Chapter 5

"Someone shut that stupid goddamn thing off!" I screamed into my pillow. It was five. AM. Why on Earth would someone get up at five AM? The school day didn't start for two more hours, and we had stayed up 'till one last night. Or was it this morning? My brain hurt to much to think about it, and I was about to scream at whoever's stupid alarm clock it was when someone walked over to my dresser and calmly chucked what was apparently my alarm clock at the wall. I sat up then, embarrassed. I had just yelled at my friends to shut my alarm clock off for me. This was going to be a terrible day, I could already tell.

I apologized for yelling, and thought back as to the reason my stupid alarm would be set for five-freaking-thirty. When I remembered that I had to get up and go to conditioning, I groaned. The extra classes that I previously hadn't minded now pissed me off. Grumbling, I got up, showered and changed, then packed my bag and stumbled into the kitchen for a quick bite.

Flipping on lights as I went, I saw someone already in the kitchen, and recognized Dimitri. "You have the same conditioning class as me?" My voice clearly startled him, because he must have gotten a foot of air on that jump. Turning, he saw it was me and relaxed a little more.

"Oh, it's just you. Ya, we have the same schedule the entire day." At my questioning expression, he nodded over towards the door and said, "The schedules got dropped off over there last night. The last five periods after lunch we all have together, and the same Klasses have the same schedule the entire day."

Despite the blissful thoughts going in my head, my face showed no change in expression, and I calmly asked, "Will we get to come back here for lunch, or do we have to eat over at the cafeteria?" He shrugged at the question, and both of us shuddered at the cafeteria, causing us to laugh. My negative thoughts were completely subdued.

Dimitri had made some eggs, which we wolfed down, and then we took off. "Where are we supposed to go anyways?" I questioned. He was leading me over to the track, which I guess made sense. Next to the track stood a weight/exercise room and we ambled up to the door. We were early, but the door was unlocked, so we went inside.

The room had the standard equipment (benches, weights, treadmill, ect.), an office for the coach, and two doors leading to the girls' and guys' locker rooms. No one else was in the room, so we shrugged and went to get changed. I was about to leave my iPod, then thought better of it. Everything was better with music. On emerging, I found Dimitri standing there, looking around the room, examining the equipment. I started stretching, and was about to tune the rest of the world out with my music when the coach walked in.

Coach Dargan was a tall, bald guy with enough muscle to fit onto two other guys his age. I shoved my iPod into my pocket, and stood at attention. Dimitri ran over and stood next to me, as stiff as I was. Littman may have modern buildings and technology, but the teachers were all formal and old fashioned. "At ease" he said gruffly. "You two are the only ones scheduled at this time, so I guess you'll be training partners." Reading off a sheet, he then assigned me to the treadmill and Dimitri to the bike. "You may use that little iPod of yours Miss Hathaway," he said as he walked towards the door.

I colored, and Dimitri laughed. Coach Dargan turned on him. "Was that laughter I heard? Do you think it's funny that she's allowed to have music Mr. Belikov? Because if you think it's funny, I think fifty push ups would be hysterical." Dimitri murmured what sounded like an apology, and with that Coach Dargan left. Without a word, we went to our assigned equipment and started exercising.

Twenty minutes later, Dargan walked in with a clipboard. He looked at both of our machines, and then jotted some things down. "Alright, now work on the weights." We walked over to the benches, and he set us both up with fifty pound bars. The coach then walked over to the timer on the wall, set it for eighteen minutes, and grunted out our instructions. "Do as many reps as you can in five minutes, then rest for one, and repeat the cycle. I'll be back when the timer runs out." Seeing that we had started, he once again left us. Exactly eighteen minutes later, he pushed his way through the doors and once again jotted down our results.

This process repeated for the next hour or so, only with different exercises, and when the bell finally rang, signaling the start of school for the other Klasses, my muscles were screaming. I felt slightly light-headed, but ignored the pain. Soon enough my body would be used to the routine, I figured, and I wouldn't have to go through all of this. The fact that Dimitri was breathing just as heavily as I was at the end of conditioning told me he had the same thoughts as I did running through his mind.

Once we were both outside in our normal clothes, I asked, "So…what's next?"

"Leadership Theory" he replied, and off we went. The rest of the morning continued like that, and by lunch I'd knocked out Conditioning, Leadership Theory, Martial Arts, and Weapons Training. On four hours of sleep. It was a wonder that I was still standing.

Dimitri and I headed back to the High Dorms, looking forward to just chilling after such a grueling morning. We figured that we could use the balcony for homework over a nice lunch. As we jogged up the stairs leading to the doors, I brushed into a short, blonde girl with doll-like features. The only reason I noticed that she was even there was that I thought she might be from the Low-dorms, lost.

I opened my mouth to tell her so, but she shut me down with a quick, "Watch where you're going, bitch." My eyes popped, and I had to tell myself deliberately to slow my breathing. It took me half a second to process that I had caused her to spill a drop of coffee on her fake designer sweater, that she was clearly a prissy girl from an older Pack, and that I could stuff her in the trash can five feet from us with ease.

But I was nice, and instead replied, "Who you calling bitch, Prissy ass? Did I spill coffee on you're oh so precious, fake sweater?" Dimitri, of course, had just realized that something was wrong, and was now watching with amusement.

"At least I don't shop at Salvation Army!" She smirked, and I wanted so badly to hit her that my fists started to tremble.

"At least I don't shop at a Doll-house" At that point, she froze, and I saw her fists start to tremble. I walked confidently away, saying as I passed, "Names Rose. Just remember that I have thorns, and you'll be fine."

When I got to Dimitri, he opened his mouth with a questioning look, but I just said, "Just keep walking. That was an older girl." He nodded and followed, and we were both laughing by the time we got to the dorm. We made some sandwiches with Kylie and Nick, who showed up a bit after us.

Our next class was math, which was a breeze for me. I finished my 'homework' within five minutes, and was doodling for the rest of the class, zoning in and out. English and Science were the same, and I was starting to wonder how boring high school was going to be when our history teacher walked in.

"Good afternoon class. I am Mrs. Dearborn, as it says clearly on the board. I didn't want to bore you all on you're first day, so I decided to tell you guys a story." She sat back on her desk, into a relaxed pose, and then began.

"Long, long ago, when the Netherlands had just sent over their first colony to the New World, there were no Strijders, no Krijders, not even any Dami. No, there was only the natives there- the Unami Indians- and the Dutch settlers. The Dutch, being haughty and thinking that they had the rights to the land, tried to force the Indians to leave. One thing led to another, and suddenly the settlers were at war with the Unami. Of course, with their superior weapons, the Dutch easily took the lead, and started to overpower the Indians in every battle they fought.

"The chief of the tribe, Kanunuwaka, new that everyday the tribe came closer to death, and so went to Camicasis Cliff, a very spiritual, wise place for the Unami. He sat for three days, unmoving, and prayed to the Gods with all his might that they would send something to help his people survive. On the third day, a wolf happened to wonder out to the Cliff top, and Kanunuwaka was forced to move and defend himself. The chief won the battle, and a thought came to him. He too out his deer skinned pouch and scooped up as much of the wolf's blood as he could. He then proceeded to drink it, and as it came down his throat, he felt as though he was suffocating. The air left his lungs, the spittle his mouth and he collapsed.

"For hours he lay there, unable to move. When he finally got up, he noticed that he was lower to the ground. He looked down and saw that he was on all fours. Not hands and feet, but wolf's paws. Alarmed, he looked around for the body of the wolf he had killed. It was gone, and he realized what had happened. He had become the wolf. Running as fast as his newly furred four legs would let him, he darted down the mountain. As he came upon the village, he thought of how great of a weapon this would be. The strength and stamina of a wolf. It was perfect. And if he could turn into other animals as well, so much the better for his tribe, so much the worse for the settlers, the pale faces. But just at the entrance, he realized that in his wolf form, he might scare the tribe. Kanunuwaka had no idea how to change back into human form, and so he was self exiled. Another three days he stayed outside, until finally, as he thought of his family, his kids, his whole life as a human, he turned back.

"His thoughts of humanity, and his will to turn back allowed him to, and he ran happily back to his village. Once he told his subjects where he had been and what he had found, they were overjoyed. They started to turn into bears, wolfs, even the moose. These were the first Dami.

"Understandably, the war took a sharp turn, and the pale faces were suddenly losing men by the hundreds. Finally, they realized what was going on, and their mayor, Sweedenhouff, decided it was time to take action. None of the machine like weapons was having any effect on the Dami. The guns wouldn't fire, grenades wouldn't blow up, and all of the compasses would suddenly spin out of control. He figured that since the chief had gotten his powers from the blood of animals, he would take blood again. Start fighting the war the old fashioned way with swords and all. So the mayor set up a trap for a wolf-dam, and when he had caught them, he cut the throat of the Dami into the goblet that he had ready. Downing the goblet, he turned and stumbled. Because the blood of the wolf was distilled by that of the Unami, the mayor didn't faint, or even become the wolf. No, he became the first Strijder. Realizing what had happened, he picked up the sword he had also brought with him, and headed out for battle.

"He had become the first Guardian. He started to mow through the lines of Dami, and the other pale faces caught different Dami, gaining different abilities. Soon the Settlers had won, but the Dami had a knack for coming in at the worst times to haunt the Strijders. So it has been for generations, so it will continue for generations more."

There were a few claps that quickly died down to silence, when she looked around the room. The bell rang just after she said, "That is our history, so I hope you paid attention." My day was great, understandably.

The rest of the week passed by with nothing of note, and the Pack fell into a sort of routine. We would meet for lunch, eat up, and then break into groups to talk. Dimitri and I would go out onto the balcony and discuss the most random things, and then we would go as a Pack to our classes, which I was acing. After, we would go to the pool, the field, the auditorium, and just hang out. We would stay up late, and then get up in the morning wondering why we had just done that again. The process would start again, forming a complete cycle. And I started to forget the painful things in my past, and just live in the now. It was a first, and it was great.