Chapter 7
Megh was frustrated. She'd never held a gun in her life, nor had she ever shot one, so this was nothing but massive fail as far as she was concerned. She was also the only new student. What, were she and the others the only new students in a school of 1,800? Somehow she wouldn't be surprised if she was.
However, the fact that clay pigeons were exploding around her didn't exactly make her feel much better about herself. Why were they firing guns anyway? Wasn't this supposed to be a peaceful era? It made no damn sense!
Heero was walking behind the students, observing them as they fired at the clay pigeons. Some of the students were getting better, but they were still lazy with their firing. He needed to get it in their heads that just because the pigeon exploded upon impact with a bullet didn't mean they were actually shooting well. Though for some of them, it meant they weren't failing miserably at their task.
Such was the case he could see with Megh, who was getting more and more visibly frustrated by the minute.
Heero wasn't sure how to approach her. He really just wasn't good with females; he'd discovered that quickly during his first semester even of teaching. First of all, girls were highly outnumbered in this school. There were four males to every one female. Secondly, girls were very emotional. Being that Heero's previous occupations for so long kept him away from exploring things such as emotions and social interaction so he was always at a loss when it came to female students. During his first year of teaching, one girl ended up pregnant by another male student and spent two hours crying in his office hysterically. He remembered all too well what it was like when she came into his office.
The door had flung open and the girl ran in, her tears streaked black from her mascara that was now running down her face while she sobbed. "INSTRUCTOR YUYYYYYYY!" she had wailed, dropping on her knees and folding her arms on his desk, sobbing over the paperwork he had been trying to complete. "I DON'T UNDERSTAND!"
"What…" Heero began, but he had been cut off with her despairing sob of, "I'M PREGNANT OH MY GOD I'M PREGNANT! NURSE PO CHECKED ME OUT AND I'M PREGNANT!"
Couldn't she have just stayed in Sally Po's office then instead? Heero couldn't help but wonder at the time as she shook violently from the sobs.
"I CAN'T BE PREGNANT!" she wailed, leaning her head back and screaming. "I DON'T KNOW HOW IT HAPPENED. I JUST DON'T KNOW HOW IT HAPPENED."
Didn't know how? Heero blinked. Had she never even had a basic life science course? "Well, it-"
"I CAN'T BE PREGNANT IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE IT WAS ONLY ONE TIME AND HE WAS REALLY CUTE AND WE WERE BOTH DRUNK IN MY ROOM!!"
Heero frowned at this. "Aren't you under-"
"WHAT AM I GONNA DO OH MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG GOD I SWEAR!!"
At that point Heero had noticed the crowd of students gathered outside his office. When he had tried to get up to shut the door, she'd ended up clutching onto him sobbing and wailing, forcing him back in his chair while she sobbed all over his khaki pants. He never really did manage to get the black mascara fully out.
The second time he'd dealt with female students was because for some unknown reason he still didn't grasp they had gotten into a fight in the hallway. When he was breaking up the fight, one of the girls had caught his face trying to claw the other. From that day forward, Heero declared to himself that girls were just very hard to deal with.
So he had no idea what to do with girls. He admitted to himself that he'd rather avoid all emotional female encounters with his students most likely the rest of his life. But he was the instructor for the hour, and hopefully she wasn't too emotional about this.
Not knowing where to begin, Heero stood a bit off to the side and stated, "You're not aiming properly."
That was the wrong answer. Megh turned sharply and glared at Heero, her lips going into almost a feline-like snarl. "Well, you know, if you hadn't just fucking put me on the field when I don't know what the fuck I'm doing, then maybe I'd know how to aim right!"
Well. She did have a point. And after firing shots for a good half hour missing every target, he understood her frustration a little. Then again, he unfortunately had been very talented at firing at targets since he was small. She was an adult, technically, just like him.
Taking out his own gun, Heero raised it with both hands instead of the one as he usually did; one-handed shots were for someone with far more experience and he wasn't about to do too advanced of a demonstration. "Look directly down the center of your gun. The line is etched in there for a reason. It needs to be perfectly level with your eye," he explained. "Don't blink."
"Kind of hard not to blink," Megh commented dryly.
"Try," Heero insisted.
Megh raised her arms, trying to look down the line and somehow manage to look ahead as well. The others made it so effortless-
A blur of gray. Megh pulled the trigger, but it missed completely.
"You missed," Heero stated.
At that, Megh turned to him, fuming. "How is that supposed to help me? I know I missed!" She clamped her mouth shut. The last thing she needed to do was cuss out Heero Yuy for his awkward, useless help. Especially considering he was now her instructor. She was trying not to be frustrated, she really was, but she couldn't help it. Everyone around her was doing so damn well and the clay pigeons seemed to be almost mocking her with their rising and falling.
"Watch," Heero said simply. He held out the gun in front of him. As the clay pigeon moved, so did his arms. They remained only slightly bent at the elbows, but his arms always pointed in the same direction of the clay pigeons. Effortlessly he shot down three, perfectly as they came up and waiting for them to be high enough in the air for himself to demonstrate. "Follow their movement with your gun, but keep your eye down the center of it. Understand?"
"Yeah," Megh shrugged.
Heero lowered his arms, a bit put off by her negativity. He wanted to shake his head and walk away, but that probably wouldn't do anything for her self-esteem right now. He had to be patient. "Try again," he encouraged.
Megh raised her arms reluctantly as President Jenson came walking down the aisle, escorted by his filming team and Lady Une. "Ah, Preventer Heero Yuy!" Jenson said with a smile. "Your students are as perfect as you."
Megh winced at hearing that last statement. Yeah, sure, she thought to herself, cursing her luck. Everyone but me.
"Mister President," Heero replied courteously.
"And who is this lovely young lady?" the president asked, smiling warmly and fully aware that the camera was on him.
Great. Just great. I am anything but lovely right now and the President of the Unified Nation is about to film me for his campaign. Megh forced the best smile she could potentially manage while wishing she could just disappear. "I'm Megh," she replied simply.
"Megh…?"
"Megh O'Connor."
"Megh, why don't you show us everything Preventer Yuy has taught you so far?" President Jenson asked before turning to the camera and putting one hand on Heero's shoulder, patting him enthusiastically. "Heero here and I are buddies, isn't that right?"
Not knowing any other option at the moment, Heero nodded once for the sake of the camera, trying not to be too obvious that this was not exactly as warm of a friendship as the President would like the viewers to think.
"Excellent," President Jenson smiled warmly. "Now Megh, why don't you demonstrate your lovely skills?"
Figures he'd put me on the spot considering I'm standing with Heero. Too bad I can't shoot him Megh couldn't help but think at the moment. She raised the gun towards the field, sighing.
Just as she was pulling the trigger, another shot rang at the exact same time. There was a loud crash as the president was flung backwards against the wire fence. Students screamed.
Oh fucking god, Megh thought, looking down at her gun. Please do not tell me that somehow I ended up shooting the guy!
Instead, Heero was gone from where he had stood, booking it as fast as possible, his own gun drawn as he chased a figure wearing a ski-mask running from the scene. Whoever they were, they were a student, left-handed, and they were male. That much Heero could figure out. They were also still armed. He needed to take them out without opening fire unless they shot at him first. That was what protocol dictated. If he could shoot at them now in a place like the upper thigh he would; there was no doubt he could get them. But he couldn't do that and risk a lawsuit of some kind.
Whoever had shot Jenson was heading straight for the field where Wufei was teaching. Heero could make out the students as he ran, catching up slowly with the trying to flee student. The groups that had been on that field had slowed down in their formations, turned to look and watch the spectacle that was about to take place. "FREEZE!" Heero shouted. "Stop where you are!"
To his surprise, the boy froze, but not before turning around and opening fire on Heero. The bullet whizzed by; this kid was no pro, but he cut it close. Aiming for his left shoulder, Heero opened fire.
The student jerked out of the way, anticipating that Heero would open fire after he did. Heero's bullet flew through the air, straight and true and ended up hitting a female student in the arm. She fell, screaming as Wufei and the other students closed in on her.
Damn, damn, damn! There was no time to see if she was alright; Jenson's gunman was escaping. Deciding enough was enough and that he had already opened fire, Heero went with his usual plan: he sent two shots, one in each leg, neither in a fatal point. The boy fell, howling.
Coming in on the boy and grabbing him by the back of shirt, Heero ripped off the ski mask. He recognized the boy instantly from one of his classes. A third-year student by the name of Maslin.
"Why have you done this?" Heero demanded in a cold, almost emotionless monotone.
The boy laughed bitterly. "Solet ed," he replied.
Before Heero could react, he pointed his own gun up and shot himself in the jaw through the back of his head. Blood splattered.
Setting down the boy and looking down at what had once been a proficient student, Heero went over his last words in his mind as well as the sheer facts. The boy hadn't used rubber bullets. Rubber bullets were the only thing equipped in the guns provided for the students. He would have to seize the gun and an autopsy would have to be done right away. They needed to know where he got the bullets from.
"Yuy!" Wufei screamed.
Heero snapped to attention. He had almost forgotten. Turning, he sprinted towards the crowd that had gathered around the girl he'd accidentally shot. Her brown hair was a mess, all around her face and she was clutching her arm as tears fell down her face. Blood too was falling.
"I'm sorry," Heero said as he knelt down next to the girl. They seemed like pathetic words at a time like this, but he couldn't think of anything else to say. "I'll take you to the infirmary myself."
Sliding one hand under her knees and wrapping the other around her waist, Heero lifted the girl up and looked down into the frightened face of Jaenelle Kelly.
His mouth moved, but no words came out. "I… I…"
"You didn't mean to," she offered with a shaky smile. "But can we p-please get moving?"
"I… of course," Heero nodded firmly, taking off at a run towards the athletics infirmary while his heart pounded in his chest, his mind filling with thoughts of self-hatred for what had happened. Stupid, stupid, stupid! The students knew the code as well as anyone else; of course Maslin would have known that he would open fire on him! Perhaps that's what he was looking for, a distraction so he could make a quick getaway. They'd never know now. Maslin was dead.
"Instructor?"
Heero snapped out of his thoughts, kicking open the door. "Yes?"
"Um… you're hurting me."
Heero looked down and realized just how tightly he had been gripping Jaenelle. He must've been too angry with himself to realize what he was doing. "Sorry," he muttered, blushing slightly and giving him another reason to hate himself as he set her down on the exam table. "Raise up your arm above the level of your heart," he snapped. "It'll slow down the blood flow. I'm phoning Sally Po now."
"Chang-laoshi already did," she offered. "Nurse Po should be here at any moment."
Nodding, Heero took a look at the wound in her arm, grabbing a bandage and dabbing at it. She didn't even wince, which surprised him. Maybe she was too shocked by the wound to feel anything right now. That happened when the human body went into shock. "It's not a very deep wound," he announced after a moment. "You were nicked."
She looked relieved and nodded. "Thank god."
"I'm… very sorry," Heero repeated, looking down at the ground in shame. He wasn't sure his words would ever express just how sorry he was that he accidentally shot a student. He'd never hit an innocent bystander before.
Except…
"You're still the Perfect Soldier, y'know."
Heero's head snapped up and he stared at her, incredulous. "What did you just say?" he demanded in a shocked whisper.
Jaenelle stuttered, shrinking a bit. "I…"
Just then the doors burst open and Sally Po rushed in, accompanied by Noin. "Miss Kelly, please hand me your arm," Sally demanded.
"Heero, the President is demanding to see you," Noin sighed as she set down supplies next to Jaenelle, moving out of Sally's way. "He's alive, and… well, really pissed off."
Nodding, Heero stood up and glanced at Jaenelle, who was engrossed in listening to whatever Sally had to say. How had she known he was called 'the Perfect Soldier'? It shocked him, frightened him, and yet somehow comforted him.
Shoving away all of those feelings, Heero pushed the door open and headed across the field in a brisk walk instead of a run to meet the very upset President Jenson and endure whatever the man had to say.