Perfect School

"Do you think I am damaged Jonah?" I asked him while carefully taking my napkin and spreading the cloth over my lap.

Jonah:

I took a couple bites of food before I answered her. “No, not damaged. I think you have been carefully wrapped and padded so as to prevent damage. Like a priceless work of art. Not to say that you have been sheltered, just crafted carefully.”

Kira had spoken many times that I didn't truly know the world I was headed into. The opposite was true for her, she had only known the world she grew up in, the one where she was crafted to be a weapon. She didn't have memories of a loving goddess of a mother like I had. And she had never experienced loss and fear like I had. We were opposites in so many things.

"Perhaps so." I replied noncommittally. My attention focused on my food then, tuning out the outside world except to react to things should they come my way. The food was a bit better than average but not quite as good as what Marie's chefs could make. But I liked the change of pace, the food tasted better especially.

Jonah:

After lunch we visited the museum, and it was by far my favorite of the three. Nature was exquisite but, for me, it held nothing compared to the ingenuity of man. There was an entire exhibit of weapons throughout the ages. I spent much time in front of each one imagining how I would use it.

We shared our own peculiar interest in the exhibit of weapons, though I lingered more towards the row of rifles. My hands remained clasped behind my back, fingers laced together as I studied the different pieces through out history. I itched to touch them, to feel them in my hands and the weight of each in my arms.

Jonah:

The collection was vast, I was certain that Marie had contributed to it. “There is an IMAX showing about warfare and how the development of certain weapons changed it. It starts in ten minutes, would you like to see it?” I asked Kira when I joined up with her again. The documentary was probably a repeat of the things I had always studied, but I was interested nonetheless.

"Sure. It should be interesting at the very least." I replied after finally turning away from the rifles. I wondered if I could perhaps request from Marie to get an old style weapon like this to try out.

Jonah:

The rest of the evening was pleasant. I enjoyed spending time with Kira without the direct pressure of Maire there, though I had no doubt that every move I made would make it back to her one way or another. She owned the city after all.

The flight back was much different than the one there. I felt subdued, tired, empty. Marie had not broken me, she had simply forced me to withdraw inward and push outward only what she wanted to see. I was looking forward to unraveling somewhat back at the school. Though I knew things would be different. After the events of the past month, my life would be far more complex.

I laid out across a couch in the private plane. I felt drained, like I was pulled too tight in too many directions. But I was also ready to return to the school. Not for the people, but simply because I had grown used to the environment.

Kyra:

We arrived back to the school early in the morning due to our vacation being cut short from some work our dad had to do. Our aunt and uncle have spent the last night with us and took us to the airport when they were scheduled to leave.

It had been too early for breakfast so we hung out in Andrew's room, where I fell asleep on his bed and he played with his lap top on the floor. It was later in the morning when I woke up and we both went to breakfast, being some of the first students to make it back from vacation.

Paublo:

It had been a long, lonely, and boring vacation. This time it had only been me to stay behind. I had free run of the school, and the teachers who were around didn't really care what I did with my time so long as I wasn't too much of a nuiscanse. So I shot at the range a bunch, made my own meals in the cafeteria, and generally was bored out of my mind. It was a relief when people started coming back and with a grin I greeted everyone on their return. I was already eating breakfast in the cafeteria when I spotted Kyra and Andrew come in.

Kyra:

I waved with a smile at Pablo and joined him at our table while my brother got food for the two of us. “Kira and Jonah already got food?” I asked, expecting to see them with Paublo.

"No? Oh you didn't know? They left to go visit Kira's patron or some such. Everyone left this vacation period. I simply held down the fort." I shrugged and took another large bite out of my breakfast burrito.

Kyra:

“Oh no! You were here alone? I'm so sorry, I thought for sure Jonah would stay, like he always does.” I said, and touched his arm in sympathy.

"Hey it's not your fault...I managed to keep myself entertained." I said shyly, touched that she seemed to care about me enough to feel sympathy towards being alone.

Kyra:

“Did you train much? I know we were supposed to, but honestly I hardly did during the vacation.” I told him as Andrew sat down with our food. I slid my tray over and started munching happily on a the fruit salad cup.

"I worked on my shooting. Got to have the run of the place after all with everyone gone." I grinned.

Kyra:

I smiled up at him. “That's good. I'm sure Jonah will be pleased.” I said, but my smile turned down as I said his name. Time to reflect had not changed my opinion of him.

My smile grew with hers until her own fell away at Jonah's name. "Yeah. I'm sure. So uh, what did you both do on your break?"

Kyra:

I told him about what we had done with the family and where we had gone. The rest of the day we spent time together as the three of us. Andrew was mostly dragged along by me.

That evening Kira and Jonah arrived back. They both looked worn out, something that was unusual for Jonah, but I was pleased to see it.

Kira:

I only briefly waved to the others before heading off to my room where I promptly laid down in bed. I didn't care to eat right now, just wanting to rest and process the entire vacation through my head.

Jonah:

I stayed with the group longer than Kira did, despite my tiredness. Paublo was by far the most friendly which was unusual. Kyra almost always greeted me with smiles. Now she was almost silent. No questions about what we had done on the trip. Andrew was indifferent as usual. So I told Paublo about some of the training that I did, leaving out all pleasantries. I then told him about going to the gardens, the aquarium, and the museum hoping to spike Kyra's interest but she didn't bite.

Paublo:

I was just happy to have my friends back instead of being all on my lonesome. I listed with rapt attention, nodding along to the story. "Man, I'm jealous. Things were utterly dead here." I eventually said once he'd finished.

Jonah:

After the break, the school informed us that eligible teams would be moving from the school, to a private training ground. In order to move on, each team member had to pass a test that involved killing someone.

Over the next few months I worked on preparing my team to do that. I knew both Paublo and Andrew would be resistant. It didn't help that Kyra was not on my side. She never disrespected me, or was rude in anyway, but it was clear she did not trust me, and that effected how she learned from me, and also who her brother did. I relied on Kira to help make things work with the twins, they responded to her.

I did everything I could to get back on Kyra's good side, but it only barely made a dent. If we were going to live together in a small house, something would have to change. She could avoid interactions with me here outside of training, but that wouldn't be the case in another couple of months.

Paublo:

I could feel the growing tension in the air as we worked together over the next few months. It felt like Andrew and I were on the sidelines of an intense match between Jonah and Kyra. It was obvious even to me that Jonah was trying to get on her good side, a thing that made me a tad jealous but I knew unity was important. But Kyra seemed resistant to it and so most things filtered through Kira as Andrew tended to follow after his sister in these matters.

As such I spent a lot more time around Kira whenever the tension grew to be too much. I learned she was more helpful than one would expect with her cold exterior. I learned more through her than with Jonah as she never tried to butter me up or sugar coat anything. If she said something was wrong it was wrong. So as the days passed I watched and learned the dynamic of our group. Jonah was our leader sure, but our true teacher plus the one who held everything together was Kira and I worried that Jonah wasn't aware of it. It had to be a stress on her, after all she helped with our lessons, did her private lessons with Jonah, plus if ever we asked for help she would show up where ever asked.