The following weeks went by smoothly, or almost. Fridays were the most satisfying days although our magic lessons didn't bear as much fruit as I was expecting. Most of the time we learned the theoretical parts, and only now and then we would practice a little. But as I started to get the hang of the sword and could hit my dummy better now. Arild would still come and tease me everytime he had a free second. Damon was struggling as much as me the first two times, but now he is miles in front of me. During my investigation to see how he improved, I found out that he practices at least three times a week with Arild after school. But when I asked to join them, I was brutally refused because of their fear of Alex. Thanks cousin!
Speaking of which, my weekend trainings with Alex didn't go as I imagined. Although we were meeting every Saturday or Sunday for a few hours and were ready to practice some magic, we only did silly things, like blowing leaves at each other or splashing water in our faces. We were chasing each other through a meadow he found when he was in the junior section and were basically having fun instead of training. He rejected all weapons for now, but I'll have to convince him later. Now I was just enjoying our time together.
The sunny warm days days went by quickly and without realizing, it was November already. The Friday lessons were moved in the gym and we were now taking turns on the dummies. We had to share the room with some two years who were having their sports class. One day, I tried to hit the dummy with all my force, but slipped right before reaching it and felt in a very ungracious way. I almost started laughing at myself when I heard a mean snicker not too far away. When I looked in that direction it was the boy who glared at me at the opening ceremony. I felt my eyebrows going into a frown while the turn his back to me, still laughing.
"Don't mind him!" said a second year girl from my fighting group while extending her hand to help me up. "He is just a sour fellow who seems to live on the misfortune of others. I'm Aaliyah."
"Thank you!" I grabbed her hand to pull myself up. "Fredrika, nice to meet you. Is he usually this unpleasant to everybody."
"He is, although not when teachers are watching, of course. A troublesome type." she added.
"How do you know him?" I asked curiously.
"We had classes together last year, although I can't say I know him that well, just that he is a jerk. His name is Rhys Pearson, if you're interested." she informed me.
"Hm… I don't know whether I'm interested or not." I grimaced as she laughed.
"Do you want to spar together? I spoke to the teacher and we can start sparing if we want to." she smiled at me.
"Gladly." I smiled back.
Having a sparring partner made a big difference. Firstly, she moved quickly. Most times, i would hit way too far from her. And secondly, she was better than me. So I was on the losing side right now, but I wasn't thinking of backing down. We attracted some curious watchers and I could hear Damon cheering for me, while Arild was smirking a little. I'm glad you're having fun! In the end I lost miserably.
"Well done!" came Arild to congratulate Aaliyah. "It was time for someone to wipe that arrogant smile of her faces." he mocked at me and I returned a grimace to him.
"Thanks I guess." said Aaliyahunsure while Damon tried to cheer me up.
"You'll do better next time." He assured me.
"I might do better if one of you would teach me!" I replied angrily and Aaliyah was at a loss of words.
"No way! You're cousin is scary. I don't want Alex to even suspect I would teach you private lessons in anything actually." He concluded while Damon looked a little conflicted.
"Alex?" asked Aaliyah "You mean Alexander Baarthen from the senior section? Is he your cousin? Please introduce me to him." she pleaded after I nodded. I sighted and accepted, defeated by her big pleading violet eyes and the small hearts I could see in them. Arild was smirking again. Our spectators were dissipating now and my friends went to their groups. I saw Rhys giving me a mean glare again before taking his leave. What was his problem, damnit!
After the class ended, I changed into my uniform, as we were wearing gym suits during our fighting and sport classes. I headed to the dorm when I saw Damon sitting on a bank in the garden and he was waving at me to come to him. While approaching him, he seemed a little anxious and I immediately panicked.
"Have you been bullied by those guys?" I asked him before giving him a chance to make a sound and thinking of how they will suffer if they did something.
"What? No." he answered shocked but recovered quickly. "I think most people are too scared to bully me." a half smile appeared on his face. Too scared to bully meant they were scared to approach him as well.
"I wanted to talk to you about something else." he continued and looked at me, anxious again. "But you have to promise to not tell anyone, not even Noriko."
"What is it?" I asked scared while sitting next to him.
"I want to train together with the sword and maybe the arrow too, but don't tell anyone, we have to be quiet about this!" he said quickly as my eyes grew wider. I was sure that my eyes were sparkling now and that my face was gleaming so much that Damon might have started to regret his proposal.
"You mean to teach me? Yes! Gladly, immediately! I won't tell a soul!" I said before giving him a chance to back down.
"Well, not immediately," he said. "We have to plan this so that nobody will find out."
"By nobody you mean my cousin, right?" I verified and he nodded back at me. "I know of a place in the forest nearby, where I go with Alex to train our magic."
"You mean we will be meeting in the place where the only person who must absolutely not find out visits also?" he said sarcastically, looking at me as if I only had a brain cell. "We have to find a place where we can freely go and no one will bother us. And we also need practice swords. That is more difficult to acquire. I asked the teacher and he said that if I want extra practice I just have to go to the gym like I always do with Arild and that it's not allowed to take any equipment out by ourselves."
"You really looked things up, didn't you? When did you change your mind?" I asked.
"A while ago. I can see that you really want to learn and I wanted to repay you for helping me last summer. And we can become better together." a little shy smile was showing on his face now.
"You don't have to repay me for anything. We are friends! And I'll do it again and again if you need me." I patted him on his head and he smiled brighter.
"Then I want to train with you as friends as well." he added a ton lower.
After our sweet moment, my mind started thinking about more practical things.
"We have to find swords to practice with or else it's useless. We can't just use sticks." I laid the problem to him.
"Maybe we can carve some wood into swords, but that might take too much time," he suggested.
"Do you know how to carve wood?" I asked and he shook his head. "How do we get something to train with? What can we use?" then it hit me. "Ice! We can use ice!" Damon looked at me confused. "You can make water which I can freeze. Lots of water. And we can mold it to look like swords. We must first practice that!" my hands closed into a clap while he understood what I was saying.
"It might work!" He looked immersed in his thoughts. "Then we just have to find a place."
"We will find something. We have to check some classrooms or somewhere in the forest." I suggested and he nodded. "We'll look next week!"
We planned which places we should check out first and then said goodbye to each other. My spirits were high up in the sky as my mind started imagining how I will become fast and skilled soon. And I planned for so much time to begin making ice weapons, but forgot. Now it's my chance to test it!