Three.
Aliyah, Merry and John walked into History class and found a table about halfway back, to sit at. Aliyah watched as a well-built man with dark hair and green eyes walked over to the desk and set down a pile of books.
"Isn't he just a dream?" Merry said staring at the teacher.
Aliyah regarded him for a time, not bad, but not her type.
"He's an archaeologist too." John whispered.
"Alright you lot shut it!" Dr Brody said, he didn't shout but his voice carried. "To day we're learning about the French revolution." To Aliyah's surprise he was English. "I Ok, so first let's get the basics down, does everyone know where France is?"
Several girls laughed at the quip, Aliyah noticed the blond, identified as Charity by Merry, was among them.
"Ok Charity. Where is France?" Brody asked.
"Well, um, isn't like, in Europe, or something?" She stumbled blushing,
"Yes, can you be more precise, what is it near? Who dose it have borders with, was it under the ice during the Holocene?"
"Short answer for the last one. No." John said leaning over.
Charity fumbled for an answer. "Sweden?" She tired.
"No, Sweden dose not border France." Brody replied.
Merry's hand shot up.
"Yes Meredith?"
"France is in Northern Europe, it has borders with Spain, Italy, and Switzerland, it is also next to England." She said, Aliyah was impressed until she saw the map pinned to the wall.
"Very good. You noticed the map." Brody commented. "So who knows when the French revolution was?"
Johns hand shot up. "18th Centaury."
As the class went on Aliyah could see why everyone liked them so much, small snide comments and interesting interpretations of events, combined with his genuine enthusiasm, made the class really interesting, it was one comment that stood out.
"The guillotine was chosen because it was believed that the ruling parties were Vampires, as it takes the head off, it will work oh humans and the undead."
The rest of the day went without much event, until P.E. It was there last lesson of the day. Aliyah pulled her T-shirt off and rotted in her bag for the white sports top, Merry had finished changing and was removing her pearsings.
"Hey." Charity called, Aliyah looked up from her search. "Look at Miss Muscles!" She gestured to Aliyah's toned tummy.
Aliyah just shot her a withering look and turned back to her bag, finding the white Tee she pulled it on without turning around, she didn't want them to see she was blushing. She enjoyed exercising and liked to keep fit, but was still shy about people commenting on her muscle tone.
They finished changing whilst Charity made fun of one of the larger members of the class.
In the sports hall, they quickly found John, who looked rather uncomfortable in his white tee and shorts.
"I hate shorts!" He said as they approached.
"Alright, you bunch of Ingrates!" The teacher, a large man in a tracksuit, yelled. "Today were starting our course in Self defence. This," he gestured to a small woman with short dark hair and a nice tan. "Is Lana Thomas she will be teaching you for the self defence sessions."
"Thank you, Mr Grundershaw." Lana said. Her voice held some accent that Aliyah couldn't place. "If you want to start jogging round, to warm up. We don't want you pulling anything now do we."
They jogged around stretching out Aliyah, had don Ti-Kwan-Do a few years ago and made green belt, and knew how to stretch. She was looking forward to the lessons, as, as indicated by what she had overheard at lunch, were the rest of the class. After warming up they got into pairs, as far as possible into boy girl pairings. She noticed that John and Merry got together; she ended up with some sports jock, with a massive chest and shoulders, if she hadn't done martial arts before she would have been worried about trying to do the moves on him, but she knew that size didn't matter.
The first thing they did was what to do if someone grabbed your hair, Aliyah hadn't done it before but it was easy, which was probably why Miss Thomas had gotten them to do it first. All you had to do was clamp your hands on your head and bend over whilst stepping backward. Then they learnt how to do joint locks if someone grabbed your shirt, Aliyah noticed how much her partner liked that one.
When they had finished Miss Thomas came over to her. "Hello, Aliyah wasn't it?"
"Uh, yes Miss." Aliyah tuned to look her in the face. "What was it?"
"I was looking at you move, have you done a martial art before?"
"Yes, I was a Green Belt in Ti-Kwan-Do. Why do you ask?"
"If you want to take it up again, then I run the Ti-Kwan-Do classes in the local sports hall on a Saturday Morning. Come along." Lana said smiling
"Thank you." Aliyah said, and then bowed before jogging over to where her friends had waited for her.
Markus walked into the sports hall as the students piled out to get changed. He walked over to Lana.
"Markus. What brings you here?" She put the bag of pads down as she spoke.
"Did you speak to her?" He asked.
"Yes, and she's don Ti-Kwon-Do before, and she showed interest in coming to the Saturday sessions." Lana said. "Why do did you want me to do that anyway?"
"I can't tell you."
"Right."
"Look I can't, OK!" It came out harsher than Markus had intended.
"Fine Markus. Keep your secrets" She said picking up the pads.
"Hey, Ali!" Merry called, running to catch up with Aliyah. "Were going to 'The Basement' tonight, you want to come?"
Aliyah jumped onto the bus. "What's 'The Basement'?"
"It's local nightlife." Merry informed her as they sat down.
