Chapter 17
Professor Theodore Paige orders us to form two lines; one for girls and one for boys, according to height. I’m one of the tallest girls in class so I stand in the back together with few girls like Belle the ‘Speckled blonde.”
“I believe this is our first meeting. I am Professor Theodore Paige originally from Argon but I’ve been staying here in Whitehorn Academy to teach for quite some time.” He introduces his self with hisses in every word. “This is Basic Defence Combat class and I expect nothing but toughness. In this class you will learn how to protect yourself, and the people around you. Throwing punches, kicking and firing will be nothing if you do not know how to guard yourself. You can achieve that solely by training.” He says in a loud voice, walking pass at each of us and stopping at my side.
“Arms sideward!” he shouts with his snake eyes directly staring at me.
None of us are allowed to speak during his class. We follow every order he gives as silent as possible. He orders us to do five rounds of jog and frog walk followed by twenty squats, fifteen push ups and thirty sit ups. He says that it is for our own good, to be physical fit and we need warm up exercises before the real class starts. As soon as we’re all finished with the warm up exercises we fall in line again, catching our breaths hardly.
“You’re already tired?!” he shouts. “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the game goes into strict training.” *1 Corinthians 9:24-25
“Follow me, and no talking!” he hisses.
We follow him out of the gym and into the hallway of the first floor and out of the school. We keep walking in silence and in curiosity, none of us know where are we heading.
“Oh! The Pond side.” whispers Shane in front, though I can’t say if it is really a whisper because I hear her up to here.
Professor Paige turns his head and gives Shane a nasty look. Shane bows her head in fear. I look in front of the line and I see a pond, with white lilies floating and ten bivouacs built right after the pond.
“The Pond side will be our training ground for the first two months before we go to the training centre. I expect you to be here next meeting at exactly six in the evening. You will all be sleeping at the bivouacs every Friday night and go back to the dormitory before the sun rises the next day. This is a five hour class, nothing more, nothing less.” He says quickly, like he is talking without periods or commas.
Again, the professor orders us to form nine groups of our own choice with four members in each group. Terence and I are of course in the same group, Lucia joins our group after she got rejected by Shane’s group. One more member, who will complete our little group? We wait for anyone who wants to join our company since none of us are as sociable as the others. Belle, the girl in front of me in the line earlier walks to our direction with her face down. “Can I join you? None of them wants me to be in their group.”
“Of course!” grins Terence and he accepts her with open arms.
I heard pretty well what Professor Paige said earlier; ‘I expect nothing but toughness’ How can I be tough if I am in a group of weak, as fragile as cheap vase students? “Great!” I groan and shrug my shoulder, rolling my eyes at Terence.
Terence pats my shoulder and says, “Don’t be too hard on them partner.” he smiles at me and gently scratches my back. He really knows how to get me.
A tray of eggs is in the hands of Professor Paige. “As we go on to different lectures and trainings, you need to protect this eggs for a week.” He raises his hands and looks at us individually without moving from his place. “It’s simple; each group will have one egg and you need to protect it from the other groups. 5 points will be given for each egg you destroy, 10 points for each egg you steal, 5 points for retrieving your own egg, and 30 points for keeping your own egg safe and sound – damage and scratch free. Do everything to protect the eggs; I’ll be grading you next meeting.”
