Chiron Academy

Chapter 16.1 The New Normal

The bright afternoon sun poured in the windows high on the walls of the gymnasium. Its history as a warehouse was betrayed by its high ceiling. It must have been almost two or three stories tall.

Wyatt felt the warm sun on him as he lay quietly on the bench press. He wore the simple school supplied gym shorts and t-shirts. His uniform had grown a bit ripe over the last few nights of patroling, so he'd left it folded up in a drawer today.

Even that aside, he hadn't really been feeling up for going full uniform today anyway.

Which he didn't really want to think about.

With a grunt, he pushed the thought out of his mind.

Wyatt pushed the weighted barbell up for another rep, feeling the familiar burn of his muscles as he did. Slowly, he lowered the bar back down to his chest. He focused on the ache in his muscles: feeling the burning feeling move from his biceps to his pectorals. He tried to push out the rest of the world focusing solely on the sensation of his muscles holding the heavy bar.

Outwardly, he knew it was almost time for their daily session with Achilles to start. He closed his eyes, trying to close off all of the extraneous sensations he received from his senses. He wanted to lose himself in the familiar exercise that he'd done so many times before.

When he was totally focused on this, he couldn't think about another boring self-defense class. He couldn't worry about avoiding his squadmates.

It had now been two weeks since William had been made squad captain and life was not what Wyatt would have wanted. But if he had to be honest, it was more or less what he'd expected.

Squad captain William was still the same by the book, stick in the mud as regular William had been, but now, instead of his suggestions being merely seriously considered by the group, they were law.

Not that he was a jerk about it, Wyatt had to admit himself. He was never vengeful or mean spirited. He was a very nice tyrant.

Today was supposed to be a test on the basic self-defense they'd been working on with Achilles. William, being William, had been cramming for this test for days. There had been more than a few times where Wyatt had come back to the dorm room late to find William in bed, falling asleep on his copy of The Hero's Handbook, it's bright yellow cover standing out against the darkness of the room.

William had had also been insistent that the rest of the squad study up for the test as much as possible. He mentioned it at dinner, lunch, at breakfast. When they passed each other in the hallway. Wyatt doubted that William thought of much else.

Life since William had taken over as squad captain was one where Wyatt had to pick his battles. Not only was he now outvoted but now he didn't have much of a leg to stand on. Mostly it was just easier to go with the flow.

Wyatt pushed the bar up again for another rep.

Sally's head burst into Wyatt's view, her face peering down to where he lay reclined on the bench.

"Wyatt, are you ready or whatever?"

"To do what?" Wyatt grunted. "I don't think we're going to have any time. Class is going to start in like five minutes."

"William wants to do some last minute reading before the test today."

"That's very good for William," Wyatt said, pretending not to understand. "I wouldn't want to interrupt him."

"Ha ha", Sally replied sarcastically. "He wants us all to do it together. He says last minute refreshers can really increase retention of information."