Trinity High (Book 1 of the Trinity Series)

Chapter 13

"Listen up, class," Coach Pulitz said. When the students continued to speak, he got visibly angry, his great face turning red.

"Listen up or you all have detention!" he barked. Silence fell immediately and all eyes were on him. His face lightened a little, satisfied with the attention he now had. "So as you all probably figured out, this class hasn't changed for you. It's still Physical Education and Health. The only difference, now, is that you will learn how to incorporate magic into your education, just like in all of your other classes," he began.

He started marching in front of us. For some reason, he thought it was a good idea to make us change into our P.E. clothes and sit outside on the cold, wet grass. We were all shivering from the chilly November air. He seemed just fine; he had on a comfy looking fleece jacket and sweatpants. The majority of the students were wearing shorts and short-sleeved shirts. I never really wore shorts, so I was lucky because I was wearing capris. I was still freezing, though. I wished half-heartedly that Trey was in my class. He was always warm.

Instead, I was stuck with Abbey and her chattering group of friends. I had no idea why, but Abbey insisted on sitting next to me during class. She told her other friends to sit away from us. This was much to my displeasure. I was starting to regret this new way of life that was starting to come about for me. I wasn't used to other people being around.

"You may be wondering how magic can be related to physical education. My answer is that it is related in every way possible," Coach continued. "A big part of knowing how to do magic is needing energy reserves. And the only way to build up your energy reserves within your body is to build up your endurance and strength. Now, I'm not talking about gaining 50 pounds in muscle. But you need to be able to withstand long hours of brutal physical work. When you're in a battle, it's not going to last 5 minutes. You will be conjuring up spell after spell at your enemy. And with each spell you cast, it'll deplete your energy reserves, which is why you need to build up your endurance," Coach explained. I raised my hand.

"Yes, Lucia?" he asked, pointing at me.

"If you can use the energy from things around you, why is it necessary to build up your endurance?" I asked.

"Because, you can't always rely on just the resources around you. What if your enemy is also using them? What if you run out of resources? And don't think that using energy from things around you is easy. You use a bit of your own reserves when trying to get energy from other resources around you, too," he replied.

"Isn't that counter-productive?" Abbey asked, raising her hand.

"It is, but it's the way us magic users have evolved. It's a way to keep balance between the orders of nature and humans," he answered. "But that's not what we're going to learn here. Like I said, the main focus will be building up endurance. However, there is another crucial skill you will learn from this class and that is the skill of mind control," he said. Several snickers went around the students. I rolled my eyes.

"Not mind control in that way. I mean mind control as in controlling your own mind. You will learn how to discipline your mind so that you can block off distractions that can deter you when you're using magic. I'm sure Professor Little touched on the subject a bit, but if you can't concentrate on a spell, it can be detrimental to your health and life. If you get distracted, you could accidentally lose control of your energy reserves or the spell you're working on and that could lead to death. So you must be careful and I will teach you how to do that in this class, too," he continued. "So, any questions so far?" he asked, looking around at us. When no one said anything, he clapped his hands together loudly.

"All right then! Let's get up and get moving. Run four laps around the track. Go!" he shouted in his big, booming army general voice. Everyone groaned as we got up to our feet and began jogging towards the track. Four laps was one mile. I knew I was going to be super sore the next day...