blurred world

chapter 5

Chapter 5

Kendara was irritable for the rest of the day. At lunch theo has asked her what was wrong, she insisted nothing was. But on the inside she was terrified, of this new boy doing better than her, of her brother slipping away from her, but most importantly, of being conscripted into the army. She knew she had the skill, but she didn't think she had the ability to take orders and follow them without question, even in school the teachers hated her because she would always question the reason behind tasks. she thought back to the conversation she had spied on earlier that morning. The headmistress was discussing graderating this years class early, so they could give the military much needed backup. Kendara would have to look into that later; if she was going to have to join the military early she would have to be prepared.

“Umm, hi.” a voice from behind her stammered, kendara whipped her head around and saw jackson standing behind her holding his lunch, “Can i join you?” she looked towards theo, who was staring open mouthed at him. “I guess so.” kendara replied, scooting over to make more space for him on the bench. He sat and dropped his lunch onto the table, it was probably the most unhealthy thing kendara had ever see anyone eat at the alexander academy, a school for future military did not tolerate unhealthiness. Jackson caught her staring “Would you like some?” he offered, “Yours looks a little boring.” kenara looked at her own plate. Her nutrition packs did look rather dull next to his pizza and fries, but she had to keep her body in shape, this was a military school not some luxury holiday, “Im fine thanks.” she shrugged “Got to stay in shape.” “Well technically you can eat anything and stay in shape as long as you work it off.” interjected theo. Ken shot her a look, “Your salad is not that interesting ether.” kendara informed her. “Still more colorful than yours,” theo shot back. Jackson was trying to hide a smile, and failed. “Eat what you like, ill still beat you on the obstacle course,” he teased, apparently theo thought this was funny because she choked on a bit of lettuce, once she had recover she gasped “He beat you this morning?” “yes,” ken grumbled back. Theo broke into shocked laughter “How did that happen?” “I dont know” cringed kendara “Ask him,” she added with a pointed look at jackson. “Well,” he started crossing one leg over the other and leaning over the table so he could talk to theo properly, “i guess i must just be faster.” his deep blue eyes glittered and he shot kendara a challenging look as he sat back. Kendaras face turned indigent, “You are not.” draweld kendara, “I challenge you to a race, tomorrow in gym well see whos faster.” “ill see you there.” vowed jackson, then the bell rang to mark the end of lunch and they all began to collect their things. As kendara and theo headed off to their next class jackson called after them “Ill beat you tomorrow!” he winked and then went off to wherever he had class next, it was weird that he and kendara shared only one official class but she didn't give it much thought.

They went up the long winding stairs to mr toto’s class. By the time the stears came to the landing that served as the magical warfare classroom both kendara and theo were out of breath. This classroom was by far kendaras favorite, it had large stained glass windows that let in a ton of light and looked out onto the see, there were bords with military techniques scattered around the class, and the chairs were set up just like they would be in a war room, around a large table that was decorated with a huge map of the world, equipped with small pieces similar to those in a game set that showed the mite of each country's power. mr toto would often place the pieces to represent the ongoing war and ask each student how they would approach the situation, that was her favorite thing to do, second only to actually fighting. Theo and kendara were the first to arrive. This class was extremely small as it was invitation only, one had to show some sort of useful skill to be here, it was intended for the future leaders of the army. Kendara knew she was not there due to any merret truly her own, she was there because her shadows made her a useful tool, and if there was anything this class had taught her it was that tools should be used, especially potentially dangerous ones. Theo was here because her artistic ability ment she could redraw anything, including maps and building layouts. Liam had been invited to join the class, but refused; he preferred to just blow things up instead of learning how to blow them up properly. There were afew others in the class too, katie, who could remember anything, simon, who could walk through walls and leo who had no power except for the fact he could devise a winning play for the disk team to use and it would work every time. That was the magical warfare class, it was small and comfortable, just the way ken and theo liked it. They sat in their usual seats and wated whilst the rest of the class trickled in. mr toto wasn't there which was weird, because normally he would have set up some interesting exercise for them. But his desc was completely empty, there were new posters on the walls though and whilst they wanted kendara made herself busy reading them. she found that they were just newer versions of the old ones and was slightly disappointed, she was about to point it out to theo when she heard someone coming up the rickety steps. Two someones.  When they appeared ken almost let out a bemused laugh. Before her stood mr toto and next to him was jackson, his eyes found hers and he gave her a shy grin, one which made her want to punch his perfect teeth. “This is our new student, jackson. I assume you will all welcome him.” announced mr toto. “Im sorry i wasn't here to greet you all when you arrived, it seems our new student got a bit lost.”

“This tower is hard to find.” admitted jackson. Jackson sat in an empty seat and class began. kendara found it difficult to concentrate, she kept thinking back to the conversation she overheard, and her thoughts, unwillingly kept returning to jackson too. Why was he here? What happened to his old school? Where was he from? But most of all she wanted to know about his power, how did it work? And why did her shadows fear it?

“Do you find jackson more interesting than military tactics?” mr tots voice cut into her thoughts. Kendara looked up at him, ashamed. “No sir.” she muttered. “Very well,” he replied, then changed the topic, “I have an announcement, your entire year will be enscripted early.” the class let up a collective gasp. Mr toto looked around at all their faces, his eyes fell to kendara and he gave her a suspicious look, like he knew. “I ask you all not to tell your peers.” he went on, moving his eyes to look at the entire class again. “You lot, as i'm sure you know, are in this class for a reason,” he paused and looked them over again, “Future leaders!” he shuted, theo jumped. “It has fallen to you to subtly prepare your peers and get them used to the idea of joining early, think of it as a test.” the class was silent, then leo cherped “You do know that most of us are not friends with anyone outside this class?” “Think of it as a challenge then.” was mr totos reply. dejected leo just gazed at his hands. “You are dismissed.” mr toto told them, his tone oddly harsh “Kendara and jackson stay.” he commanded, sounding more like a general then a teacher. Kendara and jackson stayed sitting as they watched the other students file out the class, theo gave kendara a worried look then hurried out of the class too. Mr toto let out a long sigh

“Kendara how could you be so careless?” he bellowed at her. She just stared at him, wondering what he could be talking about. “You know not to spy on people, especially the headmistress.” he went on, “You are lucky she doesn't know you were there, but the person she was meeting with was, and now you will be the spymasters puppet, so well done, you've managed to get yourself inscripted into the most dangerous position.” he started to pace the classroom. Kendara just stared at him, wide eyed, she had not fully processed what he had said before he moved on and was fuming down onto jackson, “And you, dont think ive forgotten about you, you were spying on kendara when she was spying on the headmistress,” this got kendaras attention and she stared at this ridiculous boy, he glanced at her then back to mr toto, ken thought she saw a tinge of regret on his face but it was gone before she had the chance to really see it, “For once you have nothing to say For yourself,” that was a strange thing for mr toto to say, kendara thought, he had only met jackson that morning so why would he say for once? “You two will have to train extra hard over the coming months because you have just been given your first assignments as spies for the realm of magic. You two will go into the human world, you will become a part of their military and use your skill to relay any important information back to the spymaster, he will debrief you properly closer to the time but for now thats all you need to know, and train accordingly,” mr toto turned to leave the room, then turned back and added “Oh and you two must work together. Or you will fail.” and with that and a flurry of robes mr toto vanished.

“Well, that was alot to process.” said jackson. “Indeed” was kendaras reply. They walked out of the class and down the halls side by side until they reached the dorms, “well ill see you tomorrow i guess,” jackson called in farewell. “Yip.” was all kendara could think to say as she started down the dark corridor towards her room, her mind was still reeling from what she had just learned. She decided she needed more than her room could provide and turned to instead go to the zen rooms, she would scip all her other classes for the day and confine herself to the zen room until she had ordered her thoughts.