The Eyes of the Dark

Seven.

This morning feels different. Breakfast feels weird because Ava literally attacked me yesterday. Everyone keeps coming up to me and asking how I am. I shouldn't complain, everyone is making Ava the bad guy. Which she deserves, but I still hate the attention, and I wish people would move on. Kim won't stop asking if I'm okay every five seconds. She even got my food for me this morning. My wrist still throbs but my head has stopped pounding, so I am not sitting out today. I need to be stronger. This thing with Ava is a setback. A distraction. I need to get my head in the game and focus on helping the Resistance and getting out of here. They are the ones who can find my brothers.

When we get to the training room, I see Max and we smile at each other. He motions for me to come talk to him. I walk over to him, making sure I'm not drawing attention. He takes my hand and examines my wrist.

"You don't have to practice today, Octavia," he says. I shake my head.

"I want to." He gives me a light smile.

"You sure?"

"Yes." He nods and I go back to Kim with the others. When I look at Cedric across the room, he is giving me a hard gaze. He seems mad. I wish he would forget what I am, so I can feel normal when I am around him. I quickly look away and look at Kim.

"I heard we are doing something different today. They brought in Blue's." I look over to where Kim is pointing. She is right. A cluster of Blue's stand off to the side chatting amongst themselves. I search their faces for a familiar one of Lori's. No sign of her. I try not to look to disappointed. Suddenly Cedric claps his hands together to get our attention.

"Good morning, today we have some guests from the City of Water." We all turn our heads towards them. "Today we will be partnering you with one of them and together you will duel together. Today is not about winning. It's about learning how to defeat an opponent who has different abilities. We aren't going to tell you how to defeat them, so you will have to figure it out for yourselves." I think every Red in the room groans. Cedric is basically setting us up for failure. We don't know how to defeat water. Water defeats fire. Kim and I exchange worried looks. Max calls out the names and we find our partners.

I located the pretty brunette walking towards me. She smiles and holds out her hand.

"I'm Sydney," she says. Her smile is big, and I notice the several piercings in each ear.

"Octavia," I say shaking her hand.

"I like the hair," she says admiring my stark white hair.

"Thanks," I say. We both move to a matt near the wall away from the other pairs.

"What happened to you hand?" I look down at my bandage.

"Someone burned it," I say shrugging it off.

"I have to admit, this won't be easy," she tells me. A flicker of worry creases in my brow. I shake it off and nod at her. I notice a few other Reds getting ready to try and beat the Blue in front of them. I think about how I could beat her with my own Blue powers. Too bad I can't. We take our spots on opposite sides of the matt. I start by throwing 3 fire balls at her. Her water shield shoots up fast and her shield absorbs my fire. I narrow my eyes at her shield. She is right.

"I told you," she smiles. I huff in annoyance and rack my brain for another trick I can try. Before I can figure it out, she lunges at me. I quickly dodge and throw another ball at her. Her shield soaks it up again.

"Try something other than balls," Sydney says. "Stop thinking so hard." She's right, it's probably simple I'm just overthinking it. She quickly lunges at me again with her arms outstretched. I move out of the way as she summons her shield. I create my shield and they crash together. Before I know it, my shield has been absorbed by hers and I am on the floor. Did I really think that would work?