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  “I came to collect on that date,” he tells me with a smirk that if I wasn’t so crazy in love with Rylan, I might have found charming, though all it manages to do is have Daniel scoff at his attempts.

  “Your target average improved yet?” I grin.

  He cringes as he sucks in a breath. “Negative,” he says, dropping down into the seat beside Daniel. “But it will now.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask in confusion.

  “After you so royally kicked my ass last week after not training for three months, I decided that if I wanted to be better, I had to train with the best. There was a spot open here so I got the transfer,” he explains.

  My heart sinks knowing that the spot is only open because Luke is now dead after he was turned into a vampire during battle and then tried to turn me in the infirmary. Luckily Rylan is always there to save my ass and took him out before he could do the same to me.

  “Wow,” I say, still a little in shock. “So, you go here now?”

  “Sure do,” he says. “Which gives me plenty of time to try and win you over.”

  All I can do is smile. What am I meant to say, ‘Sorry, I’m currently dating our instructor who’s on suspension right now, but I’m sure he will kick your ass for those inappropriate comments later’.

  The lunch bell rings, indicating the start of Combat Training. Brax gets up and hurries to my side, offering to take my lunch tray to the bin. “Uh thanks,” I say as he picks it up off the table and beelines for the bins.

  “Geez,” Daniel scoffs. “He lays it on thick. What do you think?” he asks, motioning his head towards Brax.

  “I don’t know. I only met him once.”

  “Yeah, we know,” he says. “It’s all he talks about. ‘Bianca’s smart mouth’, ‘Bianca’s sweet ass’,” he says, mimicking Brax’s tone.

  “You should let him know you’re not interested,” Jacinta says beside me after giving Trey a kiss goodbye and making me long for an easy relationship with Rylan.

  “Yeah, I will,” I say as Brax returns, allowing our group to head off to the training room.

  I give Jacinta one last smile over my shoulder as she disappears around the corner with Nora.

  Chapter 6

  “Come on, Bianca,” Daniel encourages as he grabs my arm, gives it a twist and flips me over until my back smacks down against the training mat with a sharp slap.

  I cringe as the pain rocks my whole body, but get up anyway, bracing myself for the next round. I hold my hands up, protecting my face and get in position. Daniel comes at me and I block his advances with pathetic little bumps of my fists.

  I go on the offence, striking out my arm and aiming for his shoulder, but he swats me away like a fly. I groan as frustration starts to take over. Three months ago, I would have had Daniel on the ground begging for mercy, but now it’s like I’m just around to help the guys warm up before they face their real competition.

  Daniel takes a step back with his hands raised. “Drink,” he tells me and quickly dashes off to the stage to grab his water bottle.

  I flop down on the floor and look up just in time to see my own water bottle flying through the air, right towards my face. My hand flies up and catches the bottle moments before it smacks me in the face. I take a sip of water and look to my left to see Ben, our instructor bee lining for me.

  “Welcome back,” he says with a smile.

  “Thanks,” I grunt, still too frustrated at my performance to be able to pull a smile out of my ass for him.

  “Things not going your way?” he asks with a raised eyebrow as Daniel returns, holding out his hand to help me off the floor. I let out a deep sigh as I reach up and take a hold of his hand. He hauls me up effortlessly and I turn to face Ben straight on.

  “Noticed that, did you?”

  Amusements lights his face. “Hard to miss when you’re over here groaning and grunting every time Daniel gets through.”

  Daniel snickers beside me, earning himself a jab in the ribs which has him instantly crouched down on the floor in pain. “Seems like things are suddenly looking up,” I muse as Daniel gets back to his feet, rubbing his ribs.

  Ben’s lips tighten in disapproval, but he knows there’s nothing he could have done to stop me. He set that one up for Daniel, he should have known better. “Listen, I’d like to take over your morning private sessions until Rylan returns,” he offers. “You have a lot of catching up to do if you’re going to graduate.”

  “Really?” I ask as my afternoon starts to brighten up. “You’d do that?”

  “Of course. You’re my student and I’d like to see you succeed.”

  “Thank you so much,” I beam. “Can we start in the morning?”

  “7 am in the gym,” he says with a nod. “Don’t be late,” he adds with a tone that would rival one of Rylan’s. He turns on his heel before I have a chance to respond and disappears within seconds.

  “Wow,” Daniel says with an impressed grin. “What’s with all the instructors around here having a soft spot for you?” he teases.

  “Because I’m just that amazing,” I say, giving my hair a flick to emphasise my point.

  “Ugh,” he groans as I break out into laughter. “But on a serious note, you need all the help you can get,” he grins. “I haven’t been able to beat you this easily for months.”

  I narrow my eyes at him and sweep my foot out like lightning while coming forward and giving him a push. He goes down like a sack of potatoes. “I couldn’t need that much help,” I laugh.

  “I wasn’t ready,” he groans from the floor. I give him a cheesy smile before turning and taking a step onto the training mat, only I don’t go anywhere because Daniel grabs hold of my ankle and gives a hard tug as I try to step, sending me face first into the mat.

  I flip myself over and dive for Daniel. “You’re dead,” I screech as I land on top of him, trying my best to hold him down. He moves quickly and before I have a chance to blink, he has me in a head lock. “Arghhhh, let me go,” I whine.

  “Apologize first,” he demands.

  “No,” I grunt as I bring my elbow back into his stomach making him double over and loosen his hold on my neck. I break through his hold and fly to my feet with Daniel just moments behind me and suddenly were facing off again.

  After another ten minutes, we sprawl out on the floor in absolute exhaustion as our classmates continue their fights around us. I have to laugh as I think of what Rylan would be saying right now if he saw us. “What?” Daniel asks as he notices the smile spread across my face.

  “Nothing,” I sigh. “Just happy things are going back to how they’re supposed to be.”

  “Yeah,” he agrees.

  “Speaking of,” I say, getting a groan from him as he knows exactly where I’m going with this. “Why weren’t you sitting with Jacinta and Trey? And why does Jacinta keep telling me that you’re not around much? And don’t even think of saying it’s because of Nora, because I call bullshit on that.”

  He lets out a deep breath and sits up, resting back on his hands as I do the same. “Seriously, it’s nothing,” he says with a shake of his head. “She exaggerating.”

  “Then what’s going on?”

  “She’s still fighting with her dad and I can’t help but feel that’s my fault,” he says, then holds up a hand cutting me off. “She used to have a great relationship with him and I don’t want to be the reason that she doesn’t have her father in her life, so I’m backing off a bit.”

  “Ok. Firstly, that is ridiculous. Jacinta’s dad, your dad, is an asshole and deserves every bit of karma that comes his way, and secondly, she’s your half-sister and one of your best friends and she needs you to be there for her because out of all her friends, you’re the one who completely understands what she’s going through.”

  He presses his lips into a tight line hating being wrong before coming up with excuses to help save face. “Do you have any idea how nauseating Trey and Jacinta are without you there to act
as a buffer?”

  “I heard that,” Trey calls from across the room.

  We both ignore him as I grin back at Daniel. “I know but quit making excuses.”

  “Fine,” he groans, making me feel extremely accomplished. “I really missed you,” he tells me with his heart on his sleeve.

  “I know. I missed you too.”

  ----------

  “Can you help me clean this mess up?” Jacinta begs as I lay across the floor with my body aching from today’s session.

  “Seriously?” I groan. “I didn’t make any of this mess. This is all you,” I say as I look around at the mountains of clothes and books she has scattered all over the room.

  “Yeah, well it’s your fault it has to be cleaned. You’re the one who invited everyone over tonight.”

  “You’re the one who lives like a slob,” I fire back.

  “Argh,” she groans as she throws her top at me.

  I break into laughter as I get up off the floor. “I’m kidding. I’ll help,” she gives me a pouty smile and gets straight to her task of removing the text books from my bed. “Daniel mentioned things are still rough with your dad,” I say.

  “Yeah,” she sighs as she waddles across the room and starts making a pile of books by the door. “He’s still pissed that I invited Daniel to the meeting with him a few months back and hasn’t talked to me since, though it’s not like I’ve tried to reach out to him.”

  “What about your mom?” I ask.

  “She sends me the occasional message checking in, but I’ve realized that I just don’t care anymore. If they want to cut me out of their lives because I have some really amazing friends, then that’s their problem, not mine,” she says. “Besides, as long as I have you guys, I don’t need them,” she declares.

  “Oh, well you better explain that to Daniel. The reason he’s avoiding you is because he doesn’t want to stand in the way of your relationship with you dad,” I tell her.

  “Seriously?” she asks as if it is the most absurd reason for Daniel to be distancing himself.

  “Yeah, well, apart from the fact that your love bubble with Trey makes him nauseous,” I laugh.

  “Shut up, you’re such a liar,” she scolds.

  “No really. That’s what he said.”

  She rolls her eyes and gets back to her job. “How do you expect to get all those books back to the library?” I ask with my eyes widening in shock as she continues to pile it up to her eye level.

  “The same way they got here,” she smiles sweetly. “The boys.”

  “I should have known,” I laugh, realizing it is incredibly boring to clean your room without any music playing. “You good to finish up here? I want to check if my phone and iPod are waiting in the student office.”

  “Yeah, fine,” she murmurs, ignoring me as she stuffs clothes back in her wardrobe.

  I head out the door and rush off down to the student office to find a large box with my name on it waiting on the counter. A little squeal escapes my lips and I peek inside the box, double checking it’s my things. Yep. I scoop the box up and walk back to my room, banging on the door so Jacinta will help me inside.

  The door opens with a grinning Daniel. “Pleased you could make it,” he says, stepping back and letting me pass.

  I shuffle the box in my hands and nail him in the ribs once again for being such a smart ass. “You guys are early,” I comment as I put my things down on my bed and start sorting through it.

  I groan as I find every piece of my electronics with dead batteries and being lining them up on my bedside table with their chargers. I briefly wonder how sitting on my bed waiting for phones to come alive has recently become my life. “Yeah, there wasn’t much to do so we thought we’d come early,” Trey says. “Hope that’s ok,” he adds as an afterthought.

  “Too bad if it’s not,” Daniel murmurs as he flops down on the couch.

  Jacinta instantly gets into him about his ridiculous excuses for avoiding her while I sit back on my bed, leaning up against the wall, happy that Nora and Brax haven’t shown up. It’s just like old times, the four of us together again, if only Rylan was here to finish it off.

  When night finally starts to fall, the reason for us being here can finally come to light. “Did you bring them?” I ask Daniel, who instantly digs through a bag and pulls out three balaclavas before handing one to me and Trey.

  “I don’t even want to know why you have balaclavas,” Jacinta murmurs as she watches us pull them over our heads in amusement.

  “Simple,” Daniel explains. “I’m friends with Bianca. I figured they’d come in handy one day and I was right,” he boasts.

  I roll my eyes as I pull a black hoodie over my head. “We good to go?” I ask the boys who are already climbing out the window. I look to Jacinta, “You’ll be ok?” I ask.

  “Yes,” she groans. “This isn’t my first rodeo. Besides, it’s not like you’ve given me a hard job.”

  “Whatever,” I laugh as I climb out the window behind the boys. “Let’s go.”

  The three of us sneak off into the night, sticking to the shadows while doing our best interpretations of James Bond. Daniel flies around the corner, drops, and rolls until he’s safely hidden behind a post then makes some ridiculous hand gestures to Trey, telling him the coast is clear. Trey holds up his fingers in a makeshift gun, pretends to shoot into the night, before he pretends to tuck his gun into the waistband of his jeans before proceeding to drop and roll the rest of the way to Daniel.

  God, they are idiots. But… so am I.

  I follow behind, but unlike the boys, I’m a double agent. I hold my finger gun up at the boys and grin as their jaws drop. They play along and scramble to get their guns, but they’re too late. I shoot them down and laugh as they go down hard in true Trey and Daniel fashion.

  I army crawl over to them and pretend to save them. Once they come back to life, we continue on with our mission, right down to the junior campus.

  We hide in the bushes under the window, each of us taking turns peeking into the room above. I shimmy up the wall so I’m just tall enough to see past the window and into Millie’s room. Nothing. No one’s home, I guess it’s a waiting game now.

  We sit for ten minutes in the bushes, giving me time to sort through all the messages that have been left on my phone over the past few months and do my best not to blow our cover as I laugh at all the meme’s the boys have sent me.

  We hear a door opening from inside the room and we jump up at the same time to find Millie walking into her room, thankful that her head is down otherwise she would have spotted us immediately. She steps into the bathroom and we make our move.

  Trey slides the window open and we all sneak in as fast and as quietly as possible. Millie comes out of the bathroom and we jump her immediately. She screams in fear as three masked people in all black come racing towards her. We grab her and she thrashes against our holds until Daniel raises his balaclava, making sure she sees who it is, gives her a wink and pulls his mask back down.

  She relaxes instantly and allows us to play our ridiculous game as Trey ties her hands and feet together with rope. I stay quiet, not giving away my identity, though, I’m sure she probably thinks I’m Jacinta. Daniel picks her up in his arms and walks towards the window where we all attempt to slide her through without dropping her or getting caught.

  Daniel is last out the window and throws her over his shoulder, she does her best to keep quiet, but can’t help the giggles. We stick to the shadows of the buildings as we dart back to the senior campus, fake guns and all until were climbing back through my window.

  We sit Millie down on the edge of my bed and she looks up at her three captors, wondering what we have in store for her when the window is opened once again. Jacinta sticks her head through the window and thrust the pizza boxes through. Trey takes them then helps her climb in.

  Millie stares at Jacinta in confusion then turns her gaze on me with a question in her eye. “Oh. My. God,” she squeal
s as I rip the balaclava off my head. She jumps up off the bed in excitement but as her feet are bound she instantly tumbles over and lands on the floor with a thud.

  I go straight down after her as I wrap my hands around her. She does her best to hug me back with bound hands but really just nuzzles her face into my neck. “What did you do to get kicked out?” she asks as Daniel wraps his big arms around us both and lifts us onto the bed.

  “Why does everyone assume I got kicked out?” I ask.

  “Because you’re Bianca Moore. You can’t do anything without getting in trouble,” she laughs. “Now are you going to untie me so I can give you a proper hug?” she asks.

  “Yeah,” I smile as I get straight to work.

  Once I’m finished un-kidnapping my sister, we go and join the boys and Jacinta on the couch. We all curl up together and digging into the pizza as yet another piece of my life, falls straight back into place.

  Chapter 7

  “Faster,” Ben calls as I pummel my fists into the boxing pads. “Harder.”

  Sweat drips down my back, but I refuse to give in. I can do this. I will succeed. I will not let the last three months affect my goal of graduating top of my class. I will pull myself together and make everyone proud. I know I can do this.

  My fists continue pounding away as Ben continues to call out sequences. “Stop,” he says “Sprint.”

  I take off like a bat out of hell, sprinting out the door of the gym, right out into the freezing morning air to the edge of the Academy boundary line and straight back again with my fist raised, ready for more.

  After finishing my cardio, Ben puts me through a gruelling weights workout to help my muscle tone and even I have to admit, after three months of no weights, my body is aching and begging for a rest. I finish off my last set and collapse to the floor in exhaustion the second the weights leave my hands.

  “Good job,” Ben says crouching down before me. “You’ve got a lot of work ahead of you, but if you keep this up, I think you’ll be ok,” he says. “But be warned, the boys have been working their asses off since you’ve been gone and they aren’t going to make it easy for you.”