Secrets

Chapter One

When I was fourteen, my mother lost her job. At the time, it came as a surprise since she had been doing so well in her medical research. This caused a decline in money income. My parents began to argue more often and I started flunking classes because I was up all night listening to it. I ended up being held back that year, causing me to be a year behind in my studies, so here I am, my Junior year at seventeen years old sitting in a desk that still has chewed gum stuck to the bottom and carved letters into the wood.

"The first day of school is always the easiest," the teacher starts, handing out papers to each of us, "but it's also the most important. Especially in this class where we learn about the history of advanced weaponry, previous victors, and talk about what it takes to become the perfect tribute at various times."

I flip over the paper and read the finely printed words, ADVANCED HISTORY. This is the only class on my schedule that has kids my age in it. I scored so high on my tests last year in regular history, they gave me an option to continue in that class or move up. So for obvious reason, I moved up.

"Now we do have some Juniors in this class, them being--" the teacher reads something on his desk then looks up, "Clove Rivers and Leo Hanson."

I glance at the dark-haired Leo boy as he nods at the teacher. He was in a few of my classes last year, a pretty quiet kid until he wants something.

"I expect the best from you two. I will not be treating you any differently." Mr. Kent looks at the two of us before clapping his hands together, "Now, I'm assuming you want to know what we're going to be studying and stuff like that so let me explain."

He then goes on to tell the class we will be learning about the previous victors, practice false interviews, and by the time he reached the end of the list I stopped listening. "However," I only hear because he's standing in between my desk and some girls desk, "this year the school is granting us access to the training rooms here in the school."

Now I look up at him, "Like, we get to use weapons?" I ask almost too giddy.

He looks down at me and nods, "Correct."

"When?"

"Probably within the next couple of days."

My stomach twists in excitement.

"With that being said, some of you aren't eighteen yet so you will need to get written permission from your parents to train under my authority. It is against school rules to just allow you to train with me."

All excitement fades away as I listen to him speak. He walks past my desk back towards the front and I sink into my chair. My parents would never sign the sheet. Why did I bother signing up for this class?

"All written slips will be due tomorrow in case we've decided to check out the area sooner than planned."

A hand raises in front of me, "Sir, I'm not supposed to train with other students."

"Ah yes, I figured that much Cato. I can assure you that most of your training will be on your own."

Cato nods, lowering his hand, "Alright."

I'm not surprised to see him in this class. In fact, I would have been shocked if he wasn't. He was in my group of kids when we went to pick our weapons oh so long ago, and he was the first one of us to choose his weapon. Coming from a long line of powerful positions and background in Peacekeeper training gives me enough evidence that he's favorited amongst trainers and the teachers. However, I've never seen him train. I have only heard of the rumors of him breaking kids arms during training and destroying the dummies. Even though they are just rumors, some people say that this year he will be the victor. That is if I don't volunteer.