Sorry it took me so long to get this up.


Zidane sighed "Maybe." He downed the tea "Goodnight mum." And walked out of the kitchen only to turn back and ask, "When is dad coming home?"

Headmaster's decision

Dagger entered her form room Zidane was nowhere in sight. Turning to Jess she asked "Have you seen Zidane this morning?" Jess shook her head then said "don't worry he'll be here. He has missed one day off of school in the last three years; he enjoys pranking the teachers too much. Has he told you about the time when he pranked Mrs Batty, he had the flu then. Anyway he's usually late on Mondays, he claims "its tradition!""

"The prank against Mrs Bat that everyone keeps talking about, what exactly happened?" she asked as they took their seats.

"What he hasn't told you?"

"Well he was going to but he got interrupted."

"Oh well, it was an extremely cleverly planned trick that involved that window over there" she said pointing and was just about to continue when Mrs Bat shouted "Enough with the talking Miss Carter!" Jess looked up at the rather large elder woman and said, "My surname's Harris, Amillia is Carter!"

"Fine, whatever. I'll write the detention out for Miss Harris then shall I?" just then the door opened and Zidane entered. "I'll make that Mr Ryan" Mrs Bat corrected herself.

"You'll make what Mr Ryan?" Zidane asked.

"This detention form. May I ask how many times I have told you I do not appreciate you arriving late for form room? Will you ever get the message?"

Zidane smiled "I have already got the message. Haven't you ever wondered why I do it so much?" Seeing Dagger shaking her head at him he walked over to her, "Hey, I saw the headmaster when I was coming into school. He wants to see us now, preferably quickly so we won't miss first lesson." Dagger stood gathering her diary and notebook "Okay, but why do we have to see him? I mean I know we do …want to, that is. But why do we have to?" frowning at her words she glanced up at the sixteen year old who was quite a bit taller than her.

"I mentioned we wanted to see him. But he was pretty adamant that we didn't miss any lessons in doing so. First lesson on a Monday is always slow in starting so we would have more time than we would at any other point in the day." He explained to her as they left the classroom completely ignorant of the glares they were receiving from Mrs Bat and her shrieking voice questioning why they were leaving the classroom without so much as a word let alone permission.

"I am not so sure that is a wise thing to do. Sending two sixteen year olds into the depths of the most dangerous place on this continent just for a school project is the type of event that can get this school into deep trouble. Not only with the Regent, especially since it's you Mr Ryan, but also with the King of Alexandria. I may however consider it, if your fighting skills prove efficient Mr Ryan. Miss Gilla however I am fully aware that you do not do this kind of physical activity in Alexandria. Therefore if and only if Zidane proves himself I will grant permission for you to travel to Cleyra." Mr Sparrow sighed before asking, "May I ask why you find a need to visit such a desolate place as Cleyra. There is nothing there but sand and a dead tree?"

"Well we think we might be able to find something, anything. Alexandria, Linblum, Burmecia were all destroyed and then rebuilt. No one bothered to rebuild Cleyra, the story is that the Cleyran people were all killed when the place was destroyed apart from the few who helped rebuild and …populate Burmecia…There may just be something," Zidane said. Dagger could hear the absence of hope in his voice he had carried when he first mentioned travelling there and made a decision to ask him about it.

"Well then, let me think on it. If I don't send you a message out this afternoon then expect one at some point tomorrow. Now off to first lesson you two. I do believe the bell rang not ten minutes ago."

They left his office and wandered up the hallway neither of them in a hurry to reach their next class. 'Next class? Where are we meant to be, exactly?' Dagger thought.

"What have we got? Zidane?"

"What?" he asked breaking himself away from his thoughts? She repeated her question following it up with "Are you okay?" He nodded "We've got PSE, great! What a lovely morning" he said sarcastically.

"What's after that?"

"Defence training, I hope you do okay" he said before entering the classroom it was at that point that Dagger realised they were back at form room. They took their seats and Dagger said "Will we always have PSE with our form tutor?" Zidane nodded, "this is the worst lesson in the whole timetable, including maths"

Mrs Bat stood at the front of the room and began a long speech about marriage, relationships and children. Martin however wasn't listening in the slightest he had leant back in his chair to begin talking to Rose. Dagger glanced round and found the rest of the class had switched off also.

Zidane hadn't even listened to the first word, he was to busy doodling in his notebook. Dagger leaned over to take a closer look at his drawing and he tapped her on the nose with his pencil motioning her to move away so that he could finish his picture.

Exhausted Dagger entered the cool changing rooms, collapsing on one of the wooden benches she sighed. She had never been so nervous and terrified in her life; she thought they would at least train her a bit in how to use a weapon before setting a wild creature on her. She knew she wasn't in any real danger for the defence instructors were standing by ready to help, and she did manage to keep the animal at bay. 'But…I couldn't kill it. It's not right to kill a defenceless animal…defenceless? It was hardly that'

Standing up she grabbed a cup of water off of the cabinet in the middle of the changing rooms before heading off out side. Standing with the rest of the class who had either had or was waiting their turn behind the wire fence separating the school from the field and the city beyond. Looking across she could see the boys doing the same further up the field. Walking to the end of the girls line she studied the figure that was fighting. Whoever they were they were amazing fighters, glancing away back to the girls she watched Jess walk round and enter the field. Looking back at the boys she saw a nervous Zidane enter the field. From what she had heard from the gang of friends Zidane had formed he was a brilliant fighter and found herself wondering at the source of his nervousness. That was when she noticed the Headmaster trying to inconspicuously glance out a window on the second floor of the building and it came to her. Zidane needed to prove himself to be able to go to Cleyra.

Looking back at the field she watched both Jess and Zidane stand in position waiting for the whistle and the grating sound of metal upon metal that was the opening of the cages containing the opponents.

The whistle blew, the cages were opened and two fast dog-like creatures with large sharp pointed teeth charged the students. Dagger closed her eyes tightly and heard the sound of metal hitting solid calcium. Opening her eyes she found that Zidane had cut through the two sharp teeth of the wild animal, making it relatively harmless. Jess mimicked his move with, as much force as she could muster but found her blade wouldn't make it all the way through in one strike. She spun leaning down to grab another blade ignoring the creatures thrashing as it tried to dislodge the blade. Before long four sharp long teeth lay on the ground and the animals were herded back into their cages.

As Jess exited the field she said "Zidane must have it that creatures teeth extremely hard to get the blade to go through both of them. I couldn't get it to go through one. Hey! Dagger, where did you disappear to, we didn't get to tell you how well you did?"

"What are you talking about, I messed up?" Zidane walked up to them along with the rest of the boys and the class made their way to the changing rooms where they sat waiting for their mark.

"-Miss Murray, Grade B, mark 77. Miss Gilla, Grade B, Mark 82. Miss Carter, Grade C, Mark 65 and Miss Harris, Grade C, Mark 66" the instructor stepped back and another stepped forward. "-Mr Wetherby, Grade C, Mark 62. Mr Lenherd, Grade B, Mark 79. Mr Stantford, Grade B, Mark 81 and Mr Ryan-" Zidane glanced up with a blank expression "Grade A, Mark 94." The instructors departed, and everyone congratulated Zidane who still sat not a flicker of emotion passing across his features. The bell rang and the students began lazily to exit the changing rooms and out into the sunshine. Zidane jumped up from his seat shouting, "Yes!" The group of friends laughed and Martin asked with a laugh "Just how long have you been waiting to do that?"

"Probably from the moment the instructor said A" answered Amillia "But you know Zidane hates being centre of attention."

They exited the room and entered the grounds outside, whilst in the dim light of his office Mr Sparrow sat deep in thought before placing his pen on paper and writing a note to their form tutor to excuse them at afternoon registration.


I might be able to get the next chapter up in a few days it depends on the amount of revision my teachers dump on me.