The Red Room

𝔽𝕀𝕍𝔼

"I was watching you through the window, and it looks promising, tell me everything." Amelia giggled as I walked through the door.

I told her all about my day, like the popular girls, Morgan, how teachers were different, Morgan, their total lack of discipline, Morgan, their weird habits, and Morgan.

"Well I'm glad your getting along so well. I'm so happy you got a sleepover this weekend too.
You are making excellent progress." She smiled.

"Thank you, but I need to go train, I can't afford to be behind when I get back." I headed off to my room.

"Wait, dear. There is a training studio for you in the back that I arranged today. I figured you would want to keep up with your work." I followed her to the back of the house where there was a small room with hard wood floors and a mirror on one of the plain white walls. There was a knife stand, a target, a moving target, a weight lifting section, a punching dummy, and the center could be used for dance.

I thanked Amelia, changed into my Red Room outfit (hair in a bun and all) and began. I started with knife throwing, then went into combat mode with the dummy, then did exercises one, two, and three, then did a few dances, ending in a held pirouette.

I held it there for a long time. My perfect Red Room soldier self. After a few hours my mind started to wander, it never does that. Morgan had a serious effect on me. I thought about how excited he was to have me be his shadow for the day, how funny he found it when I didn't know how to do a fist bump. I could almost hear his voice saying my name, "Izabella, Izabella, hello? Are you there? Izabella?" I was sure I could hear it. I pushed it out of my mind.

After a few minuets I heard someone doing a bad imitation of Madame saying, "Vniz!" My body went on auto pilot and I came down in a fifth position plié. I pivoted to see Amelia and Morgan standing in the doorway to my little gym.

"Oh, hi Morgan. What are you doing here?" It was like seven o' clock at night.

"I just came over to see if you've done any of the homework yet." He leaned against the door frame.

"No I haven't, I've been training, or uh, exercising since I got home."

"Cool, you work out?" He asked, a grin appearing on his perfect face.

"Yeah, I do a little." I didn't want to push it.

"So, you wanna work on homework with me, maybe?" He asked awkwardly.

"Sure, just let me get changed and we can work in the kitchen. Mom, can you help him get set up please?"

"Of course, dear." She led him off to the kitchen.

I went straight to Norms office/bedroom. "Norm." I whispered.

His head shot up and I motioned him to follow me to my room. "I need you to help me pick something to wear to study with Morgan."

"Sure thing, darling." He sifted through my closet and picked grey sweatpants and a red top, I kept my hair in a bun.

I walked into the kitchen and sat next to Morgan at the bar. He already had his books sprawled out. "Hey." I set my own books down.

"Hey, do you have any idea how to do the math?" He really did look completely clueless.
I had already finished all my schooling at at the Red Room. I did this when I was ten.

I smirked, "Yes," then explained how to do it.

"Oh, thanks Iz." He hesitated than said, "Is it okay if I call you Iz? I just get tired of saying your whole name, and besides, you look more like an Iz than and Izabella."

"Yes, of course you can, and I agree." I had no idea what he meant, but I did know that nicknames led to positive relationships, so I was going in the right direction.

"You're a better teacher than Mr. Bello. Though, that's not saying much."

"Thanks, I think?"

"By the way, you don't strike me as an acrylics girl."

"I've never had acrylics." I shook my head.

"Then how'd you know how to get Celeste's nail off without hurting her today, it's all she could talk about in ELA."

"Oh, well at my old school, during gym class we had to do some bar work, but the bars weren't really top notch, so I got giant splinters in my hands all the time. I eventually learned to pick them out painlessly." I had come up with that story in class after lunch.

"What do you mean "bar"?"

"Like a gymnastics bar."

"That's so cool. I wish we did stuff like that at this school."

"Yeah, it was pretty fun." I tried not to picture the nights when I didn't know how to get the pieces of wood out of my flesh painlessly. One time I had almost screamed. One time I let out a whimper of absolute pain. The women in brown burst through the door and dragged me away. I had been in the torture room all night because they couldn't get me to stop screaming. Eventually I learned to stop. I had survived. I never went back. I know better now.

One of my sisters locked eyes with me one night when she saw me struggling to get pieces of wood out of my back. She turned so I could see her back and showed me how to get it out. I gave her a tiny smile and from that day on she and I had helped each other out. One day she was being punished and she couldn't have food, so I slipped her some, and so on.

Eventually she messed up and she was dragged away never to be seen again. I never knew her name. She was my only friend. After that I learned not to make friends in the academy. It's better to be a lone wolf. That way it doesn't affect you when your sisters are killed.

"Iz? Iz, are you alright?" Oh yeah, Morgan.

"Yeah, fine. I just zoned out for a second." I smiled.

"Oh, okay." He said skeptically.

We worked for about an hour before he had to leave. "Thanks for coming by." I smiled at him as he was walking towards the door.

"Yeah, it was fun, maybe we could work out together tomorrow." He suggested.

"Yeah, that would be fun." I smiled.

"Cool, see you tomorrow, Iz." He held his fist out and I bumped it.

Once he had left I went to my room and collapsed on my bed smiling, real smiling. Something about that boy made me want to be around him at all times.

It was my first really happy smile ever.