Leila woke up feeling queasy; she must have fallen asleep while watching TV. She turned around in her bed smiling to herself; she took out her phone and saw it said 7:40am. Today was a public holiday which meant no school... she had a little surprise in store for Zach. She got up from bed, and jumped into the shower, with a little spring in her step, she rushed to change into the most casual looking item she could find, (which wasn't casual at all from her standard). She rushed her way out of the room. She took a small piece of paper out of pocket where Loide had drawn a little map for her with directions, which showed her how to make her way to the kitchen. Strictly speaking Leila wasn't too sure, if she was technically allowed to do this...but since she couldn't buy a gift...she really didn't have a lot of options.

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Zach checked his reflection in the mirror with a tad bit of disappointment, the makeup artist had done a good job of course, all his tattoos were gone ....and just like that the part of him that he came to really love and respect had to go into hiding for yet another week. Without even thinking, he grabbed his phone and scrolled through it to look for her room. To his shock, she wasn't there...he roughly scrolled through the other CCTV footage in other nearby area's...he couldn't find her there either. He panicked for a flash of second, remembering Skinner's words last night, about what were to happen to Leila, should any of the dangerous young men that come to his basement every Thursday ever happen to get into contact with her.

He took out his phone and dialed Clifford's number

"Good Morning Master Williams.." Clifford answered promptly

"Have you seen Leila? I can't seem to find her anywhere.."

"Unfortunately not. I am not in the Williams residence today...in fact none of the housing staff are..." Clifford said rather surprised

"What ! ...why?!"

"We have been given the morning off Master Williams.."

"Off...? Given the morning off ?! By whom !" Zach asked angrily

"By Miss Adams.....she said ...er...she would attend to you ....er...personally this morning Sir" Clifford said, and although Zach couldn't see him, he could hear the smile in his voice clearly, and not surprisingly his anger vanished in the flash of a second.

"thanks..bye.." he said excitedly, roughly putting his black jacket over his shoulder he got into his personal lift and pressed the big G button. He got out at the foyer, making his way to the hall where they normally had their breakfast, but there was no one there. Oddly enough, it was probably the first time he recalled seeing the breakfast hall without the dishes and table laid out, and without having his staff wait on him. He felt his phone vibrate, taking it out of his pocket. He smiled answering it

"Hey ! Er..i wanted to invite you somewhere .." Leila said nervously

"So you want to invite me ...in my own house?"

"y-y-yeah..something like that.."

"Cool...where..?"

"come down to the kitchen please.." she said, Zach paused for a while...

"where might that be?"

"You don't know where your own kitchen is?!"

"No..." he could almost envision her rolling her eyes "wait for me at the foyer..ill come get you"

He waited impatiently; still trying to look for her through all the various CCTV footage he had access to in his phone....there definitely seemed to be a blind spot somewhere since he still couldn't find her. He heard a small ting of the lift doors opening, there she was looking even more breath taking then he remembered. She said something to him, but his brain couldn't register, he felt all the blood leaving his brain and rushing elsewhere...

"Zach ...is everything okay?"

"Huh..what..oh yeah..er ..what did you say?"

"ookay...I said follow me..."

He obeyed. Of course he obeyed. How could he not. He got into the lift, and she pressed a big button that read K.

Walking out he didn't even pay attention to his kitchen (which he had never stepped in), because something far more precious stood in front of him. It was simple, nothing in comparison to the grandeur he experienced every day. There in front of him was a small wooden table, laid out with breakfast and 2 simple chairs. Leila stared nervously at Zach

"Er..hope its okay..I kind of gave Mr Clifford and Miss Loide the morning off..." her voice trailed off, there was so much uncertainty in her voice, as though she was second guessing herself. Zach didn't reply, he still stared at the table in front of him

"I k-k-know th-this isn't qu-quite what you're normally used to ...bu-but I swear ...the food taste's better then it looks...?" Leila said , her voice trailing off again

"this............this........this ..... is wonderful. No one's ever done something like this for me before.." Zach said staring at the simple wooden table. For some reason it made him emotional...he's never really had a family...and this ...made him feel like..he's home.

Leila beamed up "well that's great ! let's eat now shall we?" She said excitedly as she pulled out a chair for him.

Zach sat down eagerly "Can I ask what this is all about...?"

"Well...I wanted to thank you...but I didn't have any money to buy a gift...so...I thought I could do something for you..."

"Thank me....for....?" Zach said cautiously staring at Leila's face, and just as he predicted, Leila started turning red ...for sure she was going to start stuttering again

"Well...I..j-just..wa-wanted t-t-t-to thank you for al-al-alowing me to stay here..." Leila said not meeting his gaze. Zach smiled "Allowing you to stay ? You mean more like kidnapping you outta that hell hole !"

Leila didn't reply, she opened up the plates, "tadaa..." she said with zest, Zach turned to stare down at his plate "Sandwiches...." he said, Leila beamed up nodding "yep..can't say their 'gourmet' made or anything..but they are pretty good..and to chug it down..you have....this.." she said pouring milk into a clear glass.

She picked up the glass as though wanting to make a toast

"To what are we toasting to..? Our first date maybe?" Zach asked picking up his glass of milk winking at Leila , she stared back aghast "oh no ..this is definitely NOT a date.."

"sure looks like one to me.."

"definitely NOT a date.."

"Okay so..What are we cheering to?"

"how about to friendship..?"

Zach stared at her dead in the face, till the colour started to rise again in her face "I am not your friend..and will never be.." he finished.

"oh..." she said, disappointment and embarrassment etched all over her face "why can't we be friends...? Is it because I'm a beggar..?" she asked, again not meeting his eyes.

How does she always misunderstand everything I say !? Zach thought angrily to himself

"No..Because there are 2 kinds of people I can't ever be friends with..." Zach said "the first kind is Xavier Johnston...and the second kind are beautiful women.."

"Oh.." Leila said, but it was a different oh...a less humiliated oh...

"well then here's to non – friendship then.." she said eagerly

"to non-friendship" Zach said, clinking his milk glass with hers. He dug into her sandwich and was pleasantly surprised.

"So..how was your...Thursday..?" Leila asked cautiously

"it was busy..how was yours.." He replied casually

"slept in...you know since I'm not allowed out of my room and all.."

"uh huh.." Zach replied

"I guess you're not going to tell me what you get up to on Thursdays are you..?" she asked

"would you believe me if I said I was trying to establish world peace..?" Zach said

Leila snorted her milk rolling her eyes

"always with the jokes.."

"you always assume I'm joking...even when I'm not.."

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"Welcome to day 1 folks...I trust you have found your new accommodation to be more hospitable then your previous? ...I will briefly tell you about your day to day activities here...." Princess said pausing so he could stare at his class

"...you wake up strictly at 4am everyday...you proceed with your first physical development activity which is from 4:30 to 6:45am......breakfast is from 7am till 8am..If you miss it...you missed your breakfast. We have class from 8 – 10 am and then 10 am to 8 pm you go back to your physical development training. Lunch and dinner in between. No exceptions, you do this every day.....you get Sundays off to recuperate.." Princess finished... "Now are there any questions?"

"What's up with the guy who was in a suit last night?" Eduardo asked Princess eagerly. Princess smiled knowingly, all the new recruits were always impressed by the one mysterious guy in the suit with the mask.

The recruits had moved into their new accommodation, and although it was tenfold better then the prisons they came from...there was no mistake....it was still a prison of sorts.

"That is a VERY dangerous young man...." Princess replied back "Best young C40 we have around.." he beamed up in pride.

He heard a snicker from Vikram and James, who opted to sit at the back of the class.

"You mean to tell me that the suit can fight..? I'd take that cat down in less than those 40 seconds he gave us last night.." James continued

"Oh honey....No one's ever beaten Cut Throat before......at least not in the youth category" Princess continued.

"So wait... you have categories?" asked Vikram

"Yep..we have the under 25's which is where you all fit in, and then what we call the adult catergory..which is 25 and older..."

"And Suit is like..what? The boss of the C40 or something..? I heard you calling him boss last night" Eduardo asked again with that same awe in his voice.

" The best C40 automatically gets the top rank position.....now if you think you are the best C40 you are welcome to challenge him for the position...but like I said...He's never been beaten before.."

"there's a first time for everything .." James said snickering. Princess smiled at James, he had seen it one too many times from new recruits, they all wanted to show that they were the baddest toughest guy around..not surprisingly since most of them were hardened criminals, it was their way of life, but of course being part of the C40 was different.

There was honour, and dignity and respect...even when fighting against your enemy...and that was the hard part to teach..the fighting and the physical development wasn't that much of a challenge..but to teach respect, and honour amongst a group of kids who have felt the harshest realities of life..that was the more challenging part. Princess sighed thinking of the long day he had ahead of him, he looked down on his watch...it was time to call in their trainer for the morning.

"I'll tell you what ..how about you first try to disarm this guy..?" Princess said, he pressed an intercom button on his desk "Hi Mr Preston..are you ready?"

"sure I'll be right there..."

In walked Mr Preston Huffing and Puffing, red and sweaty in the face, James and Vikram shrieked with laughter "is this a joke?! You want me to fight this fatso?"

"yep..I sure do" Princess said, smiling to himself, he was going to enjoy seeing James get the thrashing of his life...He turned to Mr Preston "He's all yours ...."

*******************************************************************

Xavier woke up hearing his butler tapping on the door, he turned to look at his clock, he had over slept, it must be his makeup artist coming to hide away his tattoos for yet another week. He put his face in his hands, he had a dream...a very livid dream...the kind that leave you feeling strange as though he had been there before.....he remembered it vividly the image of kissing Leila still etched onto his mind.......except it wasn't actually him kissing Leila...it was Cut Throat.....