Chapter 2: meeting William

The library entrance was huge. There were two doors. One probably went into the actual library, the other into the training room. Once again, everything was tinted light blue. What a piss off. Why couldn't they make it red? Red was my favourite color, but I wasn't as obsessed with it as Grell was.

"Grell Sutcliff" A voice from the other end of the library room said, making both of us jump. "Have I not told you that you are no longer allowed to escort fellow grim reapers into the training facility after last week's incident?"

"Aw, come on, Will, she's my sister!"

"The hell I'm not! We don't even have the same last name." I said as Grell put his hands on my shoulders.

"You're Leah Sutcliff, I presume?" The guy said. His hair was dark brown and slicked back and he wore thick glasses. I didn't like when boys wore glasses. Then again, it was unavoidable in the shinigami world as ninety eight percent of grim reaper boys had really bad eyesight. He frequently adjusted them with what looked like a hedge clipper. People had weird death scythes these days. I would just settle for the traditional death scythe. The guy was wearing a black suit and was looking at us with a disdainful expression. I immediately hated this guy. Who did he think he was?

"Actually, my last name is Hayes." I corrected. "He tampered with my resume. I actually don't have any family relations with him." I said, jerking my thumb behind my shoulder to Grell.

"Unfortunately, mistakes aren't allowed in the computer system. You'll have to go back and resubmit your resume tonight." What a prick. I thought. I'd never seen a more uptight or stuck up guy than William T. Spears.

"Now look what you've done." I said as I made a book fly off the shelf and hit Grell over the head. It flew back immediately.

"Ow… I'm sorry… don't hurt me again… I'll turn your resume back the way it was tonight…"

"Jerk" I muttered.

"Miss Hayes" William called. I looked around. "You're a minute late for your studies. I want you to know that lateness is not tolerated at Shinigami School. If you are late one more time, I will have to suspend you." I glared at him.

"What's a minute's difference?" I asked. "It's not twelve yet on my watch. Your clock is ahead."

"You will be on time by this clock. You would be wise to learn your lesson once."

"And you would be wise not to be such a prick." I said.

"Watch the way you talk to superiors, girl. Speak out of line again and your position as a grim reaper will be permanently denied."

I turned and stared sideways at him, my famed trick. My eyes glowed so bright that even Mr. Stick-up-his-ass took a step back.

"Try it" I hissed. "I dare you. There are other people in your class as well. I'm sure five against one won't do you too much good." Without another word I left.

"Leah, wait!" Grell began to walk after me.

"You will stay here, Grell Sutcliff." I was so angry. That guy pissed me off so much! I stood against the wall, listening to their conversation. I was shaking with anger. One minute? What did one minute's difference make me? "Who is that woman?" I heard William ask.

"Oh… Leah's a very old childhood friend of mine."

"She has telekinesis powers?"

"Um… yeah…"

"Hmm… we haven't had a grim reaper who could control their telekinesis powers in a long time. Still, I'm not inclined to allow her to get a job as a grim reaper. That woman has such a dirty mouth."

"That was actually her controlling her anger" Grell said. "You haven't heard her when she gets hurt…" He snickered. "It's rather funny actually."

I opened the door as I didn't want to hear any more. I took a spot in the classroom somewhere at the back. The front was all taken by boys whose eyesight was probably so bad they needed to be up at the front to see the board even with their glasses on. I only needed glasses to be able to read something from a long distance away, and the classroom was pretty small. Pretty soon William walked in.

Why the hell did we have to be here if the idiot just took his time walking in? I swear I'd been sitting here for

"Good afternoon." He said. "I am William T. Spears. I will be your instructor on your way to becoming a Grim Reaper. However, the road to becoming a grim reaper is rough and filled with obstruction and challenges. Only half of you will progress to the next level after this course, and less than half of those will become real Grim Reapers."

Everyone in the classroom began to talk with one another, shocked muttering filling the room. It sounded like hundreds of buzzing bees. I stayed silent. I knew that. William launched into a little lecture about what the purpose of Grim Reapers was. If one got cut with a death scythe, if they didn't do anything to deserve death, they would live. Yet if they did do something to deserve death, they would die instantly. A death scythe could be anything sharp, and then enchanted to make sure nothing could cut it except for another death scythe. We would get two tiny wooden axes to use as death scythes for now.

"These things are crap" I muttered. "How are we supposed to fight with these?"

"You'll have to find a way, Miss Hayes." William was standing right beside me. "That's the next exercise. You all will be taken into training areas where you will get a chance to get accustomed to your new death scythes for a week. The first test will be when you are put into pairs. You will have to fight one another. I do hope that none of you have done anything to deserve death. The first person to force the other partner's cinematic record to unroll will be the winner. They will progress to the next test."

William opened the room at the back and let us all into a huge arena. There were roughly about eight targets per person, eight dummies we could attack as much as we wanted and various other items that could help us. I held my little axes and stared down at them. Well… they weren't much, but I could see the sharp glint to the ends. If used just right, they could inflict a lot of damage. William gave us the signal and we began hacking at our targets.

I threw my axes at the targets and used telekinesis to make sure they hit the target perfectly at all times. I tried hacking up my dummies. It wasn't easy. I had to make sure the axe was positioned perfectly at all times or else it wouldn't work too well.

I also had the strange feeling that William was watching my progress more than anyone's. That drove me to make myself look like an even better fighter. I could probably kick his butt with enough practice and demote him. Oh ho ho, I would love that chance. I was sure I would pass the first test. After all, there were plenty of things I could levitate in the arena, including myself and other people, though only for a short period of time. It would be funny to make William go flying. He never said we were only allowed to use our death scythes and nothing else. I would cream everyone by the end of next week, I was sure of it.