Life Finds a Way

Chapter 34

Over the next several weeks Clarissa found training to be as hard as she expected, but not impossible. Once they settled on how to handle her, things fell into a pattern. She was up early and buried herself in anything they threw at her. If she didn't get it at first, she worked until she did. She found that she was not that good at the style of swordsmanship that Genesis and Angeal used, so they had her train with a smaller sword instead, with which she proved that speed was her best ally. She was faster than she thought possible. It was true that none of it would have been likely had she not been enhanced, but by the end of her second week Sergeant Mays started using her as an example almost exclusively when he needed a partner for a demonstration. It wasn't that she was great, at all, but she was fast enough that he didn't have to hold back in order to finish the demonstration, plus she healed quickly. That was a fact she appreciated greatly, but not so much when it got her beat up in class. She had enough of that from Genesis.

The rest of her class had two half days off for free time each week. They didn't get to leave, but they weren't being pummeled either. She was not afforded the same luxury. Genesis' only concession to her need for rest was the fact that he allowed her to have one of those two days to either work on refining her materia usage, or drill through every strategy or materia book he could put it front of her. She didn't complain about the lack of down time though. For her, as long as she was busy it meant that she didn't have time to dwell on other things. Nighttime was the only time her past refused to be pushed aside. There were many times she still woke up crying, but after that first night it didn't prevent her from getting back to sleep. She was usually worn out enough that it was never a problem.

She knew Cissnei was aware of her nightly tears, but the girl never said anything about it, at least not to her. She was sure that information made it to Veld though. Even with that being the case, during those weeks, Cissnei became the source of much of her laughter, along with Zack, and surprisingly, Reno. After Cissnei's first small prank, Zack had convinced Clarissa to try to prank her back. He even offered to help, and that was the start of a minor prank war. It was clear that Cissnei was much better at it, but that didn't stop Clarissa from trying. The whole thing became a free for all when Zack brought cookies one day. He gave them to her to share with Cissnei. What he hadn't told her was that Reno had helped make them. The beautiful cookies she had thought were matcha, were made with spinach juice instead. That was the point that Reno was pulled in as well.

The annoying redhead was one of the Turks that was often around. He always tried to make his appearance seem convenient, but she knew he was one of the ones that were supposed to be watching her. She appreciated that at least Cissnei and Reno tried to treat her as a person. She had zero doubt that they would turn on her if the job called for it, but they were good at making sure she didn't think about it most of the time. Her only complaint was that Reno had a bad habit of flirting obnoxiously. Even after Genesis caught him doing it. That had been amusing, as Reno had barely been able to dodge the fireballs. It was only his excellent parkour skills that got him away in one piece. Genesis still gave him a warning that she had no time for that kind of nonsense. Unfortunately, that didn't stop him when Genesis wasn't around, and Clarissa wasn't as intimidating as Genesis.

Her interactions with the rest of her class grew as well. There were still several that made no secret of how they thought she didn't belong, but they weren't outright aggressive. She ignored them for the most part. Rodney still fell into that category, but he no longer hassled her. Instead he always pushed her as far as he could get away with during training. She had to admit that he was a pretty good cadet when he wasn't being an ass. She felt that he would definitely be one of the ones to make it. There had been several that had been removed after the third week, so the class was about two thirds the size it was when she first joined.