The Story Of Soldiers

Chapter 25

"Kira? You okay?" Colleen asked, placing a hand on their shoulder.
Kira shook her head, seeming to suddenly snap back into reality.

She blinked rapidly, turning and glancing all around her to take in the sight of the rest of the team looking at her worriedly.
"Oh, uh," she cleared her throat, "Yeah, I'm fine. It was nothing. Don't worry about it."

Jay furrowed his brow, not looking convinced in the slightest. "Uh, okay then."
The teacher cleared her throat, catching everyone's attention.
"Pay attention, everyone. As you may have guessed, most of you have been here for around a year."

The class stayed silent, watching her hesitantly as if they were suspicious.
"So, every two years trainees undergo a test. During this test, every team is split up and spread out across a specific area."

Kira was about to speak up and ask about it, before Aayan placed a hand over her own, a signal to stay quiet.
Aayan has started doing this every so often to help with her outbursts. Kira appreciates the gesture, as they're not really able to control said outbursts.

Kaze finds himself hoping Ace would lean back in his chair. Maybe roll his eyes or stick out his tongue. Make some disrespectful gesture.
When he thinks about it, Kaze finds he wants Ace to get in trouble and it takes him back to the joy he felt the last time he did get into trouble.

Kaze shakes his head, scolding himself internally.
You shouldn't want anyone to suffer. He would want that. You're not anything like him. Stop it.
"Some of you have already gone through at least one of these tests. Those who haven't, you'd do well to listen."

She turned, taking something cube-shaped off their desk, turning it.
Kira looked at it, observing as the different colored sides twisted and mixed.

She felt a soft grip on their shoulder, willing herself back into reality to watch the teacher as she spoke.
"There will be a set location for each team to meet up at for the test.  From there, you'll need to navigate to that location."

She cleared her throat, placing the cube thing down for a moment.
"You'll all be trained extra hard for the remaining time until the test. These tests will get harder as you all age, believe me. Study and train hard. May Allah bless you."

Aayan looked up, confused by the sudden statement.
He blinked as the teacher goes back to her desk.
He clears his throat to catch her attention, and she looked up.

"Excuse me ma'am, but what do you mean by that?" Aayan asks, hoping it didn't come off as disrespectful.
She smiled. "Oh, about Allah?"
He nodded.
"You see, I'm Muslim. Allah is our God," she smiled.

"Oh," Aayan smiled, relieved that he now knew what the phrase meant, "Thank you."
"Any time. I'm more than happy to share."
The others had all been listening as well but hadn't spoken.

Kira's eyes were still trained on the small colorful cube in their teacher's hands, feeling unreasonably nervous to ask about it.
"Um," she flinched at the way her voice cracked, "Ma'am, I'm sorry, but," she breathed in slowly, "What's that?"

The woman blinked for a moment, then glanced down at her hands.
"Oh. This?" She turned and showed her to cube closer.
"It's a Rubix cube."

"A what?" Kira tilted their head to the side.
"Rubix cube," the teacher restated again.
Kira blinked, "What is it? What does it do? Where did you-."
They cut themself off, biting down on her tongue.

"Sorry. I-I'm rambling again, just ignore me. I'm sorry."
The teacher smiled. It was soft, genuine. It confused Kira.
Smiles weren't supposed to look like that. It was meant to be malicious, wasn't it?