After the match, I walked back to the locker room, followed by jeers and boos from the Welders. John was right at the entrance, practically bouncing from excitement.

“Oh, man, that fight was so epic,” he said. He held his fist out to bump. Usually, I avoid contact, but I was so filled with adrenaline and caught up in the glory of winning that I bumped fists. As I continued to walk, he fell in beside me and continued to recap the fight as if I hadn’t been a participant.

A sharp pain stung my shoulder at the spot I rammed into Kenneth. I rubbed it as I silently grimaced. Either I wasn’t as quiet as I thought, or he saw my face and me rubbing my shoulder, putting two and two together.

“Did ramming into him hurt?” he inquired. “It didn’t look like you hit him that hard. Your increased endurance should have handled it.” I didn’t respond. Carpenters weren’t as tough as Welders, but they were much more resilient than me. “You probably just hit the wrong spot. When you get to the garden, you can siphon off some energy from a tree to heal. Sarah should let you.”

“No need, I’m fine,” I responded quickly.

Sharing the living energies of the plants was another ability that Carpenters had. It was a talent that I didn’t possess. I didn’t want anyone to know that lest it makes them more curious about my inability regarding basic Carpenter abilities. So, I was forced to pretend that nothing was wrong. Whatever I tweaked while hitting Kenneth, I just have to hope it didn’t last.

John continued to talk as I changed out of my physical training uniform. As I took off my shirt, my shoulder felt like I was stabbed with a hot poker. My grey shirt was still over my face, so John couldn’t see as my eyes rolled to the back of my head in pain. I sat down on the wooden bench and simultaneously shrugged the rest of the way out of the shirt. If my shoulder continued to hurt, I wouldn’t be able to hide it, but I couldn’t admit it was a problem.

I unfocused my eyes and let my vision fill with the colored energies of the world. I looked at John as he continued to ramble on. Carpenters had a sizeable glowing spot in the middle of their bodies. It was a swirling miasma of browns and greens. The energy spread out through their bodies via channels that flowed like branches.

It was pretty fitting, actually, due to their ability. I had looked at other Carpenters using my powers while they were asleep. The only difference between the energy when they were sleeping compared to awake was the speed at which the energy moved. It looked much more active as John bounced around and excitedly talked about the match. Although it could just be John.

I wanted to see Welder's energy, but this was the first use of that power outside of my room. Besides the fights and my general duties in the garden, I tried not to overtly use my abilities. Still, I looked down at my own energy.

My power was a bright white and yellow that spread through my body like motes of light moving along neon beams. I looked at my shoulder. Where the neon beam should have flowed smoothly to my back and turned to go down my arm, it was bent at odd angles and appeared knotted. The motes of light that traveled from my center impacted the tangled and broken energy paths, slowing like a traffic jam on a busy highway. As the specks of energy slowed, their color changed from a brilliant yellowish-white to orange and then red as they traveled deeper into the knot.

I could see my hand changing colors as I focused on each part of my energy pathway. I pondered where the best place was to manipulate. Unable to decide, I instinctively moved my hand to my shoulder.

“A-ten-shun,” John yelled.

My eyes refocused as years of conditioning kicked in, and I jumped to my feet. My shoulder stung from the quick movement, but luckily, it was manageable. Standing at the entrance to the locker room was Colonel Baxter.

Standing to his left was Sergeant Michel, looking bored as ever. Behind them were two other cadre members who stayed in the hallway and didn’t look like they were paying attention.

“At ease,” Colonel Baxter said.

I moved to the correct position as he closed the distance between us. The colonel had a big grin as he strode forward in his crisp uniform. In the years I had been in the camp, the colonel hadn’t appeared to age. “That was an excellent fight, Cadet Alson. You showed real talent out there.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“With so much talent, I wonder, what took you so long to sign up for the matches?” The colonel’s face had a genuine curiosity about it.

The real reason flitted across my mind, but it quickly dissipated. I had a perfect answer to that question. It was a legitimate reason to allow me to tell the truth and appease anyone who asked.

“Sir, I wasn’t motivated to participate until it was announced that the rank acquired from winning matches would put us on a squad.”

“So, the other perks didn’t interest you?”

“No, Sir.”

“How…Altruistic,” the colonel said. I didn’t respond. “Why do you want to be on a squad?” He was looking at me intently. This was where I would have to flub the truth slightly.

“I want to go on missions, Sir,” I said. Saying that I wanted to go on missions in the plural form was the lie. I only wanted to go on one mission. I made my face as blank as possible as Colonel Baxter continued to study me.

Colonel Baxter let out a short bark of laughter. “Looks like you have a genuine soldier here, Sergeant Michel,” he said, angling a little to look at the sergeant. Sergeant Michel only nodded slightly. “In that case, I feel good about giving you this.” Colonel Baxter handed me a green sleeve.

I grabbed the sleeve and turned it over. Embossed on its surface was the letter C. Just as I was surprised to receive the D rank, I was equally surprised to receive the C. No one had been bumped up in position so quickly. I quickly snapped out of my shock and saluted. Colonel Baxter returned the salute, so I dropped my arm.

“I’ll let you finish up here and get back to your duties.” He turned and began walking to the exit. “Besides, you probably want to try and visit Cadet Hawthorne to tell her about your victory and jump in status.” He didn’t look back as he said the last part. Sergeant Michel shot me a quick glance and a nod before following the colonel out of the locker room.

I stood there in shock for a second time in moments. Cadet Hawthorne was Claire. He had known about me meeting her and being close to her. A million thoughts about how he knew raced through my mind faster than I could grasp. After a moment of silence stretching the room into a black hole, John whistled, breaking the tension.