grey

FOUR: The Centennial State

           

Skylynn rapidly tapped my arm which was holding her in a headlock and I let go. "What exactly did you do in London?" she panted, rubbing her neck. "I mean, I knew you were a good fighter, but damn girl you got even faster. I barely saw you coming!" I just smiled and handed her a water bottle. "Thanks." She uttered.

"And... you know I'm not allowed to tell you." I simply told her, returning to the topic of my little trip. She rolled her eyes, "Yeah, yeah. Top secret and all that."

I grabbed the towel I brought to the training hall and wiped my face with it. We had been training quite intensively for the past hour. Although it made me all smelly and sweaty, I loved the feeling I  got after. A feeling of accomplishment.

"Hey Sky?" I asked the other girl out of the blue. She was standing against the wall with her eyes closed. "Yeah?" she didn't bother moving from exhaustion. I felt tempted to roll my eyes at her dramatics. "Is there anyone else here now?" I questioned. She popped open one eye, "Well, this morning Erica, Christine and Thalia were here during breakfast, but I don't know what they're up to now. They might have gotten a call for all I know."

I nodded understandingly, "What about Katie and Alexa?" I raised my eyebrow in question. Sky pushed herself away from the wall and walked towards me. "I know that Kat's spending some well-deserved time with her brothers, and I'm not sure but I think Alexa is somewhere in South-America doing god knows what." Content with that answer, I started cleaning up the training hall.

   "Let's head back." I suggested after we put back all of the equipment that we used. Sky nodded, agreeing.

We left the training hall for what it was and went to our rooms to get clean clothes in order to take a shower. "You go first Ash, I need to get my clean laundry." She scrunched up her face at the thought, making me chuckle. "Okay. Good luck." I wished her as she left the room. I heard her mutter a few profanities at my last words through the door, causing me to shake my head at her antics. She may be about the same age, but she still acts like a child sometimes.

I grabbed a clean uniform and a towel from my closet. We had two types of uniforms: one for training and one for lessons and other activities. Both were engraved with our names an numbers. On the left sleeve it had my number '5' and on the back it said 'Grey.' I still don't know exactly why they named me that. Possibly because of my stormy grey eyes, but Katherine wasn't called Red as a result of her eyes being that colour, because they aren't.

Not sparing a thought on the origin of my nickname any longer, I headed to the bathroom where I undressed myself and stepped under the very much welcome warm water that washed away the grease and sweat from all the way in London up until after my training.

It felt good being clean again after all the travelling I did.

After about ten minutes I got out of the shower and put on my uniform after drying myself with a towel. I gently rubbed my hair dry and blow-dried it quickly before heading out and telling Sky that it was her turn.

She was still busy cleaning up her laundry from what I could see, not looking up when I walked in. "Here, let me help you with that while you go take a shower." I told her, taking the clean clothes from her and urging her to wash herself. "You smell." I added. Only then she let me take over her work. I folded the clothes neatly and stacked them in her closet one by one.

By the time Sky was done showering I was done putting away her clean laundry as well.

"Library?" she asked.

"Library," I confirmed.

***

We'd been reading for over an hour when my phone rang. Sky eyed me quizzically and I simply shrugged in response. I tragically had to put my novel aside in order to pick up, "This is agent Grey speaking." I answered, using my professional voice.