you'll find out more about your family."

I nod. She had a point. I never knew who my parents were. They died before I turned a year old and I was given to my adoptive parents. No one knew much about my family and, what they do know, they don't think I'm mature enough to handle. My past has been quite secretive from the day I came to this world. Maybe finding out my class would give me some sort of information about them. Taylor is smiling when I look up at her. She could see the wheels in my head turning. Apparently she knew I hadn't thought of it like that before. "All right, so I'm a little curious, but I don't think they need to make this such a big deal."

"I'll agree with you about that, but I'm still eager. I hope I end up like my dad and become part of the soldier class. He brought home this amazing rifle and I'm dying to try it. He won't let me until my class has been determined."

Taylor's parents were on two opposing ends of the class spectrum. Her father was a Soldier with a special in Long Range Weaponry. Every week was a new day for him to bring home a new gun that he kept with his collection of 300 or so other guns he collected over the years. It's no wonder Taylor, along with her three other brothers, find guns fascinating. Taylor's mom is in the Medic class. She has a special in dealing with diseases. She's widely known for finding a rather effective cure for lymphoic cancer. This might explain why Taylor loved dissection days in Biology class.

In 8th grade, every student goes through the Class Assignment Tests. The class is determined by the results of a persons physical, mental, biological, written, and interview tests. The combined results will give a person their class that will determine their career for the rest of their lives. There's Assassin, Soldier, Hunter, Medic, Spy, Professor, Seeker, Fluer, Leader, and Worker. Worke was the bottom of the food chain, in most cases. Sometimes, they could earn a solid living but, the majority of the time, the highest promotion they could hope to achieve was assistant. Leader was the corportation owners, the principals, the mayors, etc. They ran the whole production. Flyers were the pilots, but could also be the captains of ships or even, simple enough, a driver. Seekers were the eyes of the classes; they trained in long distance viewing and how to use their sight to their fullest potential. Some even became snipers. Professor was the teaching class. Most of them were highly skilled in specific studies. Spies watched the world in case of threat should arise. They even took on the role of the Assassin and took the person out if need be or at least infiltrate. Medics were the doctors, nurses, and first aid people. Hunter was slighlty different from soldlier in the sense that they are trained in all types of weaponry and more in depth with it. Solider was the military back bone of the clases. They were usualy trained in specialized areas. Assassin was the most mysterious class out of all of them. As soon as a student received Assassin as their class, their file would immediately go under 'Classified' and their name would be erased from the school data. Not only were they trained in the fields of Medic and Spy, they were trained as Hunters and Seekers. The art of deaht, as one might refer to it as. On average, in a class of 500 students, only 10 would even make it to Assassin class. 

Every student knew they had this to look forward to. It was the beacon for our future and show what it might possibly hold for us. For me, it was the moment where I might actually learn something about my family. Maybe, just maybe, even finding out who they were and what they did. If I could at least get that information, I would never be curious about it... ok well maybe not never but it would certainly answer a few questions. I had more riding on the possibility than most students did. 

I walk with Taylor back to the dorm rooms. Brier Academy consisted of 10 dorms for students between 6th to 8th grade. Once a student reached 6th grade, the requirement for the student was to live on campus. I didn't mind it; it got me away from home during the weekdays. The dorm room a student was assigned would remain their dorm room until they moved out at the end of the year. I had been sharing the room with the same four people, who had become my closest friends; Taylor, Riley, and Cleo. Taylor was the genius and the tomboy, Riley was the rhythm and blues of us, Cleo was the earthy hippie, and I was the mysterious one. We had our own dynamic personalities that made our situation work. Most people that room together were either way too similar or way too different; we seemed to balance each other out. There was only one reason we weren't looking forward to the end of the year; we might never see each other again. It's the reason why we all brought cameras this year; to take pictures of each other. We had to keep our memory of each other alive somehow. 

Riley was sitting on the top bunk with her headphones plugged in her ears and the music turned up so loud, we could clearly hear the song she was listening to. Cleo was on her bed under Riley, making the yarn purses she planned to give each of us at the end of the year. We had all told her the colors we wanted, she went out and bought them with her mom, and hasn't stopped making them. "Have you two even left the room?"

Riley looks down at me and removes one of the ear buds. "We just got back from lunch. We haven't been here five minutes." Cleo nods in agreement. "Did you guys see the bulletin?" Taylor and I nod. "We need to have a movie night the night before Assignment starts. One last hoorah before we go off." 

"I brought..."

"We're not watching some boring documentary about plants, Cleo." Riley knew where she was going with it before Cleo could even get it out. "I vote for horror movie night. Make sure you bring your blanket so you can cover your eyes, Cleo."

Cleo sticks her tongue out and raspberries. Taylor and I try not to giggle. It was settled. We had a movie night. "Maybe we can invite some of the boys to watch with us. I'm sure they won't mind," Taylor suggests.

Riley is already on it. She grabs her laptop, writes a message to our four closest guy friends, and waits for a response. Four dings later let us know they responded. "They'll bring popcorn and drinks."

We all smiled. It would be worth having one last night of just being a regular teenager before all the training began. As Riley put it, one last hoorah. It was definitely needed.