Fire

Chapter One

"Ara!" My head snaps to attention, hitting the back of my chair. I wince. That's going to leave a nasty bruise. "Have you forgotten it is class time?" Mrs. Gray, my strategy teacher, does not look happy I have fallen asleep in the middle of class. 

To be fair, I'd kept myself up half the night training with Eval (Eh-val) to be the best in Combat training this afternoon.

But of course, Mrs. Gray wasn't going to understand my need to be someone.

"N-no Mrs. Gray," I stammer, "I j-just was so tired, and you've taught this tactic so much..." I trail off as the others snicker and Mrs. Gray glares at me. 

My best friend, Orla, sends me an apologetic glance. 

"Well then," Mrs. Gray answers brightly. 

Uh oh. Mrs. Gray is never cheerful. 

"Since you know this topic so well, class, Ara will be teaching for the remainder of our time together."  

I groan. 

What have I gotten myself into?

                                                                                         ~~~

After class Orla catches up with me. "It could have been worse," she points out. "Remember the time you got detention, and the time you had to clean all the lunch dishes, and the time when..."

"I get it."

"Well at least you didn't get detention." Orla shudders. "Mr. Dimiter seriously gives me the creeps."

"Might have been better than teaching class," I mutter sulkily. 

"I doubt it." Orla is perpetually cheerful, always looking on the bright side of things.

"Whatever." I slam the door to my locker shut and storm into the small room I share with Orla and Cora. People thought it was funny, us being named Ara, Orla and Cora.

Somehow.

"What is it this time?" Cora asks from where she lays sprawled across her bed, reading. 

I flop onto my bed as Orla answers, "Oh you know. Ara stayed up half the night training with Eval for this afternoon, and she fell asleep in class. Course Mrs. Everything-Is-Terrible only made her favorite student teach the class," she says, referring to Mrs. Gray by the common nickname given to her by her students because of her perpetual pessimisity. A/N that's not a word. 

"Wish I was you," Cora calls from beneath her covers where she is, no doubt, searching for something. 

I snort. "Right, because I'm totally the teacher's pet. She loves me soooo much."

"Not that part!" Cora says, banging her head on the wall as she sits up too quickly. Orla laughs at us. 

"Well which part then?" I ask, feeling curiosity drag me away from my gloom. 

"The part where you trained with Eval," she responds dreamily. 

"Not this again!" I moan, hitting her in the head with a pillow. 

Right as we are about to enter into a full-on-no-mercy pillow fight war, the bell rings.

"Combat training," Orla gasps, digging through the mounds of clothes littering her bed for her combat uniform.

"Looking for this?"I tease, dangling it above her head. I cock an eyebrow. Orla is so messy. 

She is also rather short.

The bell rings again. Orla, Cora and I throw on our uniforms, put our hair in matching messy ponytails and race to get to combat training on time. 

Eval and Darren are our teachers. Both are part of the Five, those that formed the resistance. They are the leaders.

Eval is about eighteen, with blond hair and blue eyes. He is a complete joker. 

Darren, on the other hand, is about twenty, and always dead serious. His hair is black and his eyes are brown. 

Cora is in love with Eval, but I'm pretty sure he hasn't noticed.

"Ara! You're late." Eval walks over, ignoring Cora and Orla. I hurt for Cora. 

"In that case, so are Orla and Cora," I defy, trying to deflect the attention to them. 

"I see. Taking them down with you, huh?"

"I suppose you might think I was..hmm... selfish enough for that."

"Cora! Orla! Ara! Eval! Get over here. You aren't trained to stand around flirting!" Darren yells. 

Like I said, Darren is quite the joker.

We walk over to him, and he passes us each a candle. 

"Reflect before combat. Remember, fire is evil. Fire is a destroyer. But fire is life. Fire is warmth. Fire," he stares into the candle flame, "is our essence."

Then, in tradition, we blow the candles out. 

Training has begun. 

That was a longer chapter, but I hope you all enjoy it!