Ralon Malven appeared the next day with a bruised eye and a broken nose.
"You little sneak," he hissed. "Do you really think you're a big man just because you have popular friends? The next time it's going to be worse."
He purposely brought his foot down on Alanna's toes and she winced.
She was walking back to her dorm after sports hour and she was far too tired to throw a snarky comment back at him. He strode away from her and she stuck her tongue out at him.
"Well if that's the best you've got," an amused voice said from behind her. "No wonder he's kicking your ass."
Alanna turned around and she found herself face to face with the tall brown haired boy she had seen on her first day.
"George Cooper right?" she said.
"You remember me," he said with a smile. "Don't expect that from a Corus boy. And considering the fact that you've been getting your head beaten in a whole lot…"
"Does everyone know that he's picking on me?" Alanna asked with a sigh.
"Saw you and your friend walking back yesterday," George said. "Well he was walking. You were being dragged."
"I was not," Alanna said stung. "I can take everything he throws at me."
"Well maybe you should stop taking it," George said, his eyes twinkling.
Alanna let out a laugh. "He's triple my size," she said. "I don't think I have much of a choice."
"You always have a choice," George said smiling. "See you around Trebond."
He sauntered off and for some reason Alanna found it difficult to look away from his powerful frame. She shook herself out of it and as she was walking away she heard Gary calling out to her.
"Wait up Alan," he said, running to her.
"Hey Gary," she said.
"So George Cooper huh?" he asked a naughty glint in his eye. "Never thought you'd be the sort."
"What?" Alanna asked, confused. "I just saw him when I came in. He said I looked too small to be a student here."
"You do look too small to be a student here," Gary said. "But do you really not know his…uh…"
"His what?" Alanna asked. "Why are you being so cryptic?"
"He's…well…he's a drug dealer," Gary said. "Pot specifically."
"He's a drug dealer?" Alanna said, astonished. "Why on earth is he allowed to live here?"
"Well no one really knows about his ah…extracurricular activities," Gary said. "Not Dad or Uncle Roald at least."
"And presumably no one else in the staff," Alanna said dryly.
"Well they know he's no good," Gary said with a laugh. "You should hear Mr. Provost go on about him. He's convinced he's a 'hoodlum.' His words, not mine."
"Well he sort of is, isn't he?" Alanna said. "I can't believe they wouldn't get rid of him."
"He's not dangerous Alan," Gary said. "At least not to us. I don't know how he conducts his business elsewhere. You should hear the stories Stefan tells."
"Stefan the stable boy?"Alanna asked. "What does he have to do with anything."
"He helps George…move the product," Gary said carefully.
"Do you…y'know?" Alanna asked.
"Well…" Gary said, trailing off. "On occasion I suppose. Thought you might be getting something for pain relief."
"Well I'm not," Alanna said. "I'm fine."
"You say that way too often," Gary commented. "Most people who are fine don't need to constantly assure everyone that they are."
Alanna just shook her head and the two of them walked back to the dorms in companionable silence.
"Do you think I'll ever have a chance of beating Ralon?" Alanna asked when they were getting close.
Gary looked at her thoughtfully. "I don't know," he said, after a while. "I guess it all depends on you."
"Yeah I suppose it does," Alanna said. If Gary noticed something slightly off about her tone he didn't say anything.
At two that morning Coram's doorbell rang. He stumbled out of bed and put the lights on in the living room, cursing all the while.
"Alanna?" he asked sleepily as he let her in. "What are you doing here?"
"I need your help," she said determinedly.
"At two in the morning?" he asked rubbing his eyes. "Well come on in. Hope no one saw you sneak out. It's a months worth of detention being out of bed after hours."
Alanna stepped off the dark porch and into Coram's well-lit living room. Coram suppressed a gasp.
"Alanna," he said, no hint of drowsiness in his voice. "What happened to your face?"
"I need you to teach me how to fight," Alanna said, ignoring his question.
"What happened?" he asked, a hint of anger in his voice.
"I told you," Alanna said. "You need to teach me how to fight."
"Do I look like Mr. Miyagi to you?" Coram exploded. "I'm pulling you out of that school right now."
"I'm not running away," Alanna said mulishly. "I just need your help."
"And I need to get you back to your father and beg him not to sue me," Coram said angrily. "It looks like you've been hit by a truck Alanna."
"Well I want to hit the truck back," Alanna said tartly. "And you can help me."
"What do you want from me lass," Coram sighed.
"You were in the army," Alanna said. "You have to know basic defence stuff. Just teach me how to defend myself. I'm not running away."
Her tone was so defiant Coram took a second to reply. And when he did the words that came out of his mouth surprised them both.
"Fine," he muttered. "Fine."
"So you'll do it?" she asked, her tone half hopeful and half sceptical.
"I said I would," Coram grunted. "Come here after you're done with homework tomorrow night and we'll see what we can do."
"Thank you," she said and rather impulsively gave him a hug.
"You just watch out," Coram warned. "Don't go looking for trouble."
"I never look for it," Alanna said demurely.
Coram just snorted.
Alanna sped through her homework the next day.
"There's no way you finished reading that book," Francis said. "I know you're fast but not that fast."
"It's just reading," Alanna said. "No one actually does it. And besides you know it doesn't even matter what we think of it. Father David'll just give us his analysis and tell us that that's the only way to look at it."
"Okay," Francis said a little sceptical. "Well help me with the conclusion of this essay if you're done already."
"Sorry," Alanna said apologetically. "Gotta be somewhere."
"What's gotten into you Alan?" Francis asked. "Gary told me about Cooper. Are you sure...?"
"I'm not on drugs Francis," Alanna said patiently. "I'll see you in a bit."
Francis just nodded, looking a little worried.
Alanna practically ran to Coram's house. She knocked on the door totally out of breath.
"I have an hour till lights out," she said.
"That should be enough for your first day," Coram said. "Come in. We have a lot of work to do."
For the next few weeks Alanna's schedule was unbelievably hectic. On top of all her school related activities she was training with Coram for an hour every night. She developed calluses on her knuckles and slowly developed the ability to endure more and more physical activity. But that wasn't enough. Even though Coram was a good teacher, most of his moves relied on strength and a certain amount of weight. Alanna while not exactly weak was not even nearly as strong as Ralon. Alanna was also definitely not underweight for her height and gender, but she was on the slim side while Ralon was on the other end of the spectrum. But nonetheless, she stuck with it. She woke up every morning at four and practiced what Coram had taught her, then went for her morning run. By the time lights out came, she was usually so exhausted she went straight to sleep.
However she still found time to make a rather unusual new friend. George Cooper seemed to have taken a liking to her. And quite surprisingly she found herself liking him back. He was funny and while he never revealed the names of his clients he invariably had amusing stories to tell about them.
"Do you usually hang out with Corus boys?" she asked George one day when she was skiving off during her sports hour.
"That lot?" George asked, with a laugh. "What do you think?"
"Well you hang out with me don't you?" she said. "I'm a Corus boy."
"It's different," George said, brushing her questions aside. "What I want to know is how you managed to get that?" He pointed at her ankle, which was wrapped up in a bandage.
"I fell," Alanna said shortly, using her go to excuse.
"No you didn't," George said. "You know you can't lie to me Alan. I'm ten times smarter than you. There's no use trying."
"I really wish everyone would just butt out," Alanna said crossly. "I can take care of myself."
"I don't understand why you just don't tell one of your large friends to deal with him," George said. "They'd be more than happy."
"I know," Alanna said, and then an idea struck her. "Actually could you help me?"
"You want my help?" George asked. There was something different about his tone and his face was oddly grim. "I could arrange for a little surprise for Ralon the next time he goes into town. Is that what you want?"
"What?" Alanna asked horrified. "No. What's wrong with you?"
"Now don't get all offended," George said, his voice went back to its normal laughing tone. "You won't believe some of the favours I've been asked to do."
"That you would even think-" Alanna's face turned a deep shade of red.
"Calm down," George said. "Now what did you want my help for? If you do want him taught a lesson I'd be more than happy to arrange it."
"I do want him to be taught a lesson," Alanna said her tone steely.
"That's good," George said. Alanna could practically see the cogs in his brain whirring and coming up with a plan.
"But I want to be the one to teach it to him," she said.
With that a wide smile appeared on George's face and Alanna was forcibly struck by how handsome he really was.
"That's even better," he said. "So you want my help to beat him?"
"Yes," Alanna said. "Coram's good but I'm too small for most of what he's teaching me. I have a feeling you might have a few tricks up your sleeve.
"Well you're right about that," George said. "How about we start tonight?"
"I'll be there after lights out," Alanna promised.
"I stay above the kitchens so it shouldn't be too hard to get past the masters on duty," George said.
"Alan!" someone shouted.
"Gotta go," Alanna said. "See you tonight."
Gary waved at Alanna as she bounded towards him.
"You missed most of sports hour," he mock chided. "We're going riding now though. Thought you might want to come."
Alanna adored horses. She supposed she must've inherited that trait from Coram. She grew up riding Chubby, Coram's old pony and she had quite a good seat (or so the masters said).
As Alanna galloped around the course, she felt oddly uplifted. She thoroughly enjoyed the feeling of being on a horse. Even though the old school horse she was riding didn't give her the smoothest ride and wasn't particularly pliant she still felt incredibly happy.
"You need a proper horse Alan," Jon said, as the one she was riding decided to take a snack break. He trotted over to her.
"The chances of my father giving me enough money for one are between zero and negative one," she said ruefully. "In the meantime I'm stuck with Fuzzypants here."
"Who named him Fuzzypants?" Jon asked with a laugh.
"Stefan," she said. "Look he does kinda have fuzzy legs."
"Well it's a shame," Jon said. "You're a good rider."
"Thanks," she said, oddly touched. Jon very rarely dispensed compliments.
After their ride they went back to the stables where they started rubbing down their horses and cleaning their tack.
"I'll catch up with you," Alanna said, when she noticed Jon was done.
"I don't mind waiting," he said.
"Go on," she said with a laugh. "I'll meet you at dinner."
"'Kay," Jon said, and left to clean up before dinner.
"Well look who it is," someone sneered from behind Alanna.
Alanna sighed. She was not in the mood for Ralon today.
"What do you want Malven?" she asked.
"Well I need someone to clean up my tack and I think I've found just the person," he said.
Alanna just ignored him.
"Not going to say anything?" he asked. "Not such a big man now you don't have your friends around, are you Trebond?"
Alanna snorted.
"Clean up my tack," he said. "And rub down my horse."
"No," Alanna said, looking him straight in the eye.
Ralon smiled at her. "Well then we have a problem don't we," he said, his tone smooth and chilling.
Alanna walked away from their altercation her arm hanging uselessly by her side. Nevertheless there was a smile on her face. While Ralon had definitely kicked her ass she had managed to give him quite a few, rather painful punches in the nose and one sharp kick to his groin.
"Jesus Christ," Francis said, when he saw her at dinner.
Jon looked at her, his expression impenetrable. "What happened?" he asked.
"The usual," she said with a wince as he inspected her arm.
"I know you don't like going to the infirmary," he said, gently pressing her arm in certain places. "But I'm pretty sure this is broken."
"I'll be fine," Alanna said. "If I go to the infirmary they'll just ask questions."
"Either you walk to the infirmary or Gary, Raoul and I will pick you up and carry you there," Jon said, his tone dangerous. "There's a limit to stupidity Alan."
"Fine," Alanna huffed. "But I'm not telling anyone how I got it."
"We don't care as long as you get that bandaged up," Jon said, standing up.
"What are you doing?" Alanna asked warily.
"I'm going to make sure you actually do go," Jon said firmly. "Come on."
With much grumbling Alanna was escorted to the infirmary. The nurse took one look at her hand and immediately called Vice-Principle Naxen.
"What in god's name happened?" he asked, after a couple of x-rays showed that Alanna's hand was indeed broken.
"I fell off my horse sir," she said.
"I'm sure you did," Mr. Naxen said disbelievingly. "The number of times I've heard that excuse from a boy…"
"It's true," Alanna said stubbornly.
"And did your horse give you that black eye too?" Mr. Naxen asked.
"That was from before sir," Alanna said. "It's an old black eye."
"Hmph," Mr. Naxen said, disapprovingly. "If you're going to fight at least be better at it Alan."
"You know I give everything I do my best sir," Alanna said pertly.
Mr. Naxen caught himself before he smiled.
"Well I'll have to give you a weeks worth of detention for fighting and then lying about it," he said. "But Alan, you had better give him what he deserves the next time alright?"
"I'll try sir," Alanna said with a grin.