Shawn Hastings had it all. Until one night two years ago, tragedy struck. Hoping to escape his past and start a new life. He moves from California to Northern Michigan with his parents and quickly finds himself enrolled at St. Ravenwood Academy. Bu...
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I learned out fast that fear was an emotion that was not meant to be taken lightly. My stomach churned into knots, my legs began to shake, and I was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown when the door to the bathroom suddenly opened and who better to walk than Kieran. Oh, God no! This can't be happening right now. The look on my face must've showed every single detail that had transpired here because it didn't take long until the overwhelming silence was broken by his voice.
"What's going on here, guys?"
I couldn't bring myself to speak, so Tyler did it for me. "Not much. We're just two old friends who haven't seen each other in a long time. And I can't wait to get reacquainted with my best buddy."
Kieran's eyes looked me over as I said nothing and stared at the floor. "Come on, Shawn. We're late for class."
In my haste of picking my bag up off the floor, a hand landed on my shoulder as Tyler stood over me with a firm grip. "Remember Shawn. The game starts as soon as you walk out that door. Good luck."
I shrugged him off and turned to leave with Kieran shielding me from view. Outside in the antechamber, not a soul was around except for the two of us and the sun shining in through the stained glass window at the top of the stairs. It took a minute to calm myself down after that ordeal. But now with Tyler back into the picture everything just seemed like one major giant cluster-fuck.
"Who the hell was that?" Kieran asked.
"An old friend, and someone I never thought I'd see again."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"No. I just want to go to class. Go home and pretend like this day never happened."
"Well, if you ever do want to talk about it. You know where to find me."
"Thanks."
Located in the basement or so it's called, is an underground dungeon that has been transformed into a sparring arena with various workout equipment in the next room ranging from treadmills to lifting weights. Kieran held the door open for me as I stepped through it and was met with two male students dressed in tight training uniforms that looked uncomfortable to move around in let alone try to fight. I mean, I'd never thrown a punch in my life! So this was going to be interesting.
"Kieran!" A voice called out. "Go get changed. You're up next. And send the new guy to my office while you're at it."
I looked up at Kieran as he pointed to a door just on the other side of the arena. As I made my way around, I noticed a few of the faces that resembled some of my classmates from earlier in the week. Their eyes barely noticed me as I walked past, watching teams of two spar off against each other. A door that was similar to the door I just walked through with Kieran, was closed as I knocked and waited till I heard a man's voice call out to me to enter.
A man who was short by nature with a round body like a bowling ball stood over his desk as he searched tirelessly through an endless pile of paperwork. I stood beside a filing cabinet, my eyes scanning the room as my diagnoses came up complete telling me that this office was a pigsty. I spotted a trashcan next to his desk. It was filled with a pile of sticky coffee cups and candy wrappers. A whistle dangled around his neck along with an unsanitary amount of pit stains peeking out beneath his shirt.
