章 13: IS IT OUR FAULT?

*PREPARE FOR AN INTENSE CHAPTER*

A splitting headache tears through my head when bright light floods the room. Pain builds behind my eyes and I groan while curling into a ball and covering my face with my pillow. Sleep threatens to overcome me when something shakes my bunk.

"C'mon, Emmie," Kristina's voice says beside me, and I turn my sore neck to see Kristina staring at me with round, unblinking blue eyes. Kristina's the only person that calls me 'Emmie'. She's standing on her bunk, which is right below mine, to be tall enough to see me on my top bunk. "Meal time is already over, don't you know?"

Oh! A jolt goes through me. I grunt and sit up, throwing off my covers. All of my movements ache and I wince when I climb down my bunk. "What time is it?" I rasp, my tongue and throat dry.

"Umm," Kristina mumbles, running to the door to check on the time. "Six minutes till class!" she calls from the end of the room. I rub my eyes tiredly after throwing on my clothes and a cloak, and I'm walking out of the dormitory when I feel something yanking on my hair.

"Ah!" I yell, and I realize it's Kristina, trying frantically to brush my hair a bit. The irritation buzzing inside me softens when I see her scared face.

"Oh," I say awkwardly, patting my hair down. "Thanks, Kristina. Really. You saved me a lot of trouble."

Kristina beams at me, then runs off to her class. I rush to mine, stumbling over my dragging feet and smoothing down my slightly tangled, half-brushed hair, and I slip into some training clothes in the girls' locker room before sprinting towards the Safety and Defense room, finally realizing how close I am to being late.

I enter the huge vast room, my slowing footsteps echoing as I slow into a jog, plopping onto the ground next to Jimin. The lights have been shut down again, not surprising. After sitting on the floor for a few seconds, my head starts to clear up and some of the throbbing pain goes away. He glances at me a little worriedly, and I give a quick smile. We all sit in a circle, and Vicky glides around us with her cold aura.

I see Vicky frown at the clock by the door. "You were irresponsible this morning, Miss Minuet. Barely in time for class. It is disrupting everyone's thoughts, am I right?"

Some people nod, too scared to do anything else. Angelina, one of the Andromeda girls, with long sleek black hair and sharp cheekbones, smirks at me. Her friend with flaming red hair rolls her eyes and scoffs.

I sigh with irritation. I see Jimin glaring at Vicky. "Five laps around the room, Minuet. Make it quick; we'll be waiting."

I glower at Vicky as I stand up, and start running around the room in big, giant circles. The room is so huge. After my third lap, I'm only getting pumped up and alert, but I purposefully drag my feet and jog slowly. I can feel Vicky's icicle eyes digging into my skin. When I finally finish my fifth lap, I collapse next to Jimin, letting out a loud exhale and wiping away imaginary sweat.

"You are awfully slow, Minuet."

I stare up at her, exhausted mentally. I've already accepted that the real Vicky won't be coming back any time soon. The bruise on my cheek is darker than ever, and I let it face her directly by lifting up my chin defiantly. "Faster than you could ever be, professor." I elongate the word 'professor' and wait for her to lash out in anger.

Instead, she surprises me. For the slightest moment, her expressionless face tightens, and her eyes flicker softly, almost with regret, then she regains composure so quickly I'm not sure it even happened. She briskly turns and walks over to the mats. "Everyone, pair up with your combat partners and get ready to fight."

Almost anything we do now is combat, most of the time with weapons. It's exhausting. Jimin and I go easy on each other and pretend we're having a hard time. We end up acting like we're fighting, but really, we're suppressing smiles and doing a fun little dance.

Walking back to our locker rooms, before we part, Jimin lifts his hand hesitantly and tucks a strand of my unbound hair behind my ear with delicate, cool slender fingers. He smiles shyly, then stares at me for several seconds. "I really like your hair down," he blurts out, and heat floods my face and I try to laugh off the nerves buzzing inside me.

The rest of the classes go by pretty quickly. Meal time comes and it's tenser than ever, and even I feel like I have to chew quietly to not stick out of place. Rudale has chosen this day to hang around our table, and he stands behind me the entire time. The longer he stands there, the more I want to turn and slap his ugly, smug face.

Social hour isn't as fun. Lisa got sick and isn't doing any funny dances, the adults took away the boys' vial caps game, and the few snacks are stale and tasteless.

At an hour before midnight, the girls in my dormitory all climb into our beds, and Janet shuts off the lights as usual. I almost forget that this midnight there's no meeting. I lay there, nearly drifting to sleep, when I hear a soft voice speak out,

"Is it our fault?"

I stop breathing for a few seconds and turn towards Liesl's hesitant voice. Nobody speaks out, but I can feel everyone is awake and listening.

I clear my throat. "What—what do you mean?"

A pause. "Why the adults hate us so much."

Before I know it, tears well up in my eyes. A thick hot anger curls up inside me, but I keep my voice gentle and steady. "No, Liesl, it isn't our fault at all. They love us all deep inside, but something... something's changed that we can't see yet, and it'll take a while for them to... to come back. Right now, they're lost inside of themselves."

I'm trying to comfort myself too. I want them to come back soon. I want things to be how they used to be.

And now, I realize it. I can't just sit here and wait. Somebody's got to bring them back and fix things up.

From now on, I'm going to try my best to figure out what happened, and make sure Rudale pays for the damage he's done.

~~~~

The next day in Safety and Defense class, training becomes more brutal than ever. The 25 students split into two teams of 12 and 13. I find it unfair, as both the Angelina girls are on the team of 13, and they have an extra person against us.

I tell this to Jimin, but he just grins at me. "Don't worry," he assures me jokingly. "I'm on your side, so of course we'll win."

Vicky explains the rules of the "game". The other team wears bright colored arm bands so we can tell each other apart in an instant, and our team wears the usual. We are to act like this is a war, and we're to fight like we're enemies. If we get hurt, we help ourselves. What. The heck.

Jimin frowns deeply. "This is what we used to do at our old ship. How does she know how this game goes?"

I look at him like he's crazy. "Jimin, this isn't a game. It's trying to stay alive, and it's completely mad and wrong—"

"Shush, Minuet!" Vicky barks, frowning. "Now, get your weapon of choice when I yell 'START'."

Jimin, me, and a few others sprint forward, seeing her dirty trick. Others realize this too late.

I choose twin knives that I've been eyeing, feeling sick to the stomach. I can't bring myself to hurt anyone with these, but they're long enough to deflect and shield me from attacks. Jimin choses spiked knuckle braces that comes with a coil of thin wire with a sharp hook at the end.

We fight back to back, deflecting kicks and jabs. I can tell the both of us are trying our best to not hurt anyone as much as possible.

"You call this fighting??" Vicky shouts from the edge of the mats, her voice growing loud with an edge. I tighten my grip on the twin knives and dedicate my attention on keeping the blades tucked in and only using the flat sides, gritting my teeth.

After some minutes of students darting and dodging attacks, our bare feet squeaking slightly on the mats and heavy pants filling the tense air, I realize many are doing the same. Trying their bests to inflict as little pain as possible. They're holding back, using elbows and knees instead of blades. I feel pride and triumph course through me.

I hear Vicky snarl, and I can't help but smirk at her frustration.

But Angelina and her Andromeda friend, Evie, are ruthless and violent. They move together like a monster, taking down anyone in their path. Soon, many have surrendered and lay exhausted on the mats in pain and defeat, and only Jimin and I stand against them.

Panic flashes in me before I take on the challenge with fresh adrenaline pulsing in my bloodstream. Still back to back, Jimin and I deflect their vicious blows and dirty moves. The cold tip of Evie's blade digs into my already bruised cheek and I cry out before cutting it off by clenching my jaw tightly. My brain feels like crumbling from overworking too fast. When it's clear Angelina and Evie won't bother in holding back against us, Jimin and I take it up a next level.

Angelina snarls, "You can't do anything without your boyfriend covering your a*s, can you?"

I stiffen, and Evie tries to hit an inside spot with the short distraction, but I twist out of the way just in time. I breathe in and out heavily and spit out, "Always trying to bring down others makes you feel all mighty big with that teeny single-celled brain of yours, huh? "

Angelina narrows her sharp, black eyes at me. Well technically, your brain itself is not an organism, therefore you need to call somebody 's whole self a single-celled organism for it to be a proper insult--

"Oof!" I hit the mats hard, the twin knives clattering out of my hands. Evie had faked a hit at Jimin and swung around to hit me instead, her bright colored armband flashing before my eyes. I grimace and bear the aching in my limbs and head, the painful pinching blisters on my fingers from holding onto the knives so tightly, 'just for a bit more,' I tell myself. This class should be dismissed in just a couple of minutes...

I crawl away from the advancing Angelina and Evie, my elbows propping me up while they glower at me murderously and smile madly. Jimin immediately jumps in front of me, shielding me from Angelina and Evie. I take these precious seconds to force myself to recover quickly and stand up with wobbly knees.

"Stay away from her," Jimin growls in front of me, his back shoulders heaving with jagged breaths, "or I'll rip you apart."

"Oh, aren't you so hot, " Angelina laughs. Evie smiles cruelly at Jimin. I can see Vicky standing at the edge of the mats, an anticipating smile lifting the corners of her lips. My hands curl into fists.

"Enough," a clear, familiar voice slices through the chaotic air, stunning us all.