# Chapter 16: Finding a Rhythm
The first week of classes established a rhythm that was both exhausting and exhilarating. Isabella woke at 0600 for physical training, attended lectures until 1300, spent afternoons in practical exercises or simulations, and collapsed into her bunk by 2200. Every day pushed her limits. Every day proved she could meet them.
But it was the evenings that became sacred.
The scholarship group had claimed a corner table in the Level 7 common area, a space that became their unofficial headquarters. They gathered there after dinner, ostensibly to study but really to decompress, to share the day's victories and frustrations, to remind each other they weren't alone in this.
"Okay, but seriously," Kevin said one evening, sprawled across two chairs with his tablet ba
