Heaven on Earth: Terminus (Book 1)

Chapter 12: Synergetic (Tom)

Camp Seraphic

I wake up naturally without an alarm or anyone waking me up, the morning light seeps in through the glass wall and the warmth makes my bare skin tingle. I push the duvet off of my body and stare at the ceiling for countless seconds, I don’t know how I feel. Disappointed, hopeful, hopeless, irritated? Nonetheless, I sleepily walk to the bathroom and take an effortful shower and brush my teeth, not bothering to look at myself in the mirror while I do it. I dry myself off with a towel and leave it draped over the sink. I walk out into the bedroom in the nude,

“Morning!” Someone shouts and I immediately cover myself with both hands and run to my bed to cover myself in the duvet. I look around the room and see Betsy lounging on my couch laughing hysterically.

“What are you doing!” I shout flushed with embarrassment,

“I was going to wake you up.” She says still giggling, “But I guess you’re already up.”

“Yeah.” I say, “Get out!”

“Fine, fine.” She says getting up and walking over to the bedroom door, “Oh, and it’s good to see that you cherish your body.” She leaves me still embarrassed but feeling slightly better than earlier. I immediately put some underwear and socks on to cover up my nudity and I can’t be bothered to style my hair or even blow-dry it so I just leave it flat, besides it’s already dry. I smack on my usual clothes; baseball shirt with red sleeves, skin tight jeans and my white converse. I find my training gloves and also my bow and sword from my backpack, I figure I don’t need a bag because we’re going to be training all day so I just take my necessities like my sunglasses and army tag, the things I can’t live without and for the first time, I decide to leave my phone. I walk downstairs to find mom making breakfast, Shannon reading a textbook on the breakfast counter and Betsy, Nate, Troy and the Arlington twins, Brodie and Levi are talking over the dining table. And I thought I was early. I walk over to my little sister and sit with her,

“Morning.” I say,

“Morning.” She replies, “Now go away, I’m studying.”

“For what?” I ask,

“For the test mom’s making me do.” She says, “She’s been homeschooling me.”

“Do you need help?” I ask her,

“Tom, I’m fifteen.” She reminds me, “I can take care of myself. Thanks anyway, I think your friends are waiting for you.”

“Suit yourself.” I hug her and walk over to my...I’ve never given it some thought but they’re my friends. Smiling at the thought of it, I sit at the head of the table and they all greet me. “Morning.” I reply,

“So what time did the Archangels want us to be at the training grounds?” Betsy asks,

“7AM.” Levi responds, “That’s when the students are expected to be up.”

“It’s 6:50AM now.” Brodie adds, “We should get leaving.” We all stand up and I look back at my sister and mom,

“What about breakfast?” I ask,

“Don’t worry.” Mom replies, “It’ll still be here when you get back.” I smile and the whole group crams outside the door and down the stairs to the path leading to the camp. The twins lead the group followed by Betsy and Troy and Nate and I round out the back.

“Did you bring your axe?” I ask him while putting my sunglasses on,

“Yeah.” He says, patting his pocket. “It’s right here.” I notice that he has training gloves as well, and so does everyone else, it must be part of the training uniform here at Seraphic. Although Nate looks fine, he seems very distant, always looking ahead and not making any small talk, he’s still probably shocked about finding out that his parents are dead.