Innocent Beginnings

Chapter 10

It's been three weeks and I have been going on my usual runs and have not run into Vincent once, he never texted me back that day or any day after that, Gaia and Micah have been nice and trying to make light of it all but the truth is they were wrong, Vincent didn't like me at all, I will always be the friend or sister.

They've been trying to distract me but they themselves have been getting busy as their training has been amped up as they were due soon to take the initial tests to show their skills they have learned and how well they work as a team, the fun part is they do not know when it will be its a full surprise, it could be anytime of day or night and they have to be prepared. So I have been getting on with my routine and life but now the academy has suspended all non physical or training lessons, to aid the students that are participating which is 95% of the student body.

I have been helping Gaia by keeping the dorm clean and cooking high protein and well rounded meals for her for dinner / lunch and even made protein bounce balls as snacks between training, she seems to have become addicted to the Vanilla and peanut butter ones I made, and by association Micah has as he keeps stealing hers, so I have started to make bulk batches and sending them with Gaia and on the odd day I take them to the team, so I have seen Vincent from afar really but he ignores me so I ignore him now, childish I know but I do not care.

Gaia and the team are doing the ground section of the assault course, Gaia has been struggling slightly and her time is slow compared to where she needs to be, during the tests they will have to complete two of the eight sections in it, the one they are working on is the most fast paced and complicated.

Today I decided to go by while on my run with some of the treats I had packed up, so i'm in my black and blue wave design leggings with a pink crisscrossed exercise top and my pink new balance trainers, as my hair is getting longer now, only because im too lazy to cut it I've tied it into twin plaits. As I'm nearing the field it starts to spit with rain, looking up as the sky is slowly darkening, perfect timing, no really it is, it means a cozy night in tonight.

"Hey Megara!" As I turn I see Leah wave at me smiling, for some reason she has started to warm up to me after Vincent started to ignore me.

"Hi Leah, seen Gaia and the gang around?" I ask as I start towards her and the course.

"Yea, they just bumming it out on the course, no one can do it within the time constraints we want to hit, keeps kicking our butts" she grumbles on, obviously unhappy she can not do it.

"Don't kick yourselves, it's a hard course, it's made to make you work for it!" I try to uplift her but it seems I have just upset her more with the angry look she flashes me before she smiles sadly at me, weird what's her problem?.

Looking at the course, just looking at it you think it looks easy, but what you do not see is how deceptively difficult it really is. It starts off on this section with tire steps, which have 14 sets of tires each next to each other after this you have a set of concrete walls each hitting 5ft tall with a pole fence about 3 ft high after that you have to go under, so you go over and under 6 of these which then leads onto a muddy water pool thats 7 ½ foot deep with a sand bridge over it which goes over the centre for a 3 metres length before going back to the muddy pool.

As you leave the pool you hit a wooden ladder stand which wants you to climb up and over the other side and down, this stands at 10 metres high, not good if you hate heights. This is followed by the warped wooden plank walk that graduates up to 6 ft off the ground and down again, going up and down three times before you come off into another muddy pool, which has three 4 foot wooden platforms blocking your way across the pool. And two last bits are the wire mesh you would have to crawl through and then you have the choice section.

You have a 6 foot gap in the ground into a ditch, around it is a structure that holds a rope you have to untie and can use it to cross or if you look close enough there's a poles near the lip of the structure, they are well camouflage so that you would need to know about them or be observant to see them, you could use a pole to jump over.

After watching the guys including Vincent, Gaia, Leah, Micah and Galen attempt to do it in the time which is 5.14 minutes, but looking at Toby and his board, they are all coming in at 6.10 or higher, but watching I can see none of them have figured this part out yet and seen the tricks that are hidden in it and I'm not just talking about the pole.

"Toby, how's they doing?" I ask with a shoulder bump into him as I get

closer, which I see Vincent scowl at again, really what is his problem he ignores me and then sends evils to me giving Toby who is like my brother a hello bump. "They getting through?"

"Nutmeg , you seen them, they definitely not getting it!" he laughs as we look at the team who despite going through the course multiple times seem too clean to have figured anything out really, we both laugh, which gets all of them to scowl at us "I am quite tempted to give em a diagram to teach em"

"Oh Ha-ha you are not allowed to tell em or show em are you!" I look at him with an evil grin as I would love to see him do this part of the course again.

"No, but I'm so ready to do it and show them how to do it just to get past this bloody part!" he answered with a smile before I see it turns quite devious as he looks at me and what I'm wearing and whispered to me in my ear, which again Vincent looks angry at him for doing " I can't do it--- but you can"

"Nice one Tobs, always the joker" I laughed at him and got a few weird looks from the guys as they only heard my part.

"I'm not joking!" Tobias whispered to me looking me in the eye showing that he really is being serious.

"But-huh wouldn't that be cheating?" I ask looking at the course, to the guys giving us confused looks and back to him.

"Nope, you my nutmeg are not a trainer, they can learn from other students or visiting agents who passed the course requirement" he softly said to me getting close, so close he was touching me with his body, I hear a growl but I am too busy listening to Toby to look where it came from "do this for me and I'll get the bike out and take you out for dinner tonight, my treat as I remember you liked cake after last time I saw you do a course, which was a long time back now, maybe you can not do it anyhow, let's forget this idea"

"ha, reverse psychology,,,, will get you everywhere!" I joke at him laughing, but looking at the course, I know I can do it and have done it before but I know the gang will go bananas over it, but looking at it I find I do want to do it and not just for the free food from my friend. "Well for suns sake, I will do it"