Me and 130 bow at the combat instructor who I have never seen before and enter the classroom.
'You two are late. Why?' he asks in a stern and authoritative voice.
'Instructor, I apologise for our lateness' 130 says to the instructor, 'it won't happen again. You have my word'
The instructor nods his head looking surprised as he probably expected us to make up an excuse but 130 doesn't see the point in lying ever. We slot into the crowd of people, evidently we stand with our friends from the black sector but to my right is a girl from another sector – I think she's from the orange sector. Everyone in the crowd stands up straight with military precision and looks directly at the instructor as he is speaking.
'I know many of you will not know anyone from the other divisions (this was just another word for sectors) but everyone is equal here' his eyes glance pass the black sector as we are known for being arrogant towards other sectors, 'but in my class that behaviour will stop. This term is focused on working with each other and you and a partner will train and fight together. You will develop trust with your partners and combine your skills until the final assessment. Then you'll be assessed individually, firstly on your skill level and then against the rest of the class. 10 of the bravest and strongest fighters will be sent off to the first mission in Russia in five weeks. Understand?'
'Yes, we do Instructor' everyone replies as a collective and everyone relaxes their shoulders, it is customary that after we have been briefed we relax.
'Today will be the start of the partnered training' the instructor says more relaxed, he then turns around and switches on the screen behind him which show the partners by identification number, 'find your partner, find a mat and start bonding'
I read my identification 145 and next to was 150 which was a person I didn't know, meaning they are in a different sector than I am. I scanned the screen for 130 and was shocked to see his name with 147 his girlfriend whom he couldn't do any further bonding with. I rolled my eyes it was typical that I was stuck with a stranger, while 130 is with his girlfriend. In my fury I almost didn't realise the girl next to me had tapped my shoulder, my reaction was slow as I turned around confused and looked at her. She nervously tucked her blonde hair behind her ear and looked up at me.
'So, I guess I'm your partner' she shrugs indicating the screen.
'What…? Oh right, you're 150' I ask momentarily confused, 'Sorry, I'm 145'
'Err… I prefer people to call me Chloe, but seeing as you're in the black sector I suppose you'll want to call me 150' Chloe shrugs. It isn't unheard of that some of the other sectors give each other names and people call them by it to give them a sense of normality I guess, but as she pointed out the black sector normally doesn't follow this habit and calls everyone by their identification number.
'Okay… let's just find a mat' I reply harsher than I wanted to but her tone when she said 'black sector' annoyed me and has made me resent her already. I march towards a free mat adjacent to 130's mat and 130 looks at me, notices my anger and laughs with 147.
I roll my eyes to find that they meet the eyes of Chloe and her arms are crossed, which is never a good sign with girls.
'Bit of an overreaction to a name, don't you think?' her tone is sarcastic and her question didn't seem direct.
'I don't care what you call yourself' I say with hard eyes, 'just don't assume things about me because I'm in the black sector'
'Oh, that's your problem' she unfolds her arms and her position relaxes.
'I don't have a problem' I reply curtly.
'Okay' she smiles awkwardly and continues to say, 'you seem like a Max. I'm going to call you Max'
'I'd prefer if you didn't name me, thank you' I tousle my hair as I speak which noticeably makes her reply delayed.
'Fine… Max' she says ignoring my comment, 'what combat level are you?'
'Eleven' I reply with a smug little smile as I know I am the only person in third year to be on eleven already.
'Oh so you're the guy on eleven' she says it with a smile on her face, I assume it is a sarcastic gesture, 'well I'm on ten'
I raise my eyebrows; I didn't expect her to be on level ten as 130 is only just got onto level nine and he is a very skilled fighter. 'That's actually really good; maybe we were partnered up based on skill level' the last part was more an observation than an accusation.
'Really good…!? I'm the second highest in third year that's actually pretty impressive' Chloe scoffs at me.
'Considering you're talking to the person with the highest level in third year, really good is all you're going to get' I smirk, maybe she's not as bad as I thought. 'So, what sector are you from?'
'White' she replies with a blush, 'but I'm not a peace lover or whatever' I should have known she was in the white sector by the name giving but I didn't want to stereotype. Typically people from the white sector are against the program and so far none of the people from the white sector have gone onto the next step.
'People in the white sector, never have a skill level higher than five' I laugh but stop when I realise that I'm the only one laughing.
'I thought we weren't stereotyping sectors?' she raises her eyebrow looking hurt.
'Sorry, I was just surprised' I look apologetic and add, 'maybe you are pretty impressive'
'Why thank you' she says and then a smile curves her lips. After a moment of silence Chloe smiles cunningly and says mischievously, 'so… how about we fight now?'
I smile back playfully and seductively say, 'sure, you choose the style, darling'
'So you can't call me Chloe but you can call me darling?' she laughs and then tries to compose her face, 'karate'
I am surprised at her choice but don't question it as I mould the perfect stance to start karate with one leg back and the other forward bent slightly. Her stance matches mine and she sets her fists in front of her both protecting her face. Without further warning she attacks first with a few simple punches which I dodge with ease. I assume we are practice fighting which is mostly about defence rather than attack so I return one of her punches with a harsh block.
She winced at the pain of striking the tough bone on my arm and I feel instantly guilty but she doesn't stop. She swings her leg towards my side and I return it by slashing my arm down on her leg more gently this time, she doesn't wince. She lunges forward with hard punches and one was successful. She's resilient. I advance on her with a chest blow which I stopped from actually hitting her chest but close enough for her to realise that I could have hit her. My decision not to hit her had been a wrong one because it obviously made her defensive; she attacked aggressively throwing aimless punches relentlessly towards my face.
I cautioned her to stop by dropping my defensive stance and holding my hands up towards her asking her what was wrong. She ignored my surrender and spun twice towards me ending the sequence with a high kick which hit my cheek. The blow knocked me off the mat, I didn't fall to the ground but I collided with 130. I straightened my body as the heat beneath the skin of my cheek flared, I looked around the room and everyone had stopped training, they were staring at Chloe in complete shock.
I brushed my knuckles over my cheek to feel for a bump and as I expected I would, I felt bruising about to form. I stared back at Chloe with hateful eyes; she had embarrassed me in front of the whole class trying to show off.
'Hit her back' 130 shouted at me, pushing me towards her, 'how dare she hit one of us, the peace loving idiot. Hit her back and show her what a hit from a level eleven feels like'
'No… there's no point' I scowl, 'she's not worth it' I turn around trying to head out of the class but I only move one step when the Instructor appears in front of me.
'What is going on over here?' the instructor looked at me with a scrutinising look suspecting the trouble came from me.
'Nothing, can I be excused from the last 5 minutes of this lesson' I ask the instructor clenching my jaw.
'No, no you may not' the instructor retorts, 'and you will address me as instructor. You better learn some respect, boy'
'But Instructor this girl has-' before 130 could finish the instructor interrupted.
'Enough' he silences 130 and looks at the rest of the class, 'continue with your bonding work. Now'
As he whipped away from us and returned to the front of the class room, I turned and looked at Chloe who had moved closer to me.
'I'm sorry, I'm really sorry' she apologised frantically; I felt her cool breath against my skin and shivered. 'I just wanted to show you that, you didn't have to hold back with me'
'Just forget it' I reply harshly and for the rest of the lesson we just practiced combat on our own, not even looking at each other.
