One Bright Spot

Chapter 1

               Two Months Earlier:                                       July

"You've got everything you need?" my mom asks as she's fussing over my suitcase and I.

"Yes, Mom", I say in a reassuring tone.

"I don't know, Christal. A whole month of you being gone?" I can see tears starting to gather in her eyes.

"Mom, I'll be fine. I can call you every night. The month will fly right by before you have time to turn around twice", I pull her into a hug.

"You're right, I suppose. It's just that I've never been separated from you for this long." She begins blubbering. People walking by are staring.

"Okay, Mom. I have to go now. I love you. I'll call you tonight." I hug her again and grab the handles of my rolling suitcases. I start rolling them towards the doors of the black building that will serve as my home for the next month.

I walk through the rotating door and up to the desk. "Name?" a very professionally dressed woman asks.

"Hi. Christal Shafer."

"Papers?" I hand her my forms. After a moment she hands them back, along with a key card, "Floor five, room 201." Then she goes back to her computer.

"Thanks", though I may as well be talking to a wall.

I pull my suitcases over to the elevator and hit the call button. A moment later, the doors open. A guy dressed in all black clothing is inside, glued to his phone. He barely even looks up as I get in. I push the button for the fifth floor. The doors close. The elevator continues on to its intended destination. The guy in black had been going down to the 'T' level.

"What does the 'T' stand for?" I ask, breaking the silence.

He cuts his eyes up at me through his glasses, then looks back down at his phone, "Training."

"Oh." We ride in more silence. "I'm Christal, by the way." He doesn't reply.

We finally arrive at level 'T'. The guy wastes no time in getting out. "Have fun!" I call after him. He turns and stares at me until the doors close. "Gee, I hope all the people here aren't this friendly", I say sarcastically to myself.

When I reach the fifth floor, I go immediately to my room. I put the key card into the lock. It beeps and unlocks. The room is much like an apartment; two bedrooms, a living room, one bathroom, and a kitchen. One of the bedrooms appears to be occupied.

"Hello?" I call out.

"Just a moment!" a voice calls from behind the closed door. A bright blue-haired girl pokes her head out, "Hi Darling! I'm Carmila. I'm so happy to meet you!" Carmila is wearing a fuzzy blue bathrobe. She gives me a tight squeeze and a kiss on both cheeks.

"Hi", I say a little stunned, "I'm Christal. Its nice to meet you, too."

"You can have that bedroom there." She points to the unoccupied room, "Go ahead and get settled. I'll fix us some hot chocolate and then we can get to know each other."

"Okay."

I wheel my suitcases into the room and flip on the light switch. I am greeted with pastel blue walls. The room contains a window seat, a closet, a dresser, a queen sized bed, and a nightstand with a lamp on it. The bed's comforter is patterned with plaid in a mixture of all kinds of blues.

I set my suitcases on my bed. I unzip the first one and begin unpacking shirts to train in: t-shirts, tank tops, etcetra. I had packed enough for two weeks, planning to do laundry the second week for sure. I went over to the dresser drawers and opened the top one. To my surprise, there are already shirts in there. They are made of black, stretchy material.

"Oh, okay then." I put my shirts back into my suitcase. I go back to the drawers and open them all up. One contained pants made of the same material as the shirts. The other two are empty, so I return to my suitcase, and pull out my shirts again. I place them into the drawer and then retrieve the shorts and yoga pants and put them beside of my shirts. The other drawer I put pajamas, socks, underwear; that sort of thing.

I go to my other suitcase and unzip it. I pull out some of the nicer clothing that I had brought for our down time. I had jeans, jean shorts, and a few skirts. I also had some dressier shirts. I hang them on the hangers that are in the closet. There is also a shoe organizer in it. I place one of my two pairs of tennis shoes in one slot, my dressier sandals in another, and my pair of flip flops in the third. I leave the sliding closet door open.

I place my shower and toiletries bag oon top of the dresser. I set my towels and washcloths on my bed; to be put in the bathroom later. I pull out a couple of small picture frames out of one of the inside pockets. One is of my mom and dad, before he died. The other is of my best friend, Jamie, my dog, Clover, and I. I set them on my nightstand. Finally, I pull out my Spider-Man notebook, Bible, Devotion book, and two pens. I place them in the little drawer of the nightstand.

I stow my suitcases on the floor of the closet and go out to where Carmila is pouring hot chocolate into two mugs.

"All settled in?" her cheery voice asks. She hands me one of the mugs. Written on it is, "If you must ask a question, don't ask me", only, in place of the "must ask" is a picture of a mustache.

"I think so. This is a pretty nice place." I take a sip. It scalds my mouth, but it tastes good. The package must have already had marshmallows mixed in, because I do not see any on top.

"Please, sit and tell me about yourself", Carmila pats the seat beside of her on the sofa.

"What would you like to know?" I ask, sitting beside her.

"Is this your first year here?"

I nod my head, "Yeah, I'm super excited. Is this your first year here?"

She shakes her blue head,"I've been here for two years now. So I'm a veteran."

"What's the training like?"

"Hard. Intense. But definitely satisfying."

"So many people come here?"

"Oh, we get lots of new people every year, so you won't be the only newbie. For the first week after you get here, everyone is treated as a newbie, so that everyone is on the same page. After that, they break you into groups based on your skill level", Carmila pauses to take another sip.

"You train like crazy every day", she continues,"Because there is so much for a person to learn about combat and self defense. Even our ten year veterans are learning new things."

"Wow. They must be really good."

Carmila's head bobs,"The best. Especially Giancarlo. Gian for short. He is so fast and uses so much power, yet he does it so effortlessly, and makes it look so easy. If you want, we could go down to Training and watch some of them practice."

"Sure, that would be great!" I say excitedly.

"Let me throw on some clothes and we'll be off!" Carmila stands up and goes to her room, closing the door behind her.

I sink back into the couch and nurse my cup as I wait.