Chapter Eleven
Tracking Academy
Courtney Black was sitting on her front porch, staring out at Scarlatina. The house was back to the usual color of brown walls and a blue roof. The fact that her father had decided to change it back made her realize how real of a situation she had found herself in. This was possibly the last time she would see Scarlatina in her life, but some deep niggling in her brain told her she wouldn't miss it. She'd only been here a month, after all.
All her bags had been packed into the taxi cab the old man at the gate had hired for her. It was the only car in Scarlatina and Courtney could see curious little faces poking out from behind their mothers skirts as them passed, though their mothers hurried them along too quickly. No one would stand to face Courtney. News of what she was doing was moving fast. For the past few days she had no contact with anyone, no one wanted to talk to her. Even her own father kept chit chat to a minimum. It was making Courtney feel worse as a person, but it wasn't changing her mind. All she could think about was getting away to live with normal people again. No more stupid powers or mythical creatures surrounding her all the time. It was the only thing that kept her going.
"Is it safe for me to say goodbye?" Courtney looked up to see her boyfriend standing in the tree in her front garden. He looked as if he had been crying, but he was hardly going to admit it if Courtney asked. Duncan kept his tough exterior no matter what.
"Get down from there," Courtney giggled. Duncan was still the one good thing in her life. "It's not like I have a deadly disease or something." In one swift movement Duncan jumped down from the tree and landed beside Courtney on the porch, crouching down so they were almost eye level.
"You might as well have since no one in town will go near you." The brunette sighed. She knew it was true. She was already being shunned by everyone. Her father had warned her it was going to happen.
"Thanks for pointing out the obvious." She didn't look at him, she couldn't bear it. "I'm gonna miss you." Duncan cupped Courtney chin with his hand and pulled her to face him.
"I'm going to miss you too." Courtney pushed herself forward, catching his lips in hers. This was going to be their last kiss for a long time. Courtney knew that she couldn't come back to Scarlatina and Duncan couldn't come near the Tracker Academy without risking being burnt at the stake. They'd have to wait until she could be sent for her on the job training on Earth in a year or two, then they could see each other again.
Duncan was the reason Courtney hadn't left yet. She had been waiting for him to come say goodbye. Now he had, the only thing left was for her leave. Courtney nodded her head at her boyfriend, allowing him to hug her before she climbed into the passenger seat of the taxi cab. Nigel had refused to come outside and say his goodbye, he had said everything he needed to inside, though he watched with tear stained cheeks from the upstairs window.
"Call when you can," Duncan told her. Courtney bit her lip to stop the tears. Tears were forming in Duncan's eyes too. It had been hard enough to leave Courtney the first time with the promise of seeing her again, but this time was even harder because he didn't know if he would see her again.
The car drove off with Courtney waving to Duncan in the side view mirror. Duncan tried to smile for her benefit, but it was harder than he made it look. Soon enough he was left alone in the street.
"It's okay to cry, Duncan."
"Thanks, Phoebe." Duncan chuckled sadly. He wasn't going to cry. He turned to find his two sisters had shown up behind him. They hadn't been far away, Duncan had sensed them following him to say his goodbyes. They hadn't wanted to talk to Courtney themselves, they were technically shunning her like the rest of town. But they wanted to be there for their brother.
"We all know she's not really one of them," Rebecca smiled, wrapping her arm around her brother. He pulled her in close for a hug. "And besides, now we can go hunting more, right?" Duncan tried harder to smile. His sisters were always trying to get him to hunt with them more, but his job was always getting in the way. As Courtney drove away, so did his main duty. "Speaking of which, you got time to go for a quick hunt now?" Phoebe's eyes lit up with excitement at the thought of going hunting with her siblings. She rarely got to go with them, it was usually by herself.
"Just a quick one. I have a meeting at the Palace later."
Duncan knew he was about to get laid off.
A small woman was walking Courtney down one of the many corridors in the large Academy. She was quite old, with crow feet tickling the corners of her eyes, but her dark hair didn't look as if it held a grey streak. She was wearing a black and red suit, which Courtney had learnt meant she had power in the school. Courtney was rushing to keep up with her new Headmistress, tugging on all three of her suitcases as no one had shown up to help her with them. She was suddenly more aware of how badly she wanted to use her powers. This wasn't the time or the place.
"Well, Courtney, we are very happy for you to be joining us here at our Tracker Academy," Mrs. Fields said, a kind smile on her face even though she wasn't actually facing Courtney. She appeared to be a very peppy woman.
"I'm happy to be here, Mrs Fields," Courtney replied politely, though her heart wasn't quite in it. Courtney was still in a state of shock that she was actually at the Tracker Academy. The day she told Duncan and her father that she was going to be attending the Academy, she had applied. Two days later she had been invited for a two week trail run as a student starting immediately. If the next two weeks went well for Courtney she would become a permanent student at the Tracker Academy.
"This is your room." Mrs Fields stopped halfway down a corridor that looked exactly like the rest, but this one had more doors lining each side. "Your roommate should already be back from classes, so knock on the door and get yourself sorted. I'll see you tomorrow morning for orientation." Courtney nodded her head, a smile on her face. Mrs. Fields walked off and Courtney knocked the door when she was far enough gone.
It took a minute, but the door swung open to show the last person Courtney wanted to see. "There is no way my luck is this bad," she exclaimed.
"You're my new roommate?" The all too familiar Asian girl asked, not sure if she was shocked or disgusted. The two girls stared each other down before Heather moved aside, letting Courtney into the room.
The two didn't speak and the air was thick between them in the small dorm room. Courtney had a single bed, a desk and a dresser. She managed to fit all of her clothes into three drawers in the dresser and she found her new school uniform in the fourth. The desk was already stocked with textbooks she would need and Courtney put away the rest of her books and bits and pieces she had brought with her. The suitcases packed away neatly under her bed and Courtney found herself lost.
The whole time Courtney was putting together her side of the room, Heather laid on her own bed, smirking at her new roommate.
"So, you finally decided you were on the wrong side," Heather said, breaking the tense silence between the two. Though they had rarely spoken while they had been on Earth together, the few times they had interacted had never gone down well.
"I don't want to talk about it," Courtney replied, picking up a notebook and making a list of things she needed to go into town and buy. Heather sat up on the bed and turned to face the new Tracker-in-training. Being her roommate meant Heather was going to be a big part of her training.
"Well, I think we should have a fresh start," Heather smiled. "What do you say?" She stuck a hand out to the brunette, who eyed it cautiously before signing the deal with the devil. It wasn't that Courtney wanted to be friends with Heather, but she didn't have a lot of choice in the matter anymore.
The green haired teenager found himself sitting on the tower platform again, this time by himself. His friends had tried to get his attention, but Duncan didn't want it. He wanted to be alone with his thoughts and had been all week. Ever since Courtney left he hadn't been able to dig himself out of the slump.
The meeting at the Palace had gone well. Duncan had been relieved of duties that included Courtney and Kaly had even given him some time off too, so he didn't have to be anywhere near the Palace for another whole week. He was hoping to be promoted to Princess Arianna's twenty-four seven guard just so he would have something to do.
Nigel was preparing to move back to Canada. The Trackers were rumored to be dwindling out, though he wasn't as worried without Courtney with him.
Everyone in town had been buzzing with the news of one of their own leaving for the Tracker's, but the news was already growing old.
The vibrations in Duncan's pocket caused him to smile. There was only one person who would be calling him. He pulled out his cell phone, grateful that he had been sitting at the tower now (it was the only place guaranteed to get service).
"Hey, Princess," he greeted, flipping open the phone with his hand. "How's school?"
There was a pregnant pause before Courtney replied. "School's okay, I guess." She sounded upset, as if she was fighting back more tears than she had already spilled through the week.
"Baby, what's wrong?" Duncan sat up straighter, straining to hear his girlfriend.
Courtney was silent for another moment and Duncan was sure he heard someone whispering in the background. "Duncan, we really need to talk." Duncan knew what was coming. "It was all good for us to think that we could pull off this relationship, but now I'm here I can't seem to focus on anything but you. You're a distraction and...and I can't have distractions right now. What I'm doing is too important to me."
"I understand," he whispered down the line.
"I still love you, Duncan. I just...I can't be with you." Courtney let out a choked sob. "I've got to go, class starts soon."
"Bye, Princess." He heard the beep that meant the call had been disconnected. And, for the first time in seventeen years, Duncan let the tears flow down his face.
A/N: Well, that hurt.
But I guess that's it...That's the end of Just The Beginning...Sad face.
NO NEED TO FEAR! Real Life, the epic sequel to Just The Beginning, will be out on...OCTOBER 25TH! YES! I am skipping next week just to give myself some time off...kinda. And to catch up with my writing in general, I've so far got five and a half chapters done for Real Life, and there are nine in total...Yeah, a little less than this one...But it's still gonna be an EPIC story! It'll finish the week before Christmas! And after Real Life comes The Fight Is On, which introduces my favourite character in this series (though they have been mentioned a few times already), so sit tight for that ;)
ALSO! Before I forget, ManaTheWeirdOne asked a great question; Why does Courtney want to go to the Tracker Academy?
I realise I didn't do well at explaining this to people who may not know as much about the series as others do, so I'll try and piece it together the best I can without spoiling future stories! Basically, there is only two schools Courtney can go to; Scarlatina High school or Tracker's Academy. The nearest school beyond there is too far to get back and fore to everyday (think of it as living in a town with one school and the nearest town is close, but not too close and after that you're kind of just stranded). And even though Courtney's scared of going to High school in Scarlatina, you'd think that would be better than hunting down your friends...But, at the same time, Courtney's curious. Ever since Duncan told her about that the Academy she felt something stir inside her...and that would be her heritage. Her mother was a Tracker. It's in her blood to be drawn towards the school. Even though it's not the smartest of decisions, it's the one that makes most sense in her mind.
I hope I explained that a bit better for anyone who didn't understand. Anymore questions I will be more than happy to answer via PM ^_^
I wanted to give a massive thank you to everyone who reviewed this story; Lepope1234, Badass Courtney, Tiggystretch, ThatSuperHotSexyBookWorm, kutiekat44, Desire at gunpoint, TheGirlWithTheGoldenShadow, mscullen98, kamilamc, ManaTheWeirdOne. And, most importantly, a major thank you to AHRedDeath who has reviewed every single chapter without fail...dude, you're amazing and I love you!
Thank you all for being here from start to finish and I hope to see you all for The Going's On: Real Life, in two weeks time!
Thanks for reading, please review (:
Love, ChloeRhiannonX
