The Fire Inside

33. A Ruff Day

The next morning, Dakota decided to wake everyone up. She knocked on everyone's door, telling them to start getting ready for the day and that she had left an assortment of clothes in all the rooms..

Heiwa looked through the closet in her room. She found a forest green shirt with long cuffed sleeves. Without thinking twice she pulled it over her head and let out her silky black hair. She searched even further and found a pair of black pants. She frowned at the tightness at the legs. She grabbed her katana and sliced off the pants, turning the pants into a pair of shorts. She sheathed her katana as she smiled at her handiwork, slipping her slender legs into them. She slipped on a pair of black shoes and opened the door before going out to meet the others.

Emmalynn and Riley ended up exchanging clothes over and over again before settling with their dresses. Emmalynn has a dark red dress that stopped above her knees, but the black, warm stockings made up for the short length. She wore dark gray, buckled boots and clicked over to Riley who was struggling to get into her dress. Emmalynn had initially picked the black long-sleeved dress, but with the sizing, it seemed only right to make Riley wear it. It was the bigger out of the two outfits anyway. She wore silver flats that almost made her seem like a princess, but with the sour expression she had on anyone could've easily disagreed.

"It's gross. It's too long to walk in anyway," she muttered.

Emmalynn laughed before grabbing her scythe. She made a few adjustments, allowing the skirt to be a lot shorter and easier for the older girl to maneuver in. She turned to Riley and dragged the older out of the room.

Jimin started getting ready while Isadora was still snoozing on her bed. Julien luckily left beforehand so she could change with privacy. She threw off her black clothes and pulled on another set of black clothing. She wore black leggings and a black short-sleeved shirt, an outfit that was too similar to her previously battered one. Jimin, putting on her ruined boots, quickly ran over to Isadora and pushed her off the bed.

"Ow!" Isadora yelped.

"Get dressed," Jimin said quickly before leaving the room.

The puppy-girl groaned before getting out of bed. She frowned at the closet as if threatening it to make the first move. When it didn't, she got up and kicked it. The door swung open and smacked her, knocking her down.

"What the hell!" She groaned.

Jimin opened the door again, "Hurry up!"

"Fine," Isadora grumbled.

She picked up the first things she found and pulled it on before running out barefoot. She heard Jimin snickering but didn't pay much attention to it.

Julien, although he was just as tired, was able to function better than Isadora. He threw on tan pants and a red shirt. He slapped on a pair of shoes before grabbing the new leather boomerang holster Dakota had found for him. He swung it over his shoulder before leaving the room.

When he got outside, he was met with the hushed banter of the whole troop of girls—minus Maria—standing impatiently while waiting for the guys. When they heard the door, all of them turned around and waved.

"Hey, should we wait for the other two or should we just head down at this point?" Jimin asked him.

"Uh...How about we go and Heiwa can go wake them up."

Heiwa looked horrified for a split second but managed to keep her cool. She nodded and waved everyone away as she approached the door. Knocking softly, she creaked open the door and peered in. The curtains had been drawn making the room significantly darker. There were sheets everywhere and the bed was empty. Heiwa walked around carefully before spotting a lump on the group. She stomped over and kicked it with her hard shoes.

"Shit! What the hell?" Varun's head peeked out looking pretty dead for a bright morning.

"Where's Maria and what'd you do to her?"

"Nothing! She's still sleeping over there," Varun pointed to the bed against the door's wall.

Heiwa walked over Varun, kicking him in the process, and pulled the duvet off the bed. She watched as the flat starfish, known as Maria, curled up and whined.

"Gimme back the blanket!"

"Get dressed. We're going to eat and you won't get breakfast if you come late."

Maria shot up at the sound of that and ran towards the door.

"I said get dressed! Then you can go eat," Heiwa folded her arms as the other two grumbled and whined into standing positions before cleaning up. They opened their closets and pulled out outfits. Shockingly for Heiwa, the outfits weren't random and surprisingly decent for half-asleep nimrods.

Maria wore black leggings and a long coffee-colored shirt. She brushed her hair with her fingers before tying it back into her standard side braid.

Varun, Heiwa noted, wore something similar to Julien, but over the shirt he pulled on a jacket that had random shapes and figures on the back.

Satisfied with their appearance, the mother dragged the two out of their room and into the hallway.

"So, were they doing anything?" Julien looked expectedly.

"Yup."

Everyone's eyes grew in size, including Maria and Varun's.

"They were bumming around and decided to go back to sleep."

There was an evident sigh in the air when they heard this.

"On a different note, cute shirt Lynn," Heiwa chuckled.

Isadora, who'd finally woken up, enough to process words being thrown at her, looked down and at last understood why she'd been getting looks. She had worn a shirt with paw-prints saying 'Had a Ruff Day!' She wined at the group who kept teasing her about the dog pun.

"Not funny," Isadora grumbled.

Jimin laughed harder before passing her her white fluffy coat that somehow seemed to never get dirty. If anyone asked why, Isadora just gave them a big smile and simply told them: "It's my fur when I'm in human form!"

They went downstairs and took a seat at the table. Dakota and Ezra were already seated at the end. Dakota was yapping away whereas her partner seemed to see no importance in her rambling.

"Yeah and so Julien right, he was just so cute! I sometimes felt bad that I was such a burden, but that kid could care less! That's why when I found out he was here..."

"Dakota! Can we eat?" Julien interrupted as Dakota laid his entire past in front of the Raven haired man.

"Yeah! Breakfast is served!"

The group sat down at the long table and began digging into the variety of breads and treats laid out for them.

"Damn! This is great!" Maria groaned as she swallowed a piece of toast.

"It's just bread," Varun chuckled before passing her a glass of milk.

She glared at the glass before grabbing a glass of water from Heiwa who was seated next to her.

As everyone finally put food into their shrunken stomachs, Ezra got up. He looked at everyone with a blank face before speaking up.

"Once you've filled yourself with food, get ready because training starts right away."

"Training?" Everyone looked at him dumbfounded.

"Oh yeah, and trust me when I say you'll wish you had eaten more food by the end of it."

Ezra left them with a smirk on his face.

"Is he ok?" Julien asked Dakota.

"Eh. Let's just say he doesn't go easy when he puts his mind to something."