Tainted, Book One: Possessed

12. Fight Club

Kerry

"You know what?" I watched Gemma and Gigi pack their bags the next morning. "I think I can make it through another hour."

"What's your next class?" Gemma asked.

"Dunno. Wherever you're going."

I stood straight with my shoulders back and head up, but I wasn't safe and I knew it. I think she did, too.

"Didn't your warden give you a class schedule?" As always, Gigi's Tennessee accent sounded funny to my New York ears and made my lips twitch.

"He said she's in all my classes." I nodded toward the angel. "So I'm just gonna follow."

"Well, next up is Fight Club. I mean gym class." Gemma shouldered her backpack. "You can form teams how you want to and choose an activity. There's a pool and a weight room and a fitness center. Oh, and a dojo. It's blanketed. No one's power works inside. Like your cottage."

"Not anymore. Not since I started school."

As we moved into the hallway, she explained what a dojo was. Students streamed by on their way in and out of classrooms and I caught bits that made me freeze. It was the first day I hadn't bolted after first period and everyone was talking about me. Some glanced at us while others flat-out stared, and I tensed under the weight of the eyes and comments.

Kill them all. Now. Before they can hurt you.

My hands started to shake and I clenched my teeth.

"You can meet my boyfriend!" Gigi smiled. "His name's Jax Kosta. Well, it's Ajax, but he doesn't like that. Says it makes him sound like a mindless barbarian."

Gemma laughed with her and a little tension left my shoulders. I was still struggling, though, and couldn't speak.

"Jax is nice," Gemma said.

I took a step closer to her so the top of her head was at my shoulder. It still freaked me out a little, that I felt better when she was close to me, but I was getting used to it.

The hallway cleared out, and Gigi said goodbye and went off to the left. When Gemma turned to go to the right, I bent down to whisper in her ear.

"Gym class. Is it boys separate from girls, or all together?"

I kept my head down and turned my ear to her mouth, waiting for her answer.

"All together," she whispered back.

I straightened and tucked my hands in my pockets. Glancing down at her, I saw her face was bright red.

Did I do something wrong?

She took off toward the gym and I kept pace with her easily, my long legs taking one step for every two, sometimes three, of hers. When we reached the gym, she stopped at the girls' locker room and pointed out the boys' door across the way.

She said the school kept gis - the loose pants and cloth-belted jackets of martial artists - in a small closet of each locker room for whoever wanted to use them. I could help myself to a set and toss it in the laundry bins afterward. I wouldn't stand out; about half of the students used them. She said I should ask Warden to get me a pair of sneakers. Today, I could go barefoot if I wanted to, but winter was coming and I should have shoes.

I let her ramble on and nodded, but I knew she knew I was getting close to the edge. She was quick like that.

"You don't have to do this today." She stared up at me with pity all over her face. "Not if it's too much. Don't push yourself."