Prepared

Chapter One

Beep

It was 05:00 hours – time to get up. I had already been awake for the last half an hour. I had taken a shower, changed into sport’s clothes, done my bed and tied my hair up into a tight bun. I stopped the alarm as soon as it started singing for everyone to wake up; not wanting to hear any more beeps than necessary as the rest of the three alarms went off.

I switched the light on. “Get up!” I ordered the rest of the girls. They all immediately stood with no problem, doing their beds and going into their separate bathrooms.

By five thirty we were all stood in front of our beds, waiting for Chief Larson to come.

She inspected our beds, wardrobes, desks and bathrooms to make sure they were all clean. We had all been doing this for a long time so everything was spotless and she gave her nod of approval before leaving to check the next room.

We all made our way down to the food hall where we would have breakfast. I sat in my assigned seat with my tray of food. Everything was carefully calculated and portioned according to our height, weight and timetable.

“Olivia, is your arm better?” Lucas Stone asked.

I didn’t look up from my bowl of oats. If I had the choice I would be sitting on my own where no one could bother me.

“Are you awake?” he asked.

“She was awake and ready before her alarm even went off,” Malika Penn told him, one of the girls who slept in the same room as me.

“What time did you wake up at?” Michael Felks asked.

I snapped my head up to look at them. “At which time I awoke does not concern you. As for my arm,” I said, my eyes now looking at Lucas to see his brown eyes looking at me intently. “You should have noticed without asking that I have already snapped my shoulder back into place and that my arm is fine. If you were not able to notice something so simply obvious I’d suggest you request more lessons for your observation skills,” I advised, going back to my food.

“Olivia, you should really practice your social skills,” he suggested.

“My social skills are fine, I just hate incompetent questions,” I told him.

“I just wanted to make sure you were fine for later on today when I would kick your arse,” he said smugly.

“You seem so sure even though I’ve been beating you since the age of six.”

“We’re eleven, it’s been five years.”

“I beat you only three days ago,” I told him dryly.

“I’m getting bigger than you.”

I ignored him and everyone around me as I continued to eat. I finished pretty quickly because I wanted to give my food at least twenty minutes to digest before we started the morning’s exercises.

“Okay,” Major Wilkes shouted as we lined up outside in the cool breeze. The sun was already out because we were nearing the summer, but seeing as we were in the English countryside it wasn’t at all hot.

“You will start your run as soon as I blow my whistle! I want you to complete eight laps around the perimeter in 60 minutes. Go!”

I didn’t hesitate, I started at a run. It was two more laps than usual but I didn’t mind. I always finished early because I always kept at a fast and steady pace.

Towards the end, when I had two laps left I sprinted, finishing early. Major Wilkes let me go with a nod of approval and I made my way to the obstacle courses. I flew through them for the next two hours before heading to the showers.