The rest of the lesson passed by in a flash for Wren. Snake came around assessing how everyone performed the open palm thrust, he gave his criticism to some and praise to others before moving on. Wren hardly noticed when the instructor reached him. His mind was preoccupied. He’d just found out that Chadwick was looking for him. He had no idea why. Okay. Maybe he had an idea why. He probably wanted to lay another beating into him like he had done on the Ark. But this time it was completely unwarranted. Wren had done nothing to aggravate Chadwick, the only time they’d seen each other was during their lunch break the previous day, and they hadn’t even spoken.

“Go on then boy, give us a thrust.” Instructor Snake said, pulling Wren from his thoughts.

People were always interrupting his thoughts lately, it was starting to get rude.

“I’m sorry what?” Wren exclaimed. “I don’t know who you think you are, but you can’t just abuse your power as in instructor like that. I will go to your bosses, and your bosses bosses, and their bosses bosses.”

Snake huffed, a nerve visibly ticking on his forehead as he listened to the boy ramble on.

“Just do the move, before I kick you out of this class.” He said.

“But the class is almost over? Wouldn’t there be no point?” Wren asked.

“Just. Do. The. Move.” He enunciated each word with deadly precision. Each one like a knife shooting through Wren.

“Ah yes sir, sorry sir.”

Wren took in a deep breath and set his feet in the correct stance, making sure to bend his knees properly and straighten his feet. He wanted to show the instructor that he could take direction. He raised his palms, keeping them tight and bending his elbows at just the right angle. He performed the move, his right palm shooting forward and his left pulling back.

“Very good. I’m impressed actually. I’d almost say you were a perfect student if it wasn’t for that big mouth of yours.” Snake said.

“If you keep talking about my mouth like that instructor, I might really have to get your bosses involved.”

Snake simply rolled his eyes and moved on to the next recruit. The lesson was coming to a close anyway.

~

Wren, Liam and Carlos were sat in a quiet spot on the grass outside the cafeteria enjoying their lunch. The twin suns were high in the sky, lighting up the entire area. The cafeteria was completely surrounded by trees so during most of the day it was shrouded in shadow, but around lunch time when the suns were at their highest point the area was picturesque. The grass was warm and soft with small clumps of flowers dotted here and there that provided a nice splash of colour to the sea of green. Recruits were sat on wooden benches and tables, talking and laughing in the sunshine. Wren could almost forget that he was on a strange planet on the far side of the galaxy, and not back on Earth at a regular high school.

“These burgers are really good. What did you say they were made out of?” Wren asked, taking a bite from the tray of food in front of him.

“Cloud buffalo, it is the same as the steak we had last night.” Carlos replied.

“May be, but we all know that any meat tastes better in burger form.” Liam said.

“You liking the taste of monster meat?” Wren asked Carlos, a small smirk creeping across his mouth.

“Yes it’s quite satisfactory.” Carlos replied and Wren chuckled.

Liam leant over and gave him a light punch to the arm.

“What was that for?” Wren said.

Liam gave him a look as if to say that Wren knew exactly what the punch was for.

“Anyway. How was your martial arts classes?”

“Well, there wasn’t actually a lot of martial arts involved.” Carlos told the two boys. “It was just a lot of physical training, Instructor Jane said that our bodies aren’t prepared enough to begin learning the techniques.”

“Really? You’re class 2 right?” Liam asked, Carlos responded with a nod. “And you’re class 3 right Wren? What was your class like?”

“It was okay I guess, we learnt the first technique of wind sect martial arts today, but I imagine that a lot of our time will be spent doing physical training, hell, I need it, my stamina sucks. Thank god for sky cow burgers am I right?” Wren said, taking another bite of his food. “What about you up in almighty class 4?”

“Pretty much the same as you Wren, but we did a bit of light sparring at the end, apparently its good to put into practice what you learnt with a real opponent.” Liam said.

“That makes sense. Rapid application is supposed to compound new information better.” Carlos said.

“Yeah that’s what one of my classmates said.” Liam responded. “What are your classmates like? Make any new friends?”

“Not particularly. I didn’t bother to talk to them if I’m perfectly honest.” Carlos said. “What about you?” He posed the question at Wren.

“Oh, mine were really chatty. In fact, I’m supposed to be meeting some of them later after class which I’m soooo excited about.” The sarcasm dripping from his voice almost formed a puddle around his feet.

“What do you mean by that?” Liam asked.

“Some of the guys in my class kindly informed me that Chadwick was looking for me and that he wants to meet me after class.”

“What for?” Liam said.

“To confess his undying love for me. What else? To smash my head in for no apparent reason obviously.”

“I warned you about the second years but I was not expecting you to get into trouble this early.” Carlos said wiping a hand down his face.

“I didn’t even do anything.” Wren moaned.

“Well he doesn’t seem to believe that.” Carlos replied curtly.

“What are you gonna do? You can’t go.” Liam asked.

“What else am I gonna do? I can’t escape him, in case you hadn’t noticed, we live on the same damn island.”

“We’ll go with you.” Liam said causing Carlos’ eyebrows to raise up in shock.

“Speak for yourself, you seem like sort of a nice guy and all Wren, but you’re on your own.” Carlos said.

“Thanks for that buddy.” Wren said sarcastically. “Don’t worry about it, I need to do this on my own, I can’t look weak hiding behind you. But can you guys just do me one favour? Don’t tell anybody. I don’t wanna get in trouble for fighting in my first week here.”

Liam and Carlos looked at each other then gave Wren a nod.

“We can do that.” Liam said.