"Considering the fact that everyone in my class is participating in the competitions, and because by law I cannot train you anymore, I've decided to suspend normal lesson, the next two weeks until your trial matches will be entirely dedicated to teaching you all about the competitions, how to spar, and the rules of the game" Nicoleta listened with a small form of anxiety bubbling in her stomach.
What had she gotten herself into? Why did she beg to join the competitions? What if she lost? Her father's face was a good calm, but it lasted for only a second, then her anxiety settled back in.
She tried not to look down too much, and tried to pay attention as Evan spoke to them.
He smiled to the class and moved out of the way, behind him walking toward them was a tall boy with pitch black hair, and the most beautiful pair of ocean blues Nicoleta had ever seen.
He wore a sector 1 uniform, except his uniform had a red stripe tracing up from his waist and stopped at his hip.
He wore a watch that glowed slightly.
As if he felt her gaze on him the boy locked eyes with Nicoleta, the grin on his lips turning into something curious.
She pushed her flame back, but the heat was very fervid, it was near impossible to control. She was sure she had become tomato red at that point.
Nicoleta looked away the same instant the boy leaned into Evan to whisper something to him.
Evan glanced at Nicoleta, she blushed and looked away again. What was happening to her?
Nicoleta placed her hands on her cheeks and let out a long breath telling her flame that they could burn whatever they wanted if they just calmed down at that moment.
Evan pulled the boy away from the class, and they both disappeared behind blue double doors.
The class murmured in their absence, the girls fawning over the boy, and the boys wondering what must have come up for them to disappear like that.
Kannika glanced behind her and met Nicoleta's gaze. Nicoleta tried to hold her blazing eyes but she couldn't handle the sudden hatred that was pouring from Kannika.
Eventually the two returned to the class, the boy looked somewhat stiff, his gaze lingered on Nicoleta but he would look away whenever she looked back.
Evan seemed happier than he already was that day, perhaps he had teased him when they went back?
"Class, I apologize for that interruption. This is my brother Levi" everyone seemed to already know him, Nicoleta wasn't surprised to be yet again out of the loop.
"He has fought in the competitions since they existed, and only retired just last year because his responsibilities had increased in sector 1" Nicoleta got giddy when she heard sector 1.
If she did well, she would be there. If she won- when she won she would be there.
Evan was interrupted by Ximun. "Or maybe because he lost last year" Levi's eyes at last landed on somebody other than Nicoleta.
He looked severely offended by Ximun's statement, a little angry even.
"I didn't- " he began, only to be stopped by his brother. "That could be a factor in his retirement but I doubt he would quit entirely for losing once" Ximun shrugged.
"I did not lose- I was going easy on Glass" Ximun scoffed, "yeah okay" Evan's brows knitted, Nicoleta had never seen him upset before.
"Enough. We are here to learn not to debate, despite my brother's ego being bigger than himself he's still a good fighter, and he knows more about the competitions than you Mr. Price" Ximun shut up after that, but Levi still seemed offended.
He opened his mouth to speak, when Evan held up a hand, "and not a word from you unless it's about the competitions" he looked at his brother, one brow raised, Levi didn't protest.
Levi sorted the class into four groups the ones competing individually on the left, the duos next to the trios and mixed matches which meant they would be battling with an indefinite amount of opponents, then the ones in group matches on the right.
"How do you go about things usually?" Levi asked his brother, who sat comfortably on a chair in the corner of the hall, observing.
He shrugged, "do whatever it is you do when you teach- " Levi tilted his head at his brother, "I've never taught a class before" Evan looked at him a bit surprised.
"Really?" Levi nodded, the class turned their heads from each person like dogs. "Well then do whatever comes to you" Levi wasn't satisfied with the answer but he didn't say anything more to him before turning to the class.
"Okay then, since Evan doesn't care I will be teaching you all visually" Kannika was the one to ask the questions this time, "are you gonna make us fight you?" He nodded.
"Starting from you four to the individuals" Nicoleta settled down next to Evan with the rest of the class as the ones fighting the group matches fought with Levi: As he beat them around like ragdolls, he gave them advice.
He swung Esmeralda across the room, and spun around before bashing Laurens to the floor. "You have to work like a team- I'm fighting with individuals not a team" as he finished his sentence, he nailed Chloe in the gut, knocking her down, and swung his hand at Pierce, basically just slapping him.
Before knocking him down with a back kick to the ribs. Nicoleta flinched along with her classmates.
He was a great teacher though, despite his way of teaching in just a matter of minutes the group had become better at fighting him.
They switched after twenty five minutes, and he, unlike his brother, beat them till they learned.
When it was time for the individuals to fight him, everyone had their money on Kannika, though no one actually bet on her with actual money, they all strongly believed that she could win.
When kannika was knocked down twice after stepping on the mat for only eight minutes, Nicoleta really began to understand how good Levi was.
She knew when he was able to take on a group on his own, when he made three people look like one, and a duo look like nobody, but he was relentless, and watching a one on one, being able to see his movements though they blurred, it just showed her that whoever beat him last year was a beast.
She was trembling by the time she stepped on the mat to fight him.
She could already feel the pain from the places she knew he would hit, her heart was drumming in her chest.
Why did she insist on joining again? Why was she so eager? Couldn't she wait? Couldn't she find another way to impress the recruiters? She bowed, and Levi did the same.
When they locked eyes, his hardened gaze seemed to gentle, it must have been a trick to make her think that he was going to go easy on her.
Nicoleta got into her fighting stance, and allowed herself to breathe, she told herself win or lose, she had to fight.
This spar wasn't even about winning, it was about learning, so she focused on listening, and watching.
Now it was just the two of them. She advanced toward him first, he easily deflected her attack and sent her back flying. Nicoleta yelped and fell to the ground.
"I left my leg out for you and you didn't even attempt to go for it?" Nicoleta jumped on her feet, "I thought it was a trick" he laughed, shaking his head.
They clashed, or he clashed whilst Nicoleta took every attack, her mind whirling to find something to do.
She let her flame burst out, bringing his attacks to a stop but through the heat she saw something walking toward her.
She squinted at the figure, refusing to believe that it was real.
Levi walked through the flame with not so much as a hiss.
She propelled herself up and landed behind him, locking him, and knocking him down with her legs.
She didn't give him time to counter attack as she slammed her elbow into his face, again and again, her arms burning just enough to keep him alive.
She vibrated as a growl shook his chest, then before she knew it, she was launched into the air.
Nicoleta broke her fall with her flame, and stood up to meet his gaze again. "I underestimated you" he said, Nicoleta didn't believe him for a second, but the statement still sent shivers down her spine. If this was him going easy on her? Then?...
"And also don't ever go for your opponent's face- that is against the rules" He didn't give her time to register his word.
Levi spit fire at her, and jumped through hitting her in the sternum not once, not even twice but four times.
How was he doing that?
Nicoleta deflected a punch, and nailed him in the shoulder, but he had the upper hand, he kept his attacks coming without ceasing, he didn't even look tired.
When he knocked her to the floor, he said. "Being able to absorb attacks is just as important as making the first move" she already knew that.
She jumped up with a gust of her fire flying towards him, Levi wasn't affected, he walked through it like it was nothing. Nicoleta's eyes widened, her mouth hung open, no one had ever been able to just walk through her flame.
She stumbled back, fear sinking into her stomach, "how..?" She stumbled back some more, then she shook her head.
She nailed him in the gut, then in his ribs, when she went in for a third strike he caught her hand, she expected him to twist it but he only pushed her back.
Nicoleta fell down with a thud, breathing heavily, she clutched her heart, and turned over to catch her breath.
"I must say- you're a great fighter" She dry heaved on the floor before lifting herself up.
"Thank you" she bowed, and wobbled over to the benches, she sat next to Kannika, Kannika glanced at her with no glare, no hatred, just friendly Kannika offering to heal her wounds.
Nicoleta happily accepted.
Mr. and Mrs. Arnold's class had become child's play compared to Evan's, but like him, they were suspending normal classes to prepare students for the Sparring Competitions.
Nicoleta wasn't tossed around so much, and so she won eleven out of twelve of her spars.
At dinner she shared the news with her friends. Charlotte congratulated her on being able to join, but more so being able to stand in a fight with The Levi De-Luca. Apparently everyone in sector two, one and three knew him.
It wasn't too surprising anyway, she was only disappointed by how uninformed she was.
Five months still didn't feel like enough in sector 2, there was so much to know, so much she was too busy to pay any mind to.
And everyone knew that he was a phoenix, which explained why he walked through her flame without so much as hissing to indicate pain. The fact frustrated Nicoleta and both angered her.
Why didn't he tell the class? Sure maybe all of them except her knew, but still there will always be at least one person that doesn't know. She went into that fight completely blind, maybe she would have fought him better if she knew, she wouldn't be so shocked which would distract her and aid in her early loss. Out of the entire class she spent the least amount of time fighting him.
Four minutes- four.
Remembering the stack of homework waiting for her in her bedroom, increased her frustrations. Nicoleta looked at Charlotte.
"Madam president, please convince our teacher to lessen homework for me please?" Charlotte laughed.
In class the next day Nicoleta spoke up the moment she opened the glass doors. "Why didn't you tell us that you are a phoenix?" she shouted, bringing the chatter to a stop, all eyes were on her now, and Nicoleta fought everything in her to ignore it, pretending it was just her and Levi in the training hall.
He wouldn't be in the training hall after class, he and Evan disappeared the moment they dismissed the class.
So Nicoleta was forced to put herself in that situation. Levi attempted to answer her question, stepping off the small platform, but the anger bubbling in her stomach didn't allow Nicoleta to shut up and listen.
"Last time I checked the competitions inform each opponent about what power they have" she thanked May for that information.
"Or are you so self-absorbed that you assumed that everyone that breathes should know who you are?" she dropped her backpack on the floors causing a deafening thud to echo across the training hall. Everyone stayed deathly still, and inhumanly quiet.
"Because I'm sure that when Laura Glass saw your name on the bulletin board she didn't squirm because you are Levi De-Luca."
Levi glanced at his brother, who was beaming, arms crossed, "is that all?" Nicoleta nodded, he inclined his head for a brief moment, his hands clasped as he made his way back to the platform.
"Good morning class my name is Levi Lorenzo De-Luca, I'm sixteen years old, six feet tall, italian- " Nicoleta crossed her arms, rolling her eyes, "I can make a shield forcefield, i have telekinesis, and I'm a phoenix " he looked down on Nicoleta when he concluded his speech, brows raised, "is that good enough for miss Ariti?" her hands slipped to her waist as she shifted her weight to one leg, letting out a smoked breath.
"Yes actually, that's much better- " Ximun butted in. "Actually you forgot your shoe size and birthdate" he laughed, and Nicoleta wasn't sure how to feel about the indirect boost of Ximun's ego, and unwarranted hatred for Levi.
"Alright let's resume normal class" said Evan, leading the class to the benches. Nicoleta unfortunately despite her theory did not in fact perform as exceptionally as she expected, instead Levi threw her around so many times that she began to believe his latter statement about going easy on her the day prior.
By the time she sat down, her body ached so badly she regretted ever confronting him.
The next two weeks passed by with a blur, Nicoleta knew she was getting better, but so was Kannika, so she wasn't doing good enough.
Saturday arrived earlier than expected, just the next day would be the start of the trials, just the next day Nicoleta would officially be fighting with some random person probably from sector three or 1, and people were going to watch her win.
She strolled the halls with her friends in tow, when they neared a certain hallway, kids rushed past them towards a bulletin board.
She turned to her friends in question. "They're checking who they are paired to fight with tomorrow" with that, Nicoleta ran with them to check herself.
When she was able to push through the crowd of children, she searched for her name on the board, and when she did, right across from Nicoleta Ariti was Bianca Lanark.
Beneath their names was what sector they resided in.
Bianca was a sector three resident.
When she told her friends this, Charlotte told her that this was the first time she was competing.
Nicoleta got some confidence from that. "How do you know that?" Charlotte showed Nicoleta her tablet, "I'm on the competitions log, gives you videos from former matches, information about the people competing etc" Nicoleta and May glanced at each other and shrugged.
"I'm your info guy now" Charlotte said, winking at Nicoleta, she laughed heartily.
Nicoleta's first match came by quicker than she expected, one minute she was staring at the board the next she was standing in a small box room, being told the rules of the game.
She wasn't wearing the usual sector two uniform, but something too tight, and entirely made out of leather, she stretched her arms and legs in a pathetic attempt to stretch the clothes, it didn't work.
This had to be an experimental attire, there was no way she would be wearing this every time she fought.
A robotic voice told her the rules.
"No deadly moves- no attacks to the groin. No attacks to the breasts. No kicks to the head." Nicoleta tore one last flesh around her fingernail, hissed, before hardly glancing at the opponent information board, and then the doors cracked open.
She walked out, still trying to stretch out the tight leather sticking to her skin.
She tried not to pay attention to the crowd all around them, she spotted her friends sporting the greatest seats in the house, and waved at them.
They waved back showing her a T-shirt with her face on it, how did they make that so fast?
May held out a giant blue hand with Nicoleta in all caps in the middle of it.
Nicoleta smiled a little as she stepped on the platform.
The crowd cheered lightly as the two faced one another, Nicoleta bowed as she was taught, but the girl didn't reciprocate.
Instead she extended a hand out. Nicoleta shook her hand, and stepped back again.
The robotic voice boomed through the speakers again.
"Round one- Begin!" Nicoleta glanced at the officers at each corner of the deck.
Inhaling a slow steady breath, she got into a fighting stance, and narrowed her gaze at her opponent who went low one arm above her head.
The buzzer rang out, and the red line between them on the platform turned green, Bianca didn't waste time.
She was on Nicoleta before she could even think. She deflected as many attacks as she could, but the girl just kept on coming at her.
Nicoleta caught both her arms and kneed her stomach before pushing her back, and slamming her down with a kick to the chest.
The robotic voice boomed again. "Eight Points to Nicoleta Ariti" some of the crowd cheered, Nicoleta could clearly hear her friends then.
Bianca bounced up. She waved her arms around, then Nicoleta was shot back and slammed into the metallic platform, she didn't get a chance to recover before she was in the air being spun around.
When she came crashing down Bianca nailed her in the stomach, then moved out of the way to make her fall down.
Nicoleta groaned. So she could manipulate air.
The element of surprise was gone now.
"six Points to Bianca Lanark" Nicoleta stood up and let her flame climb up her arms, she threw it towards Bianca, and just as predicted she shot upward to avoid the flame, Nicoleta was already waiting for her when she got up, and struck her in the gut, Bianca fell back, and Nicoleta landed steadily on her feet with her flame.
The air pushed her back but she stood her ground, letting her flame make a wall around her as a way to resist. It didn't work, and before she knew it Bianca's foot connected with her chest, knocking her back.
Nicoleta took that advantage and grabbed the girl's ankle and twisted her around.
She flew to the floor stopping the wind for a moment, a moment just in time for Nicoleta to keep her down with her foot on her chest.
"Twenty points to Nicoleta Ariti!"
Bianca squirmed beneath her. Nicoleta pinned her arms down, before she could manipulate with the air.
The girl groaned.
The wind around her whirled anyway, and she flew off of her hitting the floor so hard she was sure something had cracked.
Bianca slammed her elbows into Nicoleta's shoulders, and using the wind to keep her down, she bashed her chest.
The flame shot forward pushing Bianca off of her, Nicoleta glared down at her.
She didn't give her a chance to fight back when she struck her sternum one, twice, thrice, and finished it off with both feet right above her breasts.
Bianca fell, and slid across the platform hitting the edge with a nasty thudding sound.
"Set point- Nicoleta Ariti. Round one over."
Bianca didn't stand up for round two, for a second Nicoleta thought she had just harmed her more than intended but then the girl groaned and turned over to regain her breath.
"Eight seconds up, the win goes to Nicoleta Ariti" Some small part of the crowd cheered, Nicoleta was bombarded with hugs from her friends.
She hissed as they added pressure to all the places she had been terribly hit.
She hugged them back regardless, a wide smile on her face, as she looked on the board with her face on it, they didn't use the best picture of her, but she had won.
A tall boy walked up to them, and led them away from the platform, Charlotte and May followed Nicoleta as she was taken to the infirmary. "You two wait outside," said the boy as he led Nicoleta inside a white room.
There were four beds inside, two had curtains dropped across it, two were unoccupied. The boy let Nicoleta lay down.
"I'm going to heal your injuries, just relax, okay?" She nodded. Glancing outside at the slow operating hospital.
Before Nicoleta knew it a warm chill ran through her veins, her head ache disappeared, along with the dull ache in her ribs, and gut.
Her spine seemed to have been set back into place. And the most relaxing of them all, was the short vibration that ran across her entire body.
She opened her eyes, and sunk into the bed, "thanks" she said, drowsy. The boy grinned.
"Welcome" She was discharged after five minutes, she learned later that the boy was named Finnick.
They said goodbye, and by the time she stepped out of the room, the hospital had become busy, no one was severely hurt, but no doubt more matches happened in her absence, and the winners did not go easy on their opponents.
She met her friends in the stands later, and they watched the last four matches of the day.
Competition was indeed tough that year. Each blow was stronger than the first. Every loss was more heavy.
By the last Match Nicoleta could feel the pain of the losers, and the exhilaration of the winners.
"How many healers are there?" Nicoleta asked after the fourth match, the crowd was beginning to disperse, the sun was setting and an orange hew had taken over the sky.
"One thousand three hundred and fifty" Nicoleta and May snapped their eyes to Charlotte. "How do you know that?" May asked, Charlotte showed them her tablet again.
"They have a log- gives you any information you need" They settled into a comfortable silence after the crowd completely disappeared, Nicoleta watched the sun set, and was reminded of home.
The next week was a blur of training and competing, she won most of her matches, and lost two. Levi continued to commend her skills, Evan even more so.
Kannika and her had fallen into a friendly feud, they would often be paired together to spar in class.
The week ran by like a speedster.
At the end, Nicoleta rounded up in the halls with May in tow, Charlotte had been caught up in something she would never dare tell.
Competitors ran past her, to the bulletin board. "What's going on now?" Nicoleta questioned. May told her they were checking whether they had qualified or not.
Nicoleta joined the rush, and made it to the board.
On the bottom was her name, beneath it was her sector, age, then right below that was. Qualified.
She leaped with joy.