Loop two - Chapter Thirty - I Scream

“Was that necessary?” Amber asked.

She was currently laying on the floor, staring at the ceiling while the blissful sound of the school’s last bell for the day tolled in the background.

Wendy’s face appeared in her vision, the girl smiling from ear to ear. “Yeah, of course! I’m stepping up your training. Besides, it’s the last period on Friday! You have all weekend to recover. Our next session is just on Tuesday. You’ll be healed up by then, yeah?”

Amber’s response was a bone-weary groan.

Her bones didn’t appreciate Wendy’s newfound enthusiasm. In fact, none of her did. Wendy had eventually slowed down, but just because she had to run around retrieving the balls she used to hit them. Unfortunately, she was fast when she chose to be, and that didn’t add all that much time between throws.

Amber had learned a few valuable lessons, however. Like how I shouldn’t pick a fight with a determined opponent. Or Wendy.

“What was the lesson here?” Cassy asked. “That pain sucks? Because I get it. It sucks. And I don’t like it.”

“Ah, don’t be a baby,” Wendy said. “I was holding back after the first few. I wanted you guys to learn how to dodge, not just learn how to take a hit.”

“Appreciated,” Amber mumbled. Not sure how true that is, though. Nine out of ten balls hit me. Though... I did dodge a couple.

Amber turned onto her front, then pushed herself up to her feet. Then she started to rub at the back of her thigh. Glancing back, she could make out an ugly purple welt forming where she’d taken a nasty blow.

“Did you need to hit so hard?” Amber complained.

“Ah, uh,” Wendy waffled. She rubbed at her arm and very clearly avoided meeting Amber’s gaze. “It’s for training? Besides, you were all getting better by the end, right?”

“That was perhaps a bit more brutal than what most first-year training would be,” Morgan said. She’d been the one to dodge the most hits. That still meant she was tagged half the time though, even if some of those had been glancing blows. “Maybe next Tuesday can be a bit less... strenuous?”

“Right, I can do that,” Wendy said. “I was just worried is all.”

“Worried?” Jade asked. She was still on the floor.

Amber wasn’t sure if she was going to be getting up anytime soon, actually. Jade felt like the most... she didn’t want to use the word fragile, but maybe ‘least tough’ member of their quartet. She was certainly the smallest and lightest, and Wendy’s strikes were able to literally send her flying for a bit.

Jade didn’t complain as loudly as Cassy about it though. She had even managed to swallow a few of Wendy’s balls with her scarf, reducing the number of projectiles Wendy could fling around. Amber ambled over to the shorter girl with a bit of a limp, then extended a hand down to her.

Jade smiled and took it, then winced as she got to her feet.

“Yeah,” Wendy said. “I was worried. You’re my little students, you know. Even if we’ve only had two classes together, you’re still my responsibility, so I’ve got to make sure you stay alive.”

“So you’re worried about that girl who died,” Cassy said. She grunted, using the haft of her broom to climb up to her feet. “Man, why’d she have to die?”

“Cassy,” Amber said warningly. “Don’t speak ill of the dead.”

Cassy frowned, but relented soon enough. “Yeah, fine.”

Wendy clapped her hands. “Alright. Who wants to help me put my balls away. And then we can go buy me my ice cream.”

“You were serious about that?” Cassy asked.

“I’m always serious about ice cream,” Wendy said, her usual jovial tone completely absent. “They don’t really sell ice cream at the Academy though, we’ll have to go to town.”

“To Norumbega?” Amber asked. “For ice cream?”

“Where else are you going to get my ice cream from?” Wendy asked.

“Wait, you want us to go get it for you,” Cassy asked. “You’re not even coming?”

Wendy pouted. “But I want to hang out with my friends.” Cassy picked up one of the balls still lying on the floor and flung it at Wendy, who snapped it out of the air. With ease. “Okay, fine. I’ll show you where the best place to buy groceries is. But I’m definitely not paying for the ice cream!”

“If you are all done, then we’ll be off.”

Amber jumped and spun towards the Seelie in the corner. It was sitting on the chair Wendy had had out when they arrived and which they’d pushed out of the way a while ago. Now it jumped down from the seat and left the room, tails swishing behind it. I completely forgot it was there.

“Sneaky,” Cassy muttered.

“If we’re going to be heading to Norumbega together, would you mind giving us some advice?” Morgan asked. “With regards to our training just now.”

“Oh, yeah, sure!” Wendy said. “But I need to text my team first, is that alright?”

They finished gathering up the medicine balls while Wendy typed furiously on her phone. Amber felt herself grow at once more sore from her various new bruises and also a little more limber as she forced herself to move despite the pain.

“Aww,” Wendy said. “Lily and Yuri will be the only ones to show up. Amaranthe is still busy with club stuff tonight. I forgot that it was friday.”

“That’s fine,” Amber said. “Maybe it’ll be easier to just meet two new girls rather than the whole team?”

Wendy nodded along, seeming pretty happy with everything. She started towards the door with the bagful of balls, then paused at a closet full of sports equipment near the exit where she tossed the bag.

“So, how did we do?” Morgan asked again.

“Oh, right,” Wendy said. “Sorry, I’m not good at teaching yet. Uh... let’s see. You did pretty okay, actually. No real tricks, but you’re fast, observant, and think fast too. Good reflexes, which count for a lot, and you’re quick to get back to your feet, which is important.”

“Thank you,” Morgan said.

“Honestly, just a bit more practice and you’d kick ass.”

Morgan nodded slowly. “I’ll endeavour to practice harder, then.”

“Hey, don’t give blonde terminator here ideas,” Cassy said. “She’s already got the makings of a gym bunny.”

Wendy laughed. “Ah, now you... you need to get better. You’ve got one good trick, and when it flops, so do you, all across the floor. It’s a good trick, but yeah, you’re more graceful when you’re flying than when you’re stumbling around.”

Cassy pouted, and Amber, feeling a little bad for her, reached over and rubbed her back for comfort.

“Now, you,” Wendy said, pointing to Amber. “You’re all knees. Pretty fast though, and you dodged a lot of hits that should have tagged you.”

Amber nodded. She’d been cheating the entire time with her power, rewinding to before she was struck and trying to dodge. It worked a couple of times, though it also meant she had to change the way she was moving at the last moment and that was surprisingly tricky to do and threw her off balance almost every time. “I’ll work on that,” Amber promised.

“And little one there. You’re slow,” Wendy said to Jade. “Good reflexes. You pretty much always did the right move, but always half a second too slow. Helps that you’re small too. Nice trick with the scarf, good for that exercise, but it might not be so useful with others.”

Jade winced, but she didn’t seem to disagree.

Fortunately, Cassy had some sage words of advice. “Hey, you don’t suck that bad, so don’t make a fuss about it,” she said.

Amber flicked her behind the head, and Cassy spun around, incensed.

They were still tussling, bumping shoulders against each other and getting a few pokes in while they walked. Jade was smiling as they fought, but Morgan was busy seeing if she could get her eyes to roll right out of her head.

“Yuri!” Wendy cried, and Amber noticed Jade’s head snap around. “And Lily too!”

Two girls were standing at the side of an intersection. One a short brunette that probably only came up to Amber’s chin, the other a tall young woman with Asian features who was taller even than Morgan, though not by very much.

“Hey Wendy,” the shorter of the two said. “Are these your students?”

“These are my babies!” Wendy said cheerfully. “I just finished beating them up, and now they owe me ice cream!”

Both girls sighed. “Wendy,” the taller of the two said. “No.”

“No?” Wendy asked.

“No, sweetie, you can’t bully your students for ice cream, that’s wrong,” she explained.

“But I beat them up fair and square!” Wendy protested. She groaned and turned towards team Svallin, then there was a sudden glint in her eyes. “Anyway! These are my babies. That’s Cassy, and Morgan, and Amber, and Jade. Babies, this little girl is Lily, and the tall one with the muscles is Yuri.”

“Hello,” Yuri said with a little wave. “Are we still getting that ice cream?”

“Yes,” Wendy said.

“If they want to come,” Lily interjected with a look to team Svallin that asked the obvious question.

“I don’t mind,” Amber said. “It would be nice to get out of the Academy for a bit. I’m not sure about, uh, buying Wendy the number of ice cream jugs she decided we owe her.”

“How many is that?” Lily asked.

“Seventy-four,” Jade said. “One for every point she scored ahead of us.”

“Wendy,” Lily complained. “No.”

Wendy pouted some more, but it was quite clear that her team were long immune to even Wendy’s saddest expression.

“How do we get to town anyway? Fly?” Cassy asked.

“There’s a bus down,” Yuri said. “It’s always busy, especially on Friday. Might even have two of them rotating to keep traffic moving. Have you been to Norumbega yet?”

“Just in passing,” Jade said, and it was even true in her case.

“We’ll show you around then,” Yuri said with a winsome smile. “Wendy’s basically our sister, which means that you’re our... nieces?”

“I’m not sure I want to be Wendy’s baby,” Cassy said. “It hurts too much.”

“Don’t be a baby, baby,” Wendy said with a grin.

“Can you stop calling me that?” Cassy asked.

“Once you buy me my ice cream, we’ll see,” Wendy shot back.

Amber chuckled. This wasn’t exactly what she had in mind for the evening, but it seemed as if it would be fun.

***