Chapter 5 – First Day

Nadea Heart

Nadea awoke to the soft click of a drawer opening and a strong desire to do harm to whoever had interrupted the best night of sleep she had had in years went through her. She slowly opened her eyes and was met with a dark room. Only a faint amount of light was pushing its was through the thin curtain. Someone was stood to one side of the room searching through one of the chest of drawers.

"Camea?" Nadea tiredly called out once her eyes had adjusted to the darkness and the figure became clearer. "What are you doing?"

"So-Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you" she replied with a stifled yawn. "I'm Just getting ready for my morning run. Would you care to join me?"

"Fuck it," Nadea answered as a couple seconds thought. She knew she was not going to get back to sleep any time soon. "Why not."

She pulled her covers off and hissed as chilled air rushed in to assault her legs. She pulled her suitcase up from the side of her bed and pulled out a pair of jogging bottom. a loose t-shirt and some underwear before starting to get undressed. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Camea quickly turn away and continue rummaging through her draws.

"You might wanna get used to nudity," Nadea chuckled to herself as she pulled on her clothes. "Something tells me Nick isn't going to care who see his stuff."

She looked over to Nick's bed and wasn't surprised to find it empty. He hadn't returned after the argument last night. Even Ella had no idea where he was, all she knew was that he had got some food from the cafeteria and left.

"Where do you think he spent last night?" Camea asked as she pulled out her own clothes.

"In a six foot ditch hopefully," Nadea replied, only slightly serious. Camea shot her a sad look and sighed.

"Less than a day and I'm already unable to keep our team together," she mumbled to herself.

A surge of sympathy rushed through Nadea as she finished putting on her clothes and stood up. She walked over to her partner and putt a hand on her shoulder. "Its your first day and no-one expects you to be perfect so don't that that ass get you down. Besides, I'm sure he'll turn up eventually."

Camea simply gave a nod and made her way over to the bathroom, obviously not at all eager to get undressed in front of her. She emerged five minutes later and they left for their run.

A jog, would have been a more apt description despite doing some races towards the end that Nadea won every time. In a little over an hour they had managed to circle the school twice and now the sky was a pleasant pale sky. A breeze blew gently across the courtyard that they were currently stood in offer them some relief from the heat they had build up from their work out. Nadea would have enjoy going for a bit longer but her stomach was begging for some food so her and Camea decided to call it and head to the cafeteria.

They arrived to find the cafeteria to be almost empty, most of the student body obviously trying to get as much sleep as they could. She order a simple bowl of oatmeal and a banana from the service counter and sat down at one of the many tables that filled the room. Camea joined her shortly after with her own food. Nadea was comfortable with the silence the eating offered but It wasn't long before her partner broke it.

"Do you mind if I ask about that glove?" She asked hesitantly. "I noticed that you slept in it last night but took the other off."

Nadea looked down at the glove and bracer that covered her right hand and forearm. It had become such a familiar sight so her that Nadea had forgotten she even did that. She deliberated on maybe just ignoring the question but since they shared a dorm room now, Camea was likely go to find out eventually.

"My arm was crushed in an accident about three years ago," she replied. "The prosthetic isn't really the prettiest thing so I like to keep it covered. Avoid unnecessary attention ya'know."

"Oh, I'm sorry," she offered.

"It's fine," Nadea reassured her. She put down her spoon and began to unbuckle her bracer. "Honestly its just a little unsettling to look at constantly."

Once she had undone all the straps she slide her bracer off and removed her glove. As she pulled of her glove she heard Camea give a small gasp. The prosthetic wasn't like the newer models that Atlas had begun to showcase. It had no real casing and looked more like something you would see in their new Atlesian knight-90 androids. There was no palm, instead thin metal fingers riddled with joints and connectors lead straight into the wrist. The wrist itself was a series of springs designed to reduced recoil. More metal rod filled with wires made up the missing part of her forearm, arranged in a cylindrical pattern to at least give it a slight resemblance to the shape of a real arm. All of the rods fed into a cap over the stump of her real arm that she knew housed all of the more complicated stuff she didn't understand.

"Wow!" Camea exclaimed as she reached out to touch it. Nadea allowed her to. "Did you make this yourself?" she asked as she traced the fingers.

"No way," Nadea lightly scoffed in response. "A couple of months after the accident, an Atlesian scientist was visiting Mistral and my parents uhhh..." Nadea paused as she thought about the correct word to use. "Commandeered his services on his way back."

"You mean they kidnapped him?" Camea replied instantly. Nadea could feel the unease in her voice.

"Technically, yes," Nadea admitted. "But he was a strange one, he never really seemed like he didn't want to be there. In fact he seemed rather glad at the chance to have a test subject."

"That still doesn't make it right," her partner fired back.

"I know that," Nadea shot right back.

After Nick and Ella had left last night, Camea hadn't really said too much on the bandit matter. Instead she has gone around unpacking her stuff until she had gone too bed. Nadea knew that it wasn't the easiest thing to accept so she left her too it while she did some maintenance on her guns. However it seemed that her partner was willing to talk about it now.

"I just don't understand how you could attack people," she started, there was clear judgement in her voice but no animosity, only confusion.

"Have you ever been outside the walls of Mistrals controlled territory?"Nadea asked, keeping her voice level. Her partner shook her head in response. "Then I wouldn't expect you to understand. When people are starving we have no choice, we only do it out of necessity."

"But doesn't the Mistral council distribute supplies to the outer villages?" Camea questioned.

"They do. Every three months" she chuckled. "But the further out the village is from the main city, the less they get. We got two crates of dust last month to last us the quarter; and they were not big crates."

"That doesn't make sense," She mumbled to herself in an even more confused voice before turning back to Nadea. "Surely they would give less to the closer villages since we can protect them easier?"

This time Nadea laughed bitterly.

"If only there were more people like you on the council," she laughed bitterly. "From what I understand, they give more to the closer villages so that they are better prepared and can call on them is Mistral is ever attacked."

"That's, unfair." Camea spoke with the same expression she had last night when Nick had talked about Mistral's role the great war.

"Now you're starting to see the problem," Nadea said in a plain voice. "The mistral council prioritize themselves over everyone else and wandering traders charge at least twice the amount something would normally cost."

"Still, I cannot imagine attacking anyone who doesn't deserve it," Camea shook her head as she talked. The topic clearly causing her distress.

"That's a good thing," Nadea admitted. "That's why I'm here at Haven, to put that behind me. I'll always defend our actions as necessary but I still want to help people. Its fine if you don't understand it but please, just done judge me for it."

Camea went quiet for a few moment before replying.

"I'll try my best not to," she nodded. "But I still don't agree with it."

"That's fine," Nadea replied. "Neither do it."

They finished the rest of their breakfast in silence and made their way back to the dorm room to get ready for class. A fully dressed Ella greeted them with a smile as they walked through the door. Fortunately, there was still no sign of Nick.

"Morning Ella," Nadea said as she grabbed her uniform which she had placed on her bedside table the night before and made her way to the bathroom attached to their room.

She showered and dressed quickly since she did not want to make Camea wait to long. Once she left the bathroom and her partner rushed past her, presumably in an attempt to get as long as she could under the warm water. She sat down at one of the four desks in the room and checked the clock above the door. They had almost an hour before class started

"So what class do we have first?" Ella asked as she sat down on the edge of the desk.

"Dust Application with Doctor Robert Crimson I believe?" Nadea responded while removing the cap to her arm to check it. In the three years she had worn it, it had never failed to feel weird after a shower. "Should be fun for you since you said your dad runs a dust shop."

"Not really," Ella sighed. "Fire, ice and gravity is about all I'm good with."

"Well I'm guessing you will know more than Nick," she replied.

"Please don't start that again," Ella quickly said. "But I take it you two didn't see him while you were out."

"Nope."

Nadea noticed that the smile dropped from Ella's face for a split second as she stood up and walked over to her bed to lay down. She remained silent for the remainder of the time that Camea was in the shower, at which point they had to leave for class which started in ten minutes.

With two minutes to spare, they walked into the classroom and found Nick with his feet up on the long tables at the back. If Nadea had her way she would have sat on the other side of the classroom from him but Camea was insistent on the team sitting together so instead she chose to sit as far away as she could, with both Camea and Ella between him and her. Just as the finished taking their seats, the teacher walked in and if Nadea had to use one word to describe his appearance, it would be defeated.

She immediate recognised him as the teacher who had seemingly been arguing with himself during initiation. He looked no more than forty but his dark red hair was already falling out in places and what remained was quickly on its way. Facial hair grew in random patches and his eye seemed bloodshot in a very unnerving way. A black suit covered his body and must have looked rather grand at one point in time but was now covered in rips and cuts. The pockets hung down from the seams and the left arm looked as if it had been ripped away to reveal a white shirt beneath it..

"We-Welcome class, to Dust Application," he started in a wavering voice. "I am D-Doctor Robert Crimson."

He hadn't appeared to have looked at the class even once.

"In this class you will learn how to use dust more effectively and GET YOUR FEET OFF THE TABLE YOU ARROGANT LITTLE SWINE," the words erupted from him with such forced that it made the whole classroom jump.

His gaze was directed straight at Nick and for the briefest of moments, Nadea felt his presence swell to make her feel two feet tall. Apparently, even Nick had noticed it since he decided to do as instructed and took his feet off the desk.

"Th-Thank you young man," he stammered out. "I- I apologize for the outburst."

Nadea heard him talking to himself yet again as he turned around to face the blackboard and could of sworn he was berating someone named Louis.

"Now since this is your first class, I would like to get a feel for how much each of you already know," he continued, his voice seemingly more confident now as he picked up a stack of papers and began handing portions of it to the front row to pass back. "You will have thirty minutes to answer these questions and then we will use the remainder of the class time to go through the answers."

Nadea took one of the questions sheets from Camea and glanced at it to see twenty questions, each harder than the next..In fact, the last two questions were so complicated that Nadea could barely understand what the questions even meant.

"Your time begins now," Doctor Crimson said and hit a timer that was resting on his desk.

Nadea found the first ten questions rather simply and answered them with twenty minutes remaining but they quickly became more and more difficult. However, when the timer went off she felt confident that she had done rather well. She looked to her side to see both Camea and Ella hurriedly finishing up an answer but Nick was already leant back on his chair and looked like he had been that way for a couple of minutes.

After the test was done, Doctor Crimson ordered everyone to swap their paper with the person next to them and began to go through the answers one by one. Any doubt that his attire had given her was soon removed as he went into great detail on every question but still kept everything he was talking about easy to understand. Once they had gone through all the questions, she and Camea handed each other their sheets back to each other. Eighty percent, not bad, Nadea thought to herself. A gong sounded through the classroom signalling the end of class.

"OK, place your sheets on my desk as you leave please," Doctor Crimson said as people began to pack up their stuff.

"So how did you two do on the test?" Ella asked as the walked out of the classroom and made their way to Grimm Studies.

"Not bad, only got 3 wrong," Camea answered. "How did you do?"

"Seventy percent, better than I though I would do." Ella said proudly. "What about you Nads."

"Nadea," she replied shortly. She had never liked nicknames for herself. "And eighty. So how did you do Nick? Don't worry we wont judge."

She couldn't help but take the jab at him and had hoped for at least some kind of comeback; however none came. She looked for any reaction on his face at all but found that he wasn't even with them. Both of her teammates seemed to notice this too and they all stopped to look for him. It didn't take long. He was still back at the classroom door talking to a girl she guessed was a second year. And she was laughing.

"Hey Nick, we're gunna be late," Camea called out to him only to receive a middle finger in response. She simply sighed and shrugged and set back off towards their next class. "So how did he do?" she asked Ella.

"He actually got all of them right," she replied.

"What!" Nadea felt the word slip out in her surprise.

"Yeah and he even finished a few minutes before the timer went off," Ella shrugged.

"Well maybe he takes things more seriously than he shows," Camea reasoned.

"He's still an ass," Nadea countered and this time they didn't argue with her.

The rest of the day passed in much of the same fashion. Teachers either jumped straight into a lesson or gave them question sheets to assess their abilities. The lessons themselves were far more complicated than Nadea expected and by the end of the day she was just happy to collapse onto her bed.

A/N

I apologise for the long break, work has been rather busy and I was preparing for RTX London so I really did not have time to write anything but I am back to writing and uploads should be back to every one/two weeks.