Okay so I haven't added in any authors notes at all so far in the story. So here goes.
I appreciate all of the viewers, but especially the people that take the time to tell me how i can do better, by reviewing. I appreciate people that Favorite story me, or add a story alert, but that doesn't do me as much good (or make me want to write more) as a review will. Also, I don't own VA's characters or the song lyrics for Heaven Can Wait by We the Kings and Stop and Stare by One Republic, but i do own this story that i am now writing out. I always have claims to my content, which translates into NO TOUCHY MY STORY. So there we go. Thank you for being patient enough to read this, and here is chapter 20.
Chapter 20
Conditioning was te same as always, with an annoying coach and a super hot workout partner, who was now officially my off-the-books boyfriend. But the rest of my first day as a Sophmore was scattered and stressfull. I was 3 months behind on all of the tests and most of the content. They actually expected me to take all of the quizzes and tests that had been taken so far. What a joke.
War Strategy, or wars as we liked to call it, was frustrating, but fun. It was basically learning how to plan a war, so that all of the individual battles eventually led to your victory. Instead of just focusing on burning down a building and killing ten people, I had to focus on burning down two buildings, capturing two people while killing eighteen others, and doing things like refraining from using a Heks to save power for the next fight, or stealing supplies for the next fight before burning down the building. I felt like i was seeing doubles.
Tactical Theory 2, or Tac 2, was just a more advanced Tactical theory 1, so it wasn't going to be that hard. But it wasn't going to be fun playing catch up on a class that had a three month lead on me. In fact, my stress level rose so much that i had to consciously calm myself down.
Then came Leadership 2, which wasn't too hard, since i had a Pack that followed me without a second thought on the field. The only problem that i had was the class was the teacher, who attacked me verbally as soon as I sat down. I deflected most of his comments, but got reprimanded a couple of times for being to sharp with my words. i would have to do some serious sucking up for that class.
In Martial Arts 2, i was accidentally paired with the top student. I survived a couple of rounds with him, then got knocked to the floor. Once the teacher woke me up, he told me about the mistake and then paired me up with a medium skilled kid, who i beat after the third round of sparring. I walked out of the class with a black eye and my pride. Weapons training 2 was similar to Martial Arts 2, except that my teacher didn't pair me up with a total badass so i was able to sparr with two people, who i beat soundly. I was still one of the best kids with a weapon.
During Lunch the Pack got together at the Dorm and started comparing bruises. I ended up winning with my black eye, which was already swollen mostly shut. Dimitri and i were sitting together, and i saw some exchanged glances that made me think that maybe some of them (Kylie and Abby) had a feeling that Dimitri and I were together. Ignoring them and keeping my feelings for Dimitri hidden took most of my energy, and that plus my hard morning made me eat a lot.
The Pack left the Dorm at the end of lunch and got to the Stables, which were now behind the track instead of to the side where they had been, for Equestrian Skills H. We waited until all of the class was assigned a horse (those that didn't own one like me were assigned a school one to train with. If they did well enough together, the horse was sometimes given to the student at graduation) and then we mounted up. This showed me that only four of us knew how to ride a horse well. Coincidentally enough, only four of the people need to be good enough to go into honors for the whole Pack to be assigned to it. So Dimitri, Kylie, Nick and I mounted up while Lissa, Sam, Paul, Jean, Matt, and Abby awkwardly stood by their horse, awaiting instructions on how to get up. When the rest of the class started riding off to the horse area, i took pitty on them and had Kylie, Nick, and Dimitri help some of them, while i helped the rest. I then gave them basic riding instruction and told them to try and keep up. I led them to the area, and found that the class had already received instructions and had started a little course.
There were four jumps (tree logs) and a bunch of obstacles (trees) in our way, and we had to wind our way through the course without injuring our horse in as little time as possible. People were getting a little under a minute (it was a short course), until Abby started off. She tripped twice on her horse, nearly fell off at one point, and skipped all of the jumps. Her final score was somewhere around five minutes. The other five that couldn't ride got a similar time, and then Kylie was up. She did all right, getting the average 55 seconds. So did Nick. Dimitri got 50 seconds, the best in the class. I smiled, rode up to the starting line, and guided Blackjack through the course in a stunning 40 seconds. I was applauded, became an immediate teacher's pet, and then it was time to leave.
I understood most of what we covered in Physics and Pre-Cal, although some of it was just plain gibberish. I didn't participate or anything like that, but i wasn't lost either. Next was English 2 and World History 2, or CORE, as we liked to call it. I couldn't tell you what we studied then, because i was asleep for over half of it. It was close to 5 PM, and i hadn't gotten much sleep last night anyways. I saw Kylie's notes after, and sighed. I really should have payed attention, it was just so boring. Dimitri smiled, winked, and promised to tutor me. I rolled my eyes and laughed, hiding my heart's flutters.
At the end of the day, i really didn't want to practice. But we had our first battle tomorrow, and i really wanted to win. So i ignored the groans and evil looks i got when i told them to dress out and meet at the practice field. We got through it, and all got a very good sleep. I was out before my head hit the pillow.
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