Chapter 208
Aurora was a beast, and she wasn’t taking any prisoners. I should’ve known when I was warned by multiple people that this wouldn’t be a walk in the park, but she was very supportive of me. Even when she was kicking my rear end, and even when I wanted to give up and fall over, she would shout some encouragement my way, usually in the form of an insult, and I would pick up the pace. Brandon wasn’t joking. By the time we were finally done with running the obstacle course, practicing The Hill—which was killer—and lap swimming for an hour in the pool, I was completely drained. My muscles ached, and I wondered how difficult it might be to get Jamie to swing by and give me a hug or something so I could restore the torn muscle tissue all over my body.
I was in the shower area, getting dressed, when Aurora came in. She was as fresh as a daisy since she hadn’t actually been working out any herself. There were four other girls in the room with us, all new recruits who had Transformed in the last few months, at different levels of their training. Aurora offered each of them a few words of encouragement and then dropped down next to me as I pulled my shoes on.
“Well, what did you think, Cass?” she asked, a broad smile on her face.
I tipped my head to look up at her. She is probably the tallest woman I’ve ever met. “It was brutal,” I said with all honesty. “But it was fun.”
“Glad you liked it,” she smiled. “We don’t usually train on the weekends, so it’s nice that you were here for this. We gave everyone Thursday and Friday off this week, so I made up for it today. If you ever come down again on a Sunday, you’ll probably have to go through the paces solo.”
That was disappointing since school would prevent me from coming down during the week again until Christmas break. “Well, I am just glad I had the opportunity,” I smiled. “Would you mind if I joined you again tomorrow?”
“Not at all,” she said, standing. “As long as your parents don’t mind.”
“Thanks,” I said, wondering why my parents would even care. I was sure they weren’t doing anything special that I was missing out on.
Aurora walked away, and another girl—woman, maybe—one I’d identified as Ashley, smiled at me. “You did great out there.”
“Thanks,” I said, returning the smile. She looked like she was maybe twenty, with long blonde hair and dazzling blue eyes. She was gorgeous. I tried not to stare at her. She looked like a super model.
“What’s your story?” she asked me. “Is this your first day here?”
“Oh, uh…” I stammered, not sure how to answer that.
Another girl, Brit, who had shiny ebony skin and beautiful, perfectly straight white teeth, answered for me. “She’s Cadence’s sister, Ash.”
“Oh!” Ashley said, nodding. “Right. You look like her, now that you say it.”
“Thanks,” I repeated, not sure if that was a compliment or not. I thought everyone knew I was Cadence’s little sister. “I’m just visiting for the week.”
“Cool,” Ashley said, smiling. “Well, it was nice to work out with you. Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“I plan on it,” I nodded, sure she heard Aurora’s comment about having to ask my parents. I turned and smiled at Brit, who was trying to tame her curly, short hair into a ponytail. She didn’t look at me quite as welcomingly as Ashley did, and I wondered why, but she wasn’t rude either. Once she left, I packed up the rest of my stuff into my bag and looked around to make sure I didn’t leave anything.
“I wouldn’t expect too many people to be happy you’re here,” another female voice said, and I turned to see Jacinda, a Latina with the blackest hair I’d ever seen, leaning against the lockers, wearing a towel.
“Why is that?” I asked, confused. I couldn’t tell if her expression was one of warning or of jealousy.
“Because… everyone expects you to take a spot on the KC team, so, of course, the rest of us who want to stay here are going to be a little cold to you.”
She shrugged like it was no big deal. I studied her for a moment. “Are there a limited number of spots?” I asked, not sure I understood.
“Not necessarily, but they’ve just taken Brandon, and they aren’t likely to take anyone else out of this group with you starting your training, too.”
I had no idea how any of that worked. “Why do people want to stay here?” I asked, wondering what was so special about this group.
“Are you kidding?” Jacinda asked as the last girl, another blonde, though not as striking as Ashley, joined us. She was dressed and seemed to be of the same scrutinizing opinion of me as Jacinda. “Who wouldn’t want to stay here and train with Cadence and Aaron?” She literally licked her lips after she said my sister’s fiancé’s name.
“No doubt,” the other girl—Merial—offered. “I’d definitely rather stay here where I know who I’d be working with than head out to who knows where and get stuck with some losers who don’t know what they’re doing.”
“Well,” I said, “I don’t have much of a choice. My sister would never assign me anywhere else.”
“Aren’t you lucky?” Jacinda replied, rolling her eyes and opening her locker to get her clothes out, I presumed.
I wanted to explain to them that I was anything but lucky, but I took it they didn’t know what I was—a Hybrid—and that the reason I was tethered to my sister had more to do with danger than anything else. “It was nice meeting you two,” I said, backing toward the door. “See you tomorrow.”
Neither of them said anything back to me, and I walked out of the locker room frustrated. At least Ashley was nice.
“Hey—I thought maybe you’d gone down the drain,” Brandon teased. He was leaning against the wall across the door from the locker room, that goofy grin on his face, and I instantly felt my shoulders relax.
“Sorry,” I said. “Just a little bit of girl drama.” We began to walk toward the exit, and I wondered if we were headed toward the apartment building or somewhere else. I suddenly realized I was starving.
“Already?” he asked. “That’s crazy.”
“I know. It wasn’t that big of a deal, though, I guess.”
“Still…. Just let it go. Whatever the problem is, it isn’t yours.”
Those were exactly the right words I needed to hear. He was right. If Merial, Jacinda, and Brit wanted to be jealous of me, that was totally their problem, not mine. “Where are we going?”
“The pizza in the restaurant on the ground floor of the student apartment building is awesome. You hungry?”
“Famished,” I said, glad we were on the same page, and he took my hand and led me in the right direction. I let the worries of the other girls melt away, happy to have completed my first day of training. Check one box off my list. There was just another little matter I needed to address.
