Never Tear Us Apart - Complete

Chapter Four

The last Novice lunch was fun. It wasn't how we'd expected to finish our schooling together, but I put my knowledge of Alto being occupied elsewhere and my awesome ninja skills to good use by leading a raid on Stan's dorm room, climbing in through his window before opening the door and getting the other Seniors to hang his underwear, shirts, and pants on the handle of every door in the Guardian dormitory wing. All three levels! I would have done more, but there was not enough time.

"He's going to know it's you," Shane Reyes predicted, looking warily around Stan's trashed room.

"But he won't be able to prove it," I giggled smugly. "And that will fuck with him even more!" I said, grabbing a chap stick from Alto's bathroom drawer and writing 'We'll miss you Stannie' on his bathroom mirror before hightailing it out of there. I was safely sitting on the commons lawn with Shane, Meredith, Chelsea, Eddie, Ryan, and Dean fifteen minutes later when Alto and Dimitri walked by, finished with whatever task they'd been involved with. It was five minutes after that we heard an outraged "HATHAWAY!" bellowed from the third floor of the Guardian block.

"Nice one, Rose," Eddie said with a chuckle, giving me a high five.

"I aim to please," I laughed, knowing Stan would be ropeable after this.

"So where are you three going?" Dean asked curiously.

Eddie looked at Meredith before glancing at me.

"We're not really sure," Eddie said. "Just that we'll be guarding in Wyoming."

"That's so cool. Wish I were going there. I'm being sent to St. Michael's," Dean replied with disgust. It was the smallest of the academies in America, located in Kansas.

"Sucked in! Chelsea and I got St. Basil's," Ryan crowed. "I heard their fighting program is amazing! Isn't that where Belikov graduated?" he asked, looking at me.

"Yep," I said popping the p. "You'd better watch out... From what Dimitri tells me, they work their Novices hard over there!" Ryan and Chelsea were weaker than the rest of us in fighting skills; guess that's why Alberta had picked St. Basil's for them.

"I got St. Christopher's," Shane chimed in.

"That's in the UK, isn't it?" Meredith asked.

"Sure is! My Mom's brother is allocated there, and he's promised to show me around. I can't wait!"

After that we split up, Meredith and me going with Chelsea to help her lug her stuff down to the box room at the base of the Novice dorms.

"I'm sending most of my stuff home until I get an allocation," Chelsea explained as she wrote the address on her boxes. "Alberta said to leave them here and she'll get them sent, as we're heading into Missoula in three hours to start the trip to St. Basil's."

For the first time, I felt a little envious. It would have been cool to see another country. I'd never been overseas. I didn't even have a passport. But at least I'd be staying with Dimitri, and that was something.

At 4:00 am coaches pulled up, and the Novices were piling into them headed to Missoula to start their journeys either overseas or interstate. The only ones left were Dean and four others who would fly directly from the academy's runway to St. Michael's. They would leave just after first light, so the nine of us hung out in the common room for the afternoon before having a last dinner together in the cafeteria. Spaghetti and meatballs. Nice to see the kitchens had joined in the spirit by keeping their food miserable right to the very last!

"I won't miss the food," Dean joked. "Hopefully St. Michael's will be better!"

"It would be hard to be worse," another senior, Brett, quipped.