The Arena - The Moon Trilogy - Book #2

Chapter one:

Oakridge University, Wyoming. The year 2053:

Clarity ran her hand through her hair. She typed out a few more words in the paper she was working on, only to rapid-fire backspace when she realized that she'd completely lost her train of thought, and the words didn't make sense with anything she'd written previously.

It had been two years since her escapade with the Organization. Which pretty much meant it had been two years since she'd started college, as she'd been accepted not even three weeks after Rachel and the others had left.

Her paper was due the next day, but she didn't want to continue. She felt like her brain was fried, and it probably was. She normally enjoyed schoolwork, which was just one reason why she'd graduated early. But now it just felt like a strenuous workout for her brain—but her brain had a sprained arm and a leg cast.

The dorm's door flew open, and Clarity jumped, whirling around in her seat.

It was only her roommate. Jessie. Back from doing who knew what.

"Hey, Clarity." Jessie said, setting a stuffed paper bag down next to the door.

"Hey, Jessie." Clarity replied with a stifled yawn.

"What's up?" Jessie asked, throwing herself down onto her bed with a sigh.

"Just writing that paper." Clarity shrugged.

"You've literally been writing that for a week, Claire." Jessie rolled her eyes. Clarity rolled her eyes right back.

And then she caught sight of the clock out of the corner of her eye. It was a good thing she did, too. She was late.

"Sh-! I'm late!" She said, cutting off whatever Jessie had been hoping to say. She was hardly ever late, and the one time she was, it was to her martial arts class. It figured.

She hopped up and pulled on a jacket. She was wearing jeans, which were going to be horrible to fight in, but she couldn't help that now.

She said goodbye to Jessie before she sprinted down the three flights of stairs between her and the ground floor. The blast of frozen air that struck her when she opened the door made her shiver in spite of the layers she was wearing.

She hardly slowed down now that she was outside. She still had a long way to go—and it was cold. She had to pause for a second to remember where the car was parked, but when she did she was running again, not slowing down until she was seated and turning the key in the ignition.

As fast as she possibly could without speeding, Clarity drove downtown. There might have been some sort of martial arts class on campus, but she could hardly be bothered to change now. Not after the almost-two years she'd already been in this class.

She hoped that she wouldn't arrive too late. Tardiness wasn't exactly smiled upon, even if everything about the little downtown studio seemed relaxed and slow going. Sometimes the training was literally just sitting there.

The downtown streets were lined with shops and restaurants, but she'd driven by them often enough that she was able to ignore them as she looked ahead for her destination. She parked the hovercar in front of tiny, almost dingy building. It wasn't the kind of downtown that she was used to, but it was as good as she was gonna get for the small college town.

She jumped out of the car and raced up the short flight of steps leading to the front door. A small sign above the doorway advertised instruction in different kinds of martial arts. She knew next to nothing about which kind was best for her to learn, and she had said as much to the receptionist when she'd first started the classes.