. Looking around, Hali was nowhere to be found. The blanket was swiped up on the side showing she had already left the room. She was probably keeping an eye on Glass.
Turning to my side I grabbed my phone and checked the time. It was six in the morning, plopping back into the bed I stretched and yawned. I don’t even have school now, but I still woke up so early. Hunger pains resided in my stomach, so I got up and walked out of the room quietly closing the door behind me. Scanning my surroundings, there was nobody in sight. Shivering from the cold morning temperature, I sauntered towards the lounge area where Glass should be located. Sera’s face popped in my head, I shook my head in a grimace. She was something.
Remembering her hands igniting on fire because she got frustrated, maybe this was what Hali was speaking about when others can’t control their emotions. Their powers just manifest with it. If Uncle Earl didn’t teach me to meditate and calm myself quickly, I would have been just like her. Probably squirting water everywhere, like a fountain.
Turning the corner down the hallway, I reached the lounge door and pulled it open. There was Uncle Earl passed out in the corner by some chairs, he was snoring loudly. Glass and Hali were just sitting down eating breakfast. I jolted and stepped back. I was surprised at the scene I walked into. They both looked up at me right away.
“Juvia, you’re up!” Hali greeted. “Yea, and so are you,” I mentioned pointing at Glass. He rolled his eyes and went back to eating his pancakes. Cautiously moving across the room, I reached for the chair beside Hali and sat down. We were having bacon, eggs and pancakes for breakfast. It looks like the bacon wasn’t crispy anymore, probably because they had to take it to-go. I picked up the flimsy bacon with my fingers and bit into it. The savoury pork belly permeated my taste buds. I glanced at Glass. He was staring straight at me. I pushed the chair back, still remembering what he did to me last time he was conscious.
“I’m sorry...” he muttered. “What?” I responded. He grimaced and peered into my eyes and yelled, “I said I’m sorry! I was just doing my job. Orders were to keep you alive but I didn’t want you moving around, so…” he explained as he glanced at my left and right arms. I felt guilty, he seemed apologetic enough but I still didn’t trust him. His eyes meant he was sorry, and they had more life in them today. Who was the boy that fought with me?
I turned to look at Hali. She was pulling a string of cheese that came from the egg omelet that she ordered. “So is Glass joining us as we talked about yesterday? Do you trust him?” I questioned. She looked over at me and swallowed the food in her mouth. She explained, “For the most part yes, only because his powers are still dormant. He can’t do much right now since the shot I gave him yesterday was created by me. Pretty much, he can’t do anything like his powers because the ice crystals that run in his bloodstream are stopping him from using his powers.” Then she stabbed her sausage with a fork, dipped in ketchup and chowed away. Grabbing a piece of blueberry pancake and a package of butter onto a paper plate, I mentioned, “What’s your reason anyways? Why would you want to help us? You could’ve just tried to escape to run back to your terrorist group.”
He stopped chewing and swallowed his food just like Hali did earlier. “If I go back…They would probably kill me. They don’t want people who can’t execute the work, let alone the fact that you guys ‘kidnapped’ me. My squad probably thinks I’m dead now. They probably aren’t even looking for me. Oh, he’s done and gone. Is what their thinking. It’s not like I have anywhere else to go...”, he explained as he took glances towards Uncle Earl’s direction.
Not knowing how to react, I just nodded in approval. I guess he could stay with us, we could get more information about which this group is and what their objectives are. Still, I have to be wary of him. He could be like this now, you never know when he’s going to revert back to that empty look in his eyes like when I first met him. We all ate awkwardly in silence. I shovelled food into my mouth as fast as I could so I didn’t have to bare the atmosphere any longer.
After breakfast, we all cleaned up the table. Hali passed Glass some new clothes that Uncle Earl bought yesterday, and she gave me toothbrush and toothpaste that she picked up this morning. “Meet me in the garden outside after you are done.”, Hali mentioned as I walked out the door to brush my teeth.
I went to a nearby apartment room and began my dental care routine. Toothpaste on the toothbrush wet the brush a little, and into my mouth, I brushed away. Taking a couple of steps outside the bathroom, I peered outside from the window where I was. There wasn’t much of a garden, weeds were growing everywhere and the fountain looks like it hasn’t been taken care of for years. There were mildew and mould everywhere on the empty fountain, colouring it with brown, green and pink. It was probably white at some point. Shrugging my shoulders I walked back to the bathroom sink and spit the toothpaste out. I hope that’s not the garden she was talking about.
When I was done I took the backdoor that was located beside the lounge door and walked towards the ‘garden’ Hali mentioned about. Glass was sitting on a bench nearby reading a magazine that he found in the lounge area earlier. He didn’t even look up at me when I enter the garden but his face was red up to the tips of his ears. Hali was standing confident in the middle of the green mess. In her hands, she was holding a stopwatch. “Come on, let’s go.” She hollered at me.
I ran towards the two of them. I had no idea what was going to happen today. Last time I had training with Hali, she made me wear a bulletproof vest while shooting her ice bullets at me. She can make that ice-age dome thing like last time, but the pain is still there when I get hit during training. Behind her, there were a couple of big black bags they looked heavy. This must be one of her crazy training sessions. I hung my head thinking I’m going to die of exhaustion for real this time.
“Alright, let’s start! Last time I was able to see what powers you were capable of, as you mature your powers will gain more power. The exercise we did yesterday was for you to learn how to visualize and anticipate your next moves, but I think you need more stamina. Plus you need to learn to be more flexible, with your mind. Image training can only go so far, you need to learn how to manifest at ease. You also need to build up some muscles that you obviously don’t have. You’re are pretty small for a fifteen-year-old. This time we are going to work on stamina, bodybuilding and learning how to control your powers through precision.” Hali explained. She turned around and picked up the heavyweights. There were four bracelets and a full-body vest she brought over to my side. She clipped two bracelets around my wrist and the other two around my ankles. Each one she placed on me felt instantly heavier on my body. Finally, she put the large black vest over my head, this was the heaviest. My body felt the weight on my shoulders and core area.
“The bracelets are each five pounds and the vest is just ten. That’s thirty pounds extra weight on your body. For the time being, I want you to wear this everywhere and every day starting today. In the morning, after breakfast, at night before you go to bed, I want you to do these exercises. To start you are going to do two-minute planks, twenty-five sit up, twenty-five jumping jacks, twenty-five squats, and twenty-five push-ups. This needs to be done in a circuit four sets each. After your circuit training, you will go for a run around the building circumference, if it’s raining you can do agility training in the hallways using blocks. You probably did it in school before in gym class, where you run a certain distance pick up a block and run back and drop the blocks and pick up another one. When you gain more muscle and stamina I’ll move you to do some parkour training. During the time you are not doing your training, you need to conjure up the alphabet with your finger.” Hali explained. I stood there with my mouth wide open. I didn’t know how to react. This was worse than last time. Alphabet?
“How do you even make an alphabet? What are you talking about and can you write all of this down this is so confusing.” I complained.
“Don’t worry I will. I will also do the circuits with you for today and tomorrow so I can see if your form is right or not. When you are not doing circuits, I will keep an eye on you for control training. See you do it like this.” She smiled. She pointed her finger up and cold steam surrounds her fingers, ice began to form on top of the tip of her index finger. There floating on top was a letter ‘A’, then ‘B’, then ‘C’. I pointed my index finger up and poured all my focus towards it. Only a weird blob of water pushed out, then it just drained down my finger into the brownish and yellow grass. I frowned. Hali laughed out loud. I looked over at Glass and he just rolled his eyes.
“Okay! Let’s go, you aren’t allowed to go to bed until you finish all your training today. Come on, on the ground now! Planks first, two minutes.” Hali ordered. Are you serious? I knelt and put both my elbows and forearm on the ground and positioned myself in a plank. Hali started the stopwatch. My whole body instantly began trembling. I have no core muscles, crying to myself here. The weights were not helping either. It was hard to move in let alone a plank. It’s only been a couple of seconds but I can feel my whole body drenching with sweat.
In my first plank attempt, I lasted five seconds. Hali would stop the watch each time I fell, and start it again when I get back up. I saw Uncle Earl peeking through the window in the corner of my eye. He didn’t look as amused as the other two did, his face had a more troubled look. Uncle Earl if you look troubled maybe you should tell them to ease up my training just a bit?
Four and a half hours later, I finally finished it. It’s like past noon, I started early this morning too. I have to do this again tonight before I go to bed. Will I be able to even make it to bed before sunrise tomorrow? The three of us walked back after I was done crying in agony from training, well, Hali dragged me more like. We reached back in the lounge room and Uncle Earl was nowhere to be found.
“Hali where did my uncle go?” I asked her. She looked around and answered, “Maybe he went to pick up some food for us.” Pulling out her phone, in her pocket, she checked for messages. I watched her swipe her finger up and down the screen. “Yup, he went to get food. We are having Chinese food this time.” She told us. Hali tapped the screen and put the phone against her ear, “I’m going to call him and I need to ask him to pick up some extra stuff for me.” She exits the room.
It was just Glass and me in the room. He was cuddled in the corner still reading the book, but he kept peeking glances towards me. Unsure, I sat next to him and began to try the ‘alphabet’ exercises. Focusing only on my index finger, the prickling sensation still surged in my whole arm and another blob spewed out of it. Sighing, I lied back into the chair and groaned. This was harder than the circuit training we just did. I will rather be doing homework right now.
I peeked over at Glass, this time he was staring straight at me. He placed his book down and turned his body towards me. “I know you don’t trust me, but I don’t trust Hali…but I trust…you.” He spoke to me. Whoa, he said something to me. I haven’t heard him speak much, so it was a surprise to me. He must have been waiting all day to speak to me. I wasn’t very nice earlier though since what happened back at the motel still was stuck in my mind. “Okay…let’s talk.” I answered.
Comments (1)
See all