Day One Part Two
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Once again inside the school building, Kaiya headed immediately for her locker.
The school was her turf, and the kid that she'd nearly hit was a minor threat.
She needed to either break him down or make a deal.
She ground her teeth and slammed her dented locker door shut, causing several students to jump.
But she'd do that later, right now she had to organize a soccer meeting after school to prepare for an upcoming tournament.
She pinned her notice up on the notice board that covered a whole wall opposite the trophy display case in the halls main intersection before remembering she had to talk with the football team captain.
She growled to herself and pulled out her smartphone, efficiently typing in the meetings and other notices that came to mind on her calender.
After finishing the quick task, she headed for her homeroom, only to be stopped by a large hand on her shoulder.
She froze in place, her face twisted into a look of annoyance.
"Miss Skye."
She rolled her eyes and turned around, yanking the hand off her shoulder, "Yes Headmaster?"
The man standing behind her grinned, "I'd like to see you in my office."
Kaiya paused as she waited for him to move but he didn't so she started walking towards his office.
Once inside the headmaster shut the door quietly and slid behind the desk, settling in a large leather chair while Kaiya took a seat on a cheap plastic chair.
The man leaned forward, hand steepled together, "Kaiya, how many times have I told you that your dog is not allowed in the school carpark. It is a danger to the students and passer-bys and gives our school a bad name."
Slouching back, Kaiya let out a mental sigh. For a brief second she thought she'd been in actual trouble for what she did last year in the staff room but no.
Letting out a chuckle, Kaiya answered, "What do I need to do now, Blakk? You've never complained about Jet before and their's no way you'd expel me for such a simple matter..."
Principal Blakk let out a low laugh, "Clever girl... and yes, as you know that the first term of school is always busy. Not with study or learning but with events! Sporting, political and Fine Arts! I need you t-"
"-Too prepare the school to its best and get spies in the other schools to see what they're doing..yeah, yeah. Same talk as every year."
The Principal nodded, "Exactly, now I'll have some excuse slips printed off for you. See me tomorrow after school."
Kaiya stuck out a hand, "And for this little deed, I get the year Detention free?"
Blakk furrowed his eyebrows, "That's a big ask but only as long as you don't do anything to extreme. That dean, Tobias is a smart person and I may be Headmaster but he does have a good amount of control."
Kaiya grinned and stood up swiftly, "You can count on me!" Turning she started for the door as the first bell for class rang but stopped as she remembered the encounter this morning.
"Actually, Blakk, you know spying on other schools does take a big chunck out of my time so I'm going to ask for another favour."
Blakk scowled, "You are pushing your limit young lady.."
"Oh no! It's nothing really. I just might want a particular students classes changed or shuffled around a bit, okay?"
Blakk scowl turned into a frown, "Who?"
Kaiya opened the door and walked out with a cold smile on her face, "The new kid who I nearly turned into roadkill this morning."
Before he could answer, she had shut the door and strode off to her first class: Mechanics.
The metal-work room was the same as usual as Kaiya walked in five minutes late and dumped her bag on an open table as the teacher droned on about safety procedures and what they would be covering in the year.
A few students gave her strange looks due to the fact the teacher completely ignored her coming in late but she directed the gazes other places with some well aimed glares.
The teacher then got a student to hand out the textbook and gear list.
Kaiya screwed up her list and threw it at the bin. She already had everything from last year.
As the paper hit the inside of the bin, she flipped through the textbook, seeing the same old schedule.
The only that had been changed was they had cut design work to half the time period and used the other half to join up with Advanced Programming.
That was the second subject in the year too.
Kaiya grinned, she liked programming. Not so much computer wise stuff like formatting website pages, more physically useful stuff like circuits and buttons.
Her bike still sported her first successful attempt, a touchscreen pad able to send multiple orders to the bikes computer interface.
Flipping through the rest of the bike she found nothing else of interest, except a picture of her working on her bike under the 'Engine Technology' chapter.
Only her legs were visible anyway.
Period Two was her English class. Boring.
Period Three she skipped, she had called a basketball team meeting then and had attended that. It was basically her warning them of the training sessions that were to come as they were aiming to be state champions again.
The Sabre Sharks had been the Female Basketball State Champions for four years now and Kaiya intended to carry on that legacy. The team was handpicked by her at trials that were starting in a weeks time, this Saturday at the domain. She also helped pick out other potential sports players for other teams too at trials.
Both female and male basketball, soccer, football and baseball were all holding trials at the domain on Saturday and she was to help choose.
It wasn't like she had anything better to do anyway.
The Basketball meeting carried into the start of lunch so she arrived at thecafeterialate. But that didn't stop her pushing in front and getting the last helping of sushi along with a cup of fries.
Her table was still open too so she slipped down into her seat at the head.
Each sport-team captain instantly took their seats at the same table and the rowdy noise started as each team discussed their plans for winning with the others.
Kaiya motioned the Football captain over he willingly swapped seats with the swim captain who was sitting next to her.
"Yeah?"
Kaiya stuck a piece of sushi in her mouth and waved the chopsticks at him, "Football trials have been moved to this Saturday. Put a notice up. I'll be there for them and help you choose. Your Sunday slot has been swapped with Chess."
The captain nodded and scoffed his lunch as Kaiya turned to the Chess Captain, "You hear? Your trials are on Sunday, along with swimming, track and Martial Arts." Kaiya purred out the last word as the Chess captain nodded quickly.
"Thank you Kaiya! We won't let you down!"
Kaiya flicked a rice grain at the Chess Captain, "I hope not..and you should too.."
As the Chess Captain nodded and continued her lunch, Kaiya chewed on the end of her chopstick, her food all gone.
She was about to leave when her ears caught her name.
She turned in her seat and looked towards a cafeteria table at the edge of the room.
A group of friends sat together, enjoying their lunch.
Kaiya instantly recognised Emmaline Walker, the Track Team champion. She had been approaching Kaiyas long standing records but she hadn't broken any.
There was also Lucas Jones, a decent football quarterback, and Mark Smith who was on the Chess team.
And the new kid.
The one who had his name whispered around the school grapevine because of his standoff with her bike this morning.
Apparently his name was Jacob Shane. She knew the Shanes, they lived a fair way down Slugterra Acres
Time to see what he was like.
The scrape of chair ceased all conversation as she strode over to the table.
As she approached the boy from behind, she allowed a small feeling of triumphant as his friends smiles faded and they grew silent, Mark muttering on last comment.
Noticing the change in his friends, Jacob spoke up confused and unaware.
"Why is everyone so quiet?"
Kaiya just stayed where she was until he turned around and faced her, the usual glimmer of fear she saw in many other students was absent in his.
"So," She started, leaning against a spare chair that was handily close by, "You're the new kid?"
She wanted to see what this kid was like, how he acted.
She added a pinch of underlying threat to test his grit.
"Yeah, I'm Jacob Shane." He sounded annoyed. He still had thenaivetyof a new student.
No worry. It would only get worse for him if he kept it throughout the school year.
Kaiya was sure that his friends would have told him about her, it was an informal custom to warn the new kid about potential threats.
She nodded slowly, locking him down into one of her infamous glares, "Don't see what all the talks' been about." Her New Zealand accent turned the 's' into a sharp hiss.
Jacob merely narrowed his eyes back at her and the tension in the air rose.
Neither broke eye contact.
"In case they didn't tell you, I'm Kaiya Skye." She lifted her chin proudly with a smirk on her face, eye set and searching for a challenge, anything to drop him down a level with his mistake.
He'd be a fool if he challenged her on her own turf when he was wet behind the ears. Still anamateurwith no experience of the social pecking order.
"So, Jacob. I take it you've got some friends to help you out with things so I'll leave you to their capable hands."
Without breaking eye contact, Kaiya instantly dismissed Jacob and started speaking with Emma.
"Emma, I'll expect you at the Track Team Trials this Sunday, along with you Mark. For the Chess Team."
She stood up straight and stuck her hands in her pockets of her ripped jacket, "Lucas, football trials are on Saturday, your captain is counting on you to turn up. Your one of the best quarterbacks he's got. Don't make me change my mind."
Kaiya opened her mouth to make one last comment until the school speaker system buzzed with static and a voice boomed out over the quiet cafeteria.
"Can Kaiya Skye please come to the office, immediately?"
Kaiya glanced up at the speaker and huffed, "Great..who's Jet bitten now?"
With that she strode off towards the office, snatching up some nerds' apple from his tray and taking a bite as she headed on her way.
As the doors swung shut behind her, the normal hubbub of the cafeteria slowly returned to normal, although now students were steering clear of the table were Jacob sat.
Kaiya stalked up to the office and the office lady wasted no time in letting the principal know she was there.
The lady opened up the door to the office and Kaiya walked in lazily, "What is it now, Blakk?"
"Blakk isn't who called you here." Kaiya instantly stopped and took in the dean standing ahead of her.
It was Dean Tobias, an annoying teacher who was seemingly rebelling against the Headmaster.
"What do you want?" She hissed.
Tobias frowned, "Manners, Miss Skye. And all I want is to repeat the same thing we talk about everytime you come in here. That blasted dog of yours by your bike."
Kaiya shrugged, "She's my guard dog and a member of my family."
"Yes but she's dangerous, Mr Garcia almost lost a finger walking to his car to get lunch. I understand your parents arenoticeablyabsent nearly everyday of your life and you want some companionship but Jet needs to stay at home where she can't hurt anyone. Not in a school parking lot."
Kaiya growled, "Jet is my family, I can't leave home without her and she won't leave here either. You're welcome to try and move her yourself but I'm not paying for damages."
Tobias rubbed his fingers over his forehead, sighing, "Kaiya, Jet isn't legally allowed on school grounds. We're breaking a Health and Safety Law as long as she's on school grounds. The school could get shut down or Jet could be-" He drew two fingers across his throat.
"You wouldn't dare!"
"It's not my place to say, its the Human Resource Managers job and they are all for it."
Kaiya was furious. No-one was going to touch her dog! The gears in her brain increased and an excuse popped up soon enough.
"What if I use her as a prop? Like school equipment?"
Tobias looked surprised, "W-what? That dog isn't school equipment!"
Kaiya grinned, "Yes she is! She's my model for metal work."
The words were just flowing out of her mouth and into place.
"Model for metalwork?"
"Yep! For the design standard, I'm going to fashion her some armor or something..."
Even as she said she could've hit herself.
Tobias looked doubtful, "You're going to make that thing armor?"
Kaiya nodded, "Yep! After all, it is a design standard. Creativity and ingenuity is something New Zealanders like me excel at!" She crossed her arms and puffed out her chest. She had this in the bag.
Tobias still had one card to play, "When is the design class? Because she cannot stay on school grounds while you aren't using her."
Kaiya jogged her brain to remember the date, "I think it's the first thing... I can't remember."
Tobias raised an eyebrow and tapped the standard into his computer before sighing in defeat, "It's the first standard. You can keep her here until you've finished the standard."
"Until I've finished the armor. You know design work often takes longer, especially since they halved this years one."
Tobias was getting impaitent. He was missing out on the staff lunch and was sure the Headmaster would save none of the fried prawns they had, "Fine. Until you've finished your armor."
Kaiya beamed, "Great! Now, one more thing.."
"What?" He snapped at her.
She held out her phone. The screen showed it was on record.
"Can you say that again?"
Sighing Tobias repeated the deal he made,
"I, Dean Tobias give permission for Kaiya Skye to keep her dog on school grounds until she has finished her design standard as the dog is to be used as a model for armor."
Once he was finished, Kaiya smirked and left the office as the bell rang.
Tobias slumped down at his desk, his stomach growling.
Period Four was Algebra and Trigonometery.
The new kid was in the class so Kaiya slipped along the back of the class and sat down in her corner seat, plugged in her earphones and just drew while the teacher talked about the standards they'd cover this year.
It was the same as usual.
Period Five was P.E.
Jacob was in there too along with the rest of his new friend group.
The teacher, a heavily built women with a large blonde plait was the gym teacher.
Everyone addressed her as Miss Pine. A fitting name as she had a build like a tree trunk. Solid and sturdy, from the waist down she was dressed heavy black boots, army pants and a thick brown belt that was rumoured to be used to discipline bad students. A pristine white singlet was stretched tightly around her upper body emphasizing her large shoulders, arms and bosom.
She also was a teacher Kaiya tried to avoid.
"Right! Listen up you lot! Yer' stuck with me as yer' P.E teacher for the rest of the year and I ain't one fer formally informing people so all ya got ta know is a few things about me."
She spread her stern gaze over every head challenging ever students gaze.
As her gaze went from face to face she spoke "Firstly, here I treat everyone as equals. I don't care if yer weaker or slower or fitter or faster. Yall are the same! So I'll treat ya like it! No favoured brats or outcast losers, ya hear?" Her enormous voice boomed out loud in the cavernous gym.
"Secondly! I will not tolerate bullshit! You give me lip and I will crush you!" All the words were spat out with a strong vengenace.
The meaning was crystal clear.
"Thirdly! Any questions?" The tone suggested the question was more of a dare.
She was answered with silence.
Smoothing her hair down, Mrs Pine stuck a whistle in her mouth and blew hard.
PWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEP!
"THREE LAPS AROUND THE GYM! NOW!"
The whole group of students were stunned by the force of her yell.
Just as the teacher was about to yell again, Kaiya snapped out of the shock and took off like a rabbit on her first lap. Her thumping feet on the wood were joined by others as students snapped out of the daze and joined her.
She settled into the lead at a fast jog. She knew how big this gym was and in order to get through the rest of Mrs Pines first day initiation practice Kaiya knew she needed to pace herself.
And the others too. If she kept this pace and no-one passed her each student would have a decent amount of energy to get through the challenges to come.
There always was an advantage of having to repeat a year.
The first two laps were fine as students settled into the pace.
But the third lap, thats when things started getting messy.
As Kaiya took a corner she spotted Emma edging up along side, her group of friends behind her and jogging at an even pace.
Due to her previous experiences, Kaiya knew that a phone rang in the teachers office twenty minutes into the period.
Kaiya counted down the minutes as she rounded the last corner.
She glimpsed someone gaining on her via the inside of the corner.
She increased her speed, buying time as she approached the final stretch.
Brrriinnnng, brrriinnnng!
There it was!
Harper turned away from the track to see what the noise was, her eagle eyes leaving the jogging group briefly to look into the office.
It was all Kaiya needed.
She dropped her speed slightly and the student drew even.
Kaiya didn't even look as she kicked the airborne leg inwards with a sly swipe.
The person landed awkwardly and tripped over their own leg, going down heavily and hitting their chin on the gym floor hard.
Kaiya kept her face neutral as she jogged to a stop infront of Harper, who eyed her suspiciously.
The student Kaiya had tripped was up and rubbing his chin gingerly but she ignored him. She cared not who he was.
He made an error and suffered.
She intercepted Emmas apologetic gaze with a stern, nearly invisible nod.
You made the right choice not passing me'
With the drama over, Miss Pine ordered the students to set up for her favourite game: Slugball.
The rules for Slugball are simply.
Its basically dodgeball with paintball barricades and objects.
There is an empty three-metre wide gap in the middle of the hall called 'No Mans Land' for obvious reasons.
Beyond that both sides have numerous walls and objects to hide behind.
Then, each team throws balls at one another. If you get hit anywhere by a ball on full throw, no bounce, you're out.
Catch a ball on the full, the throwers out and you get a team member back in.
Simple stuff.
To win, you either need to get all the opposition players out or invade their land to make them surrender.
Either team is allowed to invade the opposite side whenever.
If either team ends up in a stalemate, e.g. both teams hoard their ammo and there is no action, Harper throws in her own personnal touch, a 'nuke'.
All barricades are removed and five lucky students become 'zombies'.
Zombies wear a blue band and run round trying to infect others by hitting them with a ball on the full throw.
They can only be reformed by being hit by a damaged or torn ball.
Which aren't used in a game like this.
Students can't go get one from the gear shed or damage the ball themselves so the zombies are pretty much unstoppable.
Unless you threaten them with higgh powered face-shots. Theycan be quite negotiatable when threatened with wedgies and swirlies.
The outcome after a nuke is declared can vary.
Which was the exact reason why Mrs Pine adored it.
"RIGHT! TEAMS!" She boomed, " I need to leaders!"
Kaiya instantly raised her hand but the look in the teachers eyes guarenteed she wouldn't get the spot.
She dropped her hand, her lip curling in annoyance as Harper chose two other students.
The kid with the sore jaw and the Shane.
"Just fucking great." She muttered as the pick and choose began.
She sent a hateful glare at the teachers back and some of it slipped off at the kid who tried to pass her.
He wilted under her gaze, his eyes suddenly filled with fear.
He'd never choose her. He was too afraid.