Potent Potential

Potent Potential - Five - Pain or Play?

Five - Pain or Play?

_______________________

I finished the day off with my Jujutsu class, advanced. Rowan was supposed to be in this class, it was compulsory across the year levels. The fact that he never showed up meant that he had probably been trained higher than this advanced class. This gave me great concern. I could never be stupid enough to fight him in close quarters. He could probably chop my head off my shoulders with his bare hands... or something crazy like that.

But at the moment, I was finding no challenge beating into Mac, who I hadn't yet had the chance to rip into for his comment the other day. Despite his larger build, I was throwing him over my shoulder, locking him on the mat and winning our matches every time. It was all about timing and Mac, the hopeless unco, didn't have much.

Class ended earlier than I hoped. I still had some pent up energy and I didn't want to go home. I needed a break from this life. A holiday. Who was I even kidding? Holidays no longer existed. It was work til you die or you're dead. I grabbed my beat-up bag and raced ahead of the student traffic to get out of the grounds. A sleek black sports car sat just outside the entrance, as it had since Rowan arrived. I was tempted to initial my name with my keys into the paint, or at least throw a rock through the window. But that would mean that I was dwelling over his take over. And I was above that.... Probably.

I was one of the few people who walked home when I wasn't forced to catch the bus. The streets were dangerous, especially for girls. Sick predators tended to have a free run of the sidewalk no matter what hour of the day. The only way they were taken down was if they went after the wrong people. Rich girls, or girls with influential boyfriends, who could use strong power to get rid of the scum. And then there were girls like me, who beat the bastards off the streets with our bare hands. I was actually kind of hoping some fool tried something with me today, I was already planning to go the long way home but if I was delayed further, there was no way in hell I would complain.

I scuffed the broken pavement causing several pieces of gravel to go flying down the street. I watched them skitter into a trash can, making soft dinging noises. I heaved a sigh. Things had been going downhill lately. I was sure that it was just a stepping stone I had to leap over in my life but I'd been enjoying the free ride I'd been having. Up until the day that Rowan Pierce decided to return to school. I still didn't see the point in him returning. Laker wasn't the type to sort out the loyal teenagers and the not so loyal. He kept a lookout on the pre-teens, looking for potential, and a hawk-like gaze on the graduated young adults, making sure they went where he wanted them to go. But he had always seemed to let the teenagers go wild for a few years. So why was he sending the captain-in-waiting to get the lowdown? What was really going on here?

I was so caught up in my thoughts that it took me a moment to register the absolute silence that filled the street. Something was definitely not right. There were usually markets going on two streets away and I would be able to hear the sounds of the vendors and their advertising. Not only that but I couldn't hear any music blaring from the apartments around me, not even a raised voice.

Trouble's brewing, said my inner voice.

I heard the soft pad of the steps of someone who didn't want to be heard. I immediately released one of the needles from my bracelet and my other hand hovered over the small of my back, ready to reach under my jacket and pull out my Slim, the latest small pistol on the market granted to me by Kale. I kept walking, trying to keep at the same pace so that the person still thought they'd be catching me by surprise.

I heard a shuffle of footsteps and a muffled curse behind me and gave up skulking. I was about to be ambushed and there was nothing I could do about it but prepare and wait. This wasn't a wandering group of perverts. They never worked together, were never known to share their catches, so I was extremely wary. Unknown attacker, unknown skill and unknown innocence. I couldn't just shoot everyone that jumped out at me, they could be Scavengers, abandoned children who roamed the streets without being partial to a particular gang. They begged, thieved or did the dirty work for some of the lower ranked, lazy scum. I could never bring myself to shoot one of them. If it weren't for Laker, I could've been one of them.