State

Chapter 1: Kai: The Crossed Sabers

K=Kai

K: My name is Kai. I'm a sophomore at my high school. I like it here. It's not too bad. French is a pain, but I need the credits. Plus, I'm half french. It would seem wrong to choose another language. Anyway, I guess I'm creating this just to keep log of what happened leading up to now. There's a lot to go over so pay attention. First lets have you get a mental image of me. I'm 6 foot 2. Tall, but not too tall. But I still manage to whack my head off of random things when I walk through the house. I'm not too big on fashion and overall style but I manage not to look like a potato. I typically wear these jeans that stretch a bit. It's good for walking up hills and martial arts.  Also, my pant's are always black. Moving on I wear just about any t-shirt that fits and looks remotely cool. Comfort is always a must. I typically wear a flannel button down open and with the cuff buttons undone as well. My hair is a beautiful midnight blue and my eyes are a deep forest green. Then there is my majestically over weight body. A true master piece. Well that sums up my wardrobe. Now to the events of which I call life. I'll go by days. Lets see. I'll call the first day things got...ummm... weird, the first day. So... the first day started pretty normal. I got up. I got a shower. I got my clothes on. Drenched my self in expensive cologne. and headed out the door to my bus stop. I'm still 15 so I don't exactly have a car. I wait 5 or so minutes until my bus shows up. I enter the bus, plug in my music, and stay in a trance the whole ride. I arrive at school and exit the bus. I mozey my way on over to the driver's education room and sit until the morning announcements turn on. They do and I watch them. We then start class and that's when things get strange. I glance out the window to see masked men with BDU's and body armor. Yeah, Navy blue BDU's, a black t-shirt, and grey body armor. They're unarmed, or at least... that's how it looks.  At the time it was strange, but not on the top of my "to worry" list. I proceed with my day and go to my tech ed class. It's not really a class more just a place to dick around for an hour and a half. I chill there and all goes well. I have one sweet ass teacher there. Afterward everything settles and I go outside to move to the next building. Not too many people are out at this period change. Everything is clear then out of flippin' nowhere... BOOM, right in front of me, two of the armored men. This time they had white masks on. I looked at their eyes since that was the only organic thing I could see other than their arms. One had brown eyes awhile the other had sky blue eyes. Anyway, they came up to me out of nowhere and then asked me one vague ass question. "Have you seen anything... strange, around here?" I was tempted to say "Umm, you, you loons" but that's a bit rude. I simply said "Umm, uh, no. Nothing too out of the ordinary." After saying that they said "Thanks" and moved swiftly away. It was pretty damn strange. As they walked away I saw the emblem on their back. It was crossed sabers. Like, civil war cavalry  sabers. Strange. It actually looks a lot like the cavalry emblem they used in the civil war. Their's was white though. No writing just, crossed sabers. ............ Strange things, I wonder what they could mean by strange things. I just pushed it aside and finished off my day. The armored men apparently visited other students as well. Strange.  [longer pause] After school I call my mum to tell her that I was going down town for a while to look for a job. I walk for a while and look at multiple places. A few grocery stores, a toy store, the bakery. All pretty cool. Money's always cool. I wander even more to find a building being renovated. It had black tinted windows and a to hire sign. I walk in to see what their deal was. I walk in to see a grey carpet and burgundy walls. There was a walnut desk, much like those you find at a hotel with a well dressed woman at it tending to some papers. I walk up and say hello. She looks up with a smile and say "Oh hi! How may I help you?" I ask what age they hire. and she say " oh we don't actually have an age, we're based more off skill than age" I'm a bit confused since I was sure that there was laws concerning age of hiring. But I ask on. What are some skills required to join? I asked her. She exclaims "Any combat training is most certainly welcome! Swords, guns, and of course hand to hand!" I've never heard someone say that sentence in such a cheerful voice. I Honestly say "I have training in all of those, mostly hand to hand and blades of all types" Her eyes widened and half yelled "Really?! At your age too? That's wonderful? Any other skills?" I told her about my IT skills and my leather working skills. She seemed more and more enthusiastic as I went on. She eventually stopped me and Handed me a paper to fill out. She said to just fill it out here. I filled it out real quick and gave her the form. "Welcome to the crew Kai! I'll have to ask you to come back tomorrow at 4 for a test. Also, that form you signed mentions you agree to secrecy of our meeting and this place. This place is for people to find on their own!" she said. "But otherwise, It's 20 bucks an hour!". "that's great!" I said. That's more than my mum. I left feeling excited, My friend was also looking for a job so I shot her a quick text with the whole secrecy thing slipping my mind. But I was also feeling a bit irked. The filling out process was quick and without any permissions and forms or physicals. That and I didn't quite register it at the time, but on the form I had filled out, was stamped with a crossed sabers logo. It was then that my fate had been twisted like the threads on a screw. And now, my story gets a little bit more interesting.