Secrets

Departure

There he was, Ben, one of my good friends. The blonde, young man walked away from the line of fellow trainers and toward the stage. Ben was dressed up. He wore a plaid T-shirt that was tucked into his dark jeans, his nice, new, dark brown cowboy boots, and to top it off, his brown cowboy hat was placed neatly on top of his head. Ben's blonde hair was neatly combed and flipped over to the right. The council had just called his name to award him for finishing his training. Seeing Ben leave all of us, kinda hit me pretty hard. I gulped and held in my sigh. It was an honor for him yet, Ben and I couldn't hang out all the time anymore.

"Benjamin Booker, you have completed your training. Congratulations! You are now a warrior, no longer an apprentice." A tall, chubby old man said. Ernie Martins was his name. I couldn't believe he was still alive. There was not a single gray hair on him, it was all white. Totally disgusting.

Ben tipped his hat respectfully and stepped to the side before walking towards the warrior's group.

Me? I'm an apprentice, sadly. I'm SO close to completing my training. I've got my fighting done, I just have to move on to my new instructor.

After the ceremony, I began to walk back to my dorm. Dirty blonde curls bounced along my shoulders as I walked toward the building.

There's two huge dorms. Both lay on opposite sides of the school. The boys is on the left, and the girl's on the right. Well, it's not really a school, it's more of a bunch of buildings that contain different things. All of this is located on this giant ranch. There's so many acers it's not even funny.

"Anna!" A deep voice called from behind me. This made me look over my shoulder and slow my walking. Ben was jogging up behind me. "Hey." He said, breathing heavily in and out once he caught up with me. I stopped and turned to face him.

"Yes?" A small smile spread across my face.

"You're just going to walk away like nothing happened?" He asked, tilting his head. My shoulders lifted up and fell back down.

"Why not? You're a warrior now."

"So? That doesn't mean we can't hang out." Ben mumbles, frowning a little. Seeing a bit of hurt in his blue eyes struck me.

"You'll be assigned things Ben." A sigh escaped me, my hazel eyes fell to the ground. I felt a warm hand on my shoulder.

"Anna, it'll be fine. I'll still be able to see you. You're one of my best friends." Hearing this warmed my heart.

"Good, because you're my best friend too Benny." I looked up at him and smiled before gently punching his shoulder. Him hearing his little nickname made him chuckle. The young man turned around and started walking away. One of his hands went up in the air and waved, even though I was behind him.

"See you tomorrow Anna!" He called before taking a left and disappearing in between the buildings. Ben's voice echoed in my head for a few seconds and then faded. Clearing my head, I began walking to my room again.

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My room was in a half. Let me explain, here in Oakberry, we have to have roommates. Therefore, the rooms were split. My roommate was Zoe. Her side of the room wasn't plain. She had Chinese fans and dolphin pictures all over her side of the wall. A small stereo and a stack of CDs laid beside it on top of her desk. We both have a photon. Hers is against the wall that the door is on and mine is by the only window we have. The dresser is on both sides and is pressed against the back wall. It's a very long dresser. Each side is ours. The left is hers, the right is mine.

My side consisted of my photon, my desk with many notebooks and picture frames on it, and a small bookshelf.

So I entered my room and Zoe jumped up off her bed at the sight of me. "Anna! Did you hear?!?" I blinked before opening my mouth to respond but she seemed to beat me to it. "For our next stage before our warrior ceremony, we get a new instructor! Mr. Martins is retiring as the horse instructor." We both jumped up and down, squealing. You see, Mr. Martins is a terrible instructor. He complains about every little thing. At least, that's what Ben told us. Not to mention we could hear him screaming at the soon to be warriors from our dorms or our sections.

Being excited to go to a new section and meet my new instructor, I climbed into bed and covered up. The excitement wouldn't let me go to sleep for awhile. Eventually, I fell asleep, imagining who it would be.