Only the Strong Survive

Chapter Ten

Nina Pov

When the weekend finally came, I was ready for a nap. A really long one. Centuries long nap. But I'll have that when I'm dead.
Jack and I sat outside, me occasionally nodding off. The end of August was a week away, and it was noticeably getting colder. Wearing my one long sleeved shirt, a gray one with an xmen logo printed over the heart. Life was normal. Nothing happened out of the ordinary. I wouldn't have minded if it stayed like this forever. I've had enough excitement in three years than the average police officer of FBI agent.

My classes joked around, but were quiet while I talked. They were serious, yet relaxed the entire time. Jack occasionally joined in with the later classes if he still had part of his soul that day. Dad would rip them out and all of his students were physically and mentally drained by the time class was over. That is why Jack slept and ate more than normal. On an exceptionally bad day, he would eat, and I kid you not, half the contents in one of the refrigerators. Eventually I just started picking him up fast food after my classes. Save the school some money.

A few days before, I taught the students how to properly punch, how to properly kick, and how to properly do other things. At the end of the lesson, the next day, instead of a quiz on what they learned, I had them mock fight each other, and no one was seriously injured, just a few scraped an bruises.
But they were still all pretty bad. So the next day I tried something different.
"If I point this gun at you, what would you do?" Was the main question of the day. Most of them couldn't disarm me, but half of the at least tried. The other half cowered in fear, because the gun was clearly loaded. It was, but I had the safety on, no chance of anyone getting shot.
Of course I got a talk from the Professor. A whole lecture about how what if it went off, and how I'd be responsible. And then how it isn't good to even point a gun at someone in the first place. I blew it off. These kids need to learn what danger means.

And that is how we made it to the weekend. And the next class I've already made plans to fire the gun.

After waking up once again on Jack's shoulder he said, "If you keep sleeping like this, your going to waste the weekend." I stood up on the wooden bench we sat on. I had thought I saw something. "What?" Jack asked standing on the ground in front of me, trying to see what I was looking at. Our bench was near the building, looking out over a hill. If you look hard enough you could see the road through the tree. I saw it again. A silver flash. I jumped off the bench. I took a breath. It smelled.... Normal. But it had a hint of fruitiness. Blue raspberry. Oh my gosh. No way. It couldn't be. I took a few steps, Jack following. "What? What do you see?" I took a few more steps, sniffed the air and scanned the roads. Jack was right behind me. Nothing could have prepared me to what I saw. "Oh my gosh. It can't be!" Jack was ready to explode. "What! Just tell me!!!" He said. Clearly I knew something he didn't.

A silver Taurus pulled into the round about. When the door opened, the sent of blue raspberry flooded my nose, followed by a shock of turquoise blue hair. I saw a face, one I had know quite well in my childhood. I took off running, and Jack followed. I tackled the man in a hug. "Landon!" I said burying my face into his chest. At first he was hesitant, but then her realized who I was, and he returned the hug. When I stepped back I got a good look at his face. His brown eyes stood out against his hair, eclectic blue, and spiked up around his head. He wore dark clothes that really made his hair stand out, and I noticed he had a diamond in one ear, and a black nose ring.
"Ni? How've you been? It's been a while." I poked his shoulder. "It's been way longer than a while." He gave me another hug and attempted to spin me around, like he did when we were little, but he miserably failed. "Dang girl, when did you get so heavy?" He asked as I took a step back. "The same time I got these." I said unsheathing both handfuls of claws. "Ooo, shiny." He said crossing his arms. "So why are you back?" I asked. He shrugged and was about to answer. Then Jack coughed. More like hacked his lungs up. He has not yet mastered the interrupting cough. "Sorry, I kinda choked there..." Yeah right, but I pulled Jack forward. "Lan, this is Jack, my fiancé." I said proudly. They shook hands, and nodded at each other. Then leading them up to the mansion up the path, I almost tripped in my excitement. Jack caught me, and threw me over his shoulder, carrying me to the door. "Put me down! I can still walk!" I said. Now he was just showing off. He set me down on the front step, and I opened the wooden doors. In the kitchen, dad was still there, reading the paper. When he looked up and saw Landon, he almost smiled halfway. He stood and clapped him on the shoulder. "Hey kid, glad you finally showed up." He frowned. "Is the nose ring necessary?" Landon looked like he just remembered it was still there, and took it out, blocking his nose from our view. When he pocketed the ring, and looked back at us, he started looking more and more like the guy I knew. Dad sat back down, "Why'd you come back?" He asked picking up his paper once again. "Come on man, a war is about to go down, and your not gonna show? Even I'm going." Oh, so that's why he came. Fulfilling his promise because he might not be coming back? Dad just frowned and turned the page. "I'm not going. I have to many classes to teach. But Nina is." He glanced back down at the paper, and Landon looked at me, shocked. "Now why, why, in the world would you go to war? They would butcher you out there." Dad chuckled, and we turned to face him. "Kid, a lot has changed while you were gone. She's not as delicate as you think. She's lived through some of the things that would melt your eyes out." He said, never looking up from the paper. "Now get out and sort this out somewhere else, I'm trying to read."
"Yes sir, would you like food?" I asked half mockingly. "Coffee. Lighter." I quickly got the coffee and snatched the cigar from between his teeth, broke it in half for good measure, and tossed the pieces into the bush outside the window. He scowled at me. Soon that poor bush will start growing cigars.