CHERUB: Fitting in...
Chapter 8
*Sighs* I need to work on more regular updates! Sorry everyone!
I walked out of the medical wing, rubbing my arm. Now I knew why James had laughed when I said that I had never had a jab. I reminded myself that it was something that normal people put up with from birth. The doctor had seemed quite pleased with the progress that my shoulder was making, of which I was sincerely glad, although now I had to wear a shoulder brace throughout basic training to stop the still-healing bone from breaking despite the metal pin. I cast a sideways glance at James, who was scowling. I had listened to the doctor raving from the waiting room, which was actually quite funny when you were nursing an arm that had just had about seven different needles stick into it.
The dentist had also been a rather strange experience (apart from the fact that I had flatly refused to let him stick anything in my mouth until he threatened to sedate me). Still, James had to have something called 'fillings' (yet another word I would have to look up), which seemed to be rather painful, judging by the look on his face when the news was announced.
We parted company soon after as James had to go for a swimming lesson. I decided to head for the athletics track, feeling the need to do some training of my own. I missed the schedule of the Assassin Guild. There was never really any time to think, which suited me just fine. It meant that you never had time to brood over the lives that you ended up taking, and eventually you forgot about them. After a couple of missions like that, it barely mattered that you had in fact, taken someone's life.
Meryl Spencer, James' handler, was already on the track, yelling at a couple of blue shirts who were running around the track. She nodded once to me as I began to run, measuring my speed carefully so as not to overexert myself too soon. I came close to lapping the other blue-shirts when they hailed me breathlessly. I slowed my pace to match theirs, running alongside them.
"You're Shadow, right? The assassin?" One boy asked. They were twins, and it took me a while to try and find any differences between them. I narrowed my eyes at the mention of the assassin.
"Yes." I muttered.
"Cool," The other boy said, "Well, I'm Callum, and this is Connor."
I nodded politely, committing to memory that Callum was the one with the slightly longer nose and that his fringe curled to the left rather than to the right.
We ran alongside each other for two laps of the track before the twins were called off the track by Meryl. I quickened my pace, running laps around the track. I calculated the distances in my head, knowing that one lap of the track was equal to 400 metres. I had to run about 50 laps to be doing the same as the assassins, and then force myself to do even more.
Ten laps, they were easy enough.
Twenty laps, and my breathing was starting to become ragged.
Thirty laps, not much of a change.
As I crossed the line to start my thirty-fourth lap, Meryl yelled at me to stop. I bent my head into my chest, forcing myself to keep going. She grabbed my arm, pulling me to a stop.
"You don't have to keep up your old training methods, ok?" She told me. I would have answered back, but I guessed that it wouldn't be a wise thing to do. I nodded once, and started to walk back to my room.
I sat with James and Bruce at dinner, quietly observing everyone there. Callum and Connor were there, as well as two other girls wearing blue shirts. I already knew that their names were Kerry and Melanie, and that Kerry had already done half of the training course already whereas Melanie was going through it for the first time. I played with the half-eaten pasta on my plate as Melanie turned to me starting to question me about my life before CHERUB. As was my usual habit, I answered in monosyllables, until Melanie snapped.
"Will you stop it with the short answers?!" She snapped, glaring at me. I gazed back at her with a calm expression, one eyebrow raised. "You think you're better than us? You're just a cold-blooded murderer!"
I stood up suddenly, my calm face substituted for a look of thunder for a split second before I grabbed my tray, setting it down on the rack and leaving. Up in my room, I glanced around. I didn't know the procedure if you wanted to leave CHERUB. I couldn't stand being in a place where I was constantly going to be reminded of my heritage. Shouldering the light bag, I quickly ran out into the night, away from the CHERUB campus...
