I heard a forced cough and snapped out of my daze in time to see eight pairs of eyes staring pointedly at me. A mixture of expressions from one bleach blonde glare, to a series of varying amused expressions. I smiled awkwardly at them wondering why all pairs of eyes were on me. Was there something on my face? No, there couldn’t be, food hadn’t even been served yet.
I looked at Duke for help, but he just gave me an amused smirk. Darn! Probably his twisted way of getting back at me for the whole cheek-pinching episode. Thanks a lot! Now I look stupid within my first 5 minutes at the table.
“What were you saying about your favorite foods?” questioned Lyra kindly.
“Umm... I wasn--- oh!” Seriously stupid, she just saved your but out there, and though the help came late, I greatly appreciated it.
“Yeah Duke’s a big foodie, so we were wondering if his little sister would be too.” Seth piped in smirking.
“Well...” I started sheepishly, I didn’t want them to think I was a pig, this soon at least.
“She eats A LOT!” Duke piped in.
Seriously? You pipe in now? You couldn’t say a word when I needed your help, but now you do. Thanks bunches.
I turned to see him grinning at me bemusedly and I couldn’t help but grin back. Damn our good relationship and my inability to hold grudges.
“Yeah its true,” I chimed more confident now. “I love my food!”
I heard a snort and looked up to see a scowl amongst the smiling faces. Of course, Amber. It didn’t bother me one bit! By the way, didn’t she have any girl friends? Maybe girls were all able to see past the looks more clearly.
“So,” started Jack, “today is Thursday, and the only day that everyone in all of the Advanced Training scool have dinner together. All the levels. There are 5 total. I guess kind of like high school in your Norman world but with an extra level or year. I guess people in your grade 9 would be like Advanced Training 1. Is that right?” he looked at Duke, who nodded so Jack continued.
“I just passed my AT 2, so now I’m going to be in in AT 3 which would be like your... hmm grade 11 I believe.”
Wow, he knew way more about my world than I did about his, which I guess wasn’t surprising since his was secret. Jack went on.
“All your room mates are in my level, as is Amber. Seth is in the level above us, and Duke and Nate” he indicated Amber’s boyfriend (yeah you know, that guy) “have just passed their AT 4 and will start their AT 5 training after break. Sorry for the rant, I just thought you might want to get a better idea.”
“No, that’s great thanks! But you were saying that Thursday’s are the only days that all the levels eat lunch together? Isn’t that kind of a weird day to do that?”
“Well,” this time Riley spoke up, “On Friday we get out of our dorms and go to stay with our families for the weekend, so Thursday is like the last day together during the week.”
“Oh, k cool!”
But then a thought occurred to me. I had no family, who would I stay with after tonight? Luckily Lyra seemed to have read my thoughts (second time she’s saved me today) and spoke up.
“You will stay with whoever Duke is staying with since he’s part of your family.”
“That’s me. Cool, Mom’ll be glad to have a girl in the house for a couple weeks” I looked up to see Nate grinning at me.
Of course. Just my luck. It had to have been fako bitch’s boyfriend that I’m staying with. Wait--
“A couple weeks?” I asked, “I thought it was just for the weekends.”
Nate faked a look of hurt.
“You dont want to stay with me?” He asked with a laughably terrible attempt at a puppy face. So naturally I laughed.
“Naww,” he continued “since we just took and passed (or failed) our exams over this last week, we get a few weeks break before we start training again.”
Oh joy.
I heard my stomach rumble. in a very unlady-like way only to see Amber roll her eyes at me. Jack chuckled.
“Don’t worry the food should be here soon.”
“Thank goodness, I was starting to get worried about that!”
Right as I mentioned it, piles of food were placed on the table. I grabbed a delicious smelling cheese burger from the the table and dug in. I saw Riley do the same, while Crys grabbed a hot dog, and Lyra started with some soup.
I loved seeing what people ate. I had always thought it made me get to know their personality better.
Duke took a hamburger, while Jack grabbed two hot dogs and started splashing large amounts of ketchup, mustard and relish on them. Seth and Nate each grabbed a steak off of the sizzling fajita pan.
I turned to look as subtly as possible at Amber, and saw that she was eating a little bit of salad with some Italian vinaigrette. How cliche.
I bit into my cheeseburger and as the delicious bite touched my taste buds (this was the best cheese burger ever!) all my worries about this new lifestyle and Mia left me. At least for those 15 minutes or so.
One cheeseburger, one hot dog, some fries, and a vanilla shake later, I was just about ready to pass out asleep despite the early 8:15 timing. Hey don’t judge, I can usually stay up late, but I had had a rough, super long day. Remember the last day of school, yeah that was this morning. What. a. day.
“You look exhausted.” Duke looked at me concerned. “It’s been a long day” (you can say that again) “why don’t you head back to your dorm. Tomorrow you’ll come over to Nate’s house and maybe we can get you started on some training so that you can try to get past Early Training 1 with the four year-olds when school starts up.”
He laughed, teasing, but I was nervous. Another long day? That could be pretty interesting. Little did I know interesting was a huge understatement for the day to come. ___________________________________________________
Ok guys sorry for the long wait! If you didn't see my message of explanation its on my profile.
I wasn't a huge fan of this chapter, sorry its so short and a filler, but the next one will be fun and some things just needed to be explained this time around.
Vote and comment please!!! If you haven't noticed I'm dedicating my chapters to supportive fans so if you want a dedication....
Thanks to cocopuffers997 who I am pretty sure voted and commented on every single chapter! This is dedicated to the wonderful and amazing you!
Anyways, sorry for the rant, hope you all had a great holiday season and will continue to do so! Love you guys! <3
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The Academy (on hold)
Romance"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."-- Ghandi Isabella (Izzy) Riley's life as it was before is turned upside down when she learns about and goes to attend The Academy. Was she really betrayed by a brot...
