The partner straps turned out to be quite disastrous, albeit a little amusing. As promised, Professor Stein had assigned several of the teams to start up a mini game of basketball. It didn't work out too well. The ball was dropped many times – it was a lot more difficult to catch with the pairs trying to move around the court, as well as concentrate on what their partner was doing.
Not to mention the amount of times the teams got their partner straps tangled with others or tripped over their partner's feet. Several of the students left for lunch with injuries. Both Black Star and Blood had grazed knees from tripping each other up and Ox had given Kilik a brilliant black eye whilst trying to catch the ball.
Brina was extremely grateful that her and Kid hadn't been chosen to participate in the game. The partner straps seemed to make everybody clumsy. Which was probably why Professor Stein had let her pass on this occasion – her reputation was too well-known in his class. Kid didn't seem too bothered about not participating either, after seeing the mayhem that had ensued.
The teams that hadn't been a part of the mini basketball game weren't off the hook for long, however. Professor Stein had them all involved in a larger game later that afternoon. Whereas some of the pairs were now used to it, it didn't make up for everybody else and the game seemed to go even worse.
The students all left at the end of the day, aching and grumbling. Brina decided to head over to the weapons' classroom in the hope of meeting the twins from there. Professor Stein had been keeping them so busy that she hadn't seen them since Monday morning.
She rubbed her wrist as she headed back up to the school. She was grateful to have the partner strap off. She hoped they wouldn't be using them again. Like she needed anything else to make her more unbalanced.
She spotted the twins coming out of the classroom before they saw her, since they were so much taller than most of the other students. "Adrian! Jess!"
"Hey, Bree," greeted Jesse, as they weaved their way over to her. "Were you waiting for us?"
"What have you done to your hair?" Adrian asked abruptly before she could reply.
"Don't you like it?" asked Brina.
"Not really. Your old style was better," replied Adrian, blunt as always.
Brina just shrugged it off. "It needed cutting." She knew what his reaction would be if she told him that Kid had been the one to cut her hair for her.
It was as if Jesse knew where Brina's thought trail was leading. "So how have your lessons been going? Has Lord Death's son been treating you okay?"
"Yeah, he's been loads better actually," said Brina truthfully. "We've just been doing trust exercises really. I guess they're not so bad..."
"Huh. He changed his tune pretty quick," grunted Adrian.
"Well, I'm not complaining," said Brina with another shrug, trying her best to sound casual about it. "So do you two wanna come back to mine for something to eat? I've barely seen you all week."
She said the last part with a pout, bringing a grin to Jesse's face and even a reluctant smile to Adrian's. "Sounds good," said Jesse brightly. "Let's get out of here."
"So how's the new project going for you guys so far?" Brina asked when they were all sat in her lounge with some takeaway pizzas. She was sure that the twins would be having a more fun time of it since they were in a team together.
"It's not so bad," replied Jesse. "Naigus is a pretty cool teacher and Death Scythe isn't so bad when he's not drooling over his daughter."
"They haven't really taught us anything new yet," added Adrian, who was picking at his pizza.
"Well, we're still only in the first week, I guess... Eat it properly, Ade; you're getting bits on my floor," said Brina reproachfully.
Adrian made a non-committal noise, but he obligingly scooped up the bits of pepper with a napkin. "So you're not really enjoying it, are you? This new set-up, I mean."
Brina always found it disconcerting when the twins could tell what she was thinking even when she tried to hide it. She could read people easily, but she wasn't used to others doing the same with her.
"Well, I'd much rather be with you guys, but it's not like we have a choice. It's just hard starting afresh like this," sighed Brina. She'd worked so hard to perfect her teamwork with the twins – it felt like being back to square one again. "And some of the activities we've been doing are kinda difficult. Professor Stein says he's got a challenge for us tomorrow. He sounded pretty smug about it, so I'm not really looking forward to that."
"Maybe he's gonna get all you guys to fight against us weapons," Adrian suggested.
Brina recoiled in horror at the thought. "He can't do that!"
"Of course he won't," said Jesse, giving Adrian an impatient look. "Ade's just playing you up. Plus there's too many weapons for that anyway."
The twins couldn't offer much consolation over Professor Stein's project and Jesse purposely changed the subject as soon as he could. It was clear that Brina didn't want to stay up too late, wanting to make sure she was as prepared as she could be for what the following day had in store, so the twins soon bid her goodbye and allowed her to get an early night.
XXX
When Brina got to the academy the following morning, she found Professor Stein, Sid and some of the other meisters already waiting outside. The assault course that they'd had to beat previously was back in place and Professor Stein was carrying the bag of partner straps again.
Brina's heart sank. It wasn't difficult to put two and two together, but that didn't necessarily mean that she liked the outcome.
Once the rest of the class had turned up, the teachers quickly organised them into a queue and handed out the partner straps. "I'm guessing that this exercise doesn't need much explaining," said Professor Stein. "You can probably figure out what we want you to do here."
"Complete the course with your partner," Sid ordered shortly. He held up a stopwatch. "We'll be timing you so that we can see who needs to work more on their teamwork skills."
Professor Stein waited until each team had fixed their partner straps in place before stopping to stand at the front of the queue. Black Star and Blood were up first. "Are you ready?"
Both boys were practically bouncing with adrenaline. Blood was a bit antisocial and generally came across as quite laidback, but his standing rivalry with Black Star had made him quite competitive since they'd started the new class project. What they didn't seem to realise was that for this they'd need to put their energy into working together; not against each other.
They both nodded. "Good," said Professor Stein. "Now go!"
The two boys ploughed eagerly onto the course. The first obstacle – a large square net fixed onto the ground, which they had to crawl under – was the easy part and they breezed through it. Next was a series of wooden hurdles that were all fixed at different heights. The idea was to alternate between going over or under each hurdle – only having seconds to decide which would be quicker.
Neither Black Star nor Blood had had any trouble with this obstacle in the past, but unfortunately, it was more difficult as a team. They didn't communicate their intentions and Blood ducked underneath the third hurdle as Black Star tried to leap over it. Their partner strap got tangled around it and pulled them both to an abrupt halt.
"You're wasting time!" shouted Sid, holding up the stopwatch.
The boys had begun to argue, but upon hearing Sid's comment, they quickly disentangled themselves and then threw themselves at the next obstacle. They finished with an average time. They'd wasted precious seconds on the hurdles.
The others learnt from their mistake. The next team, Yvonna and Kim, made it through the first two obstacles without any problems. Kim tackled the decisions of the hurdles by shouting short directions of "under" and "over". They easily made it past the high wall too, which was the following obstacle.
After the high wall was an uphill tunnel that they had to crawl through. The tunnel was slippery with no handholds and they had to transfer their weight to both hands and feet in order to manoeuvre their way through. Kim slipped near the top and nearly kicked Yvonna in the eye, causing them both to slide back down to the bottom. They managed to make it through, but it cost them valuable time.
Ox and Kilik only made it to the high wall before making their first mistake. They didn't time their run-up together and Ox slowed Kilik down just enough to stop him reaching the top of the wall, meaning they had to backtrack for a second attempt at it.
Circe and Kera were the first team to make it through the entire course perfectly. Brina watched them in awe. They made everything look so easy. Their movements already seemed to be impeccably synchronised, despite only having worked together for less than a week.
But she didn't have long to admire their attempt, because now it was her and Kid's turn. She clenched her fists as Professor Stein waved them forwards. She was determined to do well this time. It was bad enough that she was always such a clumsy wreck, but holding back Lord Death's son as well? Now that was embarrassing.
"Are you ready?" Professor Stein called. They both nodded. "Then go!"
Brina started off a little slower than Kid, but the tug on the partner strap as he tried to run on ahead spurred her into action. They raced down the first stretch – Brina praying the whole time that she wouldn't trip. They sailed through the first obstacle, but she knew that the hurdles would be trickier.
"Go over the first!" Kid shouted as they were reaching the first hurdle.
"Right," agreed Brina, preparing to jump. They scaled it easily – she didn't even come close to catching her feet.
"Now under!" directed Kid as they continued towards the second hurdle. They both ducked underneath in neat movements, barely losing any speed. "Over!"
Their timing was becoming more in sync as they jumped the next hurdle. Brina was starting to feel elated – this was easier than she'd expected. And they were actually working well as a team for the first time.
"Under!"
"But that one's too low!" protested Brina.
But he ignored her and by this point, they'd already reached the next hurdle. Brina was forced to grind to a complete halt since Kid was already ducking underneath. It was very close to the ground and she wasted valuable seconds trying to follow him through without hitting her head.
She felt a stab of annoyance. Why had they wasted time going underneath when it was clear that it would have been much easier to jump over? But there wasn't time to argue about it now – they'd picked up their speed again and were already heading for the high wall.
Their performance escalated once more and they ploughed through the next few obstacles, until they reached the second to last part of the course – a see-saw motion balance beam.
Brina tried. She really did. But from the moment they'd first seen the course, she'd known that this obstacle would be her downfall.
She let Kid go first – the partner strap allowing them only a few steps of distance between them – and, sure enough, the moment the see-saw started to move, Brina lost her balance and toppled off onto the ground, dragging Kid along with her.
"What happened there?" Kid exclaimed angrily, as they scrambled to their feet. They hadn't even gotten halfway across.
"I fell off, okay?" Brina retorted just as heatedly. "I don't know if you've noticed, but I don't have very good balance."
"You could have fooled me," Kid muttered under his breath.
"Watch your time, guys!" Sid called helpfully.
Kid and Brina exchanged annoyed glances. Sid was right – they were wasting time; they'd just been standing there arguing. "Let's go!" Kid growled and they took off again for the next obstacle.
When they finished, they knew that they hadn't scored a very good time. They'd stopped at two different obstacles – more than any of the other teams so far. They rejoined the rest of the class in irritable silence to watch the remaining pairs take their turns.
Marisa and Ao were next. They'd been doing quite well, considering Marista had caught her foot and tripped over one of the hurdles, but then they also struggled in the tunnel like Kim and Yvonna had. They ended up with a time not much better than Brina and Kid's, which made Brina feel a little better.
Maka and Casper flew through the course right up until the rope swing obstacle at the very end, where Maka jumped off the double-sided swing a little too early and pulled Casper off with her. They were still pleased with their time – they seemed to be second only to Circa and Kera.
The morning was rounded off spectacularly by Danny and Cory zipping through the entire course without any mistakes. They were both beaming by the end of it, feeling that they'd redeemed themselves from their fiasco in fighting practice at the start of the week.
"Now that was eventful, wasn't it, class?" Professor Stein addressed the students once they'd all taken part. He received a series of unenthusiastic replies. "Well, you'd better perk up over lunch, because we're going to be doing it all again this afternoon."
Nobody was impressed by this. Most of the students groaned out loud and a few cursed under their breath – Kid being one of them. Brina sighed. She thought they'd actually made some progress after the whole haircut ordeal, but it obviously wasn't enough.
Kid was clearly thinking the same thing. "You need to work on your balance," he told her.
Brina felt annoyance flare again. It wasn't exactly that easy. "Oh, really? I never thought of that," she said, a lot more sarcastic than she normally was.
Her attitude made Kid grow more irritated too. "Well, it needs to be fixed or this kind of thing is just going to keep on happening."
"Do you think I haven't tried?" Brina protested indignantly. "Of course it's going to keep on happening – it's been like this my whole life! Do you think I enjoy it? It's not really something I can just fix." She wasn't aware that several classmates were now watching them. "And it wasn't just me that held us back. That hurdle would have been so much easier to jump. What was thatabout?"
"If we'd jumped over again, then it wouldn't have been balanced," Kid argued.
Brina faltered, confused. "Say what?" Now what was he talking about?
"We were in a perfect pattern of going over, then under, then over, then under," Kid explained more calmly. "If we'd have jumped over the fourth one, then it would have ruined everything."
Brina stared at him. Was he really being serious? "Are you kidding me? That's it? We screwed up the hurdles just for that?"
"What do you mean 'that's it'? It's a perfect concept of balance!" Kid defended.
"Not if it's gonna keep affecting our performance," Brina pointed out. "At least my problem's an actual physical incapability. You're just... insane!"
"No, you're just making excuses for being slow and clumsy!"
"Alright, guys," Sid interrupted, sensing that the argument wasn't going to be over any time soon. "It's time for lunch, so both of you need to just go and chill out."
"Gladly," said Brina haughtily, still bristling from the slow comment. She turned on her heels, ready to storm off. Only she'd forgotten to undo the partner strap and she was simply jerked to a halt when she tried to walk away.
A few students giggled, causing the colour to rise in her face. She heard Kid sigh. "Oh, here, just let me do it."
She was forced to stand there with her cheeks flaming whilst Kid loosened the loops on the partner strap. Eventually, she was given another chance to storm off, which she managed to do properly the second time. Though that time, more out of embarrassment than anything else.
