Segment: Confession

Council Training

Third Person's P.O.V

Everything was going well for everyone. The school was open again and temporary staffs took the roles of the student council as they enter their first day of training. Amelia and Michelle await for their significant others to come back while tending to their daily lives with the absence of the two.

"We're seeing each other quite often these days, soldiers." Vladimir Reid shouts as he walks back and forth, overseeing the council's heads.

"You might have heard that this is harsh training, but what we will be having is even harder. You might lose your breaths and a leg, are you okay with that?"

"Yes, Officer!" the council shouted all at once with great force and volume.

Lyle and her mother are now fully healed, as well as Jamie and his injuries.

"For now, let's test your endurance first. Run at the top of that mountain and be back in two hours. After, go straight to the infirmary and read your own pulse."

"Yes, Officer!" the council shouts again.

"Those who are behind will run an additional 50 laps around the site."

"Yes, Officer!"

Vladimir puts on a timer on his wrist watch.

"On your marks! Get set,"

The council readies their formation to sprint.

"Go!" Vladimir fires a gun and the council starts sprinting.

The council starts off at the same time but as they keep on sprinting, Lyle, Cameron , Samantha and Kristine was in front. The others were lagging a bit behind, losing a bit strength. The path they were taking is uphill and rocky.

"Can we even do this in two hours?" Jamie asks.

"We can if we keep on sprinting like them," Gerald says, panting a bit.

System knows their capabilities all too well, but System also knows that if the others keep on pushing with only one skill up their sleeves, they will eventually become a hindrance to the others. That's why System has thought of increasing their physical strength to Lyle's level.

Lyle was already enough for System, but in order to surpass the hostile that she had come across with a couple of weeks ago, System thought to polish Lyle's skills and enhance her locomotor skills and defense and quick response.

Everyone in the council needs to sharpen their senses; System said.

"This is steep," Allie says, panting even harder.

As the ones behind look up to the ones getting higher up the mountain, they had wished to be more faster and be on par with the others.

"President," Cameron calls out.

"What is it?"

To them who are in the front, they treat this as a jog and not a race.

"I will help them,"

Lyle thinks about it for a second. She stops sprinting, making Cameron, Kristine and Samantha stop too. The three of them look at Lyle while waiting for the other four to come to them. When the other four caught up to them, they also stopped running and struggled to catch their breath.

"Why'd you stop?" Joyce asks, wiping her sweat that was under her chin.

"Seeing how going downhill is a lot harder, we'll have to let you down at the top." Lyle says and turns around.

"Huh?" Gerald asks.

"We'll carry you guys." Samantha says with a smile and with little sweat on her forehead.

"You'll be on your own once we get down." Cameron says.

"But-"

"Training is important but teamwork can make the dream work. Let's go." Lyle says.

"I'll carry Jamie." Cameron says.

"I'll carry Gerald." Lyle says.

"I'll go for Allie," Kristine says.

"I'll carry Joyce," Samantha says.

The four that lagged behind didn't say anything but they were thankful. The four of them carried the other four to the top with little hardship. Once they got to the top, the four let down the other four.

The look on Jamie, Allie, Gerald and Joyce's faces depicted that of determination. They weren't going to let the others that carried them up feel down and burdened. The eight of them started going downhill. A little bit of slipping and falling before arriving at the starting line.

Vladimir Reid stopped his stopwatch and scoffed.

"Two minutes to spare. Now, go."

"Yes, Officer!"

The eight of them jogged to the infirmary and took their own pulses. They write it down before putting in inside the box. They drank minimal water. Drinking water is an important thing to do, but drinking a whole lot of it would bring them disadvantages. They have realized that the first time they were training.

The eight of them went back to where Vladimir Reid was.

"I need you to get down and give me 50. Let's see how strong your arms are."

"Yes, Officer!"

They immediately got down and started doing push ups. Vladimir looks at the worked up figures below him. He was sorry for them. This wasn't the exact training but Pearce's and Ryle's request. To tire them out before the actual training.

He was deeply sorry for them. Unfortunately, he can't do anything because Pearce was looking at them from afar with binoculars. Pearce made sure to tell Reid that he was watching. Reid was supposed to be the one re-training them but because of what happened, he wasn't give the right to.

Vladimir shakes his head and looked down at them again, but what he didn't know was that Lyle was looking at him while doing her push. Lyle's sweat on the side of her head and her focused attention on Vladimir Reid made Vladimir turn away and walk towards the others.

Why is she so sharp?

Vladimir thought to himself. Right now, he wasn't sure if he can finish what the requests were without being found out by Lyle. Vladimir knows it's hard to escape Lyle's eyes. She was made the commander in the first place because of her capabilities.

Lyle stands up first, done with the push ups. Then Cameron, Samantha, Kristine, Joyce, Jamie, Allie and Gerald, in that order. The sweats on their faces weren't wiped. They let their sweats get into their eyes, mouth and nostrils. One wrong move and they will get scolded by Vladimir.

"Follow me,"

"Yes, Officer!"

Vladimir guides everyone to a muddy area with barbed wire, car tires, ropes and trees.

"Sniper,"

"Yes, Officer!" Joyce shouts and answered.

"Can you climb a tree?"

"Yes, Officer!"

"How many minutes?"

"I.. I don't know, Officer!"

"Let's see. Go climb that tree."

"Yes, Officer!"

Joyce approaches the tree and notices that the tree doesn't look climbable. It had almost little to no room for grabbing. Joyce felt nervous.

The rest of them watches as how Joyce struggles to climb the said tree. As a sniper, it was important to climb and hide your position but it's almost done with pavements supporting the weight of both the sniper and the gun, the recoil of the gun and bullet spread.

This was also one of the requests made. Vladimir wanted to turn around and look at Lyle but he was afraid that Lyle would be looking at him with her piercing gaze. Lyle doesn't appreciate being toyed, Vladimir knows that.

Vladimir also knows that the more he spends around Lyle, the more Lyle is likely to hate him thus wanting to kill him in his sleep. He knows that even he, as a Commanding Officer, can't fight off an assassin skilled in everything. He had a student once who was like Lyle, and he was beat up pretty bad. The memory still etched into his mind, making him afraid of making the council angry.

The council is a double-edged sword that System polishes.

After a few minutes, Joyce successfully climbed the tree. Her fingers hurting by how much grip she was using in order to climb it. The lack of texture was making Joyce curse inside her head as she climbs earlier.

"If you had a sniper with you, how long would you have climbed it? The fight would already be done and everyone will be dead."

"S-sorry," Joyce says.

"Get down from there."

"Yes, Officer!"

Joyce jumps down from the tree and lands, rolls on her back before jogging to her position earlier. She pants through her nose, making little noise as possible. Irritating the officer in charge would be inviting death.

Back at System High School, where Amelia and Michelle are having a great time, suddenly gets called by the Principal. Amelia and Michelle went to the Principal's Office immediately, noticing the Principal's urgent tone.

Michelle knocks on the door and they come in. When they came in, they saw a familiar man on the corner of the room wearing an all knowing smirk. Amelia and Michelle looks at the Principal, wanting to ask why the man was here. The Principal shifts uncomfortably in his seat, not knowing what to say. He was facing a crisis.

It's either it was his position in System or his life. If Michelle and Amelia were to fire him this instant, it would be okay rather than him getting murdered by the man's men.

"A-Amelia, Michelle, I, you know, please excuse me." the Principal stutters and excuses himself with a sweat on his forehead. He hastily wipes his sweat as he makes way to the door and closing it after.

Amelia sighs and heads for the door too when the man spoke in a condescending matter.

"Woah, don't you miss me, sugarplum?" Amelia stops moving but didn't turn around to face him.

"Mr. Duke, I don't know why you're here."

Michelle notices the coldness inside Amelia's tone. All Michelle wanted to do now was get Amelia out of the room and eat delicious food. Michelle knows Amelia will have a sour mood all day. Lyle isn't present to be comforting Amelia and that was a bummer to Michelle. Lyle can lift Amelia's mood in ways that Michelle don't understand.

The man detaches himself from leaning on the wall and walk to where Amelia was but to be stopped by Michelle. Michelle uses her body to stop him from getting any closer to Amelia. He smirks and smiles before pushing forward.

"You make it sound like we're strangers, sweetheart." Amelia cringes at the constant nicknames.

Amelia isn't a fan of sweet nicknames. She's not the typical girl who melts whenever a handsome man calls her sweet nothings. Amelia could feel a headache coming just from being in the same room as him.

"We are." Amelia turns around and faces him with her ice cold blank face. Michelle looks away from Amelia and a shiver runs down her spine.

"Didn't we have a history together, sugar?"

"We don't."

"Bryce, please just go." Michelle inserts and tries to push Bryce away but Bryce grabs Michelle's hand and kisses it.

Michelle immediately retracts her hand, a feeling of disgust creeps inside her gut. Michelle wanted to take a shower right away and scrub hard the part where it had been kissed. Michelle felt worms were residing in her hand. And she doesn't like worms.

"Ah, you both are still as close as ever. You wanna have a threesome with me? Of course, I'd give extra attention to Amelia's virginity and yours too. I'd be super gentl-"

"I already have someone in mind." Amelia disrupts Bryce's sentence.

Bryce suddenly flares up when the information finally sinks in. He had always thought that it was himsel that was going to pop Amelia's cherry. He had also thought it was right for him to pop Michelle's too, since they were best friends.

"Who the f**k-"

"Let's go, Michelle."

Amelia grabs Michelle's arm and went to the women's restroom. That was the only place that Bryce can't enter. Amelia gets the faucet running and places Michelle's hand, where it was kissed, immediately in. Amelia scrubs Michelle's hand hard but gently at the same time.

"Why'd you touch him when you don't like touching people?" Amelia scolds Michelle. Amelia's focus on washing what looked like dirt to her.

"I thought I was fine. When I touch Jamie, I was okay."

"But you don't even touch other people, even in the council." Michelle sighs. Her stare boring on her hand, spectating Amelia's thorough hand washing.

"I'm fine when I touch Lyle."

"They're different. That douchebag is plain dirt."

"Why is he back though?"

Michelle tried to hide her panic away. But Michelle's panic was slowly disappearing as Amelia continues to wash Michelle's hand. Amelia is a thoughtful friend, Michelle had always thought of that. This instance had reminded her of that.

"I don't know and I'm planning to know why."

"What about Lyle?"

"I'm dealing with it before she comes back." Michelle looks at the fixated Amelia.

"You really love her, huh?"

"I just can't see myself being with anyone other than her."

"Even in marriage?" Amelia stops for a moment but continues.

"Am I that weird? I'm already planning our marriage." Michelle giggles and stops Amelia from washing Michelle's hand.

Michelle rinses her hand and Amelia does the same with her own before drying their hands with disposable towels on each side of the mirror.

"You're not even an adult yet." Amelia sighs before throwing the towel away.

"I know but even if I think about losing her to someone else makes my blood boil. I realized that as soon as I knew that Lyle liked Chrelia."

Michelle continues drying her already dried hand, liking the slightly damp towel on her hand.

"Huh. I wonder if I'll find someone."

"Don't you like Jamie?" Michelle thinks about it but it just didn't click inside her.

"I don't think so."

"You're okay with Jamie stealing kisses?"

"I guess,"

"If you lose Jamie, will you be okay with that?"

Michelle knew the answer to that and Michelle knows that it will all lead to the same conclusion: that she likes Jamie.

"I don't want to lose a friend."

"We all don't want to lose a friend. But I can see your eyes whenever Jamie talks to other girls." Michelle finally decides to throw away the towel and look at Amelia in the eyes.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Amelia."

"I know because that's how I look whenever I see Lyle with others. You better come to terms with your feelings before the both of you breaks."

Michelle sighs, making Amelia smile in return.

"Even IF I do like him, he said it himself that we can't be together."

Amelia then realizes something at that moment. The hardships the fake student council had to endure for securing a stable future. Amelia was in relief when she remembered that she didn't push Lyle to become hers immediately. Amelia thinks that would be way too selfish of her to push it on Lyle.

"But IF YOU do like him, are you willing to wait?" Michelle is at a loss for words.

Michelle demands results almost immediately and does the math herself just to make sure the success rate is at its highest but when it comes to her own confusing feelings, she wasn't sure just how fast her patience will run out.

"I'll answer that when I know I really do like him." Amelia smiles in defeat.

Amelia's phone suddenly rang, startling them both. Amelia fishes her phone from her bag and answers. She had a set ringtone for her family.

"Dad? What's up?" Amelia hears her father sighing on the other end, making her perfect brows knit together.

"Can you come over, dear? Apparently, he's back."

"Yeah, we met him."

"Can you and Michelle come over for now?"

"Sure, Dad. We'll be there in a moment."

The call ended and the two best friends shared a telepathic look. The both of them called Michelle's driver and told the driver to drive them to Chris' office, north of school. When they arrived, they immediately go up to Chris' floor through an elevator.

"I'm having a bad feeling about this." Michelle says, fidgets with her fingers.

"Tell me about it."

The elevator door opens and the two of them head out to Chris' office. They knock and come in before hearing a 'come in'. Chris looks up and sets aside his work. He greets the two of them with a hug each.

"Should we jump or have nothings?" Chris asks figuratively, knowing that the both of them can get it right away.

"Jump, please."

"Agreed."

Chris lets the girls sit down and sit opposite of him.

"Please forgive the Principal."

"Was he threatened? Money?" Michelle asks.

"His life." Chris answers in distraught and frustration. Amelia looks at her hands.

"What does he want, Dad?"

"He wants you, dear." Amelia looks at her father, about to protest when she saw the anger in her father's eyes. Amelia calms down and relaxes, knowing how her father wasn't going to use her as a means of resolve for crime and self-indulgence.

"I want this to finish before the council comes back, Dad."

Chris knows why and Amelia wasn't hiding it. It was clear that Amelia is crazy for Lyle and Chris can't be any more proud of his daughter. The path is dangerous but he was sure that the both of them could handle it. He knows the capabilities of her daughter and the soldier that he had created.

"I do too, but it seems that life isn't on our side."

"What do you mean, Uncle?"

"Bryce left after his visit and will be back in two weeks. The council gets back a day before he comes back."

Amelia curses inside her head. She was loathing time right now. Michelle pats Amelia's back.

"Unfortunately, Bryce's friend, will also come." Michelle stops patting Amelia.

"Huh," Michelle breaths out.

"I will talk to Bryce's parents. I believe your parents are already arranging their meetup with Vince Lee's parents."

Amelia and Michelle both looked down. Their scornful faces, their eyes full of irritation and their not so happy expression says it all. What Chris was worrying about is his wife intimidating the Duke's.

"I'm so sorry."

"It's alright, Dad. It's not your fault."

"There's nothing we can do."

It was far from over.