Only Through Pain [Collab with kayfiles]

Chapter Eight [kayfiles]

Sophia was woken up by Liam gently shaking her shoulder. Her eyes opened wide in panic and she scrambled to pull her blankets over her body. He stumbled back a little in shock. Once she realized where she was and who had woken her, she calmed down and let the blankets fall. 

"I-it's time for morning training," Liam stammered out. Sophia's eyebrows knitted together. What the hell was morning training? As if he'd read her mind, Liam answered, "It's kind of like more tests. They're going to see what you can do, then sort you out into your appropriate groups to train."

Sophia nodded slowly, although she still didn't understand. Before he backed out of the room, Liam told her she could find more clothes in the small drawers on the opposite wall. Then, he left her to get dressed. She made her way over to the dresser, sorting through the clothes. They were all simple garments, a few t-shirts in different colors, some leggings and sweatpants, and socks. She picked out a dark t shirt and leggings and changed quickly. 

Everything fit her perfectly. She wondered how they knew her sizes, or if they had measured her while she was asleep. She shuddered at the thought of one of the nurse boys slipping a measuring tape around her waist while she slept. 

She pushe those thoughts from her mind. She wasn't with Roy anymore, she didn't have to worry about those sort of things. She was in a new place, with new people. A safe place. She continued telling herself that as she walked towards the door and peered outside. 

Liam was standing against the opposite wall, twiddling his thumbs waiting for her. When the door cracked open, he looked up and smiled shyly.

"Ready?" he asked. Sophia nodded in reply and followed him down the hallway. More kids were starting to leave their rooms and follow their own nurse-guides down the hall. Each person dressed only slightly different. She noticed that some of them had opted for brighter colored shirts and she made a note to stay away from those people; they were probably to cheery for her.

Liam stopped at a door a few minutes later, pushed it open, and stepped inside. Sophia gave him a small smile of thanks and stepped through the doorway. 

The room she walked into was huge. It was bigger than her bedroom or the meeting room; it was roughly the size of a gym. It had different equipment littering the floor on the left side: cones, weights, ropes dangling from the ceiling. On the right side, a group of kids were already gathered around something she couldn't see.

As she moved forward, she saw that they were surrounding a man. He was short, but looked muscular. His shirt had both sleeves cut off and his arms looked shiny and tan. Sophia took a spot off to the side, away from most of the crowd and watched everyone for a moment. 

She recognized a few of the people from the meeting yesterday. The boy who had caused a scene was standing in between the two twins with hair like cotton candy. He looked slightly annoyed, but she could tell her liked the attention. She rolled her eyes and scanned the rest of the crowd. Off to the side she saw the red haired girl, whose eyes were red and puffy. She clearly hadn't stopped crying since the day before. Sophia couldn't help but wonder why she was here, what had she suffered through?

"That everyone?" the man with bulging arms asked gruffly. His voice was deep and rough like sandpaper. "Alright, my name's Greg Leroy. But you all call me Sir. Referring to me in any other way will get you ten laps around the room."

Sophia noticed many differences between Greg 'Sir' Leroy and BJ. BJ was kinder, with a much better attitude. Greg seemed rough around the edges, and like he didn't want to be there. She wondered briefly if he was being held here against his will like she was, forced to train a bunch of kids with out of control powers.