A Heart's Thoughts

Day 1 - Part 2

"I hate physical training."

Cecilia let out a sigh as she slumped towards the enormous training room where all Empowered students, divided into a male group and a female group, gathered every day to spend four hours getting trained in preparation for any possible physical confrontations.

"I actually quite like it," Clover smiled and walked with light steps alongside Cecilia, who gave her best friend a look of disbelief, paired with slight annoyance.

"Shut up, Clover, you wouldn't like it nearly as much if you weren't able to see everyone's movements before they happen. Just you wait until one day your powers disappear and you're left with those toothpicks that you call arms."

Clover, unfazed by her friend's snide remarks just chuckled, "our powers won't disappear, Cecilia."

"I wish they did, though," Cecilia mumbled under her breath and Clover turned to face her, "what was that?"

"Nothing, nothing, let's just get over with this."

"Also, I was going to let it slide, but my arms aren't toothpicks. My physical training is a lot more physically demanding than yours, so my arms are far from being toothpicks. I do agree that your arms are probably still stronger than mine, but that's only because you can't train anything else. If it weren't for your condition, your training would've been a lot more intensive than it is now." Clover crossed her arms.

Cecilia ignored her remarks and let out yet another sigh before she caught sight of someone she had dearly missed, and she stopped dead in her tracks, catching Clover by the arm to make her stop and pointed at the person, "is that Felicia?"

Clover squinted her eyes and looked in the direction Cecilia was pointing before nodding, "I think it is."

"Felicia!" Immediately after Clover's confirmation, Cecilia yelled at the top of her lungs to catch her other best friend's attention, who turned around upon hearing her name being called. Felicia's expression changed from a deflated one to one of excitement as she caught sight of her two friends. Cecilia wanted to run up to her friend but changed her mind and instead, tried to jog as fast as she could, ending up sprinting the last few meters and colliding with her other best friend.

"You-! How dare you not even call us over summer break?! I thought you'd really disappeared this time!" Cecilia let go of Felicia, who was smiling softly and looked from Cecilia to Clover and back, "I missed you guys, I thought I was going to die with none of my close friends near. Not that it wasn't fun back home, but it gets tiring after a while without you guys around."

Cecilia softly slapped her friend's shoulder and turned to motion for Clover to join their hug.

"That reminds me, have you guys seen Annabelle anywhere?" Felicia looked questioningly at the two, who shook their heads, slight worry washing over them when a cheerful voice spoke up from behind, "looking for me?"

The three turned to face into the direction the voice came from, and their reactions came all at the same time as they threw themselves at her.

"Woah, calm down, I really wasn't gone for that long," Annabelle chuckled and broke free from the group hug as she looked fondly at her friends' faces.

"It's nice to be with you again, though. Our families should've lived closer to each other so we can still hang out over Summer break."

Felicia was about to answer, but Cecilia interrupted, "guys, have you heard? Apparently, they're letting the males and females train together as of this year."

She saw the expressions of her friends turn grim and she unwillingly saw their worried thoughts and wavering feelings. Aside from the males in the Class' dorms, there wasn't much interaction, creating a tense situation at the thought of suddenly having to train with hundreds of people they didn't know.