Chapter Four
"Training 101"
Bella's POV
Esme sweetly woke us all up in the morning and it was still dark outside. We must of only got two or three hours of sleep. I dragged myself out of bed to see Alice and Rosalie dressed and applying makeup. What on earth did they need makeup for and what were they wearing? Alice had on a short purple dress and Rosalie was wearing a pin stripped black skirt and white blouse. I just grabbed some athletic shorts and a old t-shirt and headed for the shower. I wasn't sure what training would consist of, but I hoped it didn't take much coordination. I am sure it did and I would be the laughing stock of the group. I was pleasantly surprised to find my strawberry shampoo and all my favorite bath products. They must of got everything that we used from our homes to make us more comfortable. I knew Angela would be calling my parents when she found me gone and my stuff missing. My father would put out a search party for me and he would find me. He was really good at his job. I didn't want to expose the secret society, but I wanted to see my parents again. So I would wait for them to find me. I got out of the shower and got dressed, back in the room a blue jean skirt and pink shirt waited on my bed. A pair of pink heels next to them. I looked at Alice who nodded to them, I shook my head and walked into the lounge room. Emmett and Jacob were half asleep on the huge sectional. Jasper and Edward sat at the table with a coffee mug in front of them.
"Would you ladies like some coffee?" Jasper asked. He was such a gentlemen.
"Yes please." Rosalie sighed obviously tired.
"Me too please." Alice said all bubbly. How could someone be so awake in the morning?
"Ok three coffee's coming up." Jasper said looking at me.
"Oh no thank you." I said quickly.
"Are you sure you will need your energy today?" He raised his eyebrows at me.
"Trust me it will do more bad then good." I said taking a seat at the table. "If there is some OJ in there I will take a glass though."
"Coming right up." He smiled. I noticed Edward was staring at me.
"What?" My mouth blurted out without my permission.
"Not a morning person, huh." He chuckled. "I was just wondering why would coffee be bad?" He tilted his head like a curious pup.
"Me and caffeine don't mix well." I said rolling my eyes at myself. What eighteen year old doesn't drink caffeine? I was such a loser.
"Why not?" Dang mister twenty questions.
"I kind of get drunk off of it and end up with a headache after it wears off." For some reason my mouth had the urge to answer him honestly. Which was something I wasn't fond of.
Esme brought in a big breakfast for all of us. Eggs, bacon, French toast, and the best muffins ever. Emmett and Jacob ate enough for ten people alone. Though Esme must of anticipated that and had made plenty, it was delicious. As we finished up Carlisle came in and greeted us. He had a smile on his face and was dressed less formally then last night.
"I hope you are all doing well today and I know you are very tired so we will make it a short day." He paused a moment looking us over, he stopped at Rose and Alice. "You girls might want to bring some tennis shoes." He suggested. Alice smiled at him sweetly.
"Carlisle have you ever been shopping in New York during fashion week?" She didn't pause for him to answer. "I am sure if I can do that in six inch heels then I can accomplish whatever you have planned in four inch heels." He chuckled at her and nodded, then looked at Rosalie.
"I go shopping on black Friday every year I think I can handle it also." She had a slightly amused smile on her face, everyone was smiling at the two girls.
"Alright then follow me, please." We all filed out of the room with Carlisle and Jasper in the lead. We exited into a large court yard, it had rock work around it forming a perfect square, like a little practice field or something. Though we did not stop in it. It was surrounded by walls to the building we were in. It was the first time I had seen the outside and it was an incredible building. All ancient rock work and tall walls, I couldn't see what was beyond the walls, but I had a sense that we were in the middle of nowhere. I didn't remember driving long so I have no idea where in California there was a place that wasn't surrounded by other people. We entered into a door directly across from the one we had exited from. I was soaking in my surroundings and if I was being honest I was a complete and total nervous wreck. As I entered the door my foot must of caught on the frame, because I felt my self falling to the ground. This happened often and the only thing to do was hope I didn't hit my head. Then swift warm arms grabbed around my waist and straightened me up.
"Easy there Bells." I looked up to see Jacob looking down at me, my cheeks colored fire engine red I am sure. I was scared to look away from him in fear that everyone had seen me fall, so once I took my eyes from him I looked at the floor. I watched every step I took not looking at the sights anymore.
"If all of you would find a seat so we can go over a few things." I heard Carlisle say so I looked up just enough to find a seat. I sat next to Alice and was pleasantly surprised when Edward pushed Jacob out of the way a little to take the seat on my other side. I had to hold in a chuckle at Jacob's fuming face. He took the seat behind me along with Emmett. Rosalie was next to Alice in front of Emmett. Jasper went to the front of the room and stood near the stage, while Carlisle went to the podium.
"Ok you all are official members of the Secret Society of Pure Goodness, also known and referred to as SSPG or just Society. I am your Captain, Jasper is my First Lieutenant, and one of you will be the Second Lieutenant. We are SSPG one nine zero one, Billy Black is captain of SSPG one nine zero two. They will be training and practicing with us. Now Jasper will be passing out your lifelines, also known as the guideline folder, it has everything you will ever need in it." Jasper began handing out at four inch thick folder that probably weighed as much as me. How were we suppose to read or need all of this?
"Section one explains the history of the Society, section two explains what is expected of you, rules, and repercussions for breaking said rules. Section three covers what our unit will be responsible for, which I will explain in a moment. Section…." He went on and on with the section explanatory that I thought it would never end. I heard snoring and turned around to see Emmett sleeping. I was about to reach back and wake him, but Carlisle spoke.
"No Bella we have another way of waking up people who fall asleep during orientation." Carlisle nodded to Japer. Whom went into what appeared to be a storage closet and came out with a bucket of water and a air horn. He handed the air horn to Carlisle and as they passed I noticed the bucket was full of water. They silently counted to three then Jasper poured the water on Emmett and Carlisle blew the horn. Emmett came out of his seat in a panic not sure what was going on around him. It was then that I saw the ice cubes that had been in the water.
"Whhhaatted do that for?" Emmett stuttered shivering.
"To teach you a lesson. NO falling asleep on SSPG time." Carlisle ordered.
"Sure thing sir." Emmett said standing up straight and saluting. Carlisle shook his head and went back to his podium. He continued as if nothing had happened, while Emmett's teeth chattered together from the cold.
"You are all expected to read this entire handbook over the next two weeks, I suggest you break it up in sections, there will be a test over it and you do not want to fail. Now I am going to go over a few rules with you that need to be spoken aloud. First and most important never reveal the secret society to anyone at any time. If you are ever being interrogated you better keep your mouth shut, because if they don't kill you my superiors will." Out of the corner of my eye I saw Edward raise his hand. "Yes Edward?" Carlisle questioned.
"Who are your superiors?" Edward asked.
"Only Captains and first Lieutenants know the identity of the higher ranks. Hopefully you will never meet them, because the only reason you would is to receive punishment. Anymore questions on that?" No one spoke up so he continued. "Never take on an assignment alone and never go after a target without permission from myself, Jasper, or the second Lieutenant. If you are parted from your unit always check in at least once a day to assure us that you have not gone AWOL, absent without leave. Do not put a person before your job, that will quickly get you or one of your fellow society members killed. Your unit is your life, we are one, we are a family. Also another rule I feel I need to point out for all of you is that Lieutenant and solider romantic relationship are absolutely prohibited. To clarify that I mean that Jasper and whomever is the second Lieutenant are not to have a romantic relationship with any of you." He looked at all of us as if to make that perfectly clear. "Yes Jacob?" Carlisle said. I guess Jacob had been raising his hand.
"What about solider and solider relationships?" I blushed, because he put his face right next to mine between Edward and I while he waited for the answer.
"That is fine as long as it does not affect your responsibilities." A small playful smile appeared on Carlisle's face. "Though Jacob it does have to be a consensual relationship and if you imprint we need to be notified immediately." What was imprinting? Would we all do this so called imprinting?
"What is imprinting?" I blurted out and blushed. "Sorry I didn't mean to blurt out." I was afraid I would be in some sort of trouble for speaking out of turn.
"No worries Isabella, sorry Bella." Carlisle corrected himself quickly. "It is a way for shape shifters to find their perfect mates, their world will gravitate towards that person and revolve around their imprint. It is the ultimate form of true love." I raised my hand this time.
"What if the imprinted doesn't want to be with the imprinter?" I was asking, because he made it seem like the girl didn't have a choice and that didn't sit well with me.
"It doesn't work like that." Jacob answered for Carlisle.
"Well how does it work?" I asked him turning in my seat, but Carlisle interrupted.
"You all can discuss this later, we have a lot of ground to cover. Now onto the targets that you will be focusing on." I turned back to pay close attention to him. "Our unit will mostly be targeting vampires, werewolves, and possessive demons. You will need to learn to protect yourself from them and how to defeat them. In the back three sections of your folder there is a section on each of them. You need to know it forward and backwards, it will mean life or death for you to know these things. The most dangerous of the three is vampires and we will never take down more then three in a group, when our group is whole. They are fast and highly intelligent creatures. Now we will go out and join Unit zero two in the practice yard. We all stood and headed for the door assuming that the yard was what we walked through, Carlisle cleared his throat.
"There is a proper way to exit, single file line for now behind Jasper and I." We all did as we were told and followed them out. In the yard waited the other unit, it was made up of boys who looked like Jacob, with only one girl. They were in a triangle formation with Billy at the head, as we got to the yard, Carlisle ordered us to do the same. Carlisle introduced us as his unit saying our names, then Billy introduced his unit. "Sam as first Lieutenant, then Seth, Jared, Paul, Embry, Leah, and Quil. Esme sat over on the wall with bottles of water along with a beautiful girl, well until she turned her face to the side. She had a long gash of a scar down her face. It looked like a bear had mauled her, it caused a shiver to run down my spine.
Carlisle and Billy stood in front of the two units, Carlisle spoke. I got the sense that he was higher up in the ranks then Billy, but couldn't be sure.
"We will have a martial arts lesson now, then go to lunch. Upon return we will then practice a little hand to hand combat. Just to see how fast you all pick up on it."
The martial art lesson was fast pace and exhausting. I fell over twice and Edward helped me up with a beautiful crooked grin on his face. Though it wasn't a grin as to make fun of me, but more to comfort me. I could get lost in his emerald eyes any day. Emmett would chuckle at me each time causing my face to burst into flames, at least that is what it felt like. By the time we were released for lunch I was drenched in sweat and starving. We were shown were a large school style cafeteria was. We had a choice between many things, I pilled up my plate with a grilled lemon chicken breast, steamed veggies, potatoes, salad, and a apple.
"Hungry Bells?" Emmett teased as I sat down at the table. Can you guess what I did next? Yes you guessed right, I blushed the same color as one of the tomatoes in my salad.
"I am going to need to put some weight and energy in me if I am going to be practicing martial arts with you guys." I said in a joking tone, but was completely serous. How in the world am I going to fight them, much less vampires? This was absolutely ridiculous.
"Hopefully you got a dose of gracefulness on that plate also." Emmett bellowed and everyone laughed at me, except for Edward. He gave me a sensitive and sweet smile. I wasn't just going to sit there and take that.
"Hopefully your big butt doesn't slow us down today." I said glaring at Emmett. Everyone made a sound egging us on.
"Watch it short stuff or I will make sure you're my practice buddy." Emmett retorted, then said even quieter. "I don't have a big butt."
"Oh you so do." I said smiling.
"I will show you big butt." He got up on the table and walked over to me. He scooped me out of my chair over his shoulder and began jumping table to table with me. I kicked him and punched him.
"Put me down you big brainless bear." He just laughed at me and so did everyone else. He readjusted me on his shoulder and jumped to the floor. He spun us in circles and I thought I would be sick. I felt my feet slip low enough down his front to reach my new target. I brought my foot all the way back and landed it right on his goods. He instantly fell to the his knees and lowered me to the ground. I smirked down at him as everyone clapped and cheered.
"Ok that is enough playing around we only have five minutes left for lunch." Jasper said chuckling. I skipped over to my seat with a smile on my face. I got a few fist bumps or pounds from the group, then I crammed my food down.
Once back in the practice yard we stood in a circle as we were paired up to practice on each other. Most of Billy's group or Unit Wolf they were calling themselves went first. I was highly impressed that Leah was kicking some serous butt. Our unit was up next, they were calling us Unit Pale Face, but we informed them we would be coming up with a better name. Jasper and Emmett went first. Jasper was skilled and fast so he was a great match for Emmett's size. Rosalie went up against Carlisle, but he took it easy on her. She was impressive even in her heels. Carlisle said they were her weapons which worried me, because I knew that they were going to pair me with Alice. Who was also wearing weapons in the form of shoes. Next up was Jacob and Edward, they were going at it violently, like true enemies. It was like there was some unspoken fight for something between them. Carlisle finally called for them to stop drawing a tie, but in my opinion Edward was winning.
Now me and Alice were up, the pixy smiled at me sweetly, but evilly. I was really nervous and scared to do this. At first I was all wobbly and shaking, but then something kicked in and it was like I knew what to do. I just worked off instinct rather then thinking about it. Suddenly all my moves were sharp and quick, Alice was obviously surprised. I easily had her pinned in seconds. As I let her up I saw everyone staring at me in complete shock. Jasper finally broke the silence.
"She is a real Ace." He smiled and patted my back, then he quickly checked over Alice worriedly. I watched him as he rearranged his face and then went back to Carlisle's side.
"Wonderful job Bella." Carlisle applauded. I thought about the way Jasper had looked at Alice, it was like she was his entire world. Though that was against the rules, but something about the two of them together seemed so right and perfect. I wished I fit with someone like that, as I thought that Edward gave me that beautiful crooked smile. My heart almost stopped completely.
"Everyone line up." Carlisle ordered bringing me back to life. I felt like I was on some sort of natural high. "Ok I want you all to explore our corroders, then get back to your rooms and get some rest. Tomorrow will be a twelve hour day, we will only have a thirty minute break. You are dismissed."
"Bella that was awesome." Alice told me as we headed towards the door. Everyone was giving me pounds and high five's. It felt good to be good at something, but the attention was little much for me.
"I can show you all around I have lived here for a while now." Jasper said opening the door for us. He showed us the kitchen fully stocked with food, the indoor pool, the fully equipped gym, a library with a grand piano, and a theater room. I would have to say my favorite room was the library and I would return to it soon. It had a bay window with a comfy seat to read on and I couldn't wait to claim it. For tonight I was ready to get back to our room and get some rest.
We all pilled into our shared living room/dinning room area.
"Well that was an interesting first day." Jasper said smiling. "I think the best part was Ace's amazing skills." He said looking at me, but what was with the name? "Know it is time for some unit bonding." He smiled evilly I hoped there was a way out of this, because all I wanted to do was get cleaned up and relax.