A/N: ARRGGHH! I am SO sorry I haven't written recently! I have been absolutely SWAMPED with homework and haven't found the time to type...but now I found it! Actually...there is some homework I SHOULD be doing right now...but this is more important, right? ...*ahem*... Oh ya...I'm a little more awake than I was last time, so hopefully this chapter should be a little better...

After the teens went upstairs, Numair looked around at his friends. They were all deep in thought, contemplating of what they had just seen. "Well..." he said, "that was...intriguing..."

Kel sighed, "No wonder they were bored by our world. Living in one like that could never get old."

Neal leaned back in his chair, "True. But it seemed so crowded and busy, I'm not sure if I would want to live there..."

"Yes, I guess so..."

Daine looked at everyone, "I've noticed that they are a little bored here. Maybe we should give them something to do?"

Numair sat up, "That's a brilliant idea Daine! I've had my eye on Tom as a scholar. I think that he would enjoy it..."

Kel smiled, "Yes, he does seem the type, doesn't he. Alex and Phi have been seen around the armory a lot, maybe they would like to train with the pages..."

Dom thought about it for a moment, then stood up, "Well, no matter what you decide to do, I need to get back with the Own. Raoul will kill me if I'm late, especially now that we need to go check on those Scanrans."

Kel nodded and Dom sauntered out of the room, "See you later..."

Esmond stood up and stretched, "Maybe in the morning we could send Alex and Phi down to train with the pages, and Tom can come down here and help you out Numair."

The mage smiled, "That sounds like a wonderful idea...well then it's settled..."

With that, Kel, Neal, Merric, Owen, and Esmond walked out of the study and up to their rooms. Kel turned to her friends, "See you all in the morning, I have to check up with Toby, and I probably won't be down for supper." They waved her good-bye and then went to their own rooms.

***in the morning***

A really loud bell rang.

Alex woke with a start, and lurched to a sitting position, then fell off the bed, "What the...?"

Tom woke up from the loud "thud" noise Alex had made when he hit the floor, and looked sleepily at his friend on the ground, "...Um.... what are you doing on the floor?"

Suddenly, they heard the bell again, and Alex looked at Tom while trying to untangle himself from his sheets, "That sounded like a school bell...Oh no! My nightmares have come true! We're at *gasp* Summer School!"

Tom gave him that what-the-heck-are-you-talking-about-look, "It's probably just for the pages, so they know when to get up and stuff..."

Alex looked, embarrassed, up at Tom, "...Oh ya...I forgot about them..."

Someone knocked on the door, "I'll get it!" cried Alex as he finally finished untangling himself. He jumped up, walked over to the door, and slowly creaked it open, "Halo?"

It was Kel, and another kid he had never seen before, "Good morning Alex...I was wondering if you and Phi would like to train with the pages this morning?"

He looked at her suspiciously, "Have any casualties occurred from this 'training'?

"Nooooo...."

He thought about it, "What would Tom do?"

"Numair said that he could use some assistance in his study."

Tom leapt up out of his bed, "I'm there!"

Alex sighed, and turned back to Kel, "OK...where and when do we need to go?"

Kel smiled at him, "The armory. 15 minutes."

Alex turned from the door, "15 minutes, that's not so bad...wait. 15 minutes?" Kel nodded. Alex ran back into the room and grabbed his clothes, "Allright!Thankyou!Goodbye!" and with that he closed the door and yanked on his clothes.

"Maybe you should slow down a bit..."Tom advised as he watched his friend trying to shove his foot into his shoe.

"What do you mean?"

Tom smirked, "You're shirt's on backwards."

"GAH!" Alex ripped off his shirt and put it on correctly. "Sorry, I just can't wait! It's going to be SO cool!"

"Ya, getting bruised and learning to kill people, sure seems fun to me..." Tom muttered as he slipped into his own shirt.

"You always gotta look at the dark side of things don't you?"

Tom laughed, "Only in the mornings!"

Alex made sure Tom was dressed and then nearly flew out the door. Tom yelled to him, "Have fun!". From around the corner he heard a "You too!". Chuckling to himself, Tom made his way to Numair's study.

*** After a brief turn around, Alex found his way to the stable area thing only to find twenty little 12 year olds looking up at him. He turned and saw Phi resting against a wall, deep in thought...or it looked that way anyways. He walked over to her, trying to ignore all the starring little kids, "Um...do you feel...slightly out of place?"

She looked at him and said sarcastically, "What ever do you mean?"

"I mean that most of them only come up to my chest?"

She nodded slightly, "And that they are all starring at us like we're from Mars? Ya...you could say I noticed..."

Just then a very large (A/N: Ya know, strong large...) man strode over to them and the pages. "Good morning future knights. I am going to be your training master for the next four years, so you might as well get used to me. My name is Lord haMinch, and it's my job to make the next four years of your lives miserable and to teach you discipline, and the other skills that you will require as a knight. The first thing we're going to do is pair up and start learning to defend ourselves. You will be paired with more experienced pages, who will teach you to block."

Phi and Alex looked at each other and shrugged. Lord haMinch came down the line of first years and paired them up with second years. He stopped short when he reached Alex, "Well, seeing that you're a little too tall to be a twelve year old, I'd say that you are the kid that Lady Keledry talked to me about..." then he noticed Phi standing next to him, "There of two of you? Well, we can take care of that. Comas! Eoban! Come and show these two how to block!"

"Yes sir!" Two of the bigger boys came and bowed to Alex and Phi, then getting into position across from them.

Lord haMinch cleared his throat, "All right! Get into starting position!"

Phi quickly placed her feet in the right spot after looking to see how her partner, Eoban, had placed his. It took Alex a little longer but soon, all the first years had their footing correct.

"Okay." said Lord haMinch, "The first thing you will learn to do is defend yourselves. We will begin with the training rods, as I like to call them, and won't be using real swords until you all show me you're ready." With that, he handed out the sticks, moved to one end of the line and called out, "Defense!"

Alex looked at the big stick in his hand, "Hey! This looks like a quarter staff!" His partner hit him on the hand that he was holding the stick with when he wasn't paying attention, "Ouch!! *#@!$*! It hurts like a quarter staff too..." He attempted to block the next blow, but failed miserably as it landed on his leg. Phi was having the same amount of trouble with her own partner.

"Hey kid, aren't you hitting a little fast?" He was moving much faster than everyone else and seemed to hit a lot harder too.

Her partner looked up at her and sneered, "What, is it too hard for you to keep up? Let me show you how things are done it Tortall!" He began to land a blow in every spot she left open, swinging as fast as he could.

Phi scowled, "What the hell do you think you're doing!" He gave no answer except a blow to her gut. "That's it kid! Now you've really pissed me off!" With a sudden burst of energetic rage that she was infamous for, Phi matched the boy's speed and practically doubled it, enabling her to block all of his hits and return them with a vengeance.

Before anything really dangerous could happen, Lord haMinch interrupted them, "I think you two are done for today...we're supposed to be defending, not bashing each other's heads off!" Phi stopped, but not before giving the boy a smirk of victory, which was returned will a scowl of painful defeat, and the boy walked over to his friends.

Alex turned to her, "You've really gotta work on your people skills..."

She grinned, "But that would take all the fun outa' life!"

Alex rolled his eyes and turned to Lord haMinch as he said, "Alright...it seems that some of us," he looked reproachfully at Phi and Eoban, "have a little too much energy. Let's go burn it off! I want everyone to jog the wall! Go!

Alex scowled, "What is this? P.E.? I hate running!"

Phi began to jog towards the stairs, "hmm...maybe I should give you a little more motivation..."

"What? Hey!" Phi jogged up to Alex and slammed him into the wall. "Ow! Now yer gonna get it! Come back here! You are so dead when I catch up to you!" Phi took off running up the stairs, quickly making it to the front of the line. Alex was trying desperately to catch up, "If...there...weren't so many...damn stairs...I could run faster..."

Finally he reached the top and with a burst of speed tore after Phi, who squeaked in alarm and picked up her pace. By now they were halfway across the wall, the pages in front picking up their pace to match Phi's. By the time they finished running, everyone was about ready to collapse. Phi leaned against a fence, chuckling in between breaths.

"Not...funny...at all..." puffed Alex as he flopped down on the ground.

One of the second year pages, the one they had talked to at the armory, looked at Phi and smiled. "You're an okay runner! I could hardly keep up with you!"

Phi looked at the little brown haired boy and smiled back, "Thanks. For a kid, you're pretty fast too!"

The boy held out his hand, "My name is Devic."

Phi took Devic's hand, "It's nice to meet you Devic. My name is Phi, and the lump over there is Alex!"

"Still not funny!"