In the morning, I notice that I'm no longer in a secluded room, but in a barracks full of other girls my age.
They are all getting dressed and I notice that all of them have more muscles than I do, I'm skin and bone now. I feel self-conscious once I realize I'm the fresh sack of flesh that has yet to even start getting ready.
All of the girls look different, but they have the same disturbing, not-a-morning-person stare and for some it's more or less evident. I receive it full blast from the girls around me when I'm still on the top bunk and staring around.
"You the new girl?" the one who sleeps in the bunk below me asks, I nod and she points to the ladder at the foot of the bed, "There are two trunks at the bottom, mine is on the right and yours is on the left. Try not to step on mine."
I give her another nod and climb down, trying to place both my feet on the left trunk before stepping down onto a cold, concrete floor. Have they ever heard of carpets?
A hand grips my upper arm and pulls me along, "They have to test us," it's the same girl, "and I am your opponent."
My lips have been stuck together all morning since I woke up, they break apart as I say, "What? What are you talking about?"
She turns to me and explains, "To determine our rank and class. There is a physical exam and a mental exam, I'm here to provide a competitive spark to bring out your true potential in whatever you do."
We walk out of the barracks to the actual outside, I take in a deep breath and feel the fresh air enter my lungs and I can feel the early morning rays being absorbed into my yellowed skin. It's a small facility around us of about six buildings and a variety of terrains like a forest, swamp, valley, and etc., and my fellow competitor continues to explain the system.
"There are two barracks, one for boys, one for girls," she points to the similar blue looking building directly across from the girls' barracks, "the infirmary," a three story building with a red plus sign on it between the barracks, "the virtual terrain building, the school," all the way across the courtyard and to the right, "then the mall-slash-library," next to the school, "and finally, The Arcade," there is a narrow street leading coming from the courtyard about a mile long and a glossy black building at the end of it.
I can't tell the difference between her emphasis on 'The Arcade' and the other buildings, but I get the feeling that is the place of no return.
"We'll be heading to the school to take the mental exam later, but we'll need to get you some new clothes instead of a night gown," she says, gesturing at my gray gown, "and don't worry about money, we use grade points and battle scores here. I'll pay for your first week's worth of clothes and a little more, but after the marking period, you pay for everything yourself."
My shoulders relax as I extend my hand out, "Thank you, um…"
"Helen's the name. I already know yours, but your welcome," she shakes it firmly and guides me into the mall while still holding onto it. I look at the price tags to see two different costs, GP and BP and BP is the lower of the two costs. Helen looks at me and says, "Your pants size, three?" I've lost a lot of weight and I was stuck between size five and seven, I give her an approving nod, "Shoe size is eight and a half since you're wearing mine at the moment, small or medium shirts…thirty-four a…" she mutters, entering all of this information onto what looks like a key pad, "Is there anything you wanted besides clothes?"
"Are accessories included in clothes? Or a hair salon?"
She presses a button and says, "Now it is. Is that all?"
"Yeah."
There is a great rumbling sound from below, and it travels to just beneath our feet. I feel it in the pit of my stomach in great waves even after it stops and the tiles beneath us drop in a heart stopping motion as we both land in something I learn to find out to be memory foam.
Helen leads me over to the hair salon and a man with a pair of teal skinny jeans and scissors decides himself to be my hairdresser, "Hello hon, my name is Alex and I will be you hairdresser for today. Is there anything specific style you want? I can just imagine you with a punk look, or straightedge," he rambles while combing out my wild waves, and I just tell him to do anything he thinks perfect for me.
This is how I get extremely dark red hair and many layers. My hair was close enough to black, but this is ridiculously dark. He shines a light on it and the dark red highlights pop out from underneath, I kind of like it, but I kind of don't.
I should have taken control once the dye showed up. Any waves that were there before were annihilated by the straight perm and I liked them too.
I give a quick thanks and drag Helen out of the salon (though not before I buy a bit of chap stick and eyeliner), Alex knows I'm not completely happy with the haircut and huffs.
"It looks good on you, and he even did a bit of make up. Why don't you like it?" Helen asks, putting together multiple outfits and having me try them on, I just shrug as I show her the one I just put on. The one I'm currently in is a tunic and leggings ensemble, I don't like it even if it looks good on me, there aren't any pockets, "Nice, but not very useful unless you have a belt and a bunch of pouches. Then it's too chunky."
"Cargo pants?" I suggest, Helen's gray eyes widen and she gathers the tunics and leggings before leaving. I wait in the fitting room in my underwear, freezing in the air conditioned store until a variety of clothes are thrown over. Cargo capris, cargo pants, graphic T's and tank tops. She then gives me a box full of wide and thin bracelets, watches, and- studs? I finger my earlobes and notice that I'll still be able to put a pair in as long as they weren't nickel. I ask about the metal and she sighs.
"Just trust me on these, they're actual silver and gold," she says, and I do by trying on each one that looks good. Which only five sets of twenty pass. I only choose three to buy and one of them is a tunic and leggings with a belt with only a few pouches. Helen rings them up to the counter and she pays in GP, where more than half is taken from her account.
"Is there any way I can pay you back, Helen?" I ask, changing into the tunic ensemble. I hate being indebted to someone else, but it can't be helped in this situation. My fingers fumble with the complex laces of the hiking boots until Helen does them for me. I slide on a few hair ties and thin bracelets while she does so. I also take notice of her style, sharp and sophisticated. Her loose black skirt and pumps somehow work together in fashion harmony. I just bet underneath her button-up dress shirt are hidden knives, because I can see the way it's stretched over her side.
She finishes and says while picking up her small shoulder bag, "Just try not to suck too bad at the exams."
Why would she say that? We walk out of the mall and to the school, seeing other teenagers dressed in a similar fashion as Helen and myself so any bags were either light or not there at all.
The lady in the office smiles at us before giving a glance at her watch, "You're actually early, excited about having a class and rank at long last?"
Helen scowls and looks away. I sit down in one of the chairs until the secretary addresses me, "You have been registered into the system as Naida Fenn, is this alright?"
My opponent answers for me in an angry tone, "It's fine. Let's just get to it already."
"Not yet, you still have half an hour. Why not introduce her to some of your classmates until then? It's lunch and the food is free until your first marking period."
"Come on, let's go meet people then. I'm hungry anyways."
I've never been a new kid to a school, I've always been in the same town, and when I step into the cafeteria I feel overwhelmed by how much it looks like an actual school. Not a facility, but a regular public school.
"Today's Sunday, so there aren't any classes but we all come for meals since this is the only cafeteria in the facility, except The Arcade. They have us set on a strict diet according to our class, not rank, and if you don't have a class, you can choose anything you want with only a limit on how much you get."
I look at the variety of food and my stomach rumbles loudly. My tray has a grilled cheese with ham, tomato soup, a carton of milk, and a bowl of blueberries. Good enough.
"O-M-G! So kawaii desu~! Isn't that the new girl? Come over here!" Helen and I turn our heads to the voices yelling at her in the corner and I see my worst nightmare come to life. Cat ears, greasy hair, an apparent BO wafting from even four tables over, and loud, explicit language. A table of typical weebs.
I glance over to Helen, who looks just as horrified, and we make a break for another table before they drag us over. We manage to snag seats far away with Helen's actual friends, Alice, Megan, Charles, and Elaine.
"Well, Naida, isn't it?" Megan asks, I give her a nod of approval as I chow down on my grilled cheese and soup, "You certainly look starved and sun deprived, but don't worry, in a couple days you'll be tan and lean after your test."
Megan's pretty nice and explains everything like Helen does, I like her, and then I think back to the weebs all the way across the cafeteria. Hopefully I don't get caught up with them ever again- "You got lucky too, really lucky, to have your test almost straight out of the Gauntlet. We usually have to wait awhile, like a month or two, because of the income of students and the test has to be done in pairs. For the competition you know?"
I start finishing my meal with the blueberries, and Megan keeps up the explanation, "Alice and I were paired and so were Charles and Elaine, Helen has been waiting the longest time for someone to come out of the Gauntlet and you don't seem too bad. You even let her dress you up a bit, didn't you?"
"Yeah," I reply, pausing my berry consumption to do so. Helen's freckled hand reaches over and plucks a berry from my bowl, I shrug it off, she got the bowl of blueberries too.
Helen smiles and eats it, her mood swings are scaring me a bit. First she's all professional and shit, then she's dangerously impatient, and now she's happy that I'm letting her eat my blueberries. I guess she has her reasons though…we take turns taking a blueberry from my bowl and suddenly I smell it.
"Alright girls, and guy," Elaine speaks up, seeing the apparent horde coming over, "get ready."
Helen and I finish the blueberries just as I feel someone running their fingers through my hair.
I push them away and grab Helen's hand to head to the office, "We're taking the test now."
"Great!"
I barge into the office and notice the two desks with a booklet and pencils waiting for us. The secretary gives us another smile and makes us sit.
"There are five portions to this test, language, science, mathematics, fine arts, and class determination. There will be no cheating, if you need something, raise your hand high, and I will get it for you. You have three hours and it is noon. Begin."
My heart races with excitement as the pencil nearly touches paper, but I look at the instructions.
Read the instructions carefully. Only answer the even numbered questions, except in class determination. Answer all of those and when you finish give the test to the secretary. Don't flip it over like you would normally. You will automatically receive a low rank for not following or reading instructions.
I continue the test with ease, they're questions that make you think fast and hard, but very cautious. I'm actually very book smart, but some of the mathematics are crazy hard and I just wing it by picking B or C. One of them is right most of the time.
By the time I get to the fine arts section, I see Helen handing her test to the secretary and it's only been two hours. I expected she would be smart anyways. Though I nearly choke on my own spit when I see the class determination questions.
Write at least three paragraphs for each class you would be and why. (Warrior, Archer, Thief, Mage, etc.)
Healer. I would most definitely like to be a healer so I have next to no chance to actually hurting allies. I think of my second choice, I've had experience with archery and my aim isn't too shabby, but it's been a few years. In a lot of games they are classified with rogues, and they are very proficient for when you need keys and I've used bobby pins to lock pick a door. Like four times. Third, I guess a mage because I like magic.
It's a lot more extended than what I think, simply because it needs to be more complex than it is in my head.
The rest of the questions are like a litmus test, if anything bad happened in my childhood, how I was raised, my views on particular subjects, and the like.
I hand the test to the secretary, who just smiles again, and runs the test through a scanner.
"Both of you are in the 93rd percentile, which is very good, and you will receive notification of your class within the next ten minutes. The physical exam will take place in an hour after your results."
Damn, this woman's cheeks must hurt from all of her smiling.
Click. Click. Tch! Beep. Click…
I'm so bored! After three months of confinement, one would think I would hate- "Helen, your rank is twenty-three and Naida, yours is twenty-one." -being burned by Helen's glare. Ouch. "As for your classes, Helen, you are in the Beast Tamer class," the secretary hands Helen a pamphlet, "and Naida, I would like to speak to you in private. If you would Helen," and gestures for her leave.
Helen and I exchange looks and she leaves, "Is something wrong?" I ask, did I fill it out wrong?
"No, I don't want to mention anything you wrote on your exam with your rival in the room. You are in the Hunter class," she hands me a pamphlet with two arrows making an X and a dagger down the center, "and you mentioned a worry about your allies, so I suggest buying a pair of goggles called Sure Shots when you can. You can borrow a pair for the physical exam, but they must be returned at the end."
That sounds useful, but what a terrible name…I flip open the pamphlet and begin reading about poisons, locks, and stealth tips. Sure shots are mentioned when I get to aiming and I notice that they were more like a mix between goggles and sunglasses. Sunglaggles. I'm stupid like that. I know.
Just as I'm ready to walk out the door, I remember something and turn to the secretary, "Um, where am I supposed to go for the physical exam?"
"The Virtual Terrain building next door, they'll recognize you."
"Okay, thanks."
I check my watch and find I still have about forty-five minutes to go until the physical exam starts. The pamphlet has a small map for the location of it's classroom and I start walking there for any other tips on my exam. Will I actually have to fight? Is it a fight for survival? Maybe it's like gym class to find out my endurance and speed…
Maybe I shouldn't worry about it too much.
I look down at the pamphlet and then at the door labeled 68E. The pamphlet says 68E. I take in a deep breath, turn the handle, and pull. It doesn't budge and I try again. Nothing.
"Uh…you know you're supposed to push, right?" a boy's voice from behind me points out, I push and it flies open. My cheeks flush in embarrassment as I walk into the very long room and steal glances at the boy behind me.
He's undeniably hot. I haven't seen so many attractive people for such a long time, but he just…wow. I'd tap that. Twice.
He picks up his stride to walk beside me and says, "Judging by your skin, I'm guessing you're the new student?"
"Yeah," I reply, "Does everyone come out with pasty skin?"
"Mostly, except for the naturally dark-skinned people."
"Oh, okay."
We approach the bows and arrows silently, and for almost everything I do, I ask the boy if it's okay before doing it. It makes me feel like I'm annoying him, so we don't talk other than my questions, and he sometimes gives tips while I practice my archery with the practice equipment.
"Lift your arms more. The arrow should fly better and faster."
It did.
"Thanks."
"Lean your head closer to the bow while you aim."
"Okay."
The wooden arrow pierces the outer edge of the bulls eye.
"You're out of practice. What's your name?"
"I know, and my name's Naida. You?"
"Clay."
I get a sudden chill through my entire body, freezing it in place, and then a glass shattering screech from the other side of the room.
"Who 'dis ho you with, Clay? Y'know I can't stand it when you hang with these Hunter bitches!"
Oh hell no.
If you find any grammatical errors, like finding some sudden past tense nonsense in a present tense sentence, tell me. Review, critique, or something.
Also, I am aware of the crudeness of this chapter and the stereotypical personalities. But the weeb incident and the last scene have happened, just not to me. I've just seen them happen.