Cursed with Two Mates

Coffee Girl

You and I will meet again soon. Wait for me angel.

I bolt up with those words echoing in my mind. It’s dawn but my heart is racing. It takes me a second to realize my body woke me up because I’m aroused.

What the hell is going on with me? I pull myself out of bed and hit the showers before everyone else wakes up. I head down for a coffee and light breakfast and notice the caf is almost empty - I groan realizing that I’m going to have to become a morning person if I want any time alone.

I pull out my book and read as the caf starts to fill up. Katie eventually joins me sipping on a protein shake. “You’re up early! Ready to train today?”

“I guess? Im not so sure what to expect,” I shrug.

“Well Ms. Powell is our coach and she is no joke. Here’s hoping you can keep up - she regularly pushes people so hard they throw up. Or cry. Or something both..” Toby says sitting at our table.

“Sounds fun,” I say sarcastically. I notice Harmony and Xander sitting pretty close together across the room. As if he felt my eyes he looks back at me. I turn away not wanting him to see that I’m hurt he’s still with her.

The bell rings and we gather our stuff and head to the field.

“FALL IN LINE” shouts a muscular woman who I assume is Ms. Powell. We all line up. “As usual we’ll start with drills, followed by technique, and finally we’ll spar.”

“I’ll go easy on you to start - 50 push ups followed by 50 burpees. GO”

I hesitate.. 50?!

*Ruby I think I can only do 15.* I panic and start counting

*You got this Jade - do your best!* she always encourages me, but I can still sense her worry.

I collapse at 20 and Ms. Powell approaches.

“Jade right? You’re the transfer who thinks she doesn’t need to be trained to make it here. Keep going - I don’t give hand outs to half-breeds.. you better earn your spot here or you won’t get to stay beyond midterms.”

I bite my tongue and push out another 10. While she watches. “Burpees Jade, now!”

I push myself as hard as I can but I’m clearly very far behind. My arms and legs are complete jelly by the time we get through the punches and kicks in technique training.

“Now let’s get the first sparring group going - how about Jade and Molly?”

I groan inwardly - Molly is huge and I don’t think I can lift my arms. This can’t be good.

“3 2 1 FIGHT” she shouts and I shift into my fighting stance.

Molly’s much larger than me with dark hair and dark eyes. If she lands one hit on me I’m surely going to be in for it.

She lunges forward and I dodge - at least I’m faster than her. We circle again she lunches again and I dodge but this time she expected it and lands a left hook in my ribs - I feel a crack and stumble back.

Molly looks up at Ms. Powell knowing that I’m injured. Ms. Powell nods at her to keep going - man why does she have it in for me?

As I’m distracted by the exchange with Ms. Powell I miss Molly tackling me and landing one hit to my head before everything went dark.

I come to in a bed I don’t recognize. Glancing around I realize I must be in the infirm. A nurse comes over to me “We were wondering when we’d see you. How are you feeling?”

“My head is pounding and my side hurts but I think maybe my ego took the worst of it.” I grunt.

She smiles - “you’ll be ok but you need to take it easy with the sparring while your ribs heal. I’d recommend sitting out for the rest of the week.”

Oh great that’ll go over well with Ms. Powell.

I learn that I was only out for 10 mins or so - enough for me to be brought to the infirm but training was still going on.

I’m allowed to leave and I use the opportunity to grab a sandwich to go, hit the showers, and catch a rest in my room before classes in the afternoon.

I catch up with Katie and Toby in algebra. “Jade thank goodness you’re ok we were worried about you!” Katie gushed when she saw I was already there.

I see Xander enter and his eyes immediately flicker to mine. I swear I see him relax when he sees me but he immediately turns his attention back to Harmony and finds his seat. I roll my eyes and look outside at the trees again, wishing I was out running.

The forest isn’t safe for you. The words echo in my mind as I wonder what that’s supposed to mean.

The next day went just as well - I didn’t end up in the infirm again, thanks to the drs orders of no sparing, but I was beat just the same from the training.

By the end of the week I was barely able to stand.

“How do you do this?? I feel like my limbs are going to fall off.” I whine to Katie as we break from technique drills.

“Well we’ve trained almost every day our whole lives..” she gives me a sympathetic look.

“Jade over here now! The rest of you take a water break before sparring.” Ms Powell snaps.

I trot over to her bracing to be yelled at. “Yes Ms. Powell?”

“Jade you need to be doing a lot better than you are. I don’t go easy on kids who don’t do the work. I need to see some real improvements or there’s no way you’ll graduate. I expect you to win a fight by midterms or I have no choice but to flunk you.”

Great. One week in and I’m already flunking a class. I nod “I’ll keep working,” I grunt.

She says nothing dismissing me with a nod.

I feel like crying, but I don’t give her that satisfaction. I turn and leave deciding not to stay to watch the sparring.

I quickly shower, get some food and collapse with a cup of coffee in the caf. I sigh and think back to how different things were last year - I had some friends but I was mainly ignored for being top of my class. Things were so much easier - no school troubles, no mean girls picking on me, no boys distracting me.

I pull out my phone and see a note from Josh - my old BFF asking how the new school is. I send him a vague answer and smile at his immediate reply. He was always there to support me when I needed a friend - I was happy to have him in my life. Too bad I could never be fully honest with him, he’s a nice guy. I hope he’s able to find someone now that I’m not there. I picture him taking her on coffee dates talking about school and his family - normal human things. I smile at the thought.

I pick up my coffee to take another sip when the bell goes off making me jump and spill coffee all down my shirt. Again.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

“We should call her coffee girl since she always seems to be covered in it,” Harmony sneers behind me witnessing it. I turn and am surprised to see her standing with Xander.

Coffee Girl is actually not too bad of a nickname for me given how addicted I am to it. I smile to myself, which only seems to make Harmony more pissed.

“Ooo when you’re Alpha and I’m Luna you can make her the Coffee Girl Omega and she can fetch us coffee in bed - it’s not like she’ll ever be a warrior.”

That wiped the smile off my face.

“Enough Harmony,” Xander commands but he says nothing else. Maybe she will be his Luna. Guess it’s good I’m not in their pack.

*You never know Jade. I don’t think he’d pick her,* Ruby pipes up. She’s been exhausted so we haven’t talked much.

*Either way - I clearly don’t belong here.* I reply

*Yet! You’re going to let her win? Who says you can’t be a warrior. It’s been one week Jade.. You’re not going to learn overnight. You might have to actually work at it for once,* Ruby states firmly.

She’s right - I picture the weeks ahead - early mornings and long evenings training, seeing progress and even sparring with Harmony and winning. Even if I don’t want to admit it, I saw her fight and she was good. Fast and accurate. I have a long way to go before I can defeat her.

I decide to give it my all - after all what do I have to lose? Harmony will never get to where I am in math and science given her aptitude, but I can surpass her if I train hard enough. I smirk. This should be fun.