Tilly woke the following day at the usual time of 5.30. She stuck her feet out of her bed and immediately knew she had a problem. Her ankle has seized up overnight and had swollen so much it now resembled a small melon. It was also bright blue with bruising.

Gritting her teeth, Tilly put her feet on the floor and stood up, almost collapsing on her injured ankle, but catching herself in time. She took one hesitant step after another.

Realising that her morning run would be out of the question she dressed in her workout gear and headed for the gym where she could do a workout that involved avoiding using her ankle as much as possible.

By the time Tilly had finished her workout the pain she was feeling was making her feel sick, so she decided to bite the bullet and visit medical services. The second she hobbled in a nurse ushered her into a cubicle.

"Matilda. I'm Dr. Stevens. I will be treating you today. What seems to be the problem?"

"I went over on my ankle yesterday on survival training and I managed to walk back here. I kind of woke up this morning and it's a lot worse. I mean I tried to do an upper body workout and I now feel very sick." Tilly rambled.

The doctor took Tilly's shoe and sock off revealing her beaten up ankle.

"Wow. That's some bruising right there."

"Tell me about it. It hurts and I need to get back to my classes." Tilly said, hoping the doctor would just strap it up and send her on her way.

"You aren't going anywhere until I've x-rayed that ankle." The doctor said making Tilly groan.

Carl got down to breakfast in plenty of time. He had knocked on Tilly's door and when he got no answer he assumed she had already gone. He made his way over to their usual table and sat down. Tilly wasn't there. Carl was starting to get worried. He quickly ate his breakfast before rushing back to Tilly's room. He broke in the same way he had the night before they had gone on their survival weekend. She wasn't there.

He made his way to their Spanish class hoping that Tilly would turn up. She didn't and her absence was noticed by their teacher, Marisa.

"I don't know. I haven't seen her all morning." Carl told her when she asked.

"Well she better arrive soon or I will have to report her absence to the principal." Marisa said, turning back to teaching her class.

The doctor x-rayed Tilly's ankle, which showed that it wasn't broken.

"I think you have a severe sprain which is causing the pain and swelling."

"Really? It's only taken you two hours and an x-ray to figure that out?" Tilly asked sarcastically.

"I had to be sure it wasn't broken, the only way to do that is by x-raying it."

"So can I go yet?"

"You can, but Matilda. You need to rest that ankle, which means no physical for a week." The doctor warned.

Tilly hobbled out of medical and made her way to the language rooms. She was about half way there before she ran into Oleg.

"And what are we doing out of class?" he asked her in poor Russian.

"I'm on my way to class, and your Russian sucks." Tilly replied flawlessly, also in Russian.

"I am duty bound to take you to the principal's office." Oleg told her, grabbing her and dragging her.

Tilly knew she could get him to let go of her, but she also knew attacking a teacher would cross the line so far she would be thrown out.

"Come in!" Principal Dockerty called when Oleg knocked on his door.

Oleg walked into the room and dragged Tilly with him.

"I caught her wondering round the building during class." Oleg told him, hoping Tilly would get into trouble this time.

"Is this true?" Principal Dockerty asked Tilly.

"Yes Sir (Oleg cried 'Ha', but silenced himself when he got a look off the principal). I was on my way to Spanish from Medical. I had a trip yesterday and I was struggling to walk this morning. I thought I better get it checked out. The doctor kept me longer than I thought he would." Tilly explained.

"Very well Matilda. Take this and get to Spanish." Principal Dockerty told her, signing a slip and handing it to her.

Tilly took it and left.

"You believe that?" Oleg asked in disbelief.

"I do. Especially when the doctor called me to let me know that Tilly was there."

Oleg looked at Principal Dockerty with an open mouth.

"Is that all Oleg?"

"Yes, Sir." He replied, disgusted Tilly had, yet again, got away with murder.

Tilly sidled into class and slipped into her seat hoping no one would notice her.

"Miss Grace. Nice of you to warm us with your presence. I am Marisa, your Spanish teacher. Would you mind telling me why you are two hours late to my class?"

Tilly handed the slip to Marisa, who read it.

"Very well. I am assessing your fluency today before I begin teaching." Marisa explained.

"It's alright. I speak fluent Spanish." Tilly said to Marisa in perfect Spanish.

"Really? Why are you in my class?"

"There was no other language class first thing on a Monday morning and Principal Dockerty didn't want to let me have a free." Tilly explained.

"Very well. I expect you to complete the work of the rest of your class, but I will hold you to a higher standard. I also expect you to catch up on today's work in your own time."

"OK."

Tilly looked at Carl who was staring at her open mouthed.

"Where have you been?" he hissed.

"I was in medical getting my ankle looked at."

"Let me guess. Spanish is one of the five?"

"How could you tell?" Tilly asked him with a wink.

"I was worried about you." Carl told Tilly in a voice that indicated he was annoyed at her as they made their way to the dining hall for lunch.

"I'm sorry. I didn't realise that the med team were going to check everything from the blood vessels in my eyes to my blood pressure when I went in with a gammy ankle." Tilly hit back. She was still irritated that they had kept her so long.

Carl relented a little.

"What did they say?" he asked in a softer voice.

"Nothing I didn't already know."

"Tilly?"

"It's a sprain. A couple of days rest and I'll be good to go."

They reached the canteen and joined the back of the queue. They chose their food. As much as Principal Dockerty had promised Tilly the food would improve, it hadn't.

"What do you fancy ordering in tonight?" Tilly asked Carl in a hushed voice.

"Pizza? And can we get cookie dough?"

"Sounds good." Tilly said, sniffing at some strange green stringy item before returning it to her plate.

"I never thought I would miss fresh caught fish." Carl said pushing his plate away from him.

"I know exactly how you feel." Tilly said, doing the same.

She got up from the table.

"Where you going? We don't have to meet Toby for another half hour."

"Yeah, but at the rate I'm going it'll take me half an hour to get there." Tilly told him.

"Sit down and eat your almond tart. I'll piggyback you if I have to."

Toby was waiting for his first years. He was starting to lose his patience with them. They were all ill disciplined and lazy.

He heard a playful screaming coming down the hill. He looked up to see Carl running down it with Tilly on his back.

They were the only students that were on time.

"How's the ankle." Toby asked Tilly.

"It's fine. Doc told me just to keep it strapped for Phys."

"You told me a couple of days rest." Carl said to her.

"Did I?"

"That's odd Tilly, because the doctor called me and told me a week minimum." Toby said to her.

"A week?" How do I train without a partner?" Carl asked.

"You will train with Dan." Toby told him.

"What the hell do I do for a week?" Tilly asked.

"Sit out and laugh Carl as he falls off the assault course and get beaten up by Dan."

"I can do that." Tilly smiled as she wondered off to the side to watch.

The rest of the class finally arrived.

"Mondays. The day most of you will come to hate. This is the day when your practical will consist of you entering the assault course. Be warned. The last time a first year completed it was when Ward and Romanov scared the living daylights out of their instructor by flying around it.

I will be teaching you all of the skills you will need to complete this course. If you complete it by the end of the year I will personally take you out for Dinner." Toby told them.

He nodded to someone. Tilly thought it looked like Dan, who slowly and skilfully showed them what they were going to be doing on the course. The class watched as Dan crept along a rope, swung over so that he was hanging from it, swung his body back onto it and progressed to the end.

"That looks like so much fun." Tilly moaned as Toby led them to a set of ropes.

Tilly watched as Toby taught them how to dangle from the rope and swing back onto it. Having learned it all before she very quickly got bored and started making fun of Carl who was now attempting it.

"If you think you can do better be my guest!" He called to her as he dropped off the rope.

"Alright I will." Tilly said approaching the ropes, only to find her path blocked by Toby.

"Oh no you don't!" he said to her.

"Please. Just one? I promise if I fall I'll land on the other one." Tilly said batting her eyelashes at him.

"No."

"You are such a..." Tilly said, but what he was Toby never found out as one of the students emitted a scream and fell to the floor in a heap.

Toby ran over to her and tried to find out what she'd done.

"Keep practising. I'm going to take Michelle to the med suite. I'm leaving Dan in charge."" Toby told them.

Tilly stepped forward towards the ropes.

"Aww, is ickle princess too fragile? Will she break when she falls to the ground?" Dan teased. He didn't know Toby had ordered Tilly to sit out or why.

Tilly climbed up the side of the support and settled herself on the ropes. When she got halfway along she flipped her body over and hung there for the required thirty seconds before pulling herself up and sticking one arm out to flip herself over so that she was on top of the rope and crawled along it to the end.

Carl whooped as she climbed down. Dan stood there in shock. Tilly simply smiled at him.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked her when she got close.

"I'm me." Tilly answered without batting an eye.

Toby got back to the group to find them all standing around looking at Tilly.

"I thought I told you to sit out?" he asked her, realising she had disobeyed him.

"I got restless." Tilly told him.

"Over there. I want a private word with you." Toby told her, pointing to the seats around the obstacle course.

Tilly huffed off while Toby shouted at Dan.

"HOW COULD YOU LET HER DO THAT? I TOLD YOU SHE WAS INACTIVE THIS WEEK!"

"She seemed fine to me, and she completed it without much trouble." Dan told him, blushing.

He thought Toby had developed a soft spot when it came to Tilly and that he was allowing it to interfere with his judgement.

"Seemed fine? So the two HOURS she spent in medical this morning having her ankle looked at counts for nothing?" Toby demanded.

"She, well, I didn't know that." Dan admitted.

"I have reasons for my judgements and decisions Dan. Get this lot working again." Toby said to him before walking over to Tilly.

"I don't want to hear why you disobeyed a direct order but know if you do it again I will be forced to take severe action."

"You'll tell the principal?" Tilly asked shocked.

"Worse."

"You wouldn't."

"Damn right I would."

"You'd call the Director to bother him about a student disobeying orders?" Tilly asked, shocked, but slightly impressed.

"Oh no Tilly, I wouldn't call the Director, after all, disobeying orders is in your DNA so he'd probably laugh. I'd call your brother."

"You wouldn't dare." Tilly said to him.

"Try me." Toby threatened.