DISCLAIMER: I do not own the characters or anything like that. All credit goes to Tamora Pierce when it comes to Keladry Mindelan and a lot of names I use in this story.
A/N: Hello, sorry it took so long to get the chapter out. It's really short, but I'm working hard on the next one. The next chapter takes place on the same day (pretty long day, isn't it?). I have an excerpt of the next chapter on the CHS Informational Page or CHS Updated (located on first page). It will be pretty interesting I hope…this story is slow paced but I hope to bring it up a notch.
----------------------------------------------------------
Corus High School
- CHAPTER THREE -
By night writer
---------------------------------------------------------
Keladry Mindelan was not a person to get nervous or to run away from precarious situations, but she was seriously thinking about changing that. Walking down the seemingly endless corridor, she finally saw a sign next to a doorway saying 'Combat Arts – Ezeko and Seastone'. She looked at her watch and saw with alarm that she only had a minute to walk through that doorway. Taking a deep breath, Kel walked into the class that could lead her onto the road of her dream.
***
When he had first heard that he would be teaching a girl how to duel, he had almost cut myself because he had dropped the sword he was practicing with. He would rather hand in my resignation, and almost did by the way, than teach a woman how to do something only a man is supposed to do. The only thing that kept him from resigning was the fact that Wyldon was to have the final say in the decision of letting the Girl take the class or not. Wyldon is fair, but is known to have a certain prejudice about women fighting in combat, especially after the Trebond incident. Then the news came that Wyldon had let her take the course and he must admit to throwing a few things. After a lot of persuasion from Wyldon, he had decided to stay and keep on teaching. He had promised to be unbiased with the training of the Mindelan girl and the boys and Ezeko Obafem always keeps his word.
Ezeko now watched as the Girl entered his room and look around with a guarded expression. The boys were all staring blatantly at the Girl. Some stares were scrutinizing, some just curious, and others were mocking. Whispers spread across the room like wildfire as they watched the Girl sit down in a seat by the door. Ezeko was deciding whether or not to make the talking and staring stop when the bell rang, making his decision for him.
"EVERYONE IN THEIR SEATS AND QUIET RIGHT NOW!" he yelled. The mostly male populated class all scrambled to get into a seat while the one girl and few guys watched in amusement from their already taken seats. Once everyone was settled he walked slowly around the room with an examining eye.
"This will not be one of those easy pass classes nor will it be one where I will tolerate slacking off. I want one hundred percent from all of you and will not accept any less. You will do every exercise I assign you each day and arrive on time for every class, practice, or competitions. No fooling around, no bullying, no fighting without my command. I refuse to teach a bunch of ten-year-olds. Is this understood?"
"Yes, sir!" the class responded.
"Good. Now, I will teach you for whole period today and Mr. Seastone will take you the next class on Thursday. We will switch every other class, so you will have me two times this week and him two times next week. I will instruct you how to duel with swords and staffs and a weapon of your choice. Mr. Seastone will teach you the Shang Arts and free-style fighting. The schedules for practices and competitions will be given to you when you leave."
Mr. Obafem spoke, "I want you to know that this will not be an easy class, but is more than worth the effort. A lot of prestige is awarded along with the class and each and every one of you is lucky to be in it. So now…let's begin. The first thing I'm going to do is assign your partner for today's dueling practice. Pairs will go by experience and year. The upper class students will be paired with the first years to see how much they know. The purpose of this is to see how far each of you newbies could go." All of the first years started to look nervous when they heard that it was some kind of test. "I want you to come up here as I call your names and stand by your assigned partner."
"First pair is Faleron King and Merric Hollyrose…" Kel watched as the dark-haired boy walk up front and meet up with a redheaded boy who grinned happily at the obviously older guy. "Next pair is going to be Zahir Alhaz…" a regal boy with very tanned skin walked up front and waited "…and Quinden Hill."
The later pairs turned out to be a Roald Conte, who grinned at Kel as he walked up front, and Esmond Nicoline. Also the tall redheaded Cleon Kennan with the dark-eyed Seaver Tasride. There was now only Keladry left out of all the first years left to be paired.
"Last of the first years," Kel thought of the clear lakes back in the Yamanis, trying to keep a composed façade. "Is Keladry Mindelan and…hmmm…. Joren Stone."
Whispers spread like wildfire as everyone turned to look at the Ice Prince himself, who was grinning cockily across the room at Kel. She merely raised an eyebrow at him and barely managed to choke down the smirk that wanted to come out. He won't know what hit him once I'm done with him… she thought.
***
Five minutes later saw the whole class in the gym, dressed in their training clothes, and waiting for Mr. Obafem to show up. The door slammed open and in walked the man himself walking towards them with a large bundle in his arms. He stopped in front of the class and sat the bundle on ground carefully unrolling the sheet surrounding items inside. They watched as a bunch of different sets of training weapons appeared.
"These are what we will use to train with. You and your partner will decide what you will duel with. Once choosing the weapons of your choice, you will duel in front of the class and then the class will offer criticism on your techniques. So let's begin!" Mr. Obafem clapped his hands and looked down at the list in his hands. "Kennan and Tasride are first up! Go easy on him Kennan."
The red-haired boy just grinned cheekily at the older man and slapped his partner gently on the shoulder. "So what's your choice, Seaver?" Cleon asked the younger boy.
"Um…" Seaver gulped. "I-I guess the swords…"
"Fine with me," said the other boy calmly picking up a pair of practice swords and handing one to his partner. "Let's begin. The sooner we start, the sooner this all ends."
The fight lasted only a few minutes before Seaver had the sword knocked out of his hand. The class offered some suggestions on his grip and stance before the blushing boy got to sit down. The rest of the fights were rather uneventful until it came upon Kel's time to duel. The class all started to snicker, as they all knew that no mere girl could beat their top dueler, Joren Stone.
"Mindelan and Stone are up next," Obafem grunted out, clearly wanting to get this over with.
Joren gracefully, but slowly got up from his seat on the floor. Kel was already up front by the time he was standing and she could tell he was purposely moving slowly for most of the class was trying to hold in the chuckles.
Luckily, Obafem clearly did not like how long it was taking for the student to get up. "Move it, Stone! We don't got all day!" Joren moved reasonably faster and soon they were both up front. "Pick your weapons and hurry up with it!"
Kel turned and looked impassively at the undeniably handsome blonde. "Which one do you want to use?"
"Does it really matter? I'm going to win no matter which one we use," Joren replied with a smirk.
Kel just rolled her eyes and bent down to grab two wooden staffs. Ignoring the blatant stares and snickering, she tossed one staff to Joren and walked towards the practice mat. She closed her eyes as she concentrated on becoming like the wind as her teacher in the Yamanis used to say. She imagined a breeze drifting through the treetops and across a sparkling blue river. She was concentrating so hard that she almost missed the whistle to start and the remark thrown at her.
"What's wrong, your Majesty? Already imagining our wedding night?" Joren gave her body a once over before winking at her. "Not that I mind, though. In fact, why don't we prac –"
She didn't let him finish as she swung her staff at his head in a swift downward swing. He barely blocked the attack before she spun around and swung her staff back upwards. Moving quickly now she plowed down on him as she swung the staff again and again.
Jab.
Swing up.
Block clumsy counterattack.
Move in with a fake and move back out with hard side jab.
She ignored all the gasps of astonishment as she pulled back from her fierce assault for a second. Joren was obviously tired and surprised at her quickness and skill level. He barely was able to block all her attacks, but she had to admit that the fact he managed to last this long meant that he had some talent. After a short second of wait, she moved in with another onslaught of attacks that he again barely managed to block. He was tiring down she saw and quickly saw an opening in his counter swing at her. She quickly moved in and hit him with a hard jab in the side. Kel didn't wait for him to catch his breath as she slid her staff across his and sent his staff flying across the completely quiet gym.
Ezeko Obafem has seen a lot of staff fighters before, but never one who moved so quickly and effortlessly. This Mindelan girl seemed to just move like the wind and used some very complex moves out there. When he had put her up against Stone, he did it to show her that this class wouldn't be all fun and games…and he hoped that it might discourage her from taking the class. Boy was he wrong…
Joren Stone had fought against dozens of different people before whether it was with weapons or not. The only people he lost to were the more experienced and older fighters, but never had he lost to someone younger than him. So he thought taking down the Girl would be easy, he even thought about taking it a bit easy on her. A piece of cake, right? Boy was he wrong…
***
Keladry Mindelan changed out of her training clothes, which consisted of black pants and a gray shirt, in the girls' changing room. She pulled on her school uniform, while thinking about the class that just ended. Remembering everyone's astonishment brought a tiny smile to the girl's face.
Mr. Obafem with the still stunned look on his face blew the whistle singling the end of the match. The rest of the class were just sitting completely still until the whistle blew and then slowly started to clap. She just stood there for a moment as she let the adrenaline slide out of her and then walked over to Joren.
In an even voice she said, "Good match." With that she stuck out her hand waiting for him to shake it.
Joren stood there staring at the hand for a moment before slowly shaking it with his own. "You too."
The fact that Joren shook her hand at all still surprised her. He seemed like the type that didn't like to lose and the fact that he lost to the Girl would have to make it worst. After class still amazed her the most, though.
Kel was walking towards the girl's locker room when she heard her name called, "Mindelan!"
Turning around she saw the Coach (as Mr. Obafem had ordered them to call him) standing there looking at her with an unreadable expression on his face. "Good job today in class…" for a moment he looked thoughtful "…I think you'll make it far, Mindelan. I think you will…" he seemed to say the last part to himself before nodding at her in dismissal.
As she walked away she felt someone staring at her and turned around to meet the icy blue eyes of Joren Stone, who was leaning against the wall across the gym. Sapphire met hazel as their eyes caught. She could almost feel herself drowning in his eyes before he abruptly broke the connection. He glanced her way one more time before walking through the gym doors.
She closed the locker door, where she had stored her stuff, and put her lock on it. Walking out of the gym, she thought, today has been one heck of a day alright…I wonder if tomorrow will be like this…
--------
A/N: I know it sucked and I'm sorry for that fact. Hopefully the next chapter will be better and not to mention up sooner!
*****
NAOMI'S COMMENTARY
On a trip and won't be able to post, sorry!