ROSE POV

"Guardian Hathaway, once again, it is an honor to meet you," Viktoria almost gushes, then motions to the other two girls beside her, "these are my sisters Sonya and Karolina."

I shake their hands, glad to discover strong grasps.

"I was just thinking you all looked related." I replied.

Sonya is the shortest of the three, with short black hair, and Karolina the tallest with the least curves and hair so light brown you could almost mistake it for dirty blonde.

"We're triplets." They all replied together, Russian accents thick.

My eyes shoot open in shock.

What's with all the Russians?

Sure, they look related, sisters for sure, but they don't look like they could be triplets.

Maybe Kaolina and Viktoria could be twins but . . .

Whatever.

Another Novice hands me a clip board filled with all their names, grades and performance reviews over the last three to four years depending if they are a junior or senior.

I instruct everyone to get in two rows of ten, one row uneven with Kevin's absence.

I look to the reviews, depicted with a five star rating systems, and I'm pleased to see almost half of them have fours. No one has a five, as no one should. No one is perfect.

The rest have twos and threes and one has a one.

I don't know these students so even though I have there names I don't know who is who.

Although I do see the Belikova girls all have fours.

"Alright let's see where everyone is in there training. The person you are standing by in the other line will be your sparing partner."

I motion with my middle and ring fingers to the first two novices.

Two males, one tall, one not, both with blonde hair, step forward.

"Names?"

"Mike Holmes." Shorty says.

"Eric McCrow." Not Shorty says.

I look to the list. Juniors with Two stars a piece.

"Shorty, I want you on defensive, Not Shorty, I want you on offensive, first to five points wins. Then you switch Positions. Go."

I watch as they grapple, and take notes.

McCrow needs to work on his footing, he either doesn't allow himself enough room to move and gets caught up in his own feet, or over steps and looses his balance. Also his limbs are so long, his swipes look sloppy and unpracticed, which is not uncommon when it comes to tall people. He definitely needs to be condition more.

Shorty needs to work on his defensive fighting, he seems to panic, his blows look desperate, trying to make up for his lack of height. He needs to practices restraint.

I write my notes with concise details and note what needs to be improved.

The Matches ended with Shorty loosing while he was on the defensive, 2-5, and winning 5-4 while on the offensive.

I continue on with the novices, very impressed with the Belikova's. They all have very similar techniques, but each have their own style.

Karolina is definitely the most focused of the girls, there's no glamour to her moves, and I don't mean that in a bad way, she just uses the quickest and most efficient moves to land her blows, with no room for error, which I can respect because Bruce Lee fought with the same mindset.

Sonya is a kicker, as fast as a bullet and by the look on her opponents' face, she is merciless. She, unlike Mr. Holmes, knows not to let her height deter her, but to use it to her advantage.

Viktoria out of the three, needs the most work.

She's not bad, not at all, but her moves are a little to flair-tastic, which caused her to sustain unnecessary blows she could have blocked.

I'm all for bravado, but too much can get you killed. For Viktoria, it lost her the fight while she was on offensive.

But even with the differences, they have a very similar . . . Zen to them. Like they are all in this moment and you won't break their concentration.

I wonder . . .

I remember Viktoria looked back to the tall, hot . . . Russian wait . . . What the fuck is with all the Russians?

Hmm . . . I wonder if he is related to them as well. He looks like he could be.

But anyway, I remember Viktoria looked back at him when I mentioned mentors in Stan's class, so all three girls are probably taught by him.

He seems to be a very good mentor, that's for sure.

With only one remaining novice, it is plain as day, who my single star novice is.

Before I could call him up, Kevin comes running back, cash in hand.

Panting, he stops by me and offers me the money.

"There! 200 bucks!"

"You didn't make the bet with me, why are you trying to pay me?" I ask, hands behind my back.

He growls lowly, and hands a smirking Viktoria her cash.

"Great, now you owe me fifty miles."

He swings to look at me incredulously.

"What? You can't be serious!" He screeches.

I just stare blankly at him.

"We had a deal! I pay and I don't owe any miles!" He screams, fists clenched.

"The deal was you pay and you won't owe Ms. Belikova miles. You don't owe her miles. You owe me miles. Completely different concept."

"That is fucking bullshit, you goddamn bitch!" He screams, attracting a lot of attention.

I can see several Guardians including the hot Russian, coming toward us, but I hold up a hand to stop them.

"No, what's bullshit is, You." I reply, my voice deadly calm. "You let your ego and sexist attitude go wild as you tried to assert yourself over me. When you failed against me, the tiny woman, you proved to me you're nothing more than a moving mouth piece, with nothing guiding your words, therefore your actions. And in my book, even though," I look to the chart and see he has a four," you are relatively skilled, you need the most work in the class. And where else better to start than from the beginning? And for that out burst, you now owe me fifteen miles a day, five o'clock p.m. sharp, for the next two weeks i'm here, starting now. Move."

He glares angrily at me, but does as I say and starts his laps.

"Karolina, make sure he does 60 laps around the track, if he tries to skim, kick his ass." She laughs and takes off after him. She was the best of the day so she deserves a reprieve.

"Alright, last but not least."

Well, according to the single star he is least.

No Rose, Stahp! Be nice.

"Name?"

"My name is Ambrose Mitchell, and there is no one left to fight."

Hmm . . . That name sounds familiar, but he doesn't look it.

He's is tall, kinda gangly, but toned, with sandy blonde hair and thin features.

"You'll spar with me." I answer him, dropping the clip board to the ground.

"Whoa, no thanks, I don't want to get my ass kicked like Kevin." He raises his hand as if to shield me off.

"Do you want to be a Guardian?" I ask.

He hesitates and then says yes as if someone was twisting his arm to say yes.

I ignore his discomfort.

"Than you have no choice, 'cause you won't when facing Strogoi." I get in a fighting stance and wait for him to do the same.

"I still don't want to end up like Kevin."

"Kevin was made an example, by his own lack of respect and composer. You are not an example."

With that he begrudgingly got into a fighting stance.

A very weak stance.

"You're defensive."

He takes his time to attack and when he does it's all around bad. You would think he is a ten year old, that just watched WWE wrestling for the first time and tried to reenact the moves.

And not moves done by good wrestlers like The rock or Lita, nah, more like D-list 'wrestlers' that are only used to cheat for their ring partners.

I don't get it, how has he gotten to be a junior novice with basically no skill?

Ambrose comes at me again and I easily block and land two hits.

I hear chuckles from the watching novices and immediately stop our spar and pull Ambrose aside.

"What was that?" I ask. "It's like you're not trying."

"I'm just not good." He replies looking down at his scuffed shoes.

Bullshit.

"Fine, then I'm just going to have to make you good."

His head snaps up and he gaps at me like a fish.

You would think I just told him I ran over his puppy.

Why is he being Weird?

"You shouldn't waste your time on me."

"I would not be wasting my time, I you don't want to learn. Do you want to learn?"

After a long minute he nods.

"Good. Meet me and Kevin on the track at five."

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