New Kid on The Block

Somehow, Willa slept that first night in the Academy, though she didn't know how it was possible, since she had never slept somewhere that wasn't the Scott cottage before. But she slept all night, only to be woken by the muffled bang of someone slamming a door closed from down the hallway, followed by the angry, muffled curses of one of the other kids. She rolled over onto her side and looked at the clock on the white wooden bedside table, finding the clock reading 06:53. She puffed out a breath and rolled back onto her back, gloomy lighting spilling across the floor from the curtain she had forgotten to close the night before. She threw a hand over her eyes and groaned lowly to herself.

This was her new life, she guessed. She wondered what Ma was doing right now, wondered if she had gotten up, same as ever, and gone to work. She wondered what she had told everyone back home about where Willa had gone; she wondered if she had told Meg where she had gone. She hoped she had told Meg, her best friend deserved to know the truth, but she hoped Meg didn't know it was kind of because of her. Thinking about Ma and Meg made her chest hurt and a lump formed in her throat. She brought her hands up to her eyes, instead, and roughly rubbed her eyes with the heels of her palms. She could hear more activity outside now, muffled voices, doors slamming, the loud groaning of what sounded like old pipes.

The clock read 07:05. She guessed it was time to get up, if she was going to try and make it through her first day, and Hargreeves had already warned her that there would be no exceptions, just 'cos she was the new girl. So, even though it was the last thing on the planet that she wanted to do, Willa whipped the covers back and let the shock of the cool morning air hit her, rousing her, as if she had already been wide awake since waking in such an unfamiliar room. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and her bare feet hit the cold floorboards. Grace had said they could decorate her room, make it her own, but no amount of rugs or paint was ever going to make it hers, but Willa could pretend, if it made everyone else happy.

Her life had become nothing but a game of pretend, it seemed. She gathered up her pitiful few items, a small yellow bathroom caddie with bathroom supplies in it, likely left by Grace, or so she could only imagine. Her fresh uniform was still nice, but she almost missed the stiff, harsh fabric of her old school uniform. She slipped out of her room...someone was playing a violin from down the hallway, the tune sounding bright and crisp, and Willa almost followed the noise out of curiosity to know who was playing, because they sounded good, really good, better than any of the kids who had been in band at school, but she didn't. She trudged down to the bathroom beside her room and was relieved to find it empty, slipping inside it and locking it.

The shower was one of the best she had in a long time, but not good enough to fully wash away her misery. She dried herself off and brushed her hair free of tangles, before tying it into two plaits on either side of her head, letting the still wet ends curl and drip down the front of her blazer as she tugged it on. She then sat down on the edge of the bathtub, balancing as she pulled her knee-high socks up and then her shoes, lacing them up. Her tie took her several minutes and she almost gave up, but she couldn't face asking one of the other kids to help her, not when she was still so new, and she didn't want to come off as completely helpless. She managed to tie it, but it hung a little crooked, no matter how hard she tried to even it up. She gave up in the end.

"New girl," a chipper voice called to her when she left the bathroom, caddie and pyjamas in her arms. She looked up to see Number Four approaching the bathroom door, grey towel swung over one shoulder, still in his pyjamas. He flashed her a bright, lopsided grin, "What's up?"

"The sky, hopefully," Willa replied without consciously thinking, to busy in the moment finding it odd to be chatting to a near stranger in their pyjamas like this. She blinked when it hit her what she had said, head snapping up to look at the other boy.

He didn't seem bothered by her lame response, "Wish it was still the moon," he sighed wistfully, pouting slightly, "Dear old Dad's probably gonna be a right delight this morning".

She grimaced slightly, thinking back to Five's parting words the night before, "Yeah," she said grimly, "I've been told already".

"Klaus, by the way," he indicated to himself, then, waving his hand to himself with a little flourish of his wrist, flashing her a suddenly bright grin, "The fabulous one..."

"You really need to get your delusional thinking checked," a voice called from one of the rooms down the hallway, sounding slightly snide and mocking.

"In your dreams, Klaus!" another voice shouted from the opposite end of the passageway.

"Slander!" Klaus gasped dramatically, widening his blue eyes and flattening a hand over his heart, looking truly deeply offended, "The whole lot of you are just jealous!"

"As if!"

"Whatever helps you sleep at night!"

Willa laughed, though she managed to hastily arrange her expression into one of mild amusement when Klaus fixed her with a mock hurt glare, eyes still too wide and hand pressed dramatically over his heart for it to be real. She smiled and eyed him, and only then did he finally drop the hand.

"As you've probably realised..." he sniffed haughtily, sticking his nose up in the air. It was a rather good impression of Hargreeves Senor, actually, "I'm deeply underappreciated around here, new girl".

She smirked slightly, "No more so then by yourself, I see," she teased lightly, giving him a pointed look.

"Of course, I've always had a very healthy security about myself".

"A deluded security, more like," someone muttered as they came walking by them, and Willa glanced around to find it was the stockier, dark-haired boy from the previous night...Number Two, if she recalled correctly. He caught her eye and his expression immediately soured, swiftly turning his gaze away as his posture hunched over. He kept on marching passed them, coming dangerously close to bumping into Willa's shoulder, but being so used to such tactics, she easily leaned away.

She frowned, watching his back retreat down the hallway, before he turned and disappeared into a room. The door slammed loudly behind him and his delightful attitude.

"He doesn't like me very much," she sighed quietly, feeling a wave of unhappiness at the idea. Of course, she knew that not all of them might get alone, Hargeeves had even warned her that she would face hostility, but upon being welcomed so warmly last night by most of the kids, she had kind of thought Hargreeves had just been trying to scare her.

Maybe not.

Klaus shrugged, absently scratching his ear, "Diego's just threatened by you, is all," he said lightly, as if he was speaking about the weather, barely glancing at her...Willa, however, whipped her head back around to gape at him in disbelief, lips parting. He didn't seem to notice, moving to push the bathroom door open, "Anyways, best wash up, or I'll have Daddy-dearest lecturing me about the importance of hygiene and yada, yada..." he blew a loud raspberry with his lips and shoved the door open.

"Wait," Willa held out a hand to stop him, eyes wide, "What do you...?"

He disappeared into the bathroom before she could even finish, leaving her gaping at the scratched and peeling surface of the door. Muffled through the door, she could hear the sound of the shower being turned on and she hastily decided it was time to leave, not wanting to give off the impression of being a creeper or something on her first morning. But Klaus's words swirled through her mind as she slipped back into her bedroom, chucking her things on the dresser table. She then flopped onto the chair before it. So...Diego was threatened by her? That was just wild, on a completely different level. She didn't understand why anyone would be threatened by her. It occurred to her, then, that maybe he had been the original Number Seven, but then again, it seemed more like a promotion to Willa for Diego to become Number Two, so, really, she didn't get what his issue was with her. Who knows? Maybe Klaus was just messing with her, too, she didn't know. It was weird, though.

...

Willa's first breakfast at the Umbrella Academy was bizarre, but then again, how was anything in this place not strange? It started with a knock on her bedroom door, jolting the ginger haired girl from where she had been lounging on her bed, staring blankly up at the ceiling above her head, thoughts lingering miserably on how anyone could actually see her as being a threat. It was Vanya who had knocked, the brunet girl smiling shyly as she stood outside the door, bright eyed and perfectly poised already in her own uniform, long hair kept simply partly tied back off her face.

"The bell's about to ring for breakfast," she told her, "I thought I'd better make sure you were ready, didn't want you to get lost trying to find your way".

Willa was briefly surprised by the other girl's thoughtfulness, not to mention the kindness of considering her. It made her smile.

"Thanks," she said gratefully, sighing slightly in relief, "Knowing my luck, I probably would have gotten lost," she stepped out of her doorway and shut it behind her, reminding herself to do so as a slight after thought, since she never bothered back home to close her bedroom door. She glanced at the other girl, eyeing her curiously, "What made you even think to check on me?"

"It can be easy to get lost in this place, sometimes," she replied, her voice light, soft, but there was a flicker of sadness in her features as she said it.

She blinked very slightly at that, again, reminded almost painfully of Meg as she looked at Vanya. Of course, the two girls couldn't be more different, really, Vanya didn't have a single visible bruise on her, no cut lips and her uniform looked perfectly clean and pressed, not faded in the slightest, unlike Meg. It was the look in her eyes, Willa thought as she regarded the other girl, it was the way that Vanya stood with her shoulders slightly curled around herself, as if she was trying to disappear and make herself smaller, it was the way that Vanya smiled a tiny, tight lipped little smile that just didn't quite reach her eyes. Willa had the strangest urge to want to hug Vanya, tuck her under her arm and reassure her that they could be friends, that she wouldn't have to feel lost ever again.

Instead, Willa offered her the only thing she could, barely knowing the other girl.

"Do you like lollypops?"

Vanya blinked her big, sad brown eyes at her and parted her lips, eyebrows arching up high in surprise, "Um..." she licked her lips, her expression softening slightly, "I do, yeah. But Dad doesn't let us have sugar; he says it's not necessary for our training".

She flashed her a sly smirk, "What your Dad doesn't know, isn't going to hurt him," she said with a playfully look, eyebrows waggling slightly teasingly and her already lyrical accent only adding to the sing-song tone she had used, already reaching into the pocket of her skirt to fish out a lollypop, this one strawberry and cream. She held it out to the other girl, who smiled brightly and took it. Willa grinned, "It should be a crime not to let kids have sweets, probably explains why your Dad's always scowling".

She laughed, a surprised sort of laugh that she didn't even seem to expect herself, before a tiny flicker of sheepishness crossed her features, "I think you're going to fit in around here," she told her with a slightly knowing smile, tucking the lollypop inside her breast pocket of her blazer, sparing Willa a slightly secretive glance, "Come on. I wasn't kidding about the bell, and Dad doesn't suffer tardiness for anything".

"Doesn't sound like he suffers anything from anything or anyone".

"You're definitely going to fit in".

Willa grinned at that, feeling suddenly lighter and more relaxed than she had all morning, falling immediately into step alongside the other, very slightly shorter girl as Vanya began leading her down the hallway, taking her back towards where Willa vaguely remembered the staircase as being. It was nice feeling like she was already making friends with the other kids, of course, it wasn't the same as Meg, no one would ever be, but it was still nice. The other girl led her down to the next level of the house, and Willa was unsurprised to find the other kids gathered around the top of the grand staircase, all of them seemingly waiting for the bell that was supposed to herald breakfast. All of them turned to look at them, or rather Willa, upon their approach.

Diego eyed her as if he half expected her to run at him with a knife or something, brown eyes hard and wary, while Klaus, in stark contrast, simply lolled his head sideways from where had his lanky frame leaning casually back against the wall, sparing Willa another lopsided smile and threw her a little lazy salute with two fingers. Five only spared her a brief glance, before dismissing her without a flicker of an eye, arms crossed over his chest and a slightly haughty, bored scowl on his features, while Number Six smiled brightly at Willa, and Allison nodded to her with a smaller smile. Number One, however, frowned very slightly at Willa, stepping up to them.

"Your ties crooked," he said to her, disapproval lacing his words, "Dad won't like that".

Willa glanced subconsciously down her front.

"God, you're such a Daddy's-boy Luther," Klaus rolled his eyes, briefly closing his eyes in a dramatic sigh.

"I'm Number One, Number Four," Luther, apparently, shot him a slightly ruffled frown, "As leader, it's my job to make sure you're all ready for the day, Dad says so himself that appearances matter".

"Dad says a lot of stuff," Five pointed out with a slightly bored, drawling tone, still not bothering to glance at any of them, as if he found the whole conversation beneath him, "Most of it isn't worth listening to, Luther, but then again, when your heads full of moon-dust, I guess there's only so many options you have".

A blotchy blush spread up Luther's thick neck and he turned to glare at the other boy, "No one asked for your two-cents, Number Five," he huffed, looking as if he wanted to thump something, really, really badly.

Five threw him a mocking smirk, "Lucky for you, it comes free of charge".

"Leave him alone, Five," Allison cut in with an eye roll, reaching out to place a hand on Luther, who had taken a step closer to the shorter, dark-haired boy, glaring at him almost dangerously. Luther instantly stilled at her touch and blinked, a mildly startled expression crossing his pink face as he stared down at her hand on his arm, seemingly briefly transfixed by it. Allison didn't seem to notice, turning to look slightly critically at Willa, "Luther's right, you can't go downstairs with your tie like that, not unless you already want to get on Dad's bad side..."

"Does he have a good side?" Klaus asked blankly, seeming genuinely bewildered by the idea.

Diego reached over and smacked the back of his head, causing the other boy to yelp dramatically and immediately duck away, covering his head as if the other boy was dive-bombing him, rather than merely smacking him. None of the other kids seemed to blink an eye at the display, Five seemed to bite back a tiny smirk, while Six sighed slightly and shook his head, and Luther frowned faintly, again looking torn by whether he should defend Hargreeves Senor or ignore it. He seemed to choose to ignore it.

"It's alright," Vanya said, then, drawing all of their eyes to her. She glanced at Willa and gave her a small; slightly less timid smile then she had thus far, "I'll help you fix it...if you like, that is".

"That would be great, thanks," Willa nodded, relief blooming inside her chest, having dreaded the idea of having to try and figure out the damn tie herself...or asking them for help, especially with Diego still eyeing her as if she had kicked his puppy.

Vanya righted her tie within five seconds flat, managing to do it with some sort of magic that Willa tried to follow, but it was impossible to properly see what the other girl was doing when it was beneath her own chin. Whatever she did, it seemed to satisfy Luther, who nodded once in approval, right before a bell rang out from below them. The kids all immediately took off down the stairs at a near run, leaving Willa to hastily follow them, desperately hoping breakfast would be easier.

...

Breakfast was, of course, still conducted in the oddest way that Willa had ever had breakfast before. For starters, upon arriving in the dining room, all of the kids were expected to wait and stand behind their chairs, and all of them seemed to have a place, leaving Willa briefly feeling cast adrift, not knowing where she was supposed to sit, until Grace had stepped in, giving her a gentle smile and taking her by the shoulder, lightly steering her to one of the chairs at the end of the table, thankfully closest to Vanya and directly across from Five, while Six sat on her right. Hargreeves arrived a few seconds after their own arrival, and without a word he had immediately moved to take the head seat furthest down the table from Willa. Only then did the other kids take their seats and start piling eggs and bacon onto their plates, while an old gramophone began softly playing classical music off to the side of the room.

Willa had never felt more subconscious eating a meal in her entire life, but she was so hungry, she managed to eat her full plate, casting curious glances around the table, trying to get a better grasp of the other kids. Number Six seemed to bury himself inside a book the second he had his plate piled with his food, something about poetry, she thought, while Diego finished his food with seemingly only a few mouthfuls and spent the rest of the meal toying with his knife, twirling it between his fingers with such dizzying speed and accuracy, Willa was briefly stuck staring. Luther and Allison sat across from each other, and Willa thought she noticed them glancing at each other, only to hastily look away again, reminding her of how Jesse Clark and Laura Jenkins shared looks in class. Klaus seemed to play with his own food, pushing it into different shapes around his plate, while Vanya kept her head down and simply ate. Five caught her eye, however, seemingly having been doing the same thing as Willa, observing the rest of the table, including her. She gave him a level look when they made eye contact and he flashed her another challenging smirk, stabbing his egg yolk almost threateningly. She rolled her eyes and simply grabbed her orange juice.

After breakfast, Willa followed the other kids upstairs, where they began their first lessons for the day, Hargreeves, senor, teaching the class. Physics was first up and Willa found herself instantly intrigued, never having learnt anything but very basic, primary school level science before, doing minor experiments with milk and food colouring, for instance, but this was different. Hargreeves might be a scary human being, but he turned out to actually be an interesting teacher, though Willa and Five seemed to be the only ones in the class who seemed to enjoy it. It was a massive relief to find that she wasn't that far behind, even if there was a few concepts that she had to jot down to check out later, not fully understanding them.

Their next lesson shifted to biology and then, right before lunch, classical literature, which seemed to be more favoured amongst the kids, or at least better suited to Vanya and Number Six's own skills. Lunch followed as breakfast had, before immediately rolling into an afternoon session of history, the topic of which based on the Cold War, something that Willa was largely unfamiliar with, which made it extra interesting, if rather mentally challenging to try and wrap her head around, especially after only having a half an hour meal break as the only break for the entire day. What was the deal with Hargreeves hating his students having any free time? Was he scared they were going to gang up and rebel or something?

History concluded after an hour and a half, before the class seemed to shift into English. Willa had found out at the end of breakfast that morning that all of the kids were required to learn at least a couple of languages, these lessons, though, were conducted on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, or though Klaus apparently had an extra day on top of the rest of them, or so Willa had heard him moaning. All the kids were taught French and Spanish, with a third or fourth, or more, in Klaus's case, language added into that mix at the students own request. Willa had no idea what languages she wanted to learn, they all sounded pretty daunting, so she decided to go with Russian (Mainly because Vanya was taking it), and Italian. It was the only time the kids were separated in class.

And those classes were split up with a talking monkey.

Willa just about fell off her chair meeting Pogo, who taught Italian on a Wednesday afternoon, between two thirty and four o'clock. The other kids who took the class, Klaus and Allison, had almost wet themselves with laughter, but Pogo had merely smiled politely at Willa and welcomed her to the Academy, a warm twinkle in his brown eyes, while a pair of half-moon glasses perched on the leathery snout of his nose. Once the shock wore off, Willa took an instant liking to the kindly chimp, who was incredibly patient and kind to her, taking extra time to sit with her and help her learn the basics of learning Italian, and even Klaus and Allison seemed more relaxed, eagerly jumping in to help her when she got stuck or confused, and Willa found it much easier to learn the subject when she felt comfortable. French, Spanish, and Russian, all taught by Hargreeves senor, were far more rigid and anxiety inducing in comparison.

The worst part of studying at the Umbrella Academy, however, wasn't the lessons or language lessons, it wasn't the fact that Willa was still trying to find her own feet, or that some of the other kids, like Diego, seemed to dislike her for no reason at all. No, all of that, Willa could handle, what she couldn't handle was the physical training.

"I..." Willa panted breathlessly, for the first time in her life feeling actual sweat dampening her forehead and the back of her neck, chest heaving for precious oxygen as she bent over with her hands braced on her knees, "I...I think...I'm dying".

A loud whistle rung out through the courtyard.

"Two more laps, Number Seven!"

Willa barely heard it over the thundering of her own heart, barely even remembered that she was supposed to be Number Seven now, her brain short firing from the four laps she had already jogged around the grey, gloomy courtyard in the middle of the Academy. Even the cool breeze in the air wasn't enough to make her feel like she wasn't about to pass out or vomit, eyes squeezed shut as she wheezed slightly. You would imagine, perhaps, that after being stuck in a classroom from eight thirty in the morning, pausing only for lunch, before finally finishing classes at four in the afternoon, that the kids of the Umbrella Academy might have been afforded a break for the day.

You would be incredibly wrong.

No sooner had class finished, was Willa informed, much to her horror by Allison, that it was time to prep for training in the courtyard, training that went for two hours, before finally getting a fifteen minute break, which they were supposed to use to clean themselves up, before having dinner. It wouldn't be another week until Willa discovered that the other kids secretly stashed food on themselves to sneak when Hargreeves wasn't looking, but no one had bothered to let her in on that little secret. Not only was she mentally fried, dying from just the first fifteen minutes of training, but she was starving. All up, it made Willa feel incredibly sickly.

"You're not dying," Allison told her as she came jogging by her, pausing briefly to jog on the spot, eyeing the hunched girl with an amused smirk, "You just need to suck it up and get on with it, Willa".

"My...favourite flowers are...sunflowers..." she gasped out, coughing slightly and very nearly gagging...Allison grimaced and took a small step back from her, eyeing her warily, "If I die...I want them at...my funeral..."

"Duly noted," a smirking voice called as someone went jogging passed them, and Willa glanced up, squinting slightly blurry eyes, to see Five sprinting by them with hardly a hitch to his voice.

Willa had never wanted to see someone trip more in her whole life.

"It's not that bad," Allison rolled her eyes slightly, still jogging on the spot, still not even breathless. Willa hated her a little bit, "Even Ben's still running, and he's usually the first to start lagging".

Willa only coughed again, "Tell Ma...I love her..."

Someone else came jogging up to them, then.

"How many laps have you done?" an incredulous voice asked. It was Diego and, for the first time since Willa had arrived, he actually was looking at her with something other than wariness and tension, a flicker of concern in his face.

"Four...maybe..."

"Christ," he choked on a startled laugh, "Have you ever even run in your life?"

"Not...on...purpose..."

Willa missed the flat eyeroll that Allison gave Diego, who actually smirked slightly, a flicker of amusement crossing his features.

"You're on your own," Allison shook her head, before swiftly taking off to join the other in their jogging, seemingly deciding that it was every man for himself. Or herself, in this case.

Diego actually lingered briefly longer, "Don't be a quitter, new girl," he told her, oddly actually sounding encouraging, and it was enough to make Willa glance up to him in surprise, before he also took off after Allison.

"Enough dawdling, Number Seven!" Hargreeves's voice rung out loudly through the courtyard, "Make that four more laps!"

Willa almost whimpered in despair.

...

After laps in the courtyard, which were just a warmup, apparently, they were brought inside and back up to the second floor, where a massive room that might have once been a ballroom now acted as a gym. One wall was covered in floor to ceiling mirrors, while some gym equipment sat at one end of the room, weightlifting stuff, treadmills, stationary bikes, but to Willa it all just looked like torture equipment. Thankfully, Hargreeves didn't direct them over to all of that nonsense, instead, he instructed them all to line up with their backs to the mirrored wall, all in numerical order, save for Vanya, who remained by Hargreeves's side on the opposite side of the room. A single chair was placed in the centre of the room. Willa eyed it warily, having caught her breathe finally after sucking down a litre of water, and dousing herself with another half a litre, just trying to wash off the grimy, hot and sticky feeling of the sweat on her skin. It had kind of worked; she had cooled down now, at least. The training tracksuit, green and white, might be more freely moving then the uniform, but it was still hot.

"Number Seven," Hargreeves called out, once he was satisfied that they were all ready and waiting, his cold grey eyes fixing intently on Willa at the end of the line. He held a red leather-bound book in his hands, while Vanya held a stopwatch in her hand, for whatever reason, seemingly excused from taking part in the torture of training. She didn't even have to wear the stupid tracksuit. The old man narrowed his eyes on Willa, "As the newest member of the Umbrella Academy, today's training session will be specifically focused on you..."

Willa swallowed, hard, sensing the curious eyes of the other kids on her.

"You are to step up to the chair and perform your ability. It will be just as you did in Wales, there is a message written on that blackboard..." he indicated to where a large blackboard on a stand stood at the end of the room, the surface facing the room blank, "...you will then copy the message onto the blackboard on the opposite side for comparison. This time, however, you will be timed".

Timing didn't matter to Willa, she had been doing this sort of thing for years, she wasn't worried. So, she nodded in acknowledgment that she knew what to do and broke formation with the other kids, walking up to the chair and turning to sit on it. She looked expectantly up to Hargreeves and Vanya, feeling the entire rooms eyes looking at her. Vanya started the stopwatch and Willa closed eyes, instantly finding that little tether inside of herself that allowed her to pull herself free from her physical bonds. She grabbed it and hauled herself up and out of her body, opening her eyes again to look back down at her slumped form. There was a few gasps from the other kids.

"Did she just pass-out?" Klaus asked in a loud, whispered gasp.

"I thought she was joking about dying," Allison blinked, looking almost horrified, eyes wide, "I didn't think she was serious..."

"Silence, children," Hargreeves called sharply, calculated eyes firmly planted on Willa's slumped, unconscious body.

Willa almost smirked, striding confidently straight up to the blackboard. It was quite freeing not being visible to everyone else, she took greater pleasure in it then she might normally have, for some reason. She strolled right through the blackboard without hesitating and spun back around to see the message that had been scrawled across the other side in white, spiky printed chalk. She eyed it carefully a second, memorising it, before strolling back over to her body. She slipped back into her physical form like pulling on a coat and the next second, she blinked back into the real world and straightened sharply, almost knocking her chair back on two legs. There was more gasps of shock from behind her, but Willa didn't pay it much mind, nor did she pay the blood trickling from her nose much mind, roughly using the back of her hand to wipe at her nose as she leapt onto her feet, hurrying over to the blackboard, scared she might forget the message. She picked up the chalk and began scrawling the message.

When Evil Rains.

She underlined it and dropped the chalk back on the small holder stuck to the board, turning around to face Hargreeves. A trickle of blood run down her lips and she raised her eyebrows, almost defiantly, back at the old man.

"Was there anything else to add, sir?"

...

Hargreeves made her do it over and over again, until Willa had almost lost track, going through two handkerchiefs with blood from her nose. He even stated getting the other kids to write things on the board for her to try and copy, but by the time it had come to Klaus's turn, which the kid had looked way to excited about, Willa was forced to call it quits.

"I can't..." she had the bloody handkerchief pressed against her nose, head pounding and a sickly, faint feeling washing over her. The world had taken on a slightly fluffy, warped edge to everything now, and she didn't know if she was going to vomit or faint for real. She squinted up at Hargreeves, slumped heavily in her seat, almost slipping off it completely, "I...think I'm done for the night. I feel kinda sick..."

Hargreeves pursued his lips in annoyance, but he snapped his book shut, having been scribbling away in it the whole time, pinning her with a cool, assessing glare. He then glanced at Vanya.

"We're done for the night," he said, before sparing the other kids a cool look, "Dismissed".

He then turned and walked out, not even moving to try and help Willa, who closed her eyes and pressed the bloody handkerchief against her nose. She felt kind of floaty, like she might just drift away, like a cloud. It was nice, but scary at the same time, she'd never felt like it before. She didn't even feel hungry anymore.

"Willa?" a worried voice called to her, sounding far off, "Willa?"

Something touched her arm and Willa jolted awake, though barely, opening her eyes to frown up to see all of the kids surrounding her, gathering around her in a semi-circle, crammed together to try and get a better look at her. She looked into Vanya's alarmed, wide eyes and realised it was her who was squeezing her shoulder tightly, trying to rouse her. She gave her a wary, dazed grin.

"This whole training thing..." she sighed, scrunching up her face, making the dried blood crusted around her nose and lips feel tight, "It really sucks".

"You're not having a stroke, are you?" Five gave her a slightly bewildered stare, actually looking mildly concerned.

Klaus leaned uncomfortably close into her personally space, almost nose-to-nose, as if he was trying to peer right into her brain to see if she was having a stroke or not. Willa reached up and poked a finger into his forehead, pushing him back with a slight grimace. The boy made a slightly surprised, strangled yelp and flailed his arms about, almost hitting Diego and Five in the face, since they stood on either side of him. Neither boy seemed to enjoy that, smacking his arms away with dark glares.

"I'm not kissing you, Klaus," she scowled at him, dropping her arm back onto her lap, "Back off, would you?"

"You'd be lucky to get a kiss off me!" he sniffed haughtily, reaching up to rub his forehead, where she had been poking him. He scowled haughtily, "Besides, all that blood is seriously horror movie worthy scary, and not in a hot way".

"Who dropped you as a baby?" Five stared at him in disbelief and exasperation, youthful face scrunched up slightly, as if he couldn't believe someone could be so stupid.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Allison asked Willa worriedly, looking slightly disturbed and apprehensive, "You've lost a lot of blood..."

"M-maybe we should g-get Mum to check you," Diego added with a small frown, not quite looking at her directly, a slightly sickly green pallor to his skin.

Willa shrugged slightly, glancing down at the bloody handkerchief, "I always bleed like this," she said lightly, though she supposed that she didn't normally bleed this heavily and for this long, but she didn't think she'd lost that much blood. She dabbed at her nose again and glanced back up to them, "I think it's getting better..."

"You still look like a murder victim," Luther gave her a slightly muted, horrified stare, and for such a big guy, he looked truly a little rattled by it all.

"That's just my personal style".

Someone snorted with amusement, it sounded suspiciously like Five, but when Willa glanced at him, the boy looked completely stony faced back at her. She sighed and looked back around to the other kids.

"I'm okay," she said quietly, "I think so, anyways. I don't feel like passing-out anymore..."

"You mean you did before?" Ben gaped at her slightly.

"I think I did actually faint before, but I feel better now, murder victim-esque aside. Thanks for that, by the way, Luther".

"Klaus's the one who said it first!"

"Did not! I said she looked like she'd stepped out a horror movie!"

"Oh, that's loads better...!"

"Guys," Willa cringed, squinting her eyes slightly as their voices rose, echoing off the walls of the training room, making them sound even louder, "Seriously, would you tone it down? My heads killing me".

Luther immediately pressed his lips together, looking slightly sheepish, while Klaus mimed zipping his lips closed, looking the picture of innocence all of a sudden, or innocent as he could look. Willa might have smiled, if she wasn't being completely honest about how her head felt like someone had drilled a hole in the base of her skull.

"You really probably should get cleaned up," Vanya suggested quietly, eyeing Willa with a concerned frown.

Willa glanced at the dry blood that had worked itself into the creases and lines of her hands, and nails, making her truly look like she was a murder victim...or a serial killer. She grimaced slightly. Yeah, a shower couldn't hurt.

Some dynamics starting to come into play. Hopefully the kids are coming off as mini, slightly more innocent versions of their future adult counterparts in this chapter. Please tell me what you thought, please review/comment :)