“Kit hasn’t been talking very much lately has she?”

  “Shh! She’s right in front of you!”

  “But this is important, she’s going to be starting 3rd

  level academy soon and if she goes there like this she’s going to get bullied! Teenagers are not known to be civil people!”

  “Even so, you know why she’s like this. After what happened to her mother, there’s just no wonder she’s taking it so harshly.”

  Kit’s mind seemed to be playing memories of the distant past in order to allow herself a way to escape the situation at hand. She was currently inside her locker room being hounded by her younger friend, Kurt, looking as though she were a child being made to explain why she should be able to come out from timeout. Kurt and she had been friends for only about four months now, but he already felt like something of a little brother to her.

  Kurt had been lauded as an artistic genius from a young age leading to him receiving the opportunity to transfer into to a 4th level academy at the young age of 16 by The Org. However, this was unlike the momentous occasion that skipping a grade in normal high schools and universities called for. It was, in reality merely a thinly veiled attempt to bolster their fighting force with another effective asset as quickly as possible. Everyone knew that graduating earlier meant being on the frontline against rogues and dimension tears that much earlier.

  Kurt was perhaps the most aware of this though. When Kit first met the boy he always walked around campus with this grim, pale look on his face as though he were being chased down by a fate he knew he couldn’t avoid. Kit could relate in a way, constantly cursing the very talent that was pushing you through the ranks as it was the very thing preventing you from enjoying the life you desire.

  Since Kurt was the rank two of the academy, he lived just a floor below her apartment in the combat dorms. Because of this she often took the opportunity to bring him some home-cooked meals or show him around campus in order to settle him in. At some point he began relying on her, actively seeking her out for help. It was exactly what she imagined having a little sibling to be like.

  That was exactly why it was also so embarrassing, scolded by that same little sibling.

  “You explain.”

  “I.. um…”

  Kit’s ocean blue eyes were dancing in every direction as though searching for an escape route, but Kurt’s eyes, a slightly less vivid more cold blue were locked on to her as though to implicitly communicate that he would not let that happen. After a few more moments of her desperate scramble in the face of Kurt’s wall of indifference Kit finally breathed a sigh of resignation.

  “Where do I begin…”

  “Kit your teachers told me you got into another fight at school.”

  “It was their fault! They bullied me because of my ability so they deserved it!”

  Teresia Wingate was a gentle if strict mother. When she was notified that her daughter got in trouble, which was not an infrequent occurrence, she would never get mad. She would, instead, always make sure to have a long talk with her daughter about why she did it and how she could have handled it better.

  “You ought to punish her at least once otherwise she’ll think she can get away with it again.”

  Johan Wingate on the other hand, was raised under an affluent South African father who valued discipline over all else. He believed his daughter should be guided onto the right path with a slightly, firmer hand, but he was to weak to both his wife and his daughter to actually act on any of these beliefs.

  “She’s only a child Johan, if we teach her corporal punishment is the best consequence for these types of things she’ll grow up to be just like you y’know.”

  “Oh? And what’s so wrong with that? You’re the one who fell in love with me after all.”

  “Oh you!”

  Teresia playfully threw out a couple punches towards Johan’s chest in response to his teasing, but Johan took on every blow before wrapping her in his arms with a big bear hug and silencing her with a kiss.

  “Mommy and Daddy are disgusting!”

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  With that the two who had seemed enraptured in each other’s presence seemed to finally snap out of it and return to the issue at hand.

  “Right um, sweetie those kids were being mean, but the reason is because they’re not happy either.”

  “Why would they be mad though? I wasn’t bullying them?”

  “Well, you see honey, you’re very very special. Not everyone will get the opportunity to awaken to an artistic ability like you have.”

  “Really? So, then they were jealous!”

  “Right honey! But think about it, would you be happy if one of your classmates had something special you didn’t?”

  “I guess not.”

  “Then you should try to forgive them, remember, friends are always better than enemies.”

  “I know.”

  “Good now go to your room and get ready for bed, Mommy will come to read you a bedtime story in a little bit.”

  “Okay!”

  Teresia stood and sent a triumphant glare towards Johan as though to declare once and for all that she was the better parent. Johan on the other hand returned her an impressed stare while slowly beginning to clap his hands.

  “Amazing but there’s one problem.”

  “What?”

  “I don’t think you’ll be able to read that story before she falls asleep.”

  “Why? Hey wa…”

  Before she could respond Johan scooped Teresia off her feat while cackling villainously.

  “I don’t think they’ll even see you in the lab tomorrow! Mwahaha!”

  It took a while, but Teresia would, in fact, read the bedtime story and needless to say she would make it to work the next day. During which time Kit on the other hand would have to put her mother’s teachings to the test. She really didn’t want to, but she had no other choice. Her mother was the person she respected the most and the person she wanted to cross the least. So, as she walked into her second level academy her little face was the picture of determination.

  “My mommy says I should forgive you guys since you’re just jealous of me!”

  Perfect execution.

  “What?”

  “No way you’re the one who beat us up!”

  “You guys are the ones who said I can’t use my power right first!”

  “Yeah but you can’t though!”

  “Yeah we didn’t lie!”

  And so, another brawl involving 3 individuals no more than four-foot-five, ensued, and yet again the teacher was the one to intervene. And Kit was now once again dejectedly riding the bus back knowing the call her teacher sent would get there long before she did. And as she stepped through the door, expecting to see the same scene she always did on days like this, what she saw was nothing her little brain could comprehend, and perhaps it would be better if she never did.

  “We’re sorry sir, but I’m afraid what we’re saying is true.”

  “It can’t be. Teresia…”

  “We haven’t identified the rogue involved but we promise on our status as members of The Org that we will.”

  Three men, clad in black suits carrying stoic faces as they gazed upon her father, collapsed in his chair with a face frozen with a look in between shock and anguish. This day would be the day that the young Kit’s life took on a whole new direction.

  “Kit hasn’t been talking very much lately has she?”

  “Shh! She’s right in front of you!”

  “But this is important, she’s going to be starting 3rd

  level academy soon and if she goes like this then she’s going to get bullied! Teenagers are not known to be civil people!”

  “Even so, you know why she’s like this. After what happened to her mother, there’s just no wonder she’s taking it so harshly.”

  The gossiping aunts dropped their voices to whispers. Apparently they thought since their brother’s daughter was to young to have the same mental faculties as them she lacked the same hearing ones too.

  “I heard the closed casket is because they only found half of her in the wreckage.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah apparently she wasn’t just cut up either, she was cleanly bisected, top to bottom.”

  “Oh my god!”

  Kit didn’t need to be older to know who they were talking about, it was obvious. But even so, she didn’t believe it. The casket was closed, she couldn’t believe the one everyone was talking about was really in there, she wouldn’t believe it.

  “Mommy is, mommy is still at work.”

  “Quiet.”

  Her dad looked on next to her with a blank gaze, but his voice sounded less like the usual unshakeable pillar and more like a dam ready to burst. Time passed and things changed. Kit would still get into trouble but this time there was no arguing preceding fists, no gentle talking to waiting on her when she got home only harsh scolding, no bedtime stories to lull her to sleep. Eventually she would reach 3rd level academy and things wouldn’t change much.

  People still looked down on her for her artistic skill, she still got into fights in return. However, there was one difference, this time she was losing. 3rd

  level academy was around the time where most cadets gained a genuine grasp for their abilities. She was falling even further behind than she had been. So, when in her second year she heard the popular kid in class had a brother who was knowledgeable about all types of abilities she was interested.

  Kit may have been the only person who looked at Nial for him instead of his brother but to Kit Nial was so much more than that. He was the first real connection she had since her mother. He was the reason why leaving home wasn’t the lowest part of her day anymore. Peace, perhaps to Kit that’s what Nial represented to her.

  That’s why she can’t lose him, that’s why he’s the only one she can’t just explain all this to. That’s why every time she runs into him nowadays she can only flounder to grasp at his interest, so he doesn’t walk away. Why she challenged him to a fight instead of just apologizing. Because until she met Nial that was all she had done, and without Nial it was all she knew to do.

  “Hah, this is stupid.”

  It was always funny to hear Kurt manage to get out the occasional sentence in perfect org.

  “Tell him yourself.”

  “I.”

  “You both, very stupid.”

  It looks like time was up anyways. In a few short minutes the time for talking would end and the time for fists would begin.